Random Access

Saturday:

• Land and I ventured downtown, via TRAX, to soak up a small sampling of Olympic culture. Yeah, yeah… I know… I said that I wanted to be out of Utah when the Games came, but there I was in the middle of it. It was cold and crowded… but it was also cool. The sheer numbers of people reminded me of downtown Baltimore and/or New York.
• We stopped at the cancelations office and said “hi” to Julia (there today and tomorrow), some other people there from the REC, and the other workers.
• Then the long – and somewhat convoluted – walk (in the cold) to the Gateway Center. I stopped in the Starbucks there and saw one of our customers from yesterday – she works there. I said hello to her and she got a puzzled look on her face as if she was thinking: “He looks familiar, but where does he know me from?!” I silently mouthed,”Post Office,” to her when she looked back in my direction. Another puzzled look, and a silent “Where?” I pointed in the direction of the mall. It took a second to register, but she got it.
• We ate at the California Pizza Kitchen. I ran into Jeff and Paige (friends of mine who were out with other friends) and Shane, a former REC employee. Julia joined us after her shift at Crossroads.
• We headed back to the TRAX station… a different one, actually, to get back to our cars. Lines o’ people and crowded trains. Yay. Back to the cars and off to get Jess and then…
• BOWLING! Jess, Larry and I bowled; I won three or four of the five games. Julia came and watched. We had 4 lanes of post-prom/dance kids on our left. Once again, I found that the concept of “lane courtesy” was lost on our neighbors. Joy.
• Home to pack. It only took about :45 minutes to gather and stuff everything.

Tomorrow, at this time, I will be in my old bed at my mother’s enjoying the pleasures of a week-long vacation on the Right Coast. I like Utah and the rest of the Left Coast, but I miss the green – SLC is on a desert plain; there are trees here, but nothing like on the other side of the country. Besides that: it’s home. And, before I completely space it off: If anyone (in NC or MD) is interested, and has the time, I’d enjoy meeting you. ‘Twould be nice to put real faces with the LJ alter-egos.

As promised, I posted the pics from Friday. They can be seen here. This is the raw form, I’ll tidy them up and put them on a nice and neat page while I’m vacationing.

Bedtime.

Peace.

It’s official: I will be in North Carolina tomorrow night and Maryland sometime mid-week!

Peace.

Catching up…

Thursday was pretty run-of-the-mill.

Friday: On Wednesday, I volunteered to work at one of the downtown malls and do special cancelations for the Olympics. Translation: I volunteered to hand-stamp/hand-cancel mailpieces for collectors and souvenir hunters who wanted to get one/some/all of the 24 official 2002 Winter Games postmarks; today was the first day that they were offered… as the games started today.

I didn’t have much of an opinion about the games being in SLC… other than the fact that I knew that I wanted to be out of town for the first week of them; I’m leaving Sunday. I figured that I’d let the locals and visitors hash it out and find out how to get along and get around. Also, while it’s cool that the Games are being held here, they didn’t hold a lot of allure for me. This seemed to change Wednesday, after I was asked if I could replace someone at on the cancelations assignment…

When they originally asked for volunteers, I wasn’t interested in doing it. After I agreed to do it on Wednesday, I starting thinking about it… I came to the realization that it was a cool – and very rare – opportunity. It was made even more cool, on a personal level, because I did the first Olympic cancelation for our outlet.

I would not have believed how obsessive some people were about getting these postmarks if I had not seen it. We were kept busy today, not so much by the number of customers as by the number of items that they wanted postmarked. As I mentioned earlier, there are twenty-four (24) postmarks. There were people who wanted one of EACH of the postmarks. And there were some who wanted multiple sets of all of the postmarks. And some who wanted multiple cancelations on a single envelope or post card. The permutations were seemingly endless. And that’s still leaving out those who came in with stacks of postcards and/or envelopes, had them cancelled, left… and returned a short while later, ready to make a family trip out of it. But we took care of them all. Confession: I bought postcards so that I could have a complete set of the cancelations, too. BUT, I also got “first date of issue” and date stamps for the parental units.

All-in-all, it was a good experience. It was pleasant enough that I offered to cover for someone else after my vacation.

After work, I went to Borders and met Julia and m3lody. Julia introduced me to the “game” of “What can you make of this squiggle?” Basically, one person draws random lines on a sheet of paper and the other/another person has to draw something that incorporates those lines. It’s was not always “easy,” but it was fun.

I’m tapped, so I am going to call it a night… morning… SOMETHING!!! Aw, screw it, “it’s bedtime!” (That works!)

Peace.

I can’t believe that I didn’t post last night/this morning.

Wednesday.
Three days done, two to go.

Pretty uneventful workday.
Good, but short, workout.
Went with Jess, Land, and Katherine to see “Behind Enemy Lines.”

Quote of the Day: Delfina and I were comparing our cell phones – we had the same ones, but she has recently switched services and got new phone. It turns out that she got one like Jess used to have… which also has games on it.I said,“You have ‘Snake’ on here,” a fact of which she was unaware; I showed her where it was on the phone’s menu. Although she has games on her new phone, one feature that it does not have is a vibrate mode… which led Delfina to say: “I’ll trade you Snake for vibrate.” Dee, who was also at the table, and I just looked at each other and tried (successfully) not to burst out in laughter while Delfina hid her face at the double entendre.

Peace.

Tuesday:

• Not a bad half-day at work.
• Jess, Julia and I went to New Delhi Palace. It was quite good; I’ll definitely go there again.
• Came home and dove into finishing the upgrade on Sandi and Jim’s puter.

This evening, Jess told me that our neighbor apologized to her about the loud music. As I said earlier, it’s nice when people can come to rational resolutions to problems.

Quote of the Day:

• Julia: “I never misspell anything.”
  Me: “What about ‘something,’ ‘everything,’ or ‘nothing?'”

Peace

Having to ask a neighbor to turn down his music, which vibrates the floor and walls, at 9:30 am is not what I consider the most auspicious start to the morning. Of course, the fact that Jess usually sleeps in (depending on how late she had to work the night before) made it much easier to do.

This has been going on for a while, but today was the first day that I’ve gone down there; I almost went down there yesterday, but Jess was already up and it was kind of moot. He was quite amenable when I asked him to turn it down and explained that Jess usually works late. It’s nice when people can work out their differences like adults.

Peace.

Monday, the short version:

• Work.
• Gym.
• Home.

The end.

Peace.

Sunday (long story, short version):

• Spent most of the day getting the 100-odd pictures that I took resized and prepped for posting here. 89 pics, in all, were posted.
• Watched the Super Bowl. Bill came up and watched it here. The commercials were interesting; Bud Light had the best ones, overall, in my opinion… although I thought the M&M’s commericial was funny, too.
• Had pizza for a late dinner while Jess and I watched yestermorn’s taped Static Shock and X-Men: Evolution.

And that’s pretty much all the news from Lake Saline.

Today’s Quote of the Day is for : “How much?”

Peace.

Saturday: Long but good.

• Slept in. Sort of.
• Went to the reopened Hill Aerospace Museum; I got to see my favorite airplane – the SR-71 Blackbird. I have been informed that the plane at the museum is actually a hybrid trainer: Part SR-71/part Y-12. That’s okay, because if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck (and isn’t a platypus), the odds are pretty damn good that it’s a duck. I took LOTS of pictures. 115 of them, to be precise; most of them turned out well. They will (hopefully) be posted by Monday.
• Hung out at Dee and Kim’s. We (and their sons) went out for dinner, also.
• Came home, after a side trip to B&N.
• Talked to my uncle and, after catching up on how each other is doing, we made our traditional Super Bowl wager. I’m pulling for the Rams.
• Larry and I bowled, while Jess and Bill watched. I won 4 out of 5 games. Then we grabbed a quick bite of late/early breakfast.
• Came home.

Quite a day. But, I have to admit: It was fun.

Tomorrow (today) is Super Bowl Sunday – the Rams vs. the Patriots. It should be a good game. But that shall have to wait for Lord Morpheus beckons and realms of The Dreaming await…

Peace.

cel·e·brate
v. cel·e·brat·ed, cel·e·brat·ing, cel·e·brates
v. tr.

1. To observe (a day or event) with ceremonies of respect, festivity, or rejoicing.
2. To perform (a religious ceremony): celebrate Mass.
3. To extol or praise: a sonnet that celebrates love.
4. To make widely known; display

v. intr.

1. To observe an occasion with appropriate ceremony or festivity.
2. To perform a religious ceremony.
3. To engage in festivities: went out and celebrated after the victory.

Sleep GOOOD! ::: gesture :::
More later.

Peace.

Stray Toaster Time….

I’m not a fan of country music. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but there’s something that I don’t care for in it. I do know that I dislike (bordering on hate) the whiny/twangy sound in many of the male artists vocalizations. Here are a few other points:

• Johnny Cash is almost always acceptable.
• Garth Brooks has yet to be completely forgiven for what he did to Aerosmith’s “Fever.”
• Some (operative word: some) crossover songs are all right.
• I like a number of 70s “Southern Rock” songs.
• I seem like some of the old western songs (like in old western movies).

I bring this up because I was listening to Jimmy Buffett the other day and realized that some of his songs have a definite country style to them. But I didn’t mind. “‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ said little Alice.” Oh well. Maybe someday I’ll figure out what it is.

The soundtrack from Cool World was the best thing about that movie… aside from the words “The End” at the end of the movie.

Songs from Animaniacs make me laugh. Most of them also make me want to bounce along with the beat.

The CDs made from the show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego are good. Eclectic, but good.

Muzak is almost never acceptable. I think that the ONLY possible exception is in a doctor’s/dentist’s office… and even then it’s treading on thin ice.

“Lump,” by the Presidents of the United States of America, came on the radio tonight while I was driving. I had no choice but to turn it up and sing along. In the words of the Borg: “Resistance is (or ‘was,’ in this case) futile.”

Bedtime!

Peace.

All-in-all, today was pretty much cake.

• Took my watches to the local jeweler to get them repaired.
• Went to work.
• Went to the gym. I must get back into a regular workout schedule.
• Came home.

Land came over and we talked about religion, race relations and the Olympics… and how they all related to Utah (the Winter Games will be here in a little over a week). Interesting and thought-provoking. I think that I want to get a small group of people together and start a discussion group. It would be cool to see what others think about whatever topics we come up with.

Now, I’m tinkering with the inlaws’ upgraded (and now-working) computer. Now, it’s slicker’n greased moose poop and definitely outpenises my computer. Of course, that could mean only one thing: Time to upgrade mine!!!

Since it’s a school night, I guess I’d best get ready to hit the rack.

Peace.

Tuesday. 29 Jan 02.

Jess and I have been dating for two years today. This is easily the best relationship that I have been in. It also helps (A LOT) that our respective families like our choices of significant other. Verra nice, indeed. Something that our friends and family find odd, though, is the fact that in this two years, we have never had a fight. We’ve had disagreements, but no fights. And that I find uber-nice. Like I’ve said before: I have the coolest girlfriend in the world. Bar none.

Highlights of the day:

• I took the day off, since it was our “anniversary” and since it is Jess’ only day off this week. It was nice to FINALLY be able to spend a day off together where both of us be awake to enjoy it!
• Talked to Dad, Grandma, and Adam (my brother) for a bit. Dad had new Rana news: She’s in her new village, but has to wait for a number to become available before she can get one. Oh, the joys of life in the Ukraine! She apparently has to go to a nearby town for Internet access. *twitch*
• We had lunch with Jonni and Shawn. Jonni’s heading back out for the next leg of touring on Thursday; he’s the new bassist for Air Supply. From what he told us, February touring dates are a bit frenetic, to say the least. But, it was cool to hang out with them.
• Came home and got a wee bit irritated with the inlaws’ computer, which I am upgrading. It was being recalcitrant and I was NOT in the mood for it. I wound up having to leave it when we…
• Went to the inlaws’ for dinner (homemade pizza) and a movie (Rush Hour 2); we had all seen it before, but it was still a nice way to spend some QT with the family-unit. I also made sure that the things that I had setup on Jim’s laptop and website were working properly. They were… if only the PC was this easy to deal with.
• Came home and attempted, again, to bend their PC to my will. This time I was victorious! Or, to quote Dr. Peter Venkman: “We came, we saw, we kicked it’s ass!”

And that brings us pretty much up-to-the-minute. Back to whipping this computer into shape.

Peace.

Monday.

Everybody say it with me: “It snowed today.” It was a bit odd to look out and see blue skies over this end of the valley and see thick and dark grey clouds moving this way from the north. We drove into snow flurries as we headed to work.

And, speaking of work, it was typically uneventful. Mail volumes were a little high – they held some crews for up to 10 hours. Ack. I, however, was not one of the ones included in that call. And thanks to Mother Nature’s silent frozen mocking laughter (and the below freezing temperature), there was ice to scrape from the windshield. Whoopee.

After work, I came home and didn’t do much: I cooked and I resized some pictures so that I can post them here. I even managed to watch this and last weeks’ two-part episode of Justice League. I am consistently impressed with the quality of this cartoon.

Peace.