Random Access

I realize that I’m a little early with this, but: Happy New Year!

Sunday. It was a good day; not that almost any day can’t be a good day. But since I’m telling this story, if I want to specify it as a good day, I shall. So there! Take that!

I spent a few hours – yes, “hours” – in Borders; I was getting some practice sketching and drawing done. It’s a nice way to waste a little time. Hopefully, it’s paying off. Jess said that they looked good, but I think that she may be the slightest bit biased. After that, I went to Sandi and Jim’s and hung out for a while. These are looking out across their backyard at today’s post-flurry activity (1, 2, 3). Oh yeah: It snowed this morning. I guess that I should have mentioned that up-front.

On the football front: Both the Ravens and Panthers took one on the chin this weekend; the Dolphins, however, were able to pull a rabbit out of the hat… and, in doing so, clinched a playoff spot. There’s still hope for the Ravens to make the playoffs, too, but they aren’t playing the kind of ball that I think they are capable of playing. That makes it a little difficult to win games.

I posted this about a month and a half ago:

Yet another mid-morning post.
I have seen three signs of the Apocalypse this morning:

• It’s snowing here in the valley. You can see a pic here.
• I turned on Live with Regis and Kelly (yes I know that could be construed as a sign in and of itself) and:
  • They had a pair of Furby®-like hamsters, one with nunchaku and one with a mace, that played “Kung-Fu Fighting” and spun their respective weapons. *shiver*
  • They read an article about someone in England who left $15 million… to a flock of sheep.

You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to find that entry. As a follow-up to that entry: Snow. It happens. Here, it happens a lot. I’m dealing with it. Sheep. If, as Cake says, Sheep Go To Heaven, who am I to gripe about them getting a windfall of cash? After all, even lonely sheep gotta get their flock on. Ouch. That was bad, but it couldn’t be helped. Well, it could have, but I chose not to do so.

That leaves the hamsters. Okay. First, I’m still apologizing to people for having watched Regis and Kelly. Second, I never thought that I’d ever have a reason to bring up the hamsters… until tonight. Jess and I stopped in one of the local Walgreen’s and were checking out when I saw this (1, 2, 3). I was floored. Not even in the darkest corners of my imagination had I even conceived that I’d see one of these things. But, there they were: Enough Kung-Fu Hamsters to fill a dojo. SOMEONE read too many issues of Adolescent Radioactive Black-Belt Hamsters when they were growing up. And to find them in Walgreen’s, of all places. Bizarre! Of course, this is the same store that had this on their sign outside the store; sorry about the large size, but it had to be this big to read the sign.

That’s more than enough rambling for one night.

Peace.

Saturday.

Let’s get this out of the way, right off the bat: It snowed tonight.

Right. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can get on to other mundane things:

• I slept WAY later than I meant to. Of course, I stayed up until Jess was in from work (at 5:45 this morning), so I can easily rationalize it.
• We met Sandi, Jim, Jenny and Connor (one of Jess’ sisters and her son) for dinner. Afterwards, Jess and I went to the local Old Navy and Barnes & Noble. And then, we came home.
• Jess went to work; I watched the Ravens get drubbed by the Bucs. While I do not presume to understand the game of football better than Coach Billick, I think that he could have made a couple of different decisions in this game. Foremost would have been to replace Elvis Grbac as QB in the second half. I can understand wanting the starting QB to play, but if his performance is… lackluster, then maybe other options should be exercised. That’s my 2¢ worth.
• I went bowling with Larry, Mycah, and their friend Dirk. Mycah was QUITE intoxicated, which made for some rather interesting bowling. I won 3 of the 4 games. Yay me! An added bonus: The alley manager hooked us up with two lanes. Of course, this meant that we could do… ~drumroll~ … IRONMAN BOWLING! In case I haven’t mentioned it before: Ironman Bowling is when you get two lanes, set yourself up on both lanes and bowl as many games as humanly (or superhumanly, if that’s your thing) possible during the bowling session. We hadn’t bowled that way for a while, so we only got in four games.
• After bowling, I came home… and here I am.

That covers the events of the day. Here are the day’s pics.

Quotes of the Day:Tonight’s quotes come from Mycah:

• When he discovered that Dirk was heading to some other friends after bowling: “You’re staying with them? Then you don’t have to sleep in a sleeping bag on my low-rider couch.” It seems that two of the legs of Mycah’s couch broke, so he simply removed the other two. *shrug* I don’t ask why, I just nod and smile.
• While heading down 90th South, we passed the Carpet Giant store. Mycah, mid-conversation, popped off: “Yeah! And then, in the cab… HEY! Carpet Giant dwarfs them all!” I did mention that he was a little drunk, didn’t I? I did? Good. Just making sure.

And with that, I bring to a close another day’s post. Just like that.

Peace.

Friday. End of the week. Beginning of the weekend. I guess that this proves that “The End Is the Beginning Is the End,” after all. Who knew?!

• Slept in. This time, it was intentional, hence “slept in” and not “overslept.”
• Stopped and picked up a cup of almost-free, double-espresso-shot-laden frozen mocha goodness.
• Went to work. With the exception of taking an extra half-hour for lunch, I stayed the entire day… although the temptation to leave was great. Very great. They were letting people from my group leave before our shift started. Very tempting, indeed.
• Went to the airport and hung out with Joe; he had another layover here on his way back from today’s business trip. He was showing me some of the features of his new digicam. And, for the record: His camera out-penises my camera – same brand, slightly newer model, better zoom, image stabilization. The works. It’s also bigger than my camera. All-in-all, it was quite nice. And the visit, though brief, was good. Jess and I may get to see him again in a couple of weeks: He has a trip to Las Vegas in the wings.
• Came home and succumbed to my inner geek: I ordered a pizza. Online. Oh, the conveniences of modern living! When the delivery guy showed up, he brought the breadsticks (good), the pizza (good), but left the 2-liter soda at the store (not good). He left and came right back with it, and apologized for his mistake.

And that about sums up my day for the last Friday of the last month of 2001. Hmm. Suddenly, I feel like bursting into a few lines from the Counting Crows’ “Long December.” Tact and a modicum of decorum, however, prevent that. Fortunately.

Peace.

Thursday.
Where to begin?
Where to begin?

In a radical departure from observed norms, let’s start at the beginning. Hmm? What’s that you say? Starting at the beginning is not a departure from the usual? Oh. Well, what if you’re talking about “The End Is the Beginning Is the End” or “The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning,” both by the Smashing Pumpkins? In which case, it seems that you are dealing with something more along the lines of a Mobius strip. But that’s neither here nor there. Of course on a Mobius strip “here” and “there” are relative terms, especially since it only has one side. But enough of that…

Starting at the beginning (is the end is the beginning):

• We overslept again. Big time. Although, we had enough time to get ready without having to break any of the known laws of physics.
• Worked. Yay. We even stayed ALL DAY! Who would have thought it possible?! But we did.
• Went to the airport to see Joe (new pics). We only had about :30 to chat and catch up, but it was good to see him. He’s on a business trip and will be passing back through tomorrow night; I’m not sure if I’ll get to see him tomorrow or not, but who knows?

Quotes of the day: Today’s quotes are from Jess.

• On the way out of the airport, we saw one a Chevrolet Avalanche – the vehicle that changes from a pick-up truck to an SUV and back. Holy Transformers, Batman! She said that it was ugly, to which I responded “But, it can change!” To which she responded, “Ugly babies change, too. But they usually change into ugly adults… and there are a damn lot of them out there! But that’s not something that you can tell the proud mother.”
• We continued along the good-looking versus ugly conversation for a while. We moved on to the “ugly adults” portion of the topic, which elicited the statement: It’s the ugly ones – or the really good-looking ones – that make you stop and go,”Damn!”

Until tomorrow.

Peace.

Good day for a middle-of-the-week day.

• We overslept by almost :45 this morning. Not exactly the most auspicious start for a day, but we dealt with it. Of course, the fact that we still had plenty of prep-time didn’t hurt, either.
• Picked up a cup of double-espresso-shot-laden frozen mocha goodness on the way to….
• Work, where we only stayed for an hour-and-a-half; mail volumes were very light, so we….
• Went to lunch with Julia, Rick and Dee. We went to Chinese Gourmet, a buffet style restaurant with a Mongolian stir fry section. Lunch was good. And we even got in a couple of mixed-up song titles, in the process. After lunch, Rick and Dee headed to Rick’s place for a little bit of X-Box’ing, while…
• Jess, Julia and I headed to the nearest Trax station and…
• We rode downtown to The Gateway. It was Julia’s first time both on Trax and going to The Gateway. Again, it was cold and we had to wait for a northbound train, but we persevered! We walked the length of the shopping center Have I mentioned that it is an open-air shopping center? What about the weather? Did I mention that it was cold? I have? I did? Okay, just wanted to make sure. One of our stops was at the sporting goods store, Galyan’s. Two levels of sporting goodness… and a three-story, indoor climbing wall. We watched a couple of people – a young boy and a Gen-X’er – on the wall. Surprise, surprise: I took pictures.
  • The boy: 1, 2, 3, 4.
  • The guy: 1, 2, 3, 4.
• After a stop in Barnes & Noble, for hot chocolates (Jess and Julia), a cafe mocha (me), and a couple of magazines (also me)…
• We hopped back on Trax, headed to the car and called it a day.

I’ve mentioned and posted pictures of Jess, Dee and Rick before, but I realized on the ride home that I didn’t have one of Julia. This should rectify that situation; Julia is on the left, Jess is on the right. The rest of the day’s pictures can be seen here.

Quotes of the Day: While at lunch, When Doves Cry played on the Muzak station. Dee, ever vigilant for the opportunity to share a witticism had the following to say:

• “Animals do strike curious poses…. especially in headlights.”
• “Sheep scare me when they strike seductive poses.”

Dee. Gotta love him.

I also got a call from my friend , Joe (for the record: he’s the clean-shaven one with hair – on the left), who has a stopover here tomorrow night. We haven’t seen him since he was here last Spring for a trade show; it will be good to see him.

And that brings us to the end of another edition of “What’s Happening In Lake Saline.” Tune in tomorrow – same LJ channel, same LJ time – for more of our merry misadventures. Good night and have a pleasant tomorning!

Peace.

I have been thinking about something for the past few days… but have never remembered to post it while writing these entries. *DUHR* With another Christmas coming to a close, some may think it a little late to post, but I don’t agree so here we go…

There are a select few songs that “make” the Christmas season for me. The all-time top of the list is: Bing Crosby and David Bowie: Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth. Others on the list:

• Johnny Mathis: My Favorite Things and Do You Hear What I Hear?
• Nat King Cole: The Christmas Song (that’s pretty much a no-brainer), O, Little Town of Bethlehem and O Tannenbaum

There are quite a few other songs that I like, both sacred and secular, but I think that these are among – if not THE – the main ones that bring on the feeling “It’s Christmastime.”

Also, I didn’t notice something about Uber-cool Christmas gift Number 1 until after I had made my earlier post: I looked at the ornament/figure and was so jazzed on the likeness that it never even occurred to me to look at the back of it. When I did, I found what I considered a pretty cool detail, viewable here: a baseball – an acknowledgement of his favorite hobby.

Is that a bit geeky of me? Probably.
Do I care about that? Not at all… it’s the way I’m wired.

Peace.

Christmas 2001.

We had a good day.

• Slept in… kinda. Mom called at 09:30. Even though this violates “The 10:00 Rule,” it was okay for a couple of reasons: It was mom and it was a holiday. She was calling to see if her package had gotten here. It hadn’t. She told me to call back when it got there.
• Dad called… while I was talking to Mom. I called him back and also talked to Grandma and Adam (my younger brother).
• The postman rang the doorbell. Yes, I said “the postman.” Even though there is no First Class mail delivery on Sundays and holidays, we (US Postal Service) work 24-7-365 (366 on leap years); Express Mail is delivered everyday.
• I called Mom to let her know that the box was here. She asked if I liked the gifts. I told her that I didn’t know – I was just calling to let you know that it got here. Her response: “Well, call me back after you’ve opened everything and let me know what you think.” She said it so matter-of-factly. I [heart] my mother.
• We opened our gifts, including the ones in the box from Mom.
• We lazed around for a while and then headed to Sandi and Jim’s. MORE PRESENTS!!! We also watched Down to Earth, a remake/retelling of 1978’s Heaven Can Wait. It wasn’t as bad as I thought that it would be; I enjoyed it.
• We came home and Jess is now getting ready for work.

Here are some pictures of four of the coolest gifts of the day:

• From Kristen, my youngest sister, we have this.
• Sandi and Jim got me this.
• Jess got me this. (Same thing, different view.)
• And, the coolest gift of the day, also from Jess, is: this.

I hope that everyone had a pleasant Christmas, as well. Angie and I may see Ali tonight, but that’s still up in the air. Oh well.

Until later…

Peace.

From last night’s post: Tomorrow starts an abridged work week. And, while I’m not sure how things will be with the number of cities whose mail we process, this has the potential to be a more-or-less slow week. I will admit that I would not mind tomorrow being slow – that would increase the chances of getting out of there early. That comes under the heading of “good thing.”

The mail was so heavy that they were calling mandatory overtime for everyone – meaning we’d be there up to 12 hours. This call was made at 14:30… just 2-1/2 hours into my shift.

They finally amended that decision and only made the non-career employees and the career employees on the Overtime Desire List stay. Providence, Grace and Mercy smiled down upon us. Even so, they had everyone hold their lunches until six hours into their shift. This wasn’t a problem: I had scheduled my lunches this way back in N.C., so it was a return to an old (and favored) habit. After that, the last two hours were cake.

After work, I headed to Sandi and Jim’s. Everyone, but me, had Christmas Eve dinner there this evening. Had I gotten out of work earlier, I would have as well. So, I was relegated to post-everyone-else Christmas Eve dinner. Then we sat around and talked for a while. We’re heading back there for a while tomorrow before Jess goes to work.

Thus ends the “How I Spent My Day” portion of this entry.

There may be more later…
Stay tuned.

Peace.

Pre-Christmas Sunday in the Valley….

• Slept until a little after noon…. after getting to bed sometime around 05:30.
• Half-watched the Chicago-Washington and Seattle-NY Giants games. The Ravens weren’t televised in this market, but they won – keeping alive hopes of a wild card spot in the playoffs.
• Observed the hygiene rituals.
• Jess and I went out in search of the last few Christmas presents… One of the stores that I needed to go to was closed, so I have to go tomorning, before work. Yay.
• We headed to the inlaws’ for a bit.
• Came home. Jess wrapped some presents; I cooked dinner (and it was pretty tasty, too!).

Other highlights include: Talking to the parental units and my uncle.

Something that I thought about today: One of the things that people hear around the holidays is how rude and impatient people are/can be. Sure, there are people who are grimly serious in their quest for that last, perfect (or desperate, depending on the case) gift. For the most part, a majority of the people that I have seen this year are rather pleasant. Disclaimer: While this includes many drivers, it is not all-inclusive. Most shopping center/mall parking lot drivers are also excluded from this.

Tomorrow starts an abridged work week. And, while I’m not sure how things will be with the number of cities whose mail we process, this has the potential to be a more-or-less slow week. I will admit that I would not mind tomorrow being slow – that would increase the chances of getting out of there early. That comes under the heading of “good thing.”

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Peace.

Hmm, I seem to have forgotten that these don’t post themselves. Nor do they work telepathically. That’s a pity.

Saturday…

• Attempted to sleep in, which would have been a good thing, since I waited for Jess to get off work… at 5 am.
• We braved the surging tide of shoppers and picked up some of our last-minute gifts.
• We met Angie and Scott for dinner. Our latest trend is seemingly to be attended by wait staff members from abroad. So far, we’ve had waitresses from Poland, Yugoslavia, and, last night, Russia. The whole wide world, an endless universe…
• Jess went to work; Angie, Scott and I went to see Lord of the Rings again. It was as interesting – and fun – to watch this time as it was on Wednesday.
• Came home…. and must have been bored beyond all realms of belief: I started cleaning around 1:30 am.
• Rana, my sister who joined the Peace Corps, was online around 2:30, so I talked to her for a bit. She was spending part of the day having a pre-Christmas party with other people in her group. She said that things there are going well… it’s just cold. Below zero cold. Double-digit below zero cold. Hmm. There are three things that I’m allergic to: bee stings, pain, and cold. It gets “cold” here, but the low relative humidity keeps it from being the piercing cold that I was used to on the East Coast. Cold in the double-digit negatives…? As Billy Preston sang:
  I’m not tryin’ to be your hero
  ‘Cause that zero is too cold for me,
  I’m not tryin’ to be your highness
  ‘Cause that minus is too low for me.

And that’s all the news from Lake Saline.

Peace.

I’m sure that if I put my mind to it, I could come up with a great entry for tonight.
But, I’m tired and I am going to bed.

In a nutshell:

• Went to work.
• Did some last minute Christmas shopping.
• Had dinner with Angie.
• Came home.

Oh yeah, it snowed a little today.
THE END.

Peace.

The weekend is only 8 work-hours away…

Not much to say about the day, so I shall just say that “it was a pretty good day” and leave it at that.

Peace.

Julia, Rick, Jess and I saw Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring before work this morning. In a word: Wow. I was duly impressed. Why can’t EverQuest look like THAT?!? I have never read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but I have gleaned bits and pieces of the story from friends and what I remember from the 1978 animated movie. I think that I will either get the book on tape/CD/mp3/something and listen to it. According to Rick, the changes that they did make in adapting the story from the book did not hurt the telling of the story. Or, I may just go Old School and… ::: deep breath ::: … get the books and read it. Peter Jackson and the cast and crew did an excellent job of making a work that didn’t drag laboriously for three hours. Of course, seeing the new Spider-Man, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, and The Time Machine trailers didn’t hurt, either. One of the funniest movie previews that I have seen in a long time was the one for Austin Powers in Goldmember.

Work was “work.” It was a typical day. And, on the “plus” side, three days done means only two more in the work week. That elicits happy thoughts.

Sleep. That, too, brings happy thoughts.

Peace.

Not much happened out of the ordinary today.

• Woke up.
• Observed the hygiene rituals.
• Stopped, on the way to work, for frozen mocha goodness.
• Worked.
• Worked out… for which I am now sore. Yay me.
• Watched Deep Space Nine while eating tasty popped corns.

Actually, one thing out of the ordinary did happen: While selecting CDs to take to work, I chose Indigo Swing’s Red Light. When I opened the case, to verify that the CD was in it, I found my long-lost copy of Arlington to Boston, by emmet swimming. The Indigo Swing CD was in there, too.

Anywho… sleep beckons and I must obey.

Peace.