Showing posts with label Gravy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gravy. Show all posts
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Yule '17
Many days pass away, as always busy as can be at this time of year. Here's a little recap!!!
Started the month off with the company Christmas party. Since the year we had it under the shuttle at the Science Center, it's been the tradition to have every other year at some sort of destination. This year was at Harry Potter land in Universal Studios!!!
That was a lot of fun, first time I've been to Universal out here since they put in Harry Potter, and a lot of other stuff. I'm pretty sure it was 2008 last time I was there. Only time I'd been on the Harry Potter ride was last time we were in Florida, and it was real soon after it had opened, and it was a zoo!!! Don't know if I ever posted about that, we had been staying at the Nickelodeon resort, and had been to one of the two Universal parks there the day before. My wife and the younger boy wanted to take a day off and just stay at the hotel that day, so only the firstborn and I went to that park. Besides the ridiculous crowds in that area, a couple things I remember were the Jurassic Park themed area with water cannons shaped like velociraptor heads, and some indoor area where a bunch of foreign kids laid down for their siesta. But I digress.
My wife doesn't get around walking for any length of time so well these days, so we rented her a wheelchair after we'd walked the half mile or so down City Walk to get in the park. Asked them about returning it after hours, you know, like when the rest of the park is closed and it's just the company party until late. "Oh, no problem, we'll have someone there" they said. You can guess how that went. I wandered deep into the bowels of that area, and when we finally got someone over there, they had issues getting the register back open.
I went on the Harry Potter ride, which was pretty much a walk on with such a reduced amount of people there. Got up to the first projection dome, and the ride broke down!!! Started back up a couple minutes later, but the video for that part didn't go, so we were shaking around and the audio was going, but no visual. On the way out, they directed us to a short cut if we wanted to go again. Three of the four of us who'd been on with me (all bin fillers!!!) did it.
Since I've got a troll living in my basement now, a lot of the stuff down there has been moved around. I'd seen these before, but never set them up. Vintage Christmas decorations, Santa and his reindeer!!! Well, 8 of 9 anyway.
This year I strung my lights to a pole, something I'd done years ago, again, simulating a Christmas tree. I also finally got rid of all the old incandescent Christmas lights I had knocking around which I haven't used in probably 5 years or more, replaced by LED lights. Oh yea, there's a vintage color wheel down there I'd been seeing the box for for years, finally dragged it out and replaced the heat lamp with an LED bulb, and picked up a white tree to change from the super campy pink tree we've been using for years, and used it with the wheel. It's different, kinda nice for a change. That, as well as Christmas morning, I've got on my DSLR card, I'll unload at some point.
Then there was the annual announcement of the profit sharing (480%, very good, and word is next year should be good, too) goody day, and profit sharing distribution day. Should I say here that, with that very generous profit sharing, this is my first year breaking six figures??? Might as well, I don't think hardly anyone reads this. Comment if you do!!!
Just like the end of last year, I'm hearing a lot of people complaining about what a terrible year 2017 has been. I don't get it. Worst I can say about it was I had a few people I know passed.
On Christmas Eve we went to John's Incredible Pizza. They were having a deal, and it was as empty as I've ever seen it!!! They had this cheese bread which was basically pizza crust with cheese. My childhood friend Sean had been sensitive to tomato sauce, claimed it was too spicy for him, so he'd always order pizza with no sauce. In fact, around a week before I heard about his death, my younger was saying how he was one of the most sensitive to spicy food people, and I regaled him with tales of Sean and his sauceless pizzas. At the celebration for Sean, one of the guys who spoke of how he'd order pizza, so on into his forties he was still having it that way!!! Of course, I had to have a slice of their "cheese bread" in his memory.
Last Saturday, Alt 98.7 was doing a meet and greet at a T-Mobil store over on Whittier Boulevard, with Ravey from The Woody Show meeting the plebs. It was 2 till 4, and I am out of work at 3:30 on Saturdays, and it's about halfway between work and home, so I was able to go over and visit. I like all the guys on the show, but after meeting and getting to talk to Ravey in person for a bit, I like her even better now!!! She's cool. Never made a post on it this year, but we'd gone to the Renaissance Faire on the same day she did. Never saw her there, but on the way in the station had a booth set up. They set us up with a couple shirts, that's where I got the sweet #ALLIN shirt in the picture. It's super soft material, too.
The very next day, at John's Incredible, got to meet and take a picture with Incredibear!!!
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Shaved Pussy
As mentioned in my previous post, our cat had some medical issues. Apparently, tom cats have a rather Hank Hill-esque narrow urethra, and are susceptible to it getting clogged up. We've never had a tom cat before, so this was news to us. Another first, this is really the first time I've ever been in a position to be able to do anything for a gravely ill animal other than having it put down. As also previously stated, 2013 is still an expensive year. Well, he is a beloved member of the family, so I did what must be done. He'd better not make a habit of it.
So there's the shot of his shaved forearm (forepaw???). When we first brought him home, he had a blue bandage around it. My older got a picture of that, it's probably on his tumblr somewhere. On the estimates from the veterinarians they listed Elizabethan collars, AKA the Cone of Shame. For spending more on the kitty than I spent on my wife's latest car, I was looking forward to posting embarrassing photos of that here, but if he ever got one, it was off by the time he was sent home. Likely would not have fit inside the cat carrier with it on. So all I get is a shot of him with the bald spot where the IV was. They said he was rather uncooperative. If you've already got a swollen full bladder and they're trying to catheter your achey urethra, see how cooperative you are!!!
The second shot here is just a cute pose. He was playing one of his favorite games with me when I took the shot, Big Cat in a Cage!!! Bonus, when we got him back, his claws had been nicely trimmed, making the game more enjoyable for the hooman involved.
I have to get some amusement out of this situation. If I don't get it from getting to see him in that cone of shame or from the increased traffic from this posts' title, I'll close with a little joke at his expense:
A cat walks through the double doors of an old west saloon. His front leg is bandaged from the wrist down. He declares, "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw!!!"
So there's the shot of his shaved forearm (forepaw???). When we first brought him home, he had a blue bandage around it. My older got a picture of that, it's probably on his tumblr somewhere. On the estimates from the veterinarians they listed Elizabethan collars, AKA the Cone of Shame. For spending more on the kitty than I spent on my wife's latest car, I was looking forward to posting embarrassing photos of that here, but if he ever got one, it was off by the time he was sent home. Likely would not have fit inside the cat carrier with it on. So all I get is a shot of him with the bald spot where the IV was. They said he was rather uncooperative. If you've already got a swollen full bladder and they're trying to catheter your achey urethra, see how cooperative you are!!!
Monday, April 08, 2013
The Color of Money
First off: I withdrew a fair sum of cash to purchase a car. My older boy tells me, "You've got to do the obligatory pose with the cash!!!"
So here it is!!! $2,500, now that's gangsta!!!
That's been a couple weeks now. I've been looking since. The first one that I really liked (from the description) was from a company that auctions off charity donation vehicles. It's a 1998 Saturn SW2, same year as my SC2. Has the leather interior, power windows & locks, and cruise control, but the big selling point for me was that it only had 43,000 miles!!!
As you can see, it looks like it's in great condition, too. Turned out to be slightly less in person, with a series of scratches on the back quarter and scraped up bumper corners. More troubling was a screech from the water pump area when it was first fired up. It did go away after running around ten minutes. Both back windows weren't working right, and the passenger side one had clear RTV silicone on the bottom edge. The parking brake was lacking, too.
Still, with that low of miles, I figured it'd be worth at least $2,700, and I was prepared to go all the way up to $3,250 or so. Mostly I was hoping that no one would be interested in a 15 year old station wagon. I got a couple of bids in, but it quickly went higher than I was willing to go. I've never been to a vehicle auction before, it was pretty cool. However, in addition to whatever you bid, they tack on an additional 10%. And $55 for the smog check. AND $55 for a paperwork fee. I was taking that into account while the bidding commenced.
After that, I looked around to see what else there was (although I've been keeping a pretty close eye on CraigsList) and a new one had popped up. Similar to the one at the auction, but a 2001 model with a lot more miles on it. The asking price was $2,200, and there were no pictures.
We went over that evening to check it out. The owners were a senior couple from England, the original owners. It ran just fine, and has its share of dings and such, but I thought it was well worth the asking price. It hadn't been smogged yet, so I was ready to leave a deposit contingent on them getting a smog check. The guy asks me what I thought of the price, and I told him I thought it was completely in line with what he was selling. He said he'd knock $200 off to take it and get it painted. You may have noticed the corners of the bumper have been painted where it had been scraped up.
I put her in Paint Shop Pro, and was attempting to modify it into a sedan delivery, but it came out looking more like dark tint. That's OK, I had been thinking that needed to be done, too.
My wife is over the moon about her new car. I told her "Happy Birthday!!!"
As you can see, she's not the only one!!!
So here it is!!! $2,500, now that's gangsta!!!
That's been a couple weeks now. I've been looking since. The first one that I really liked (from the description) was from a company that auctions off charity donation vehicles. It's a 1998 Saturn SW2, same year as my SC2. Has the leather interior, power windows & locks, and cruise control, but the big selling point for me was that it only had 43,000 miles!!!
As you can see, it looks like it's in great condition, too. Turned out to be slightly less in person, with a series of scratches on the back quarter and scraped up bumper corners. More troubling was a screech from the water pump area when it was first fired up. It did go away after running around ten minutes. Both back windows weren't working right, and the passenger side one had clear RTV silicone on the bottom edge. The parking brake was lacking, too.
Still, with that low of miles, I figured it'd be worth at least $2,700, and I was prepared to go all the way up to $3,250 or so. Mostly I was hoping that no one would be interested in a 15 year old station wagon. I got a couple of bids in, but it quickly went higher than I was willing to go. I've never been to a vehicle auction before, it was pretty cool. However, in addition to whatever you bid, they tack on an additional 10%. And $55 for the smog check. AND $55 for a paperwork fee. I was taking that into account while the bidding commenced.
After that, I looked around to see what else there was (although I've been keeping a pretty close eye on CraigsList) and a new one had popped up. Similar to the one at the auction, but a 2001 model with a lot more miles on it. The asking price was $2,200, and there were no pictures.
We went over that evening to check it out. The owners were a senior couple from England, the original owners. It ran just fine, and has its share of dings and such, but I thought it was well worth the asking price. It hadn't been smogged yet, so I was ready to leave a deposit contingent on them getting a smog check. The guy asks me what I thought of the price, and I told him I thought it was completely in line with what he was selling. He said he'd knock $200 off to take it and get it painted. You may have noticed the corners of the bumper have been painted where it had been scraped up.
I put her in Paint Shop Pro, and was attempting to modify it into a sedan delivery, but it came out looking more like dark tint. That's OK, I had been thinking that needed to be done, too.
My wife is over the moon about her new car. I told her "Happy Birthday!!!"
As you can see, she's not the only one!!!
Sunday, February 17, 2013
My Crappy Valentine
So, last weekend it was half price day at the junkyard again. My dad and I went. Didn't get everything on our lists, but got a few things anyway. On the way out, though, I noticed the drain gurgling in the kitchen, an ominous sound. As I was in the basement, I saw no water backing up at this point, but when I got back there was raw sewage aplenty.
It's an old house, 1924 construction. At least every year the main line of the sewer needs snaked out. About 60 feet back there's usually some roots growing in. In the last year I'd say it's been at least three times. I figured it was time again, but did note that it is getting more and more frequent.
My normal guy, an independent one man act who has always done well, turns out to no longer be doing weekends. Another plumber, a major chain I've used before, can't make it until the next day. I go online and find someone who can make it. A place that'll root out your drain for $79 looks promising, and can make it in a few hours. He gets here, says he can't guarantee it'll work, proceeds to break the drain from the washing machine and gets a little bit of roots out to where it drains down, then charges almost double the advertised price. Got there quick, but completely off my list now.
Two days later, I go down to repair the washing machine drain, and find it's backed up again. My normal guy doesn't even call back, the major chain comes out and won't do it because the access is in the basement. Driving home that evening I see the back of a van, I can't even see the name but it has "drains our specialty" on the back, and I get the number. They come right out the next day, snake the drain thrice to no avail, and end up sending their camera down to discover a root around 4 inches around going for about seven feet!!! Well, there you go.
So, anyway, there it is. If you want your fancy indoor plumbing, your 89 year old sewer line has gotta go, and since it's on a nice incline, it ain't gonna be cheap!!! Between half the payment on my property tax and the new sewer line, there goes exactly all of my gravy from last year!!! Guess we're not going on a fancy big vacation this year. All permits and inspections are included, though. Getting another clean out, this one on the outside of the house, put in, too. On the plus side, it's guaranteed for 25 years, so figuring $150 or so per rooter visit... I'm still money behind. Oh well.
Funny thing, I remember some years back, I was playing Runescape, mining with my rune pickax. I was getting set to head out somewhere, and was going to log out as soon as I got the one more coal. I messed up, though, the head came flying off my pickax, and my mind said that was the last coal, and I'd logged out just as I realized what happened. Quickly went back to the log in page, but by the time it was loaded and I got logged in, it was gone. I was more broke up about that than about how much I'm having to pay to get a new sewer line put in. My stomach actually hurt over my pixel pickax!!!
Here's a few pictures from the project. I like the first one, I call it "troll in a hole", and I'm thinking of using it for my new profile picture!!! The third picture is where they tunneled the new pipe where the old one was. I don't know how they did it, it's gotta be close to twenty feet!!! Fourth shot is the hole nearest to the house, it had two pipes coming out, then one down to the street. I have no idea how that works, it only seems like one goes. Last shot is water draining down the new pipes.
It's an old house, 1924 construction. At least every year the main line of the sewer needs snaked out. About 60 feet back there's usually some roots growing in. In the last year I'd say it's been at least three times. I figured it was time again, but did note that it is getting more and more frequent.
My normal guy, an independent one man act who has always done well, turns out to no longer be doing weekends. Another plumber, a major chain I've used before, can't make it until the next day. I go online and find someone who can make it. A place that'll root out your drain for $79 looks promising, and can make it in a few hours. He gets here, says he can't guarantee it'll work, proceeds to break the drain from the washing machine and gets a little bit of roots out to where it drains down, then charges almost double the advertised price. Got there quick, but completely off my list now.
Two days later, I go down to repair the washing machine drain, and find it's backed up again. My normal guy doesn't even call back, the major chain comes out and won't do it because the access is in the basement. Driving home that evening I see the back of a van, I can't even see the name but it has "drains our specialty" on the back, and I get the number. They come right out the next day, snake the drain thrice to no avail, and end up sending their camera down to discover a root around 4 inches around going for about seven feet!!! Well, there you go.
So, anyway, there it is. If you want your fancy indoor plumbing, your 89 year old sewer line has gotta go, and since it's on a nice incline, it ain't gonna be cheap!!! Between half the payment on my property tax and the new sewer line, there goes exactly all of my gravy from last year!!! Guess we're not going on a fancy big vacation this year. All permits and inspections are included, though. Getting another clean out, this one on the outside of the house, put in, too. On the plus side, it's guaranteed for 25 years, so figuring $150 or so per rooter visit... I'm still money behind. Oh well.
Funny thing, I remember some years back, I was playing Runescape, mining with my rune pickax. I was getting set to head out somewhere, and was going to log out as soon as I got the one more coal. I messed up, though, the head came flying off my pickax, and my mind said that was the last coal, and I'd logged out just as I realized what happened. Quickly went back to the log in page, but by the time it was loaded and I got logged in, it was gone. I was more broke up about that than about how much I'm having to pay to get a new sewer line put in. My stomach actually hurt over my pixel pickax!!!
Here's a few pictures from the project. I like the first one, I call it "troll in a hole", and I'm thinking of using it for my new profile picture!!! The third picture is where they tunneled the new pipe where the old one was. I don't know how they did it, it's gotta be close to twenty feet!!! Fourth shot is the hole nearest to the house, it had two pipes coming out, then one down to the street. I have no idea how that works, it only seems like one goes. Last shot is water draining down the new pipes.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Passing the Torch Random
Once again, I've got a lot I've been meaning to blog, and it's time to get some of it out!!!
First up is some cup art I did back on December 7th. I was going to subscript it with "We will never forget", but it didn't come out too recognizable. It's supposed to be the Arizona memorial, in honor of Pearl Harbor day.
There was another birthday, where as usual I was contracted to make a cake. Actually, it was a double birthday celebration, so I was requested to do two or something... I forced my older boy to do the second cake, ergo the title of this post!!!
My niece is a fan of Justin Bieber, and that was my only direction for a cake. I utilized the Rage Comic "Now Kiss" guy, and made the dolls her and Justin, then added their names (+ each other) to the bottom, along with a heart. She LOL'ed.
I'm sure he's been featured here before, but the other requested cake was for SpongeBob. I've done at least two other SpongeBob cakes, and even Wubbsy with Bob's pants on, and I'm about Bobbed out. My older boy is quite the aspiring artist, so I told him, "It'll be a new medium for you to work in!!!" He wasn't especially enthused to be doing so, but he came up with this slightly Picasso themed cake. the smaller eye is actually 3D about an inch tall!!!
That same evening was my company's Christmas party. There we are dressed up for it. This year, instead of having a photographer on the way in, taking a formal picture then selling it to you on the way out, they had a photo booth. The pictures were free, and they had a lot of costumes and props to use, too. I wore a sparkly hat and my wife wore a black & white feather boa and a necklace that read "HO HO HO" in large letters.
I worked the Friday after Thanksgiving, at time and a half, plus getting paid for the vacation day. I'm doing the same for tomorrow, Christmas eve. They fed us breakfast and lunch last time, and I'm assuming they will tomorrow, too. If not, I'll be going hungry.
I saw the Counting Crows at the Wiltern back at the end of November. It was a pretty good show.
Personal space and general admission shows are pretty much mutually exclusive.
Opening act one was Tender Mercies, who come to find out, Counting Crows has been doing several of their songs for years as covers. I have many as bootlegs, and one (maybe two???) are featured on their latest album. Instant fan!!!
The second opening act, Mean Creek, well, they were loud. They feature a cute girl guitarist, who constantly jumped up and down the whole set. She made a comment that she loves when the crowds are rowdy, and we were the rowdiest. Pretty much the opposite was the case, I LOL'ed.
I liked the artwork for the Wiltern show. Wish they'd had it on a shirt. I never much care for the concert shirts from Counting Crows. Strange.
Goody day at work was kinda bad this year. We're back to three lunch breaks, and by the time I got my break, they were out of a lot of stuff, including drinks. Oh well, I've been told next year will be better. This year WAS better for gravy day. If I'm not mistaken, it was only 5% under what I've been told was the record amount. Also 10% under what I was told by a "reliable source" to be this year's amount. I'm good with it.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Maybe This Year Will Be Better Than the Last
SO much to blog!!! I keep thinking I'll do better, but there's always something else, it seems. Oh well, it is the way of life.
Welcome to my year end wrap up!!! If I finish before 12 tonight, I'll have one more in for 2011!!! I'll go over a little of this & that interspersed with the pictures from this year's Christmas.
Completely unrelated thought, know how some stores (most, I would estimate) shun using the actual word "Christmas" in any of their advertisements and promotions??? Perhaps all us consumers should thusly shun doing any of our actual Christmas shopping at their establishments...
I like the way my son caught my wife giving me the sideways eyes in the first shot.
I think I did all my Christmas shopping online this year...
Bought our cat a catnip apple for Christmas. It's always lost. He never tells where it's at, if he knows.
Seems like work was busy all year. Goodie day came and went, and our department didn't do the T-shirt exchange that we usually do. Kept me from having to find one for a co-worker, usually with only a week or so of shopping time. Gravy day elicited a roar of approval from packing when it was announced to them, moments before our department. Biggest one I've ever had, bigger than everyone was thinking it was going to be, much to our delight. Not too far below the amount it was the one year prior to my arrival that the employees ended up shutting down the local branch of the bank the checks were drawn on because they ran out of cash!!! Signs so far tend to indicate this coming year will be at least as good!!!
Too much zoom in the shot of my wife getting the DVD set of Dexter season 5, boy. Actually, it came out a pretty good effect, though!!!
Now, to get on to non-Christmas related news, and in relation to the post title... Two weeks ago today I was actually up fairly early for a Saturday, when I got a call from my dad. He found my mom keeled over & unresponsive when he got up. She was already on her way to the hospital, and he was heading over.
They managed to bring her around, and the thing everyone (including myself) goes to is a stroke, so that was what they were treating her like. Turned out not to be the case. Arrhythmia and cardiac arrest was what was actually going on. Of course, we visited her that day, but she was heavily sedated and had, among many others, a tube down her throat. Somewhere between 13 and 30 times they've had to defibrillate her to get her going again. THEN she gets infected where they had the IV inserted in her hand, so it was later before they could implant the ICD... Pretty impressive device, they're able to externally adjust it, which they had to do a couple times in the next days. She seems to finally be in fairly good shape.
One bad thing, though, there's been illness within my household, so we haven't been able to visit much. I've called my dad most every day, and my mom several times also. My dad's been there every day, of course. Best Christmas ever, he says. I agree. My oldest sister has been there a lot, too, which is also a good thing.
I'm sure I could say much more, but don't want this post to be nothing but. I think I've covered most of the salient points. Oh, a little insult to injury, she went out with her leg on the little electric heater. Looks nasty, but it's healing up. Oh, another one, one of her rooms at the hospital got flooded out by the toilet. My dad was the one who discovered the extent of that one.
Got my boys a night vision viewer with video capabilities. It's pretty sweet, for the money I paid. I think they managed to delete the one pretty hilaras video of the older boy spooking the younger by coming forth from the darkness.
Massive windstorm last month. Knocked out power for something like four days and blew a sizable branch off the tree, narrowly missing the Falcon. My wife finally finished the book she was working on for a year or more. Had to use watches and phones to wake up. It was an adventure. I was very glad we have a gas heater.
I don't think I saw a single movie in the past year, with the exception of the documentary "Born to be Wild" when we were vacationing in San Diego at the Science Center's domed IMAX theater, and that was included with admission. It's about orphaned orangutans and elephants and the people who rescue them. It was narrated by Morgan Freeman, which was pretty epic. The movie was pretty decent, but you could tell it wasn't designed to be projected onto a dome, it didn't come out right around the edges. Much like facial piercings, I found that to be... distracting. They had another movie coming on after that one that I'd wished I'd opted for instead about storm chasers (which may have been the title of the movie, as well).
The couple of pretty good books I got in this year were one we'd got from my mom, John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany". Had that for a long time before I got to reading it. My wife started on it, but found it too dark. Got Stephen King's 11/22/63 when it came out, and went through that in fairly short order. It ended, I though, surprisingly upbeat for a King novel. I certainly enjoyed it. I'm currently going through Douglas Adams' HG2G books. I'd long ago gone through at least the first three (and in the middle of the third is where I currently at) but know I never made it through the final one. A couple years back, I think it was, I bought the five in one ultimate one for my first born, and that's the one I'm currently in. The one the seller shipped at first was a collectors edition with photos and such, but not all five books. They made it right, though.
Hey, it's already 2012 on the Eastside!!! Happy New Year!!!
Car news. The last week my wife was working this year, the traitorous starter on Janice went out again, less than three month later. Do NOT buy your starters from Auto Zone, their rebuilders suck. That was what I was going to be doing the weekend my mom went down, so that was delayed. Oh yea, we had been planning on doing the family Christmas the following Monday (I had it off, along with the Tuesday after Christmas as my last personal days) so needless to say that has yet to happen.
The Wednesday following THAT, Baby started showing some problems... First sign was she stalled right after starting up!!! That never happens... Had to two-foot her when coming to a stop and such. Checked forums and it sounded like (along with a previous symptom I'd noticed) a bad coolant temperature sensor. Bought a new one, as well as a fresh set of plugs and wires, the next day. When I went to install it, made the mistake of giving it one too many cranks tightening it down and snapped it off down in the hole.
Didn't want to try and get it out in such an awkward area, so I JB welded it back together. That seems to be doing fine, and it seemed to be working fine until it warmed up, then it was worse than before!!! Limped her home again, and popped the hood and heard what sounded like a major vacuum leak. Turns out both ends of the PCV hose has elbows that were both cracked open. Of course, no one makes anything like that, so I've fabricated a lengthy section of hose and an elbow from one of Janices' repairs. So far it seems fine, but I've yet to drive her any distance. At this rate, that won't happen this year!!!
Counting Crows' "A Long December", in case you didn't get the title reference!!!
And, finally, a little Christmas something for all you that read or happen across my low traffic blog, a shot of my wife's boobs (or at least cleavage) in her Christmas Victoria's Secret push-up bra and pajamas!!!
And to all a good night!!!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
The Piercing Post
Happy New Year's Eve!!! Already 2010 in some parts of the country, I guess. Here's a post that's been kicking around for a while now that I'm finally getting to posting, after a bit of polishing and embellishing!!!
The story behind my piercing goes something like this. My brother in law and I were at a swap meet one time, and one of the booths had ear rings and were offering free piercing with purchase. I had sometimes considered getting a nipple pierced, and so at this particular booth, I asked the young lady if I bought a hoop if she'd put it through my nipple. She was somewhat taken aback, but finally replied that yes, I suppose I could... I was a bit short on cash, and furthermore not yet fully commited to the hole. My B-I-L was greatly amused by the whole prospect and said he'd pay for it if I were going to do it. I declined at that point, but the idea continued to take hold, sweetened by the fact that I had someone to finance the cause. Years passed, and my brother in law died, but the idea did not. It actually got to a point where I could sense the absence of a ring through my left nipple (at the conception of the idea, I had neither side chosen, but knew that I only wanted one side). I think it was around seven years or so later, while working at the hell hole that had bought my previous employer, near Christmas. We used to get bonuses in the thousands of dollars. That year I got a whopping $50. I decided to buy myself something I'd been wanting for a while with it, and went to a tattoo and piercing studio not terribly far from my home after work and got it, unbeknownst to my wife and family. They were largely shocked and apalled. A word to the wise, do not get a nipple piercing while driving yourself in a larger car with no power steering!!!
A funny postscript to this tale (besides the trauma that it caused one of my work friends): On our last full day in Hawaii, the older boy and I went over to the tower in the ocean that people would jump off into the water. I think for the most part of the time we were there, we were the only mainlanders there, and the rest were locals. One of the girls there was a classic South Pacific islander, quite big with a great extroverted personality to go with it. While waiting our turn to climb up once, she asks me, "Did it hurt???" I reply, "It stung when they did it, and that whole side of my chest was sore for a day or two after... especially cranking the wheel on a car with no power steering!!!" She replies, "No, I mean when somebody yanks on it, did it hurt???" I had to think for a moment before I replied that that's never really been an issue!!!
The story behind my piercing goes something like this. My brother in law and I were at a swap meet one time, and one of the booths had ear rings and were offering free piercing with purchase. I had sometimes considered getting a nipple pierced, and so at this particular booth, I asked the young lady if I bought a hoop if she'd put it through my nipple. She was somewhat taken aback, but finally replied that yes, I suppose I could... I was a bit short on cash, and furthermore not yet fully commited to the hole. My B-I-L was greatly amused by the whole prospect and said he'd pay for it if I were going to do it. I declined at that point, but the idea continued to take hold, sweetened by the fact that I had someone to finance the cause. Years passed, and my brother in law died, but the idea did not. It actually got to a point where I could sense the absence of a ring through my left nipple (at the conception of the idea, I had neither side chosen, but knew that I only wanted one side). I think it was around seven years or so later, while working at the hell hole that had bought my previous employer, near Christmas. We used to get bonuses in the thousands of dollars. That year I got a whopping $50. I decided to buy myself something I'd been wanting for a while with it, and went to a tattoo and piercing studio not terribly far from my home after work and got it, unbeknownst to my wife and family. They were largely shocked and apalled. A word to the wise, do not get a nipple piercing while driving yourself in a larger car with no power steering!!!
A funny postscript to this tale (besides the trauma that it caused one of my work friends): On our last full day in Hawaii, the older boy and I went over to the tower in the ocean that people would jump off into the water. I think for the most part of the time we were there, we were the only mainlanders there, and the rest were locals. One of the girls there was a classic South Pacific islander, quite big with a great extroverted personality to go with it. While waiting our turn to climb up once, she asks me, "Did it hurt???" I reply, "It stung when they did it, and that whole side of my chest was sore for a day or two after... especially cranking the wheel on a car with no power steering!!!" She replies, "No, I mean when somebody yanks on it, did it hurt???" I had to think for a moment before I replied that that's never really been an issue!!!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Yuleish Random
I'm so far behind on blogging, I'll never hit it all, so I'ma gonna go a bit random, and I've been needing to for a while.
Last weekend my company had their Christmas party. It was the same place as last year, but it was better than last year. The bar lines were shorter, and it was less crowded. The former likely was related to the latter. It seems rather early in the month, but this month does get busied up, so it worked out well.
We also got a room there this year. It was just about as far as you could get between the party and our room. And it cost about twice what the place we stayed at last year. Nice room, but hardly worth the extra money in my estimation.
A rather cool thing that happened, though. I'm not sure if it was the hotel *excuse me, Resort (one of those places that you're sure they have the word resort capitalized in their minds as they refer to the place... ANyway...) or my work, but they were giving vouchers or gift cards for $50 when we were checking in. For use at the Resort, but could be applied to your room price if you'd like. Nice, it almost exactly covered the room tax and mandatory valet parking.
In other news... the Christmas season is coming on fast. I went to Wal Mart around two weeks back, and was hoping not to again until next year or later. Now I'm thinking I may end up having to again. Dread.
Goodie day is going to be this Thursday. I signed up to bring my Chili. I just now decided that my Chili shall be capitalized thenceforth.
Friday, my older boy's comp apparently spontaneously shut off, and now refuses to do anything. I attempted to use a different power supply, and then even tried to swap everything into my Linux computer's case. No luck. If it's not a power supply issue, I don't have a clue what it could be. Rather unusual that I'm at a loss.
I've already purchased one of my own Christmas presents. A Garmin GPS unit. The main reason I got it at an early date was it comes in most handy going somewhere you've not been before. I got it prior to the Palm Springs trip, and it works out pretty nice. Of course, you kind of need an address of the destination to have it navigate you somewhere. I'm very pleased with it. I'm also further pleased that every time I've seen it (or even the small screen twin of it) the price has been at least $20 more than I paid!!!
On goodie day, several of us are having a first ever T-shirt gift exchange. Funny T-shirts are the idea. I got mine for it today, it's pretty cool. It has a skull and crossbones, with a bandanna around it and a scimitar clenched between it's teeth. The message above it reads "Just A Pirate", and underneath, "Hunting Booty".
I've missed the last two mileage updates, so here they are: 27.59 MPG and 30.66 MPG. I noticed a dip on the first one following the anomalous 42.31 MPG fill up, likely related. Brings the lifetime average to 29.98 MPG. I'm good with that.
I had been planning on taking the family to Universal Studios on Saturday, but by the time we got out of bed and started the chili up (that's right, I'm making it up almost a week in advance. Don't want to be up till one AM on Wednesday getting it going, then not have it be done in the morning. Besides, my Chili is always better after it's been out of the pot and in the fridge. Perhaps that will be the final step in my Secret Recipe) (Dang, talk about a run-on parenthetical statement or two!!! Now back to our regularly scheduled sentence) it was near noon. I had been wanting to get one more in before our annual pass expires, but that my not happen now.
They announced the cash profit sharing number on Friday. 350%!!! And this year, after having been employed longer than two years, I'm eligible for all of it!!! I'm pleased indeed!!! Right on the announcement, there was mention that next year's number will not be so good. They must have crystal balls. Of course, they almost always predict the number of orders and lines per day within a couple hundred, which I find remarkable.
Interestingly, after I put everything back into the Linux case, now that one does nothing when you go to turn it on, either!!! I'm wondering if it could be power supply, and whatever caused it to go in the original configuration could have done it again. That case did have a much weaker power supply. I'm hesitant to use the power supply from mine.
Along the inner wall (which used to be an outer wall before our last expansion) at work, in a stretch with nothing but walkway and wall, they've placed one of the decorative poinsettias right on the ground. It is totally random looking there, and I smile every time I see it there.
Maybe that was the idea.
I'd been thinking of getting myself a laptop for Christmas, but last week I saw an ad for the same DSLR camera my dad has, with a 300mm lens kit, for only $599+$29, with no sales tax. Price was good for quite a while, too. Sigh. Right after I'd talked myself out of getting a DSLR.
I haven't gotten a ton of things for my wife yet, either. I'm thinking of buying her something like 50 or 100 big spin lottery scratchers. Good times!!! Maybe I'll buy 50 for each of us!!!
I'm not finding the laptop I want for a price I want anymore. Back around October, I was seeing nicely equipped Toshibas with 17" screens for under $600, but now they're asking almost $700 for almost all nicely equipped PC's with only 15.4" screens. I thought for sure that with the economy tanking they'd actually try and get people to buy stuff near Christmas. Oh well, I'm in no hurry.
Actually, I would like to buy before the end of the year. The sales tax goes up another 1/2 percent come 2009. *Rollen my eyes*
Instead of going to Universal (and getting the all you can eat pass like the older boy and I did last time, but for both us and wifey this time) we went to John's Incredible Pizza again. The price was about the same, but that included $25 of game credits. I got to try the garlic pesto and BBQ chicken pizza this time, and they both rate high with me now.
Maybe I'll buy neither. I'm considering buying myself some commodities. If I'd bought about $400 of oil last Thursday and sold it on Friday, I could have made around $100. I've heard talk of it getting down to $25 a barrel for light sweet crude, but I honestly don't see that happening. what I do see happening it it going back up... eventually...
I see Tiger Direct has a build your own system with a dual core AMD 2.2 gig processor, 2 gig RAM, 250 gig hard drive, as well as the motherboard, case and power supply for only $149.99. Really, almost too cheap to pass up!!! Could likely be the easiest way to get my boy up and running again.
Honestly, I can't imagine the oil companies even bothering to extract oil at only $25 a barrel!!!
After returning from John's Incredible Pizza, the boys and I FINALLY got the Christmas lights set up. Nice, wouldn't likely have gotten that done if we'd gone to Universal Studios!!!
I had wondered if the plummeting gas prices would help the fortunes of the big 3 auto makers. They profit best making gas guzzlers. Which, ironically, is why any bailout will fail. There's this thing called Corporate Average Fuel Economy, and it will torpedo any turn around attempts. Opinion stolen from the Wall Street Journal, but if you think about it, it makes sense.
I've been thinking of buying annual passes to Six Flags Magic Mountain for the family for next year. I'd been looking at Disneyland, but the price!!! Insanity!!! Six Flags is a relative bargain, and they throw in passes for one extra visitor one trip, and one pass to the water park. I'm thinking yea. Maybe wrap 'em up, then after we open everything Christmas morning, take the family there for the rest of the day!!!
I don't think they've done this before, but they told the day they're going to give out the profit sharing checks. It'll be on the 22nd. Nice, you don't get a weekend in between to spend it. Not a big deal to me, I'll take me gravy no matter when it comes!!!
Last weekend my company had their Christmas party. It was the same place as last year, but it was better than last year. The bar lines were shorter, and it was less crowded. The former likely was related to the latter. It seems rather early in the month, but this month does get busied up, so it worked out well.
We also got a room there this year. It was just about as far as you could get between the party and our room. And it cost about twice what the place we stayed at last year. Nice room, but hardly worth the extra money in my estimation.
A rather cool thing that happened, though. I'm not sure if it was the hotel *excuse me, Resort (one of those places that you're sure they have the word resort capitalized in their minds as they refer to the place... ANyway...) or my work, but they were giving vouchers or gift cards for $50 when we were checking in. For use at the Resort, but could be applied to your room price if you'd like. Nice, it almost exactly covered the room tax and mandatory valet parking.
In other news... the Christmas season is coming on fast. I went to Wal Mart around two weeks back, and was hoping not to again until next year or later. Now I'm thinking I may end up having to again. Dread.
Goodie day is going to be this Thursday. I signed up to bring my Chili. I just now decided that my Chili shall be capitalized thenceforth.
Friday, my older boy's comp apparently spontaneously shut off, and now refuses to do anything. I attempted to use a different power supply, and then even tried to swap everything into my Linux computer's case. No luck. If it's not a power supply issue, I don't have a clue what it could be. Rather unusual that I'm at a loss.
I've already purchased one of my own Christmas presents. A Garmin GPS unit. The main reason I got it at an early date was it comes in most handy going somewhere you've not been before. I got it prior to the Palm Springs trip, and it works out pretty nice. Of course, you kind of need an address of the destination to have it navigate you somewhere. I'm very pleased with it. I'm also further pleased that every time I've seen it (or even the small screen twin of it) the price has been at least $20 more than I paid!!!
On goodie day, several of us are having a first ever T-shirt gift exchange. Funny T-shirts are the idea. I got mine for it today, it's pretty cool. It has a skull and crossbones, with a bandanna around it and a scimitar clenched between it's teeth. The message above it reads "Just A Pirate", and underneath, "Hunting Booty".
I've missed the last two mileage updates, so here they are: 27.59 MPG and 30.66 MPG. I noticed a dip on the first one following the anomalous 42.31 MPG fill up, likely related. Brings the lifetime average to 29.98 MPG. I'm good with that.
I had been planning on taking the family to Universal Studios on Saturday, but by the time we got out of bed and started the chili up (that's right, I'm making it up almost a week in advance. Don't want to be up till one AM on Wednesday getting it going, then not have it be done in the morning. Besides, my Chili is always better after it's been out of the pot and in the fridge. Perhaps that will be the final step in my Secret Recipe) (Dang, talk about a run-on parenthetical statement or two!!! Now back to our regularly scheduled sentence) it was near noon. I had been wanting to get one more in before our annual pass expires, but that my not happen now.
They announced the cash profit sharing number on Friday. 350%!!! And this year, after having been employed longer than two years, I'm eligible for all of it!!! I'm pleased indeed!!! Right on the announcement, there was mention that next year's number will not be so good. They must have crystal balls. Of course, they almost always predict the number of orders and lines per day within a couple hundred, which I find remarkable.
Interestingly, after I put everything back into the Linux case, now that one does nothing when you go to turn it on, either!!! I'm wondering if it could be power supply, and whatever caused it to go in the original configuration could have done it again. That case did have a much weaker power supply. I'm hesitant to use the power supply from mine.
Along the inner wall (which used to be an outer wall before our last expansion) at work, in a stretch with nothing but walkway and wall, they've placed one of the decorative poinsettias right on the ground. It is totally random looking there, and I smile every time I see it there.
Maybe that was the idea.
I'd been thinking of getting myself a laptop for Christmas, but last week I saw an ad for the same DSLR camera my dad has, with a 300mm lens kit, for only $599+$29, with no sales tax. Price was good for quite a while, too. Sigh. Right after I'd talked myself out of getting a DSLR.
I haven't gotten a ton of things for my wife yet, either. I'm thinking of buying her something like 50 or 100 big spin lottery scratchers. Good times!!! Maybe I'll buy 50 for each of us!!!
I'm not finding the laptop I want for a price I want anymore. Back around October, I was seeing nicely equipped Toshibas with 17" screens for under $600, but now they're asking almost $700 for almost all nicely equipped PC's with only 15.4" screens. I thought for sure that with the economy tanking they'd actually try and get people to buy stuff near Christmas. Oh well, I'm in no hurry.
Actually, I would like to buy before the end of the year. The sales tax goes up another 1/2 percent come 2009. *Rollen my eyes*
Instead of going to Universal (and getting the all you can eat pass like the older boy and I did last time, but for both us and wifey this time) we went to John's Incredible Pizza again. The price was about the same, but that included $25 of game credits. I got to try the garlic pesto and BBQ chicken pizza this time, and they both rate high with me now.
Maybe I'll buy neither. I'm considering buying myself some commodities. If I'd bought about $400 of oil last Thursday and sold it on Friday, I could have made around $100. I've heard talk of it getting down to $25 a barrel for light sweet crude, but I honestly don't see that happening. what I do see happening it it going back up... eventually...
I see Tiger Direct has a build your own system with a dual core AMD 2.2 gig processor, 2 gig RAM, 250 gig hard drive, as well as the motherboard, case and power supply for only $149.99. Really, almost too cheap to pass up!!! Could likely be the easiest way to get my boy up and running again.
Honestly, I can't imagine the oil companies even bothering to extract oil at only $25 a barrel!!!
After returning from John's Incredible Pizza, the boys and I FINALLY got the Christmas lights set up. Nice, wouldn't likely have gotten that done if we'd gone to Universal Studios!!!
I had wondered if the plummeting gas prices would help the fortunes of the big 3 auto makers. They profit best making gas guzzlers. Which, ironically, is why any bailout will fail. There's this thing called Corporate Average Fuel Economy, and it will torpedo any turn around attempts. Opinion stolen from the Wall Street Journal, but if you think about it, it makes sense.
I've been thinking of buying annual passes to Six Flags Magic Mountain for the family for next year. I'd been looking at Disneyland, but the price!!! Insanity!!! Six Flags is a relative bargain, and they throw in passes for one extra visitor one trip, and one pass to the water park. I'm thinking yea. Maybe wrap 'em up, then after we open everything Christmas morning, take the family there for the rest of the day!!!
I don't think they've done this before, but they told the day they're going to give out the profit sharing checks. It'll be on the 22nd. Nice, you don't get a weekend in between to spend it. Not a big deal to me, I'll take me gravy no matter when it comes!!!
I'm not especially worried about posting possible Christmas gifts here, only one member of the household reads this, and that is only once in a blue moon.
By the way, I just checked the dates Six Flags is open, and it's closed Christmas day. Glad I checked that, it would have been JUST like National Lampoon's Vacation, starring Magic Mountain as Wally World!!!
There's more random left within me. If only there were a way to safely extract it!!!
There's more random left within me. If only there were a way to safely extract it!!!
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
The Return of the Sofa King Random
It has happened again. We traded the tattered remains of the couch of narcoleptic properties for a fresh one.
My parents came upon this one, and being aware of our sofa's sorry state, bagged it for us. I napped a little bit on it on Sunday. Nice. Once again, I AM THE SOFA KING!!!
I purchased my second tank of gas for the Saturn. 314.1 miles on 10.05 gallons. Works out to 31.25 MPG. That'll do. Especially since I've been wringing it a bit, and did a bit of driving with the A/C cranked up.
Has it occurred to anyone that if you were to make a wireless device to do nothing but connect to Wikipedia, and put "DON'T PANIC" on the cover, you would essentially have a terrestrial version of The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy???
This was a very cool version of the Pontiac Solstice that GM had at the Pepsi 500. I like the way they did the rear view mirror.
My older boy has announced that he will be learning l33t. Good luck with that.
Speaking of the Pepsi 500, they just did the Fall ticket drawing. I'm going back to Fontana!!! *More than a year from now, for the next Pepsi 500... Perhaps I'll take Sammy this time, it'll be just a couple weeks after his birthday...
Many lunch & learns on the horizon. I'll be there!!!
I See they're going to be coming out with the next series of comic books based on Stephen King's Dark Tower Series, entitled "The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home". Sounds pretty cool, I'll have to check that out.
I just picked up tickets for the Counting Crows & Maroon 5 concert for this coming Friday. Can't wait!!! I asked the supervisor who handles scheduling if it'd be possible to get an early shift for that day, and she tells me, "Funny you should ask, I was going to come looking for you to see if you could do early shift this Friday!!!"
#11 on Letterman's top 10 list of perks of being a NASCAR driver: Bring your helmet into any Taco Bell, they'll fill it up with guacamole for free!!!
I was thinking I might set up a twitter account and use it to track my mileage...
The cake is a lie, or so I've been told. Has something to do with the video game "Portal". On the Labor day barbecue at my parents' house, they asked us to bring a dessert. We went to Baskin Robbins and got an ice cream cake. I selected this one because it looked a little to me like the one that is a lie. It's the red on the top that did it.
Day after tomorrow will be two years I've been at my job. I'm still happy there. Last week my supervisor told me that I'll be seeing 6.3% more gravy on my next check. w00t!!!
Yesterday I got the checks in the mail for my court settlement. Cool. I was pretty sure I was going to have to put the screws to 'em some more before they'd make with it.
On Thursday, work is hosting a farewell party for one of the managers who is transferring to Chicago. I'll be going back to Geezers for that!!! On my two year anniversary!!!
The first lunch & learn is coming up this Friday. It's about the expansion, something I'm quite interested in. They just put the sign up sheet out this morning, and it coincides nicely with the early shift lunch hour.
2.75%. Now that I'm eligible for 100% of that cash profit sharing, that's the magic number that'll get me another magic number!!! Of course, as I've said before, it's all gravy, but you can never have too much gravy!!!
My parents came upon this one, and being aware of our sofa's sorry state, bagged it for us. I napped a little bit on it on Sunday. Nice. Once again, I AM THE SOFA KING!!!
I purchased my second tank of gas for the Saturn. 314.1 miles on 10.05 gallons. Works out to 31.25 MPG. That'll do. Especially since I've been wringing it a bit, and did a bit of driving with the A/C cranked up.
Has it occurred to anyone that if you were to make a wireless device to do nothing but connect to Wikipedia, and put "DON'T PANIC" on the cover, you would essentially have a terrestrial version of The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy???
This was a very cool version of the Pontiac Solstice that GM had at the Pepsi 500. I like the way they did the rear view mirror.
My older boy has announced that he will be learning l33t. Good luck with that.
Speaking of the Pepsi 500, they just did the Fall ticket drawing. I'm going back to Fontana!!! *More than a year from now, for the next Pepsi 500... Perhaps I'll take Sammy this time, it'll be just a couple weeks after his birthday...
Many lunch & learns on the horizon. I'll be there!!!
I See they're going to be coming out with the next series of comic books based on Stephen King's Dark Tower Series, entitled "The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home". Sounds pretty cool, I'll have to check that out.
I just picked up tickets for the Counting Crows & Maroon 5 concert for this coming Friday. Can't wait!!! I asked the supervisor who handles scheduling if it'd be possible to get an early shift for that day, and she tells me, "Funny you should ask, I was going to come looking for you to see if you could do early shift this Friday!!!"
#11 on Letterman's top 10 list of perks of being a NASCAR driver: Bring your helmet into any Taco Bell, they'll fill it up with guacamole for free!!!
I was thinking I might set up a twitter account and use it to track my mileage...
The cake is a lie, or so I've been told. Has something to do with the video game "Portal". On the Labor day barbecue at my parents' house, they asked us to bring a dessert. We went to Baskin Robbins and got an ice cream cake. I selected this one because it looked a little to me like the one that is a lie. It's the red on the top that did it.
Day after tomorrow will be two years I've been at my job. I'm still happy there. Last week my supervisor told me that I'll be seeing 6.3% more gravy on my next check. w00t!!!
Yesterday I got the checks in the mail for my court settlement. Cool. I was pretty sure I was going to have to put the screws to 'em some more before they'd make with it.
On Thursday, work is hosting a farewell party for one of the managers who is transferring to Chicago. I'll be going back to Geezers for that!!! On my two year anniversary!!!
The first lunch & learn is coming up this Friday. It's about the expansion, something I'm quite interested in. They just put the sign up sheet out this morning, and it coincides nicely with the early shift lunch hour.
2.75%. Now that I'm eligible for 100% of that cash profit sharing, that's the magic number that'll get me another magic number!!! Of course, as I've said before, it's all gravy, but you can never have too much gravy!!!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Dreaming of a White Christmas
Dang, it's been a long time since I've made a post!!! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a happy new year!!!
Now, what have I been doing in the interim??? Many things. My niece had her birthday. My company had their Christmas party, which was pretty cool. We tried out the mojito bar they had there and drank nothing else all evening after that. My wife and I stayed overnight, not at the hotel that it was held at but at a nice place up the road. Less than half the price, so even with cab rides both ways it still would have been less, and they had a complementary breakfast there.
Goody day was awesome. My trifle didn't come out exactly as planned, I accidentally (well, inadvertently, I didn't read the directions well) used water instead of milk in the pudding part, and it didn't seem to gel up quite right. I mixed a second pudding and put it on top of that, but still it wasn't right. Anyway, I think people were scared of it, only a few people tried it. I'd made two, so there would be some left by the time the third shift got around to eating. That was not necessary.
Got my gravy the Friday before Christmas. Once again, right around where I'd figured it to be, and once again, the man did take his chunk, albeit temporarily.
Christmas weekend... A lot going on!!! Saturday we went down to my parent's house for the family get-together. I took my spare trifle, but it was forgotten until it was too late. Not that there was any shortage of food!!! My parents got my oldest son several varieties of army men, and wrapped them in an authentic looking military duffel bag.
Before we went there, I stopped in at my bank and deposited my cash profit sharing check. I also asked about a fee on one of my accounts, and decided that I needed to change my account. The girl that sets those up was busy for about half an hour,so I made an appointment for Monday.
Sunday we went to Oinkster for a celebratory feast. Good times. Monday morning I went to the bank and set up my new accounts. I got a 9 month certificate of deposit with a fairly favorable rate, and a money market account for the remainder. I also moved the youngest's money from a standard custodial account into an actual mutual fund account. Naturally, there's no telling where the rates will go with that, but it's likely going to do better than even my certificate of deposit will do. Now the youngest member of the family has the most aggressive portfolio.
After that, I took the family to the movies. Across the Universe was playing at a theatre not far from my work, but the published times were wrong. We ended up getting there about 25 minutes into the movie. I was ready to bail, but the attendant said she'd give us two passes to come back some other time and catch it all. Way to sweeten the pot!!! Of course, we spent about twice as much on snacks as on admission, so way to turn a profit!!! My older boy and I both enjoyed it quite a bit, but neither my youngest or wife liked it as much.
Christmas was great fun. The boys liked all their swag. I got the oldest, among other things, new components for his computer to give it a makeover. It wouldn't run XP for some reason before, so I got him a new motherboard with PCI-E slots and a dual core processor, as well as a 160 gig hard drive and a gig of memory, and a copy of XP. A cool thing that I found for him is a new mouse that looks like a pistol, good for use with those first person shooter games he usually plays. Both boys got new, compact keyboards (desk space is at a premium), as well as Lego sets and many Hot Wheels cars. My wife got me some cool, toasty Dr. Pepper pajamas. For my wife, I wrapped up a cigar and a $100 bill for her with instructions to light the former with the latter. She didn't. I had requested the Counting Crows' re-release of August and Everything After with bonus tracks and second live disc. My parents got me the right disc, but not the re-release. My wife was shopping without the list she had insisted I make her, and found the greatest hits "Films About Ghosts" CD instead. Ummm, I've already got every song on that disc, kind of no point to that. Ah well, it's the thought that counts. And the exchange credit.
After a morning of wrapping shredding, we headed up to Mount Baldy to frolic in the snow. The youngest has never been to the snow before. I had no idea what the conditions were going to be up there, but I figured that Christmas day might be less crowded than usual. In the crowds respect, it wasn't bad. In the snow respect, it wasn't good. The snow was patchy, and what was there had melted and re-frozen into icy surfaces. Good for sliding down, though, just watch out for those rocks!!! It didn't matter much to the boys, they had a great time. They slid a few times, and then collected icy snow chunks for a snowball fight. I took some video which I may post in the future. My favorite is of the older sliding down a slope and bowling over a little girl. Unfortunately, I turned off the camera before they both started getting up laughing. Good times!!!
Now, what have I been doing in the interim??? Many things. My niece had her birthday. My company had their Christmas party, which was pretty cool. We tried out the mojito bar they had there and drank nothing else all evening after that. My wife and I stayed overnight, not at the hotel that it was held at but at a nice place up the road. Less than half the price, so even with cab rides both ways it still would have been less, and they had a complementary breakfast there.
Goody day was awesome. My trifle didn't come out exactly as planned, I accidentally (well, inadvertently, I didn't read the directions well) used water instead of milk in the pudding part, and it didn't seem to gel up quite right. I mixed a second pudding and put it on top of that, but still it wasn't right. Anyway, I think people were scared of it, only a few people tried it. I'd made two, so there would be some left by the time the third shift got around to eating. That was not necessary.
Got my gravy the Friday before Christmas. Once again, right around where I'd figured it to be, and once again, the man did take his chunk, albeit temporarily.
Christmas weekend... A lot going on!!! Saturday we went down to my parent's house for the family get-together. I took my spare trifle, but it was forgotten until it was too late. Not that there was any shortage of food!!! My parents got my oldest son several varieties of army men, and wrapped them in an authentic looking military duffel bag.
Before we went there, I stopped in at my bank and deposited my cash profit sharing check. I also asked about a fee on one of my accounts, and decided that I needed to change my account. The girl that sets those up was busy for about half an hour,so I made an appointment for Monday.
Sunday we went to Oinkster for a celebratory feast. Good times. Monday morning I went to the bank and set up my new accounts. I got a 9 month certificate of deposit with a fairly favorable rate, and a money market account for the remainder. I also moved the youngest's money from a standard custodial account into an actual mutual fund account. Naturally, there's no telling where the rates will go with that, but it's likely going to do better than even my certificate of deposit will do. Now the youngest member of the family has the most aggressive portfolio.
After that, I took the family to the movies. Across the Universe was playing at a theatre not far from my work, but the published times were wrong. We ended up getting there about 25 minutes into the movie. I was ready to bail, but the attendant said she'd give us two passes to come back some other time and catch it all. Way to sweeten the pot!!! Of course, we spent about twice as much on snacks as on admission, so way to turn a profit!!! My older boy and I both enjoyed it quite a bit, but neither my youngest or wife liked it as much.
Christmas was great fun. The boys liked all their swag. I got the oldest, among other things, new components for his computer to give it a makeover. It wouldn't run XP for some reason before, so I got him a new motherboard with PCI-E slots and a dual core processor, as well as a 160 gig hard drive and a gig of memory, and a copy of XP. A cool thing that I found for him is a new mouse that looks like a pistol, good for use with those first person shooter games he usually plays. Both boys got new, compact keyboards (desk space is at a premium), as well as Lego sets and many Hot Wheels cars. My wife got me some cool, toasty Dr. Pepper pajamas. For my wife, I wrapped up a cigar and a $100 bill for her with instructions to light the former with the latter. She didn't. I had requested the Counting Crows' re-release of August and Everything After with bonus tracks and second live disc. My parents got me the right disc, but not the re-release. My wife was shopping without the list she had insisted I make her, and found the greatest hits "Films About Ghosts" CD instead. Ummm, I've already got every song on that disc, kind of no point to that. Ah well, it's the thought that counts. And the exchange credit.
After a morning of wrapping shredding, we headed up to Mount Baldy to frolic in the snow. The youngest has never been to the snow before. I had no idea what the conditions were going to be up there, but I figured that Christmas day might be less crowded than usual. In the crowds respect, it wasn't bad. In the snow respect, it wasn't good. The snow was patchy, and what was there had melted and re-frozen into icy surfaces. Good for sliding down, though, just watch out for those rocks!!! It didn't matter much to the boys, they had a great time. They slid a few times, and then collected icy snow chunks for a snowball fight. I took some video which I may post in the future. My favorite is of the older sliding down a slope and bowling over a little girl. Unfortunately, I turned off the camera before they both started getting up laughing. Good times!!!
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