Quick Random

Just a few quick, random thoughts. Several television related.

Have you seen any of the new show "Swing Town"??? My first thought on hearing of it was it was tailor made for people who felt ripped off after tuning in for "Wife Swap".

I bought a tube of regular flavor Pringles chips, and they had The Incredible Hulk on the outside. I opened it up, and the chips are all pretty broken up. I wondered if that was on purpose.

I rather enjoy "Rules of Engagement". Probably mostly because of Patrick Warburton. He's like the garlic of television and movies, most anything is markedly improved with him in it.



While I like the Lakers and pull for the home team, at this point I have to say that they don't deserve to be the champions.

One of the guys at work says he's ready to embrace the swinger lifestyle. He just needs to get himself a trade in.

It's a good thing Patrick Warburton is on "Rules of Engagement", he offsets David Spade's weasalyness. One actor who I don't understand how he's still getting work.

A few days ago, I was wondering whatever has become of She Wants Revenge. I haven't heard anything from them in a while. Yesterday I was thinking about "The Nightmare Before Christmas", how it is a beloved classic, yet there has never been any kind of sequel to it. I checked YouTube to see if any fans had created any unique content or further story lines to it, and found a video for a remake of "Kidnap The Sandy Claws" done by none other than She Wants Revenge!!!

"The Big Bang Theory" - "Revenge of the Nerds-The T.V. Series"!!!

Some time ago I took the boys to see "Underdog". I had no idea that it featured Patrick Warburton. The movie was better for having him, but he had light hair in it, and that made it a little difficult to watch. Reminded me a bit of when Letterman came back after the writers strike with facial hair. Did not look right.

I remember reading the preface to the Stephen King-Richard Bachman duo of Desperation and The Regulators. He wrote that one story was about God, and the other was about Television, so in a way, they are both about higher powers.

How come I can never remember all my random???

cUpDate Part Two

Haven't made mention of my cup or shared any from it recently. As before, I'm still not having a lot of spare time to doodle on it, but last Friday I had a chance to do a little bit. It was a bit of a snoozy day, so after doing the classic 512 logo, I did a series of Z's in alternating colors. Later on, I did the flag of Stephen King's Crimson King.



I was using the same cup the next day, and we went to the bank in the morning. There was a bit of a wait, and as I was sitting there I added in several other things. First was a shadow to the flag pole, then at the younger's suggestion I added in the porcupine. One of my previous cups had the porcupine saying, "I AM THAT TIME TRAVELLER!!!", and he wanted that again, but I had other ideas. In this one, he is holding a magnifying glass, and saying, "Elementary, my dear Watson. It is a sigul!!!"



Next, I added the killer satellite from Asteroids Deluxe, and then a flying saucer complete with space alien. The alien says, "The truth is out here", in a nod to X Files. The last thing I added was a video camera coming out of the bottom of the 512 logo. It bears the letters N.C.P., standing for North Central Positronics, in another nod to Stephen King. Next to it is the inscription, "The camera eye does not blink". My older son did an Aperture Science logo, with the words, "I'm doing science and I'm still live" on it, which I believe to be from the Portal video game.

Out of Left Field

Now this was cool. Last Thursday one of my supervisors came up to me just a bit before lunch time. "Hey, would you be interested in going to the Dodgers vs. Cubs game tonight???" My mind raced. The first game of the Laker's finals was on that night, and while I wasn't planning on watching all of it (I'd be at work and driving home for the first part, anyway), I had been thinking of catching some of it. Oh well, guess I'd get over that.



Next decision I'd have to make is who to take. My good friend Sammy is a huge Cubs fan, wonder if he's got tickets already. If not, I'd have to give the first shot to my wife. When I called her, her first response was, "You've gotta take Sammy!!!" Turns out that Sammy, while he would have liked to go, is having car and money difficulties, so he couldn't come. Wifey wasn't really into it (and we'd have to find a last minute sitter for the boys) so it was going to be one of the boys. Ended up taking the older boy, I think he has more patience for sitting a few hours for a sporting event. He also loves ball park food. I think that is actually his favorite part of going to ball games.

The game was well underway by the time we arrived and picked up some dinner. There was a Carl's Jr. franchise there, which the boy decided was the fare for the evening. I'd been thinking a Dodger Dog, and happily they also had those at the same stand. Fourth inning by the time we got to our seats. I also was able to grab my camera on the way out of the house.

Here's something else pretty cool, too. After a couple of innings, I noticed a few rows behind up there was a girl with a glorious display of cleavage going on. I glanced around at it a few times, trying to keep it subtle, and trying to think of a way to snap a picture for posterity. They left around the seventh inning, taking my chance at getting a shot with them. After taking the pictures out of the camera a couple days later, I realised that I'd gotten her in the corner of the self portrait (first photo) I'd taken!!! Nice!!!

It was Takashi Saito bobble head night. When he was called up to the mound, one of the classy Cubs fans threw the box containing his said bobble head onto the field. Another fan, a couple rows back, fashioned a noose from a plastic bag and hung him in effigy.



And what a game!!! If I recall, the Cubs had four runs when we sat down, and the Dodgers hadn't even put any wood on the ball yet. Just a bit later, they got their first hit, and a bit later their first run. By the time the eight inning had rolled around, the game was tied up. In the top on the ninth, the Cubs scored again, for a 5-4 lead. The Dodgers managed to load the bases by the time the last guy was up, but alas, he struck out. I think it was the most exciting game I've seen there in years!!!

For the last part of the game, the boy was looking for a cotton candy vendor. I think all but the ice cream vendors had left early. No cotton candy for the boy. I would have gotten off much cheaper taking the younger boy. Fun times, though, and the Dodgers went on to win the next two.



Yesterday I took the family back to Universal Studios. I had to do some other stuff earlier in the day, so it was kind of a late afternoon trip. Next time we'll head over earlier. Two reasons I had wanted to go, one is that last weekend there was a fire there, destroyed the King Kong attraction, New York Street, and the clock tower from Back to the Future. I was hoping to take the tour to view the charred remains, but that didn't end up happening. The other reason I'd wanted to go is because the new Simpsons ride is now open. None of the commercials have really shown what kind of ride it really is, but I had been suspecting it is a motion simulator, being as they'd taken out the Back to the Future ride, and it is located very near to Doc Brown's Chicken. I was right, it has been nicely re-worked, and its an EXCELLENT ride!!! Got some cotton candy for both boys, as well as pretzels. Would have got off fairly cheaply, too, if the oldest boy hadn't wanted to stop off in Chinatown for some Chinese food on the train ride back. Bad idea, the food was excellent, but rather spendy.

More back logged blog posts to come, I've got at least a couple more posts, and probably more than that by the time I get to 'em. Company picnic again next weekend!!!

The Blog Backlog

I've been wanting to update the happenings before any more of 'em get to happening for a while now!!! Here's a little update from Mother's Day, near to a month later.

Since I'd found a Texas Loosey's restaurant that was still in business, I took my wife there for Mother's day!!! They were having a "Moms Eat Free" promo that day. Caveat was, there was a two drink minimum. Of course, she was fine with that!!! She really liked the food and atmosphere of the place.


This was cool, they had the outline of Texas made of license plates. I took a picture, and the flash made 'em all reflect!!!

From there we went to my parents' place to visit for a while, but didn't get to stay long because we had tickets to Phil Lesh & Friends. That was at the Greek Theatre, which was a new venue for me. Our seats were within around 10 rows, but it looked like just about anywhere in the place wouldn't be too far from the stage. The place was filled with old hippies and dead heads, which was pretty cool to see. Security kept getting on this one lady for doing her gypsy dance in the middle of the aisle, and there was plenty of smoke around. Bunch of bogarts all those old hippies are!!! I don't know how many songs they did that I didn't know, but there was only one that I knew, "Friend of the Devil", which I swear they added a few lines to. Even not knowing the music, it was pretty enjoyable. As I mentioned, the volume at the concert was nice, too, not loud to where you can't hear yourself think. My wife found the guitarist to be quite sexy. They did an intermission halfway through their set, and we left at that point. My wife hadn't dressed warmly enough, and we had to get the boys before it got too late, and it was a work day the next day. I would have liked to stay to see what other songs they did that I knew, but it didn't happen.

Teamwork Building Exercise

Yesterday at work a couple of co workers and I decided to do a collaborative drawing. I thought I'd share it here!!! Not bad considering the limited colors and time we had!!!

The Bachelor Bus

OK, this post isn't going to be all about the ride, but it has a nice rhythm to it, don't you think??? It was nice, thought. A great way to party and not have to worry about driving home. I was the last guy they picked up.


I did tell my wife that we were in a "party bus" instead of telling her it was a nice stretch limo with open bar. I'm pretty sure she would have had more of a problem with not having gotten to ride in a limo than with me going to a strip club with the guys, but more on that part later.

Our first stop was for dinner at Texas Loosey's, a restaurant I used to love YEARS ago, but thought they had all gone out of business. If memory serves, they used to serve traditional steaks and many varieties of burger, along with some great Texas red chili. The menu hasn't changed much, still great food. The other attraction is the waitresses. Know how a lot of times girls will dress up for Halloween, but whatever the costume choice is, you can usually put the modifier "slutty" in front of it??? Picture slutty cow girl costumes, that's pretty much it. Seems to me that they used to have suede push up vests with tons of cleavage, but these days its more like a halter top with an open leather vest over it. Short shorts with leather chaps round out the costume. My nephew was duly impressed, especially with the barkeeper gal. The waitresses tried their best to talk him out of marriage, and when unsuccessful, posed with him for a Polaroid. We finished up by telling the barkeeper to give us some kind of shot, her best choice. I don't remember what it was called, but it was a variant of the red headed slut.

Back in the party bus, we took one guy (father of the bride, ha!!!) home, it was already getting late for him. A quick stop at the liquor store to replenish the bar, where one of the guys picked up a copy of Club magazine that came with a DVD for my nephew. The bus had a DVD player, but in our state none of us could get it to work.

The final stop of the evening was Larry Flynt's Hustler Club. Nice place. If you're not familiar with the local regulations on such establishments, I shall enlighten you, an it is pertinent to later happenings. If you serve alcohol, the poonanny must remain hidden. Ergo, if you want to see a full nude show, you will be drinking apple juice or Perrier. Nope, we were drinking beer and seeing nothing but boobies. Life is good. Something I found interesting, at both this club and the concert the following evening, the music was loud, but not deafening to a point where normal conversation is difficult.

The girl doing her stage routine when we came in was a tall, tattooed blond, looked like a rocker type. After she finished her set and put her top back on, she came right to me. Guess she caught me lookin'!!! "Would you like to have a dance???" "No, not for me, but you know what??? It's my nephew's bachelor party, why don't you do a little number for him???" Money changed hands, and I bought him his first lap dance of the evening.

It has been quite some time since I've been to such an establishment. On my last visit, it seemed to be dominated my massive synthetic breasts. Not so much this time, there were a few, but the fakes that were there were mostly subtle, and several of the girls looked completely natural. Around the other side, though, I was seeing a LOT of cottage cheese!!! Hard times for such clubs, or just low standards??? Who knows???

One of the girls comes out, a light redhead with pale skin that makes you think the red is natural. Flexible!!! Amazingly flexible!!! And athletic and talented!!! After making a show of wrapping her legs around her head, she proceeded to climb to the top of the pole (must be at least 15 feet up), I swear she didn't use her hands at all!!! I was in awe. The arrangement of the stage has one main stage, then a side stage that the girls would do a second song on after their appearance on the main stage. I followed her to that stage to watch up close, and threw her a few ones. After she finished she came up to me and thanked me. I asked if that was her natural hair color (yes, I knew it!!!) and complimented her on her flexibility and pole prowess. She thanked me again, then asked, "So, do you wanna hang out???" I reply, "You know, I'm all outta cash..." "Bye." And she was gone like that. Nice thing about strippers, you always know where you stand with 'em!!!

But I keep getting out of sequence here. Prior to that, and a good part of the reason I was down on money: As I was sitting there enjoying the show and my beer, a brunette with a kinda long face and noticeably more clothing on than all the other girls comes up to me. She starts running her hands over my shoulders and neck, and whispers in my ear, "I've got the best deal going in this place, baby, all these other girls charge $20 a song for a dance, I'm only $6 a dance to do this" and she proceeds to start giving a deep neck rub. Duh, OK boss!!! Lets go!!! She applies some lotion to her hands and goes at it, unbuttoning a couple buttons on my shirt, running down my back, working my neck. OH YES!!! She stands in front of me and tells me, "Look down". I do so, and for a moment am looking straight down her scant cleavage before realizing she's having me do this to better rub my lower back. She stayed with me for several songs. It was the next day before it occurred to me what else she could be rubbing down with her lotion!!!

Another girl comes up to me and crouches down next to my chair. She's wearing skimpy boy shorts, and she tells me, "This is so embarrassing. I forgot to put on any panties under these shorts an' when I dance or move around they slip to the side an' my pussy shows." In my head, I'm laughing my ass off!!! She's embarrassed about this, so she calls attention to it??? Or was she worried that her lady bits would be seen in the presence of alcohol??? The only thing I could think to say, "O'rlly???"
She didn't miss a beat, "Yea, its so embarrassing, wanna go for a dance???" Thanks but no thanks.

Near the end of our time there, another girl comes up to me. Petite, black and with what I think was a Haitian or Caribbean accent. Nice enough, but not the kind I would go looking for personally. "Wanna dance, me sucky-sucky you long time???" I stare in disbelief, you can't do that kind of thing in a place like this, perhaps I misheard because of the accent??? She pantomimes the act so there could be no question. I'm starting to like her style. "I'm sorry, I'm low on cash." She replies, "There's the ATM, right over there." Then she reaches into my shirt pocket and pulls out my money clip, which looks fairly fat but is really just a few ones left over from the back rub girl. Hindsight, I should have told her she could have it all for a dance, I think it was only about $8. She goes on to one of the other guys in our party, and they go off for a private dance. She comes back some time later and tells me, "See that one girl??? The one with the long tank top on???" I say, just as she's saying, "Yea, covering her kinda big gut" She laughs. "She was staring at me while I was giving your friend a lotta dance. She jealous." I know there was more, but that's all I remember. I wasn't into her at all at first, but there was something engaging about her that made her my favorite of all. Perhaps it was that she didn't take a single dollar from me but still kept coming around and amusing me.

After last call, we all piled back into the bus for the ride home. Chauffeur Fred had gotten the DVD working for us, and it distracted us on the ride back. First time in a long time for any such hijinks, and it was a good time!!!

No Time for Blogging

I wanted to put some kind of picture to go with this post, and found something random I shot quite a while back. It's EL DOCTOR RESTAURANT, where after you eat, it might be a good idea to see EL DOCTOR!!!



I still have yet to post in depth about the bachelor party, mother's day, and the Phil Lesh concert, and now I've got another weekend full of events to post about!!! It never ends, I tells ya!!! Anyway, thought I'd put something here to remind me to post about these other things if I ever get a chance!!!





A few highlights, though, the company cruise and the wedding were both amazingly awesome. My bank gave me a hard way to go, yet again, and I ended up a little stressed about the trip down to the cruise. Ended up not taking my camera for that reason. I took public transit down and back, and that was an adventure in itself. Far better on the money that way, though. It would have been $6 just to park, not counting gas, and it was only $5 for the day pass on the trains. Three different trains each way, the most I've ever taken.





OK, next time (barring further complications or procrastinations), a restaurant I used to love that I thought had gone extinct, the bachelor bus, the absent minded stripper, the acrobatic stripper, the stripper who I thought to be totally not my type who won me over in short order, and the best deal in the club (that I would go back again for alone!!!)...

Birthday Bash

The boy's birthday celebration, as promised. Here's the cake, per the boy's specifications. Camouflage. What cake???



A few things he had in mind, and the foremost was to have a big water fight. Unfortunately, the weather in the week leading up to it was typical "June gloom" conditions, where it was cool most of the day. This day, however, it was sunny and bright!!! Nice!!! It never got terribly warm that day, but it was good enough for a water war. The Monday following this, it actually was raining.



He had the idea of choosing up teams for the water war, but it turned into a free-for-all. I heard no complaints!!!



He had wanted pizza and wings. Momma bought a zillion hot dogs and chips the day before, but we did get the requested wings that day.



As I stated before, he got a lot of cash!!! I think he's got more paper money now than his mom and dad together. He was also thrilled to get Halo (which he's been playing the demo of for weeks) and a game called Portal. Good times!!!

512 Day Random Recap

Hope everyone had a great 512!!! I think this post most likely won't be wrapped up until after it has past. I felt a need to do a bit of a weekend recap. Most events could do with a post devoted entirely to them.

The boy's birthday was a major success. Even the weather was cooperative. He netted quite a bit of cash!!!

At some point in the weekend, I started lagging on getting to things on time. Fortunately, the birthday party was at our house. I was finishing off the cake decoration after guests had arrived.



The bachelor party was also a great success. Much to say about that, but at this point I will say that sometimes it is not only the journey but the destinations. And, that you meet some very interesting and amusing people at certain gentleman's clubs.



Mother's day was pretty good. Echos of the bachelor party for lunch!!!

The Phil Lesh concert was a lot of fun. At this point, I was glad that I was lagging on getting to things on time. Next year's vacation is in the works as an indirect result!!! Old hippies and deadheads are pretty awesome!!!

cUpDate

Since I was asked, Here's a little update on my cup. I haven't had any trouble with 'em at all since I began inscribing them with "512". They've changed procedure in the last week, and I haven't had much chance to do artwork on the cups this week. Last Friday I was able to do quite a bit of artwork. The flaming eyeball is loosely based on my tattoo. On the reverse is a picture of Neil Fox, our company's compliance manager. I have NO idea what Neil really looks like, having never met or been introduced to him. Quite often, though, the orders I'm filling have Neil Fox's statement that the products sent are compliant to the drawings and descriptions in the catalogue, along with the image of his signature. I was inspired to draw him doing his job, giving it the thumbs up!!!



Another perk, our company has a set of seats at the Greek Theatre, and when new shows are announced, they'll often have drawings for tickets. There were three recently announced, and I put my name in the drawing for Phil Lesh and Friends. Mind you, the name didn't ring a bell, but he was the bassist from the Grateful Dead. Well, I won 'em!!! That's this Sunday night. I wonder if my mom wants to go for Mother's Day. BUSY BUSY BUSY month of May!!! Saturday we're having my oldests Birthday observed, that night (I just found out) is my nephew's bachelor party, Sunday is Mother's Day, Sunday night is the Phil Lesh and Friends concert. Monday is 5-12 day (which I'm considering taking off), next weekend is the company outing cruise, and my nephew's wedding. I think there's more than that, but I can't remember it all!!!

Change of Scene

This was pretty fun, an amusing way to break up the monotony of work. I don't know if I've made mention, but I usually wear some... interesting shirts to work. One of my favorites, as well as many of my co-workers', is a black bowling shirt with "Mix Master A.C.E." in white letters on the back. I've often thought that I should see about getting the "C" changed to a "Y". I also have several "Aloha" shirts, as well as my Guitar shirt. Around a month ago I found a couple new ones. One that is an iridescent purple that sometimes color-shifts to blue, depending on the angle. It features two breast pockets, and two more near the bottom, with dragons embroidered on them. The other one is rather indescribable, so I've included the picture seen above. While we were having lunch before going to see Mask, one of the ladies I work with told me that all the ladies had voted me the filler with the best shirts. Of course, that day at a nice restaurant I was wearing a plain blue dress shirt.

The pictured shirt is the one I wore today. One of my co-workers and my former mentor always wears T-shirts and cargo shorts. He's working in the same area as me, and says, "We should trade shirts sometime." Haha, great idea!!! I wonder if anyone will notice??? Today he's wearing one of his shirts that I always enjoy, it has the words, "You killed the part of me that cares" above an inverted bird (which I FINALLY managed to find an image of, after much searching). A few minutes later, we duck back in a row and quickly switch. My shirt looked good on him, and every one's reactions were very amusing. A couple of people were like, "hey, isn't that the same shirt he was wearing???", and word of the switch spread to the first and third floor in minutes. One guy didn't see me for a while, maybe two hours later, and then he said, "Is that the same shirt he had on???"



Another amusing note, when we were changing back, another of our co-workers, an older lady, 50-ish, happened by the end of the row. She stops off and is making cat calls and calling the other female fillers over. Good times!!!

Rapid Random

Just a few random things I wanted to post on!!!

My wife got lucky and got Jury Duty. Had her calling in since last Monday, but Friday was the first day they actually had her come in. So far, she's on a jury. I notice that when I was on Jury Duty, there were wild fires going on then, too. I saw the smoke rising from the hills yesterday when I was taking the boys to the railroad open house.

I know I've been hiking up there, but I remember the name of the place more than the place itself.

Incredibly hot this weekend. I kind of wanted to take the boys or the whole family to Universal Studios to partake in some of the moist activities that occur there, as well as getting some use out of the year passes. Of course, I don't think I'd drive, but take the rail line.




All images swiped from the 'Net.

The system went down several times on Friday. I wrote about it on my cup. "For a buggy system, it is remarkably stable" and "Do not attempt to adjust your computer. We are controlling the transmission." I wonder how many people actually made the Outer Limits connection.

Wifey's going to take the rail line to court tomorrow instead of driving. If she'd had the presence of mind, she could have gotten a Metro pass at the court and gone without having to pay. Hopefully (and if commuting that way suits her tomorrow) she'll pick one up when she's there tomorrow.

Instead of going to Universal, I did yard work yesterday. That, and the railroad open house. The lawn actually came out looking fairly decent just running the mower over it and weed eating around the edges. Had to cut back a lot of other greenery, too, it's that time of year when the Fire Department does inspections.

Writing about the yardwork reminded me that I should water the grass a little.

My mom called today and talked a bit to my wife. Catching half of the conversation I got that she'd bought something for my oldest boys' birthday present. As she was getting ready to hand the phone to me, wife tells mom that she'll have to tell me so I know what she got him. As soon as I'm talking to my mom, she starts telling me about a Stanley Kubrick video collection she bought. I thought that was quite cool, but a rather odd thing to have gotten for the boy. Apparently, it was not for my son but just something she'd picked up.

Earlier in the week I'd needed something for my cup, so I wrote part of an Emily Dickinson poem:
HOPE is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all!!!

If she'd had the Metro pass, could have used that to ride free to Universal. I don't suppose that she could grab a handful of them???

They had a note on the board at work to let them know if anyone is interested in a permanent Saturday shift. Oh yea, I am interested!!! Saturday shift means you get Fridays off, and the shift is from 6:30 to 3:15, so you've still got some Saturday left. If you don't fall asleep after work. It also means a little more gravy in your paycheck. Now, there's something to hope for!!!

I know there is more random, because I had a thing or two that got left off the last random!!! The hour grows late...

ÃÝË's Been Working on the Railroad

Now, this was cool!!!

There was a blurb in the paper about an open house going on at a model railroad club.





I've always loved trains, and, even without my input my youngest has pretty much loved trains from infancy.



They have their own building with a layout over 5,000 square feet, and a great amount of detail. If you look closely, in the first picture you can see there's a guy bungee jumping from the bridge span. I didn't even see that until I looked at the picture tonight!!!





It also happened to be pretty close to my home, so that was a plus, too!!!

Mask Unmasked

As mentioned in the previous post, here's my take on the musical play "Mask", which I got to see on Saturday.

I'll start out with the restaurant that we went to first. A real class place, although it seemed a little bit small. We shall call it intimate. It is called Maison Akira, and they bill themselves as French dining with a Japanese flair. When I arrived, there was a wine bar set up, and I had a few while sitting with several of my co workers. Appetizers, then onto the food. Really, really good food.

After that, on to the theatre for the play. I had never seen the movie and didn't know the story, which I felt was a better way to go into it. I kind of knew that it was based on a true story, but I didn't know that it happened just up the road (and quite near my old-old place of employment) in Azusa. Turns out one of my fellow fillers grew up there, and had seen Rocky a few times at the store. A show featuring a biker gang, a deformed kid with a great attitude, and his addict mother seems like a strange choice to be made into a musical. Now, what can I say about this??? The actors all sang quite well, as well as acted well. There was a good balance of comedy and tragedy. The story didn't seem to completely blow. I can't put my finger on what the downfall was, but somehow the whole thing did not work. About halfway through the first act, when I found myself more fascinated with the rotating stage than the action, was when I think I realized it wasn't working for me. Funny, my wife wasn't familiar with the movie either. The movie she thought of when I told her was the Jim Carey comedy. Now, that might just make a better musical!!!

When I talked to some of the others who were there today at work, the consensus was pretty much the same among everyone. Interesting, last year's outing the food was perceived as "just OK" and the play as sensational, and this year the roles are reversed.

Work Perks Revisited

Just a little update on some of the cool goings-on at work. I had my annual review this week. It has several categories that are ranked 1 to 5, with 1 being the best and 3 being meets their already high expectations. I scored two 1's and a 2, with the rest being threes. I asked about a few of the other categories, how I could possibly do better, and was given the answer that several of them were either go or no go type categories. Either you get it, or you don't. Not so easy to score better in those categories. Anyhow, this should translate into an even better raise than last time... in six months!!!

Something I didn't have in the last perks post was the annual outings. They may not have been posted at that point, but this year they have the choice of the golf outing, a gambling cruise (not real gambling, but for prizes), or lunch and showing of the play "Mask". I don't golf, so that was out. One of the guys said the restaurant for the play outing is excellent, and he usually ends up spending more than $100 when he visits. Also, it is local to me. However, unlike last year's outing to "Wicked", I hadn't heard rave reviews about the play, and didn't have a whole lot of interest. Of the three, the cruise sounded the best to me, so that is what I signed up for.

Earlier this week, there was a notice posted: We still have extra play tickets, drop your name in the bowl and we'll draw names to see who gets to go to this in addition to their selected event. I put my name in and was selected. Apparently, there were so many extra tickets that if you put your name in, you won. I think they were recalling the response that they received to the "Wicked" outing last year and ended up over buying. That happens this afternoon, perhaps there will be a review on it later.

The ticket drawing that was mentioned on the last perks post, I scored!!! I'm going to the NASCAR race!!! Whoo hoo!!!

The picture on this post is my cup from Friday. It's about as busy as I've ever done. I rolled it across my scanner as it scanned, and it came out pretty decent. The part about the sexually transmitted diseases was per Pank's suggestion. I used to always bring my own cup to my previous job, but they don't have good lids, a must. Good times, good times.

The Black Friday Random

Welcome to the Black Friday random post!!! Although, it will likely be Saturday before it is posted. I have much randomness in me, but I'm sure some will not make it into this post.

A little background as to why this is titled the Black Friday Random Post. Last week they fired one of us fillers, a longtime worker who was well liked. No love. In a show of mourning for this loss, almost all of us fillers agreed to wear black today.

Gene Simmons was on the Mark & Brian show the other morning. Interestingly, what he mostly talked about was the economy. He basically echoed what I've been saying, the economy isn't really that bad, and it's a GREAT time to buy up stuff!!! Thank you, Gene!!!

I wonder how Jerry Lee Lewis feels about the group The Killers.

A few weeks ago, a couple of times my water cup at work got tossed out. I hadn't been writing my name on it, I'm one of the very few who use the biggest cups. I discovered soon after that that it doesn't matter what you write on your cup, just so long as you write something, it doesn't get tossed out.

I bought a few Asian pears last weekend. They were on sale for a pretty decent price. I pulled one out of my lunchbox at work on Monday, and most everyone was impressed with them. Asian pears rock.


Did you know that Gene Simmons copywrited the image of a bag of money with a dollar sign on the side??? Clever, who would have thought to do that???

There was yet another lunch and learn the other day. It was about the plants and garden areas around the building. It was actually one of the most interesting ones I've been to.

A couple of the girls forgot to wear black today. One went home on her lunch break and changed. The other went to a store and bought a black shirt.



A while ago, my oldest made up a little sign out of notebook paper. It said, "HILLARY EATS PUPPYS". I thought that was great, and asked him if I could have it. I taped it to my tray at work. Not a lot of people noticed it, but those who do are always greatly amused.

While looking for an image to use on that topic, I found an image of a bumper sticker that goes with it nicely.

The first thing that I wrote on one of my cups was, "Touch my cup, and I'll break your arm!!!" I considered adding and expletive or two, but decided against it. Needless to say, EVERYONE wanted to touch it. The next day I wrote, "Go ahead... touch my cup... you know you want to!!!"

They should make Gene Simmons the Federal Reserve Chief.

They made quite a bit of progress on the bin structure addition at first. Doesn't seem like much has been done recently, though.

One of the orders I got the other day was for something called a "ball vibrator". Naturally, they ordered two of them.

Ever notice that every election year they tear up the roads most everywhere??? That'll get votes, block up traffic for months.

I find that putting a 512 on my cup is usually most effective. I've had to explain the mystery of 512 to several people because of this. I explained it to the new girl, and she didn't believe me!!!

I think part of the reason those Asian pears are so expensive is the packaging they use on them. Have you seen these??? They look like a Styrofoam fish net stocking!!!


Gene Simmons wouldn't be the Federal Reserve Chief. There's not enough money in it for him.

One time, a customer ordered an eye bolt. Just one eye bolt, nothing else. As I was packing it, I asked myself, "Who orders just one eye bolt???" A few minutes, the answer came to me: The Cyclops!!!

The back of my son's Hillary sign said, "Pick up after your dog". No one will see that now, because it's taped with that side down.

Today I drew a picture of an anchor on my cup, and put the lines, "You're an anchor on the line, of a clock that tells the time, That is running out on you" for Counting Crows' "Richard Manuel is Dead" (a deceptively upbeat tune, considering the title). I would have used a lyric from "When I Dream of Michelangelo", but I was unsure of how to spell Michelangelo.

One guy at work always dresses all in black. One of the girls, when we were planning Black Friday, said, "Be sure to let him know!!!"

When we were discussing Asian pears, one guy missed the beginning of the exchange. He asked what we were talking about, and I replied, "Asian pears." He had a blank look for a few moments, and I had to explain to him that I wasn't talking about two Asian dudes.

We drove the Falcon for the first time in a while a couple weekends ago. My younger boy noticed my 512 dome light, and asked if that was where I got the idea for 512. Chicken or the egg, boy.


When we were at the store last weekend (buying Asian pears, among other things) Counting Crows' "Daylight Fading" came on the sound system. I thought that was great, that they were playing a song with the lyric, "Well, I heard you let somebody get their fingers into you".

The Fall of Fort 7

It was a peaceful morning, a little foggy, but no figures broke the fog. All of a sudden, a big shadow came through the fog carrying the monthly rations and 20 troops. Fort 7's security gate opened, when all of a sudden, a mortar round broke the scilence and collapsed the trenches! A nearby Sargent yelled out, "Mortars!" as 5 more rounds hit the fort. Two tanks broke the fog and opened fired with the 50-mm machine guns mounted to kill oncoming troops. Fifty battle-ready troops advanced on the tanks while others mounted the fort's defence cannons and machine guns. Troops came from the fog carrying rocket launchers and C-4. Then, just as the first tank exploded, he fort's automatic sentry turrets activated and cut down the the fog-trooper's front lines and the fort brought out the 2 antitank vehicles they had stored in the gradges. All of a sudden, the fog cleared and 3 Osprey helocopters came through the air, heading for the fort. the anti-air guns opened fire just as the troop carrying a HAVOC nuke came into the fort, planted the nuke, and ran for the motorcycle stashed by the shed. The enemy troops retreated and the fort roared in victory. Little did they know that a HAVOC nuke was planted in the barracks.

The preceding short story was written by the oldest for a quick short story assignment at school. The instructor said it was even better than their own. I thought it was pretty good, too. I left the misspellings in, to present it in "as written" form. He's been asking me to post a link to his site on here for a while to get traffic going that way. Please click over. I think he has delusions about the popularity of my blog :Þ

Piercings

A few weeks ago at lunch, the new girl noticed that one of the other guys with us has a tongue piercing. I don't remember what conversation ensued, but ensue it did. I said something to the effect of "Don't make me show you mine!!!" Now, I really don't have much cause to show it off at work (or very many other places, for that matter), so not many people there know I have it. I was sitting across from another of my favorite lesbians, and she was on about it. "Come on, lets see!!!" Duh, OK boss... I pulled my shirt open between a couple of the buttons and proudly displayed my nipple ring. She was a bit surprised, she thought I was putting them on. I asked her why she thought that another of our workmates often calls me "Wild Thang"??? He started calling me that after he found out about it.

The one who it seems to really have made an impression on, though, was the new girl. She's brought it up several times since then. She plays like it traumatized her.



Today this was in the paper, and with a couple of little modifications, it fits pretty nicely. I'll give it to her tomorrow, I think she'll be amused.

Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine

This was a strange thing. At work, they are doing additions to the bin structure where I work. They already lengthened them on the first level, and now are lengthening the remaining levels, as well as adding a third level to the red bins. Previously, working on the second level red bins was a bit like driving a convertible, having nothing immediately over your head. Yesterday I was in the second level red bins for a bit, and they had put in the bracing for the third level. that alone was a strange feeling, having something up there. Today, I was there again, and they'd added a floor for the third level, or a roof for the second level depending on how you look at it.



They had strung incandescent lights along the length of it. Very strange, as everywhere else has florescent lighting. There was something somewhat familiar about the look, and what came to mind was how the lighting in a mine or a submarine would be. Someone came over, and thought it reminded them of a garden party. All that was missing was their lawn chair. One of the other guys said it was like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. That seemed like the closest match, after I heard that.