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.

GET LOST!!!

This was quite cool. When I got home last night, my younger boy was quite emphatic that he wanted to go to the 99 Cent store. He wanted to get some candy from there, and after a little bit I agreed to go. I usually enjoy going there, and find a few things I can't pass up. This time was no exception, and I was very glad that I'd gone. My favorite energy drink is Lost, but it seems very hard to find anymore. They used to sell it at the new (not really so new anymore) grocery store, but not anymore. I used to get it from the liquor store by my old work, but that's not exactly convenient anymore. About the only place I can find it is at this one gas station near my parents' house. There it was, at the 99 cent store!!! Not only is the price much better than the $2.50 that it usually costs, but these were BIG GUN cans (which I'd never seen before, 24 ounces versus the usual 16)!!! Nice!!! I bought nine of them, nearly all of their stock.

In the front of the picture, you may notice a little bowling ball. The inspiration for the photo. He also got a cheap little bowling game, which ties in with bowling night with my work. Not as many people showed up this time, but it was still a lot of fun. I did pretty well on the first game, bowled 103. My game went downhill from there, but it was fun. The fear factor contest, all they had was people facing off against each other and competing to see who could eat things faster. Four of the five were baby food, and the fifth was bread, which was the hardest for anyone to get down, and the most fun to watch.

Perks Month

"A real job is about the fringe benefits. That's where the power is."
~Mr. Sharpton, from Stephen King's "Everything's Eventual"

This seems to be the month for it, by some coincidence. Many, many of the goodies about my work are happening this month. To start the month off, my first check had the overtime bonus for the past year on it. I had all but forgotten that happens, but there it was, a little more gravy for your enjoyment.

Another grouping of pluses that is happening is lunch and learns. Every once in a while they have them for something or another. A few months back they had one on biofuels, where I learned almost nothing new about biodiesel brewing, and considerably more about ethanol production. I wondered why anyone would bother making ethanol afterwards, it seems quite energy intensive to make. Last month they had one about the artwork at our branch, which was really quite good (hosted by a delightful lady by the name of Xillary Twill... I have a suspicion that wasn't her birth name, but who knows). I didn't know that some of the Warholian prints that we've got are, in actuality, Warhols.

Anyway, last Thursday our department hosted a lunch and learn about what was learned by some of our crew's visit to the Chicago branch (which was a paid "working" trip for three fillers and two supervisors. I had put my name in running for the trip, but wasn't selected). Most of these I've attended have seemed to be not long enough, and this was no exception. On the 21st, there is another one about our job benefits, and then at the end of the month there's one about our company's connections with many movie productions.

Next week, for the second time since I've been there, we're having a bowling night. Cool, I'm there. They've got notices posted for sign ups for "Fear Factor" on that night. I glanced at the sign up sheet the other day, and only a couple of the slots were filled, probably because it's so unknown what they've got in mind. I might just throw my name on the list...

Sometime next week I've got to turn in my picks for the Spring ticket giveaway. My first choice is always for the NASCAR at California Speedway, but those are hard to come by. Many Dodger games available, even a few against the Cubs this time (last time there were no Cubs games listed). Angels tickets in there, too, but I'd far rather go a couple miles to Dodger Stadium versus to another county to Angel Stadium. There are tickets to concerts and shows at the Greek Theatre and Hollywood Bowl, but they are mostly to be announced or of little interest to me. Oh yea, there's a few tickets for LA Galaxy soccer games, X games, Xtreme sports. Something new is membership certificates for a year at Children's Museum of La Habra. Once again, La Habra isn't too close, and I can't imagine going to one museum more than a couple of times in a year. One I'll probably put in my choices is the Circus tickets, a plus to those being that it's for four instead of two.



Last night I enjoyed the tickets I'd won in the Fall ticket giveaway, Lakers versus Clippers. It was the first live pro basketball game I've ever been to. Pretty decent seats, too bad the game wasn't very evenly matched. The Clippers kept it within 10 points for most of the first half, but lost it completely in the second half, culminating in a 119-82 slaughter. One of the things I found interesting was, at the end, they brought in the other Coby, Coby Karl. He sunk a couple of three pointers, which the crowd responded to with more enthusiasm than almost any other part of the game.

Life is good.

Universal Appeal

Over the weekend, in observance of the younger boy's birthday, we went to Universal Studios. It was the first time for both of the boys, and probably the first time I've been there in about 15 years.

As theme parks go, its interesting and fun, but not so many rides. More about the shows and attractions. My original thoughts had been to take to Gold Line out to Universal again, but the price for a day pass has gone from $3 to $5, and, of course, it ends up taking more than an hour to make the trip. At $12 for the family, it would be almost cheaper than the parking, but at $20 it was hardly worth it. Of course, this was before we got out of there and the 101 freeway was completely stopped.

There's the 74 Dodge Monaco Bluesmobile from The Blues Brothers.

One of the cool things that was new to me was the Terminator show. A cool mix of live action and 3-D film. Also new is a Shrek 4-D film with articulating seats and moisture effects.

Jaws. I had my little video camera with me, and the older boy and I attempted to do the lines from Jaws (Monkey cage? Shark cage), but I blew my lines.

They took out the Back to the Future ride that they used to have, but I'd never seen this "Doc Brown's Chicken" before. Didn't have any, but good theming. Also, when we went on the back lot tram tour, they do have the entry statues for Lyon Estates from that series of movies.

Ah yes, the back lot tram tour. One of the better things this park has going for it. Many street facades, many sound stages (which look like nothing but warehouses from the outside) and some interesting movie memorabilia and sets. New to me on the tram ride is video screens on the tram. Strange thing, several of the trees were wrapped up in white paper. The tour guide said they had been filming a car commercial there the other day, and that's why that was. As if that explained anything.

I didn't know it was filmed there, but Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives is at Universal. They said that they were filming while we were there, and asked us all to be silent while we rolled by. I didn't see anything other than the security guard. Lets see, what else happens on the tram??? Well, you go through one sound stage where King Kong attacks the tram, another one where you are involved in a Frisco earthquake. Nice for people visiting California. There is also the parting of the lake, which now has a little model of the ship approaching Skull Island from King Kong, and the Jaws Attack, and a flash flood.

Here's something surreal: The houses from the Grinch who Stole Christmas movie are located right behind the Bates Motel and the Psycho house.

Last picture is from the Water World stunt show. I'm not sure, but I think the show might actually be better than the movie was. Did I mention that the weather was somewhat inclement??? Not real bad, but it was overcast and cool all day, whereas every day leading up to this day and every day since has been beautiful, clear and warm. I only make mention because most every seat for this show is in a splash zone, and several are in soak zones. Worked out nicely, though, because there weren't too many people there, short lines.

Another ride we went on was the Jurassic Park ride. The younger boy had no interest in riding it, but each of us parents went with the older boy once each. Pretty good ride, with the potential to get wet.

The best ride there, in my opinion, was the Mummy coaster. Not a great coaster, but it has great themeing, as well as an awesome power launch. It goes through the whole track (mostly in the dark), then reverses and does the whole thing backwards!!! Rather unique!!! I rode it twice and the boy rode it three times.

Oh, and the deal that sealed it for me: The park lets you come back for the rest of 2008 (black out dates excluded), so there will be more of this!!! In Spring they are opening a Simpsons ride. More to follow...