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This is an archive collection of entries from  my main personal blog, My Mundane Mid-Life.

This collection of entries is from May 2003.

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Saturday, May 31, 2003

Saturday Night at the Movies

X2: X-Men United
Well, it's been a while since we've gone to the movies, and with it being Summer Movie Season and all, Carol & I decided to start catching up. We went to the AMC South Barrington 30 to catch the 7:10 showing of X2: X-Men United. The flick was OK - if I was allowed to enjoy it!!! This is the first time that I've been to the movies on a Saturday night with many 3 year olds! Either these people couldn't get baby-sitters or they were too friggin'' ignorant of their fellow movie goers to give a damn! 3-year-olds at an X-Men movie???? And you're expecting them to behave????? Oh - and then I had my first experience with a cell phone ringing and the guy answering and having a friggin' conversation at a normal speaking volume!!! WTF????? All of these years, and I've been lucky to never had experienced that... until now. So, I guess the movie was OK...

posted at 09:29 PM | Link | Movies § |
Get this stuff out of my mailbox

More Nigerian 419 email...

read more of this entry »


posted at 09:01 PM | Link | Nigerian 419 Fraud § |
Quiet door

Woo hoo! Brand new garage door opener installed! (Finally - we bought it 10 days ago). Really quiet, too. And it moves at double speed when opening. Sweet.

posted at 10:50 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Friday, May 30, 2003

"Chick"-in' Tonight

Powered by audblog audblog audio post
Update: Well, tonight Carol & I drove into the city to go to the United Center to go to... a Dixie Chicks concert!

read more of this entry »


posted at 10:13 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Friday 5 - Your place in the world

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What do you most want to be remembered for? Right now, I just want to be remembered. Could actually be an underlaying reason for why I started this blog in the first place...
2. What quotation best fits your outlook on life? I didn't claw my way up the food chain to eat vegetables!
3. What single achievement are you most proud of in the past year? I haven't really achieved a thing over the past year, with the exception of landing a permanent job after 19 months, but my buddy Barry was pretty instrumental in that...
4. What about the past ten years? 10 years isn't long enough. There's a few achievements in my career that I'm proud of, but just past 10 years ago. Nothing else come to mind.
5. If you were asked to give a child a single piece of advice to guide them through life, what would you say? Be polite and treat every human with respect, even when you don't think they deserve it.

posted at 06:46 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Thursday, May 29, 2003

Amazing Race 4 - Episode 1

The Amazing Race 4 THEME
"Cheaters Never Win and They Cheated!"

read more of this entry »


posted at 08:34 PM | Link | Reality TV | 1 comment § |
Banausic

As a sit here in my freezing cubicle (which has been this way for weeks) thinking about how I don't exactly enjoy what I'm doing, trying to wake up with some Starbucks House Blend that I had to make this morning to try to stay up after tossing and turning most of the night thinking about this blasted job, I surfed over to Merriam-Webster's, and here's today's Word of the Day:

read more of this entry »


posted at 08:32 AM | Link | Work § |

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Fame™

Fame™
If you can just stomach Debbie Allen, this is a great show that I think one-ups American Idol by requiring the "Triple Threat" - It's not just about singing, but it's about dancing as well. Oh, and that star-quality persona.

posted at 08:32 PM | Link | Reality TV § |
One down, one to go

William Ligue Jr. pleaded guilty to aggravated battery against Kansas City Royals coach Tom Gamboa last September 19th at Comiskey Park (yes, back before "The Joan", at TPFKAC™). Now, lets see what happens to Ump Jumper Eric Dybas.

posted at 04:52 PM | Link | Baseball § |
Another one...

Still another Nigerian 419 spam email...

read more of this entry »


posted at 02:14 PM | Link | Nigerian 419 Fraud § |
TAR4 and BB4

Just as a reminder for you Reality TV junkies out there - one of THE BEST Reality game shows - The Amazing Race - starts it's 4th season this Thursday at 8pm (7pm Central) with a 90 minute premiere. (Hey! It's Jerry Bruckheimer! How can you go wrong?!?)

Big Brother 4 will start Tuesday, July 8. The schedule looks like it will be on Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm (7pm Central) and the live show will be Wednesdays at 9pm (8pm Central).

posted at 10:04 AM | Link | Reality TV § |

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

Why does that hurt?

Did you ever step into the shower in the morning and realize that the water hitting your head actually hurts? I guess I was out in the sun a little too long yesterday when we were shopping and the very frew, scrawny, thin hairs that I still have at the top of my head can no longer fight-off the nasty UV waves from the sun. The whole top of my head is a bit red and, yes, it hurts.

posted at 08:20 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Monday, May 26, 2003

Back home

Looking out at the swimming pool at night Sitting around and talking Mmmmm... gotta have hot dogs at the Lighthouse Mall in the shadow of a nuclear cooling tower Diane grillin'-up lunch Eww... driving back through Gary, Indiana
Well, from the parking lot at "The Joan" to my sister's driveway was only about an hour 10 minutes. Traffic was non-existent. The dogs went nuts when they saw us (of course). THe weather was about the same - high 60's and not a cloud in the sky. We hung around the house for a little while and then headed out fort dinner at Schulers Restaurant in Stevensville. Odd thing about the food - it was warm, not hot. Good, but warm. Odd. We were stuffed and passed on dessert and just headed back to the house to just veg-out for a while, and then off to bed.

read more of this entry »


posted at 07:20 PM | Link | Mundane § |

Sunday, May 25, 2003

White Sox 8 - Tigers 5 - 12 innings

Chicago White Sox Detroit Tigers

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posted at 04:07 PM | Link | White Sox § |

Saturday, May 24, 2003

White Sox 0 - Tigers 1

Chicago White Sox Detroit Tigers

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posted at 09:55 PM | Link | White Sox § |

Friday, May 23, 2003

Spring?

The drive in this morning was quick - light traffic probably for those people starting early on "getaway day" for the long holiday weekend. When I got out of the car at the office, I noticed that the parking lot was damp, as if it just rained. I inhaled and sure enough, it must have rained because the air had that wonderful smell of rain. You know that smell, don't you? It's very distinctive. Moist. Clean. I really love and appreciate that smell. It put a totally different spin on my morning, just smelling that rain in the air as i walked into the building.

posted at 08:07 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Friday 5 - Brands

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What brand of toothpaste do you use? Crest gel
2. What brand of toilet paper do you prefer? Oh, oh... this is a wife-thing. She buys it and I never see it in the wrapping, so I don't know what it is!
3. What brand(s) of shoes do you wear? Rockports
4. What brand of soda do you drink? I'm a Coca-Cola Man, not a Pepsi man (which, somehow, has infiltrated every sporting venue that I go to...). Specifically, Caffeine-Free Coke. Runners up: Green River, IBC Root Beer.
5. What brand of gum do you chew? Favorite stick - Juicy Fruit. Has to be something that lasts a while. I've got some grape Big League Chew at my desk, too.

posted at 06:24 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Thursday, May 22, 2003

Where's Mom?

Carol and I are in the middle of dinner when the phone rings. It's my sister. After her normal opening line of "Whatcha doing?" and my reply, she asks an odd question:

"When was the last time you talked to mom?"

Oh, oh. Where is this going. We both talked to her on Tuesday, and Diane has been trying to call her all day and there's been no answer. Our mother is a major creature of habit. She does things on certain days of the week and she never varies from it. Ever. No matter the reason. It's not like her to be "gone" all day. Diane was on her way up to Michigan for the long weekend and wanted to touch base before she left. Now we're both a little unsettled, and Diane says she's going to try to call her again.

read more of this entry »


posted at 08:28 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Well, they're better...

Snuck out of work a few minutes early to go pickup Carol and get my car back from Midas before they closed at 6. Carol & I had to stop for a moment on the way out of her parking lot to look at a family of geese, parked alongside the road - 2 adults and 9 goslings. Had to move along, though, as we were blocking traffic of people trying to leave the building.

I'm not used to the brakes now. I've been driving so long with brakes that grab and grind, and now these feel... softer? I guess I'm going to have to get used to applying more pressure earlier, as it feels like the car sails past where I want it to stop.

posted at 06:26 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Grgrgrgrgrgrgrrrrr

OK, I can't take this anymore. I need brakes. I need them NOW. They sound terrible. We're way past chirping and squeaking. We're way past the start of that terrible audible grinding noise, and now we're into the bad-grinding-noise-with-ineffectual-braking. Off to Midas to get the work done on the Infiniti. I drove Carol to work in her Suzuki Grand Vitara. I'm not used to driving an SUV - the whole drive to work felt different just because I was higher than I normally am (wait... that's not to say I was high... I was just further off the pavement).
Update: $320 was much less than I expected. They only need to do the front - the rear is fine

posted at 08:35 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

$360 lighter

A quick trip to our local Home Depot netted us a nice Genie Excelerator Garage Door Opener. Since I'm not a "hardware guy" as many people know, we also purchased installation as well. Hopefully we can get someone out pretty quick to do this.

posted at 07:26 PM | Link | Mundane § |
RrrrrWWWrrrrr.... RrrrrWWWrrrrr.... RrrrrWWWrrrrr....

When I was pulling out of the driveway this morning, I was just lucky that something caught my eye as I was pulling away - the garage door was going back up. I pulled back onto the driveway and tried the garage door again. It goes down halfway, stops, and goes back up. Damn. Sure enough, our old track drive garage door opener is binding. After a few more tries, it's barely moving in either direction. Crap. Maybe the 18+ year old garage door opener should get replaced?

posted at 08:20 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Still more fraud email???

I don't think I've receieved more than one of these in this quick succession. First was late last week, now I get another one.
Update: What the... a second one????

read more of this entry »


posted at 11:28 AM | Link | Nigerian 419 Fraud § |

Monday, May 19, 2003

White Sox 2 - Blue Jays 12

Chicago White Sox Toronto Blue Jays

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posted at 10:59 PM | Link | White Sox § |
Not much better...

Well, I'm toughing-it-out at work. I don't feel much better today, and the office is an icebox again. I just can't get warm. The pains are enough that, at times, it's not comfortable to stand-up straight. I'm going to go home and crawl into bed, turn on my electric blanket and sleep for a while. I don't need to be here right now. There's no major crisis here - and besides, I need to let the guys know what it's like to not have a helpdesk for a while. I need to shake this - I don't like feeling sick...

posted at 11:26 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Sunday, May 18, 2003

I feel awfull...

Oh, oh... I'm not feeling so good... I don't think it had anything to do with dinner last night, but my whole abdomen is a little "touchy" right now. Like I'm bloated and crampy... The pain seems to come and go in waves. I just don't feel that good... no, definitely not from last night... food was too good...

posted at 02:25 PM | Link | Mundane § |

Saturday, May 17, 2003

Birthday Dinners

Today, we went over to B&B's for a little "birthday celebration" for our friend Debbie as well as Carol - both had birthdays over the past week or so. We watched the Preakness (great race - didn't think Funny Cide would take this race, especially so handily), drank champagne, opened presents. Then it was off to Lincoln Park to have dinner at Mon Ami Gabi. Our table was at a window, and overlooked the Lincoln Park Conservatory. We hadn't been to this restaurant before - we've been to the one inside Paris Las Vegas a few times and always thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Well, tonight was no exception. I had issues tonight - I wanted two appetizers and soup and salad and an entrée and probably a dessert... and there was no way I was going to be able to do that. The place never disappoints. The wine was great, the service was great the food was great. After two bottles of wine and dinner, much discussion about West Wing and politics (and cherry flavored Vick's cough drops - don't ask), we had an absolutely fabulous time. We drove around the park afterward and went back to B&B's to watch a little tele and talk some more. What a great dinner. I can't rave about it enough.

posted at 10:53 PM | Link | Mundane § |
The franchise is out of control...

Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls
NBC just ran Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls. OK, it's only half an hour, and the host is even perkier than Paige Davis. The real kicker is that the teams don't have a budget. It really shows, too, as the final product for the two bedrooms had a much better feel (in regards to quality) than anything I've seen on Trading Spaces. I mean, they bought entertainment systems!

posted at 11:30 AM | Link | TV § |

Friday, May 16, 2003

Yes! The motto of my life!

The motto of my life
Tonight, Carol & I were at Galyan's shopping for walking shoes. We passed through the department of baseball clothing and it just jumped right out at me! I saw it on the rack and it called to me. Too bad it was a kids size, but there it was - a t-shirt with a basball on it and writing around it. After 46 years of my life, I finally found the shirt that said what I've been saying here about my love of baseball and my "clock".

Life begins when the season starts

posted at 09:46 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Diagon Alley in Oak Park

OK, you Harry Potter fans out there... you know that at Midnight, June 20th the new book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix gets released. If you happen to be around Oak Park at 9pm that evening, go to that great little "mall" area of stores at Oak Park and Lake, and you'll see them transformed into Diagon Alley.

[T]he Magic Tree children's bookstore will become Flourish & Blott's bookstore, Café Winberie morphs into the Leaky Cauldron, and C. Foster Toys will take on the appearance of Quality Quidditch Supplies.
Even US Bank will become Gringott's Wizarding Bank, with goblin-led tours to its basement vault.

posted at 11:43 AM | Link | Odd § |
Still getting Nigerian 419 Fraud Email

I'm still receiving Nigerian 419 Fraud Emails. I thought they would just go away. Apparently they haven't been able to stop this.

If you want to know more, there's an old article at The Slate - The Nigerian Nightmare. This Nigerian Scam is, according to published reports, the Third to Fifth largest industry in Nigeria. There is info about this at the U.S. Secret Service Financial Crimes Division website, and at the 419 Coalition Website.

Oh, and the EMail is below if you've never heard of this before.

read more of this entry »


posted at 11:17 AM | Link | Nigerian 419 Fraud § |
Friday 5 - Food

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What drinking water do you prefer -- tap, bottle, purifier, etc.? Prefer bottled - the absolute best is Voss - clean, smooth, silky, absolutely no aftertaste whatsoever. Unbelievable. But, I have to tell you - Chicago tap water is pretty damn good compared to other cities and towns...
2. What are your favourite flavor of chips? Barbecued or salt & vinegar
3. Of all the things you can cook, what dish do you like the most? Cook??? ME????
4. How do you have your eggs? Scrambled, over hard (but prefer Eggs Benedict!)
5. Who was the last person who cooked you a meal? How did it turn out? That would be Carol two nights ago and it was wonderful, as always. (I'm a very lucky man.)

posted at 06:51 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Thursday, May 15, 2003

Flying Cows???

I head this on the radio on the way home, and I had to see if this is really true.

People reported seeing flying cows.

At George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch.

Well, they really weren't flying... unless you call jumping off a cliff "flying"... apparently the cows were grazing and got "spooked" and started running... right off a cliff, onto "Lucas Valley Road". Unfortunately, 2 cows had to be put down.

posted at 05:34 PM | Link | Odd § |
Survivor 8 - All Stars

Survivor 6 (Survivor: The Amazon) just finished airing, Survivor 7 (Pearl Islands) was just announced and hasn't even started shooting (they even, for the first time, outsmarted Survivor Maps from getting the scoop on the new location as they thought it was going to be the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve in Quintana Roo, Mexico), and now word comes out (because of the networks UpFront presentations (where they tell the press about their fall lineups)) that Survivor 8 will be an All-Star show, with contestants from prior seasons.

posted at 11:22 AM | Link | Survivor | 1 comment § |

Wednesday, May 14, 2003

WorkStress

I've been in the IT industry for 25 years now. I've had lows and highs over that time. I've never felt as low as I have over the last 5 months. Instead of being a tech lead I've been "riding" a Help Desk for the last 5 months. It has been the worst job I've had over the 25 years, even worse than being a computer operator and the beginning of my career. I don't get to manage or "own" anything. I just answer phone calls, fix what I can as a typical Level 1 person would do, and if not - "throw it over the wall" to the (few) other people that work here (there are only 6 of us).

I took this job because, after being out of work for almost 19 months, the money got too tight. I'm only making 63% of what I used to, so it's hard to makeup the difference over the 19 months and the difference in current salary. The job isn't all that challenging - the company is downsizing (well, considering there used to be over 50 people in IT), and the call volume varies radically from 0 in 4 hours to non-stop calls. Then there's the calls on Sundays that I won't go into because it just makes my blood boil... I've received no training to speak of. The documentation is close to being non-existant. I'm a "big picture" kind of guy - I want to understand how things "fit" together, how things feed and flow. That way, I could make some (semi-)intelligent decisions in problem, determination. I'm not getting that.

In general, I'm just not happy.

There's also something happening there that I don't want to discuss right now, though you will probably hear about it here in a few weeks, I suppose. I guess I need to start looking again - see if the market has changed at all. I don't want to be doing this for the rest of my career.

I am just not happy. I want to be happy again.

posted at 10:17 PM | Link | Work § |

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

*buuuurrrp*

Pappadeaux
Carol, with today being her birthday and all, picked the place where she wanted to have dinner tonight. Me, being the idiot that I am, went with Barry to a Chinese buffet for lunch. I realized my problem sometime mid-afternoon when I realized I wasn't hungry.

Dinner was at Pappadeaux in Arlington Heights. Carol got a crawfish Bisque and Mahi Mahi. Me... well, I was looking for something light. That was until Joseph our server pitched the special tonight - 2 pounds of crab legs for the price of 1. So I had 2 pounds of crab legs that were sweet and meaty for $15.95. What a deal! I plowed through the crab legs, the dirty rice, the cajun corn-on-the-cob... it was wonderful. Oh, and Carol had a nice birthday dinner, too. Right now, I'm full. I feel the need to lie down...

posted at 07:14 PM | Link | Mundane | 1 comment § |
HB, dear!

"The Spousal Unit", also known as my wife Carol, is now as old as I am - she turned 46 today. Happy Birthday, dear!

You see, when I turn x years old in January, she starts calling me an "Old Man", because I'm "one year older" - until today when she "catches up" and becomes the same age as me.

Oh, and I know my place. I would NEVER call her an "Old Lady" today...

posted at 06:51 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Monday, May 12, 2003

American Stories

I was looking for something to watch while I was on the computer tonight, trying to clean-up some email. Usually on a Monday night I'd probably watch Crossing Jordan, but just couldn't get myself to watch that Three's company movie on NBC. I switched over to Channel 11 (our local PBS affiliate), and saw that Ken Burns American Stories was on. They were broadcasting "Inning 6" of his Baseball series. I hadn't seen this series in years (it was originally broadcast in 1994). I love looking back at baseball. I just love baseball, I can't help it. Watching this just makes me feel good. Baseball showed everything that was right with America... at least as it was up to about 30-40 years ago. It makes me feel whole. I can't explain it. (Was I a ball player in a prior life? Why do I feel good at a ball park? Why am I drawn to this game?)

posted at 10:07 PM | Link | Mundane | 1 comment § |

Sunday, May 11, 2003

The measurement of a windy day

A sure sign of a windy day is the sight of pulsing of the water in your toilet bowl. Or even worse, no water in your toilet boil. Man, it's windy out there today...

posted at 11:55 AM | Link | Mundane § |
*creak*

The wind hs been howling and gusting all morning. I hate being woke up early on a day when I can legitimately sleep. The wind gusts are rattling the windows on either side of the bed. Every once in a while, the house creaks just a little bit. It's only around 50 degrees outside - when I finally got to bed last night after the tornado sirens, it was 72. It's cold, it's gloomy - the perfect day for sleep. But, no, the wind wakes me up and keeps me there.

posted at 08:58 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Saturday, May 10, 2003

Tornado Sirens

Holy crap holy crap holy crap... I've lived in Hoffman Estates almost 19 years and I've never heard the tornado sirens go off in the township. Oh crap. This is a bit scary...
Update: Well, the rain came - hard. Then nothing. There was a funnel cloud sighted 7 miles southwest of Bartlett moving northeast. I'm sure that's what triggered the sirens here. Then, during the calm, we heard sirens again, but it was the Hoffman Estates siren (which is under 1000' feet from my house). It must have been other surrounding suburbs. Well, we made it through that one.

posted at 11:16 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Live from Baseball As America

Powered by audblog audblog audio post

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posted at 01:48 PM | Link | Mundane § |

Friday, May 09, 2003

Hail!

The hail comes down... but it looks a little odd in this picture
We heard it on the police scanner first - calls from the local suburbs alerting their patrols of the Severe Thunderstorm Warning with up to golfball size hail. We could hear the thunder in the distance. And then it started - the hail started first. Not the rain, not the wind - the hail. It was like the leading edge of whatever was moving in. It started slow, but the noise was distinctive - it wasn't the small, pea-sized hail. this was much larger, and the sound on the aluminum siding was loud, but not as jarring as the "pinging" against the glass windows. It wasn't golfball sized, but it was the size of somewhere around a penny or nickel. Thank God it didn't last long at all. The wind and rain that followed was pretty significant, but it, too didn't last.

posted at 11:49 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Dinner at OCB

Carol in her cube, shutting down for the day
After work tonight, I picked-up Carol at her office to go out to dinner. Carol brought me up to her offices to take a look around before we left. Let's just say I'm a little jealous of the office space. It's really a nice environment compared to where I'm working right now. Anyway, we went down the street to OCB. Yes, that's Old Country Buffet. Yeah, I know - big Friday night out and you take your wife to Old Country Buffet. Carol loves the place, so we went. Ever notice the people at OCB? You just don't see "professionals" there. It's more of the people that have no aspirations of being upper-middle class. And I just so love it when they let their kids run around at a friggin' buffet. I can't tell you how many people I saw that almost got taken out by a kid out of control. I just don't think 4 year old can help themselves at the buffet without food going everywhere. Just my opinion... as we left, I heard on the radio that it was 87 degrees at the lakefront! Cripes, I was freezing my ass off at a baseball game less than a week ago! Well, it's going to rain most of the weekend, so that should screw up a few things.

posted at 07:11 PM | Link | Mundane § |
My first audblog audio post

Powered by audblog audblog audio post
So, here it is - My first audblog audio post on this website. It was a little bumpy getting things setup (the entry got posted 10 times, so I guess there's some kinks that need to be worked out). Hopefully, this will just be another way for me to enter stuff here when I'm not around a machine. I was a bit too quiet, though. It's hard when you're in a cube at work and you just don't want others to know what you're doing!

posted at 10:42 AM | Link | Mundane | 1 comment § |
Friday 5 - Organization

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Would you consider yourself an organized person? Why or why not? Noooo!!!! Are you kidding? Have you ever seen my desk???
2. Do you keep some type of planner, organizer, calendar, etc. with you, and do you use it regularly? No. I used to, when I had a functioning Palm device, but that was some time ago.
3. Would you say that your desk is organized right now? Work desk - somewhat. Home desk - not really, but I know where things are!
4. Do you alphabetize CDs, books, and DVDs, or does it not matter? No, it doesn't matter to me. The collections are small enough that the organization is irrelevant.
5. What's the hardest thing you've ever had to organize? My portion of a Data Center move.

posted at 06:58 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Thursday, May 08, 2003

Sleep: what can you do?

I went to bed "early" last night - about 20 after 10. I was still awake at 3am. I blame Carol. Well, I mean I'm blaming my lack of sleep during that period to all of the noises she was making - snoring, gurgling, and you know, that incessant breathing. She's had it rough for the last week or so. Her company converted from an AS/400 custom app to Oracle based financials. The conversion wasn't smooth, and she has to manually enter 1,500 orders and another 750 came in this week. She's exhausted. So, if she's sleeping, this is a good thing and I can't be selfish and wake her up and get her to stop facing me and snoring and, well, that breathing thing... you know how it is. In the dead of night, every little sound gets amplified. After 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, and hour... things just kind of "add up" and it becomes an insurmountable problem. Oh well, she got some sleep. I, in the meantime, am a wreck. The only thing that's going to save me this morning is coffee. And that's how my day begins.

posted at 08:01 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Wednesday, May 07, 2003

The wall?

I seem to be trying to find more time to sleep, a few minutes in the morning, earlier times getting to bed. I'm not on the computer as much at home in the evenings. I'm with Carol, watching TV, or playing with Indy. There's not too much to write here. Every day seems to be about the same - same day at work, same day at home. A rut? Quite possibly. I'm just finding it hard to write here. Did I hit a wall? If I did, I hope it's temporary because my writing here, well, sucks.

I'm feeling reluctant to talk about work. You know, I can't name names or say anything disparaging about my employer - I sort of need my job, so no reason to risk that.

But I've got to tell you, there's two things that maybe I should think about sharing.

The first is my daily commute. Some days, there is absolutely nothing to talk about. Other days (like yesterday) you just run into the most unruly drivers. It kind of goes along with my Pet Peeves that I need to expand a bit. It's has become so bad, that I'm actually driving with my digital camera in my hand so I can say "If you see this idiot on the road - stay away from him!".

The second really does have to do with my job. I'm currently riding a Help Desk. If you are an IT professional and if you've ever had to take calls from the user community, you know that some of them are just doozies. Maybe I could talk about some of those. When the phone rings, that is, and that's not happening too much lately. Peaks and valleys - never know what kind of day it's going to be.

Anyway, that's why it's been boring here. I just need to get motivated to write again, and find a way to make mundane into something to write about.

posted at 09:05 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

Amazing Race 4

CBS has finally decided to start airing The Amazing Race 4, starting Thursday, May 29, at 8 PM EDT (in Survivor's time slot). Here's the team info:

read more of this entry »


posted at 12:33 PM | Link | Reality TV § |

Monday, May 05, 2003

Another groggy morning

Another morning where... I... just... can't... seem... to... get... going... Lots of rain again overnight, nasty wind and lightning (and, of course, thunder). Looks like the other states around us got hit hard. I feel like I'm still cold from Saturday night - I just can't seem to get warm. The shower didn't help at all. Maybe if I can get through some coffee, I'll be better. I hate that feeling, where your extremities just feel cold. Well, that, and add in the fatigue factor... maybe I'm coming down with something... great - now my hypochondria is kicking in...

posted at 09:46 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Sunday, May 04, 2003

Glad I didn't go

Well, the weather really turned sour tonight - wind, cold, thunderstorms. Glad I decided not to go to the game. Oh, the Sox lost again in a rain shortened game. I just couldn't tolerate another day like yesterday.

What the hell is going on with the weather?!?!?!? This is MAY!!!!

posted at 09:18 PM | Link | Mundane § |

Saturday, May 03, 2003

White Sox 2 - Mariners 12

Chicago White Sox Seattle Mariners

read more of this entry »


posted at 09:21 PM | Link | White Sox § |
TiVo to the rescue!!!

TiVo!
Last Thursday morning, we were figuring out what we were going to do about TiVo. Bush was going to do his aircraft carrier speech at 8:00, and that would skew the start times of CSI and ER. This has happened before, so the easiest thing to do is keep the start time, but add time to the end time.

Today, as we watched CSI, we noticed something that has never happened before. I started viewing the program, and fast forwarded to get to the beginning of the show - and I overshot by a lot. Somewhere along the way, TiVo adjusted the start-time of the show by 20 minutes! I don't know how they did that, as in the morning it was still set to go at 8:00 but when I looked at the program summary, the start time was listed as 8:20. Maybe it's because of our new DirecTV TiVo and they were able to get the program information to the box without a phone call. Spooky.

posted at 11:55 AM | Link | Technology § |

Friday, May 02, 2003

Gracie leaves

On the way home, as we're getting off the Northwest Tollway at Roselle Road, I get a cell phone call. It's my sister Diane - they just landed and wanted to know if they could pickup Gracie. So, about 45 minutes later, they all show up at the house. They all seemed a little tired, but they seemed to have enjoyed their week at The Venetian in Las Vegas. Gracie was excited to see everyone and looked a little confused when she was leaving. She was a good dog this week. Hope she had a good time, too.

posted at 11:48 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Wolves 0 - Griffins 2 - Western Conference Semifinals - Game 4

2003 AHL Calder Cup Chicago Wolves Grand Rapids Griffins

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posted at 10:41 PM | Link | Wolves § |
The West Wing

I can't imagine how this is going to affect one of my favorite dramas: Writers and Executive Producers Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme have quit The West Wing. (Articles from LA Times, NJ Star Ledger, Washington Post 1 and 2, and New York Times). Has it really "Jumped the Shark"?

posted at 01:43 PM | Link | TV § |
Friday 5 - 5 Songs

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Name one song you hate to admit you like.
2. Name two songs that always make you cry.
3. Name three songs that turn you on.
4. Name four songs that always make you feel good.
5. Name five songs you couldn't ever do without.
OK, I'm not playing this week. Here's the deal - I'm just not into music that much. I have a hard time recalling songs, let alone what I had for dinner last night. So, I think I'll skip this week. Let's see what next week brings.

posted at 06:39 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Thursday, May 01, 2003

Wolves 1 - Griffins 2 - Western Conference Semifinals - Game 3

2003 AHL Calder Cup Chicago Wolves Grand Rapids Griffins

read more of this entry »


posted at 10:24 PM | Link | Wolves § |
Oh, man... wireless + bunny = good

For once, a bunny entry that is not about our own Indy. I snagged this link from Boing Boing about a bunny that was rescued from a car park that had a taste for CAT-5 cables, printer cables, audio cables, power cables, mouse cables...

posted at 02:33 PM | Link | Bunnies § |
The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out...

I've gone through the STS-107 Press Kit, but I haven't been able to find out any detail of this experiment, but...

Technicians going over the Columbia wreckage finally opened-up a middeck locker of an experiment and found hundreds of live worms in it. The worms only have a life span of about 10 days, so these worms were 4 or 5 generations away from the original worms on the flight and were part of an experiment testing a new synthetic nutrient solution. They were supposed to have been examined and unloaded from Columbia within hours of landing, so there's probably no scientific value to these worms, just more of a curiosity.

posted at 01:12 PM | Link | Space § |
*nose wiggle*
posted at 06:41 AM | Link | Memes § |

 

That's it for the entries in this particular Archive of my blog. If you want, you can look through other entries by selecting the links in the right-hand column of this page under either Archives by Month or Archives by Category, or you can search the site for specific keywords by using the Search page.

This Blog was last updated Friday December 18, 2009 13:03:12 CDT (-06:00 GMT)
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