How was your Easter? If you celebrate such things.
We blew off church. Of course, Dennis' mother wasn't too crazy about that. But we did manage to make it to breakfast. I made a huge 1/2 a spiral cut honey ham with that glaze shit. It turned out fantastic. Too good. I ate quite a bit - but not too much considering I also skipped lunch. But, wow, is ham fucking salty or what? I think I'm up three pounds today just from the water retention factor.
We finally had "the discussion" with Dennis' family. The discussion on why we're looking at moving to Texas. Of course, I don't think they share our enthusiasm for the idea, but at least they were being understanding. I spent all yesterday morning after breakfast applying for all sorts of jobs. I'm done with this area - done with the winters, done with the horrible work situation with Dennis and the union (who is supposed to be there to help the workers, not work against them). So, it's getting closer and closer to time to move. Dennis has taken a lot of strive to rid us of all the crap we wouldn't want to take with us. And we've talked more about how we would do it physically. I'm not looking forward to it at all - it's going to be hard. But, then again, until everything is packed into a moving van and we're on our way anything could happen.
I totally and completely forgot to blog yesterday. And so what. It's not like anybody actually missed it. Including me!
I think I'm just in a pissy mood because it's the end of March and it's snowing. But, the good news is that it's fucking Friday.
I'm not going to comment on Lost today because I still haven't watched it. It's sitting on my DVR just waiting for me to watch tonight.
Nothing major planned for this weekend - other than house cleaning since my sister will be in town the following weekend. I just hope to fuck that the weather is better than it is now when she's here. I don't relish the thought of driving down to my dad's house - a four hour trip - in a Mustang with snow on the roads.
Hope everybody has a nice weekend. Ah, fuck it. I hope yours sucks like mine is going to! See? I told you I'm in a nasty ass mood today.
Well, I was right. The systems weren't ready to be setup yesterday. Which is fine considering that meant I didn't have an enormous headache last night!
There were issues that weren't considered and we're still on the same system today as yesterday.
American Idol last night - they ALL sucked. Sorry, they did. I think doing Beatles two weeks in a row was a bit much considering I don't think any of them were alive when the Beatles were still together.
Anyway, the boss is back in today and I don't have much time this morning so - I don't know. That's it for today?
We have some network guys coming in to redo our network. Which means that they're going to botch the job and not everything will work. I can almost guarantee it.
Which means that when my boss comes in tomorrow it'll be me that gets yelled at. We have a much different configuration than any other office in our company. Mostly because we have 4-5 people working at the same time. Which means we need to share data. The home office didn't provide that for us so we had to provide it for ourselves.
We have a server that houses all of our Notes databases (which includes all our client contact information, every fax that comes into our office, every call that comes in is logged for future reference, all our certificates of insurance are on this server, and messages that come into the office for the boss are all logged). We also have a shared printer/scanner/fax machine. Although, 99% of all our faxing goes through the server we still scan from the printer and the scans are routed to our Notes server and into our individual inboxes. As you might have already guessed - this is some important stuff.
And these guys aren't going to have a clue how to handle it. So, when they come in, before they touch a computer, router, or DSL modem we're going to sit down and discuss exactly how it's going to be handled. And if they aren't prepared, or if they say, "That can't be done." then I say, "Sorry, we'll have to reschedule once you have a better handle on the situation.".
I know that's going to go over big. And I'm prepared for the fact that these guys are immediately going to believe I have no idea what I'm talking about. They're going to see a woman who works in an insurance office and will immediately blow me off. I'm used to it. I know how to handle it. I lived it for 15 years when I worked in IT doing networking and application development. Little do they know that I'm going to be on them like stink on shit to make sure this is done right and everything works.
I survived the weekend. But I'm having some kind of strange thing going on.
If you're immune to TOM talk, then continue reading. If it's too much for you to handle, then by all means exit at once and don't come back.
I've been experiencing light cramping - and I'm nowhere near TOM. If it were just one day I would think okay, whatever. But I got this last month too a couple weeks before TOM. Now, this month, I'm getting it again - a couple weeks before. And I wouldn't think that much about it but this has just started and it's kinda freaky.
Anyway, we went out on Saturday and Sunday. Yes, we went out two days in a row! Can you believe it? Well, Dennis asked what I wanted to do yesterday for my birthday and he jokingly said that we could go to some guitar stores and just mess around. I told him only if there's an adjacent shoe store! So, we went to the shoe store - DSW Shoeworks. And, I have to report, I didn't buy a thing. Just didn't see anything at all that struck my fancy. So, we left empty handed. Then we decided to stop at Costco since I have this $25 dollar gift card. Again, there was nothing there that I wanted. Besides, there wasn't anything in the store worth $25 bucks to stand in the god awful lines for. So, again, we left empty handed.
And I have to say this about Costco: it was my first time in one of their stores. And I was horribly unimpressed. As a matter of fact, I think their prices are higher than anyplace else. I saw a laptop that is a step down from the one I bought - for $799! I paid $699 for mine and it's a much better model. And just about everything I saw was like that. Those places are great if you want a lifetime supply of toilet paper, but if you're going in thinking you're going to save a bunch of money on stuff then shop around.
Anyway, the boss is out today and tomorrow so I'm counting on being rather lazy today. Of course, that's not the reality. It's usually pretty busy because everybody is calling wanting to talk to him or leave him messages. Or insisting that we figure out what they want even though it's something we don't normally handle. So, it should be fun.
Next time I post I'll be another year older. Fuck. I would have never imagined being 45 years old when I was a kid. I remember how ancient that seemed. And I guess nothing has changed because it still seems pretty freakin' old.
I have no idea what we're going to do for my birthday. Probably not a whole lot since I have this "attitude" about it. 'Eh, no big deal, right?
The only good thing about today is it's Friday. And the sun is shining. And I hope it'll be warm today. It's only 31 degrees right now so who knows.
Lost last night. So, we know that Jin dies. It was so sad Sun giving birth calling him. Then she and Hurley going to the gravesite. But what was with him going to get the Panda and giving it to another baby? Is it just a flashback to before they went to the Island in a retrospective type thing or is it something else?
And Juliet - what a bitch telling Jin that Sun had an affair. I don't care if she needed to keep Sun there and that she considers Sun her "patient" she was still a bitch for doing that. It's none of her business. And if Sun is her "patient" so much for patient/client confidentiality.
I wasn't shocked by Michael showing up on the boat. And if I was a betting person I would bet he's the one who winds up dead next week. He's a dick and needs to go. But where the fuck is Walt? Michael left with him but he hasn't been mentioned.....yet.
Anyway, I hope everybody has a great weekend! And I'll try to have a good one, even though I'm an old fart.
So, here I sit. Wondering what to talk about today.
I guess the obvious. The gay stripper dude is off American Idol. Yea, so what. Who cares.
I guess I could mention that it's Thursday and only one more day til Friday. Yea, so what. Who cares.
I guess I could mention that it's supposed to get up to 50 degrees today! Yea, that's what I said. What? No fucking way. I guess I'll believe it when I see it.
I guess I could mention that I need a vacation.
I guess I could mention that the boss is in and he's standing in front of my desk wonder what the hell I'm typing.
Okay, honestly, I'm really getting sick of my topics of discussion lately.
It's kind of obvious that I watch way too much TV. I'm sick of it all - American Idol, Lost (okay, I'm not really sick of Lost yet), and, well, come to think of it that's about all I watch now. Mostly because there just isn't anything to choose from! I need to find some new avenues of entertainment. American Idol basically sucked last night. There's a few that are pretty good. I thought Carly did a decent job last night - and so did Chickezie. But, besides that, everything else was just kind of so-so. Some were downright boring and unremarkable. David Archuletta - what's going on dude? Forgetting words, not listening to the song? Dude. Come on! You're slowly becoming not so great. Keep this up and you won't make it past the 3rd week.
I have absolutely nothing to report. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Fuck, am I boring or what?
Don't answer that.
Oh, yea, we did something exciting last night. Went grocery shopping. Whoopidydo! Good times! Then came home, made dinner, watched American Idol, fucked around on my new laptop, and went to bed. Shit, I am getting old aren't I?
And the worst part? In a few days (Sunday) I'll be even older than I am now. Great. Can't wait.
I am soooo tired today. Not sure why. Other than, again, last night, I found it hard to get to sleep before 11:00. My body clock is all out of whack. And it really did feel like I had to get up an hour earlier than usual today.
Well, I returned the first laptop and replaced it with a different one last night. I realized yesterday that there were a couple key elements that the original one was lacking. One - a firewire port. You can't hook up camcorders to a computer without one anymore. Second - an expansion slot. If I ever get the inclination to get a broadband wireless card from Verizon Wireless, I'll certainly need one of those. Not that I need either of them today, but six months from now I don't want to find myself saying, "Oh Shit, I'm already outdated!". And, the replaced one has a bigger hard drive (250 vs 160), a built in web cam, RAM is expandable to 4Gig (vs 3Gig)....ummm, what else? Oh, yea, a LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling cd/dvd recorder/drive. If you've never heard of it, it looks pretty cool. You get LightScribe cds/dvds and it will "silk screen" any text, graphic, photo, whatever directly onto the cd/dvd without any labels. It will only do it in grayscale, but that's still pretty cool. I haven't had a chance to check it out since I don't have any LightScribe media, but I plan on checking it out. Of course, the replaced laptop wound up costing me an extra $107 dollars, but I think it's worth the extra money.
I think now that there was something wrong with the first laptop anyway. It took 2 hours for it to "install applications" the first time I booted it up - this one took 4 minutes. And this one seems so much faster - even though it's the same processor (Dual AMD Turion). So, who knows.
Anyway, the boss has me hopping already this morning so I better get to work.
Wow, I did not want to get up this morning! It just felt so......early.
Boss is back today so I'll have to make this short.
My computer died Saturday and I got me a new laptop. Yes, I can't go without a computer. Food I can live without. Water, don't need it. A computer? Well, let's just say I believe they are necessary to survive.
Why, no, nobody has ever accused me of being overly dramatic, why do you ask?
Friday, oh sweet Friday! And me without a thing planned for the weekend. Which is fine. I really love having absolutely nothing I have to do on weekends (notice that the word have is emphasized here). I can sit on my ass if I want, I can go out and do stuff if I want - the world is my oyster. Unfortunately, I'm not really into oysters so there you have it.
American Idol. I finally got a chance to watch the girls night from Wednesday. And I wasn't impressed. Especially with that Janis Joplin like girl doing Joan Jett. She was horrible! And I can't believe Simon, who I usually agree with, praised her for that! I mean, come on! When the real Joan Jett is a better singer than a girl in a singing competition, something is seriously wrong with this picture. I really do like the Carly Simon like girl that did the acoustic version of Love is a Battlefield. I thought she did a great job! She knows she's not Pat Benetar and didn't try to be but put a different spin on it - which was great!
So, they have the top 12. I was kind of surprised that Mr. Flamboyant Danny Noriega was sent home. I kind of thought he would be around a while. I mean, you know, he's no Sanjaya, but what the hell? And I definitely thought that Asia'h was way better than the freaky chick with the bad hair (Joan Jett girl) so I was surprised by that. No shock that the Wake me up Before you Go Go guy was Gone Gone.
And then there's Lost. It was an interesting episode, but not very revealing. So we know that Juliet had an affair with a married Other. And that the married Other's wife has had way too much plastic surgery or something (if you watched Rescue Me, she also played Janet on that series). And we know that Ben had the married Other more or less killed. And we know that Ben had a huge thing for Juliet. But, ooooooh, Jack and Juliet kissing? I guess I can't say I didn't see that one coming - it's been building forever now. And since Kate is all up in Sawyers crawlspace it would seem only natural that the two of them would eventually hook up. But what did Ben tell Locke to get Locke to let Ben run free? I know it has something to do with who he has as a spy on the boat, and that Locke would be shocked when he found out who - but who is it? We don't know. Or I missed that part, but I don't think so. And this time next week we'll know who all the member of the Oceanic Six are. We know there's Jack, Kate, Hugo - am I missing one we already know?
Anyway, I hope everybody has a great weekend. And I hope and pray it finally starts to warm up soon. Because if it doesn't, I have a feeling I'll totally lose my mind.
So, my nice relaxing night last night turned into a night from hell.
It started out okay. I played Guitar Hero for about an hour, ate some dinner, then decided to go upstairs to play on my computer for a bit. Here's where the hell starts.
I've been having some problems with my computer lately. Mostly, some popups keep popping up on it saying that I have executed an illegal action (hey, I don't even look at porn). And it won't go away! It just keeps popping up ever 3 seconds or so - extremely annoying. And I can't get it to go away. After about a week of this I decided I've had enough. I have a second blank drive attached to it because we all know that the OS needs to be reloaded from time to time. So, I carefully remove the drive with all my shit on it to make sure I don't accidentally overwrite the data drive and reload the OS on the new drive. Everything was fine and dandy. Once the reload was complete I reattach the old drive. It saw it just fine, everything was cool. Until I start to copy a few things from the old drive to the new drive. About 1/2 way through the copy process I get an error message that some files couldn't be read.
I freak out. I'm just yelling NO!!! at the top of my lungs because I know that I've just lost 10 years worth of photos, music, Word files, Excel files, any artwork I've done, my entire life down the tubes. I panic. But, I know that I haven't exhausted every available attempt to see if I can salvage anything at all.
Next, I open My Computer to see what's going on and it doesn't even see the old drive anymore. I reboot. Same thing. So, I remove the new drive so just the old drive is on it to see if it'll still boot from it. Nope. Stupid computer says that it encountered a read write error. Fuck!
Finally, I get the computer to see it again, but I lost most of my data on the drive. Lucily, the All Documents folder was saved so I didn't lose all my pictures and stuff. But, I did lose a lot of stuff I really needed. I lost all my music in my Zen directory - no big thing because it's all still on the Zen. I haven't fully realized yet what I've lost and what I've retained. Which is kind of scary! But, I got back all of my photos and files, I think. Not entirely sure yet.
I seriously need a new computer. Mine is about 4 and a half years old now and is just getting beat up. But, right now, I can't afford a new computer - but when I can I think I'm going to get a notebook. That way I can take it with me. The only downside to getting a new computer is that they all load Vista on it - which sucks!
Oh well. I guess I deserve it since I never do a backup. Who has time for that shit anyway?
So, I'm done bitching about that.
I'm still waiting for the day that I get into work, sit down to write my blog for the day, and find out that they've finally blocked blogger. I know it's coming. They've recently blocked photobucket and a few other image hosting sites.
So, if you don't see me again I didn't die. I've just been blocked.
Well, the news is out. Brett Favre has retired. But I think everybody already knows this now. So, it's not exactly news but I still wanted to give it a mention anyway.
Me, being a huge Bears fan, would normally be elated at this kind of news. However, I think it's a little sad. Favre is a great quarterback and his retirement leaves a little bit of a void in the otherwise natural succession of athletes. Now we're left with the likes of the Brady's, the two Mannings, and the obvious newcomers like Romo. Which isn't a bad thing, but the thing I always liked the most about Favre was the level of class he brought to the field. It's something that every professional athlete should aspire to.
Okay, next, American Idol. Sorry, but every single guy last night just reeked. Or maybe it was just because it was 80's night that got to me. But I don't think so. Who in their right mind would ever even consider singing ♪ Wake me up, before you go go ♪ in a singing competition? I mean, seriously dude. If you ever want anybody to totally question your sexuality then, by all means, sing Wham. And sing it poorly. And speaking of sexual orientation being in question - nevermind. I don't think it's in question at all, but what's up with Danny Noriega? I think he's a really cute kid and he has a surprisingly better voice than most of the guys, but, seriously, dude? Can you tone it down a notch? It's like there's a giant flame glowing all around his body. And it's all okay - until he speaks. Wow.
Anyway, we'll have to see how the girls do tonight. And, dear God ladies, pick some decent songs! I know there were some decent ones to pick out of the 80's - far and few between, I'll admit. But, come on! You can find 'em if you really really try!
I just got done reading something funny. For all you American Idol fans, you know ever year there is the one controversial contestant. You know, the types like Frenchie Davis - who was disqualified after it was discovered that she posed in her *gasp* underwear for some lingerie site or something like that. Then there was the guy that claimed Paula Abdul was helping him with his image, helping him score drugs, and helping him find his penis. And last year we had that dreadful Antonella Barba who couldn't sing a note to save her life that posed in provocative slutwear, oops, I mean swimwear looking all slutty on the internet. Well, this year it's come out that David Hernandez was a stripper in a gay bar. Now, I would have expected it from a few of the *ahem* other male contestants, but David isn't even hot. Even gay guy hot. Oh well. I wonder if he'll be kicked out like his other less than squeeky clean counterparts from years past. Oh, yea, Antonella could pose in skanky slutwear photos and stay in but Frenchy, who could actually sing, got kicked out. And David isn't a bad singer so I'm going to guess that he's going to be outta there.
What happened last night - oh yea, I made the home made pizza. And had a whopping 22 points of it. Christ. That's a lot of pizza points! It was so good though. I had two pieces - and, yes, two pieces of my pizza is 22 points. What the fuck was I thinking?
I did watch the finale of the Terminator - Sarah Connor Chronicles. I hope it comes back next year - but I'm not holding my breath. It's refreshingly interesting though so I hope it does. What was probably the coolest scene in the whole series happened last night. John Connor goes out to eat with his Uncle (who supposedly doesn't know he's his uncle - he's Kyle's brother) for ice cream. While in the park they observe two young boys playing ball. On the back of the older kid the name Reese appeared. So, John looks at him, then the other smaller boy bounces his ball near John and John gets up to get him his ball. And he's staring at his father, whom he's never met, as a child. It was actually very cool. See, I loved the Terminator movies - except the last one which was kind of lame. And always thought it would have been cool to see what happened in between the second and the last movie. It's extremely far fetched - even more so than the movies (if that's possible) but for a TV series it's actually pretty impressive. I can't help but wonder how much money Fox has thrown at that series. And, judging that it wasn't extremely successful, wondering if they'll throw more money at it next year or scrap the whole thing. I guess only time will tell.
It was really a suck ass weekend for me. Mostly because I spent it feeling like shit.
And I feel so bad because I feel like I was a complete downer to Cindy and Kimberly on Saturday. My head just ached all day from sinus pressure. But, come Sunday, I know another reason that I felt like crap. Yes, it's that dreaded curse of the month. I woke up on Sunday with a big ole pimple on my chin, bloated up so much that my rings even felt tight. Then it happened. Gross, I know. So, I wasn't very good company for them on Saturday. I should have probably just passed on the whole thing, but I just needed to get out of the house for a while! And I miss those guys! Hanging out with them and having fun. I just wasn't much fun at all.
It was a cool thing - a Longermeyer (don't quote me on that - or is it Longerburger? I can't remember) basket party thing. They had some beautiful baskets, I'll give them that. All hand crafted and extremely nice quality. However, I couldn't justify spending $50 plus on a basket at this point and time. So, I felt bad that I went to this basket party for Kimberly's mom and didn't order anything. I would have liked to - had money not been an issue. But, right now, it is. I have my sister coming in at the end of the month and we have our semi-annual shopping outing and I need to save a few bucks for that. I won't be spending much at all, but it's always expensive when she's here. You know, we go out to dinner and do things. No sense in her coming all the way here to sit in my house the whole time eating soup. And, honestly, with spring coming up I'm going to need to get a few things.
Luckily, everything that was planned for Saturday night went down in flames. Dennis' mom was going to come over but then decided she couldn't - which was fine. I was so tired and feeling so nasty that I really didn't want to deal with much. Then his acoustic gig on Saturday night fell through so we spent the night just lounging around doing nothing. Sunday I felt a little better in the morning so I went and got my March train pass then went to the grocery store. Then I stared feeling crappy again. Which sucks because yesterday was actually a really nice day outside!
One of the things Dennis doesn't understand for the most part is this - that stuff I got last year for spring and summer I need to replace. Clothes don't last forever. Especially when you buy cheap and wash it a thousand times. They start to wear out!
Anyway, the boss is out all week in Spain. Which means that the workload should be a lot lighter than usual. And with me PMS'ing all over the place I'm sure he would be thrilled to not be here anyway.
PALM Tracker: Click here for WWCalc I just put it on my Palm and it works GREAT. You have to join the group to get the download.
