Friday, Friday

This morning/early afternoon was productive in a non-traditional sense. I renewed my AAA membership online and reset passwords/enabled logins on multiple financial websites where all my various accounts are. I create wacky passwords that have nothing to do with my life or interests, so of course I can't ever remember them. The upside is that no one will ever be able to guess them.

In a bit I'm going to get gas/wash the car (so exciting, I know), see how much I can get for selling several boxed set DVDs to a place called Movie Trading Company, and later on I need to cancel a store credit card that I used to get 0% interest when buying my computer. These cards are great as long as you pay off your purchase before the 0% financing period ends. That's the only way to do it. There's no reason ever to pay money to use a credit card. Pay off your regular credit cards in full each month, and pay off those special deal credit cards before the free term period is up.

Back to the selling of the DVDs...I am a TV DVD boxed set glutton. In the long run I'm sure I'd save money just getting satellite TV with tivo or a DVR. But anyway...if this place has boxed sets of Stargate, I'll trade them, or I'll just take cash. We'll see how it all turns out. I've never tried to sell back anything before.

I must be off...I have many errands to run before the traffic gets horrid in about an hour.

S M T W R

S
Had Sunday lunch at parents' house. Listened to ridiculous mother state that she thinks Barack Obama is the anti-Christ and also that she thinks the entire Bible should be interpreted literally. Since that means my father will be selling me off into slavery, I'm afraid I won't be able to post for much longer.

M
Helped to pack up a store that has closed. Got a good workout. Bought lunch for 17 people. Hooray for company credit cards.

T
Took final vacation day for PTO year 2006. I went shopping at a mall in the north country with a friend. I was also able to finally find some black work shoes. I blow through shoes every 3 months if they're not super sturdy. I went grocery shopping and spent $117 on food that will last me several weeks. Yummy.

W
Took a personal day. Went shopping with same friend at NorthPark Mall. I didn't buy anything but dinner at P.F. Chang's.

R
Today. Took another personal day. I drove to Dublin, TX to get some Dr. Pepper made with Imperial Pure Cane sugar. I've posted about this stuff before. You can buy it here in town, but it's $2/bottle, and it's $16/case of 24 bottles at the bottling plant. It makes a nice day trip to go down there, look around the supercute store, buy some cases, and drive home.

Tonight I made tostadas for dinner. All you need is a can of good quality refried beans, some tostada shells, cheese, and lettuce. It's easy and cheap.

I've been playing chess against my computer. I have to place the settings at a very low level, or it beats me in about 20 moves. I hope to build up to an acceptable level of play over time. I'm just not very patient about it, though. I make my moves very quickly. If I were to take more time I'm sure I'd fare better. But I just don't want to take the time. Know what I mean?

Karma & Cumin

Someone was verrrrrrry nasty to me on the phone tonight at work. This is payback because I was nasty on the phone last Saturday night with the apartment maintenance voicemail. Lesson learned.

Someone please tell me how to imbed links in my blog. I've mentioned this spice company before, but I'll mention it again. www.Penzeys.com has THE BEST spices ever. They have a store several miles from here, and I can drop serious money each time I go in there, so I've been putting it off. I need the cumin, which I can get in a larger bag there, and I need garlic salt. Their vanilla sugar is to die for, especially when liberally sprinkled on fresh ripe strawberries, though it's quite expensive. The spices in general are priced much less than the crap you'd find in the grocery stores, so check it out some time if you get the chance.

Spices make food worth eating.

It's still raining here. I hope the lakes fill up to the brim so that we won't have water shortages in the summer.

That's about all, I think. I'm going to watch the first half of season 3 of Battlestar Galactica.

The Yearling

Happy Birthday to my car...
Happy Birthday to my car...
Happy Birthday Tangerine Metallic Honda Element EX-P 4WD
Happy Birthday to you.....

Yes, it's true, my car is one year old today. It's hard to believe, really. I have almost 16,000 miles on it, and it is every bit as beautiful and exciting as the day I got it.

In fact, I'll be driving it to Denver in mid-March for a work conference. Some other GMs and I are driving in early to ski and have other assorted fun. I've never snow skiid before. I have no coat and no gloves and no anything suitable for that activity. So I'm afraid I must hop onto LandsEnd.com shortly after everything is completely finalized and do some shoppin'. Any recommendations on what color coat I should buy?

It's rainy here today, and cold. It's winterish, and I like it. My kitty cuddles with me as much as she can now. I like that as well.

I'm currently mad at iTunes. I still cannot download the current Stargate seasons. I'm perfectly able to download other shows and CDs, just not the 2 that I really want. Ironic or craptastic? You choose.

I'm out of cumin. Damn.

My downstairs neighbor introduced himself to me at work on Wednesday. My old downstairs neighbor moved to a different unit. The new guy is named "Doc". I am always curious to know if people named Doc are actually doctors, or if they just have an affinity for Bugs Bunny. It's too bad I can't have a straight downstairs neighbor named Doc who is a doctor. But my luck in such things is not strong. Oh, and I don't really like to know my neighbors, especially if they're going to show up at my place of work as well. That's just creepy. The old downstairs neighbor guy comes in almost every day. We both do a fine job of pretending we don't know each other. There's something about a person knowing when you're flushing the toilet or taking a shower or washing the dishes that is too personal to be reminded of at work. Yeah, I'm a freak. I admit it.

My red clawed crab is super-adorable. He's still afraid of me. I would be too, if I were he.

Maybe I'll make cookies tonight.

I read a book yesterday called "Hattie Big Sky". It was about a young woman who was left a 320 acre claim of land in Montana in 1918 by her Uncle. Hattie moves out west to prove up the land. I normally love reading about homesteading and the westward expansion, but this was set during WWI and includes bits about that. I didn't care for those parts...just get on with the homesteading! It was maybe a 3 out of 5 stars.

I brought home a book called "Winkie" which is about a teddy bear who is accused of some crime. I don't know more than that, but I will very soon.

Someone on my staff today didn't know the book Bridge to Terabithia. Geezum petes.

It Has Snown

It snowed overnight here...not too much, just an inch or so...enough to lay a blanket over the cars and grass. I finally turned my heat on last night. I don't like having to run the heat, as it dries out everything, especially my skin. I think my cat appreciates it, though.

I bought some resistance cords at a sporting goods store and began working my arm muscles in preparation for the arm wrestling rematch in Denver in mid-March. I have almost 2 full months to train, so I am hopeful that I might win!

Not much else is going on...I go to work this afternoon and have some household chores to accomplish before then.

I'm in Love

I just spent over an hour watching Steve Jobs introduce the new iPhone. It is heavenly; it is wonderful; it is $499 plus whatever the Cingular service will be. I totally don't need it, but I totally want it. Yes, the pull of the iPhone is powerful indeed. Please save me from its enchantments. You can check out the entire introduction at mac.com, if you like.

And now, on to other things...

I couldn't get into my apartment Saturday night. It was 12:20am. I had just come from work by way of the grocery store; it was 25 degrees outside and windy; I had no jacket or coat. My key wouldn't turn in the lock. I was pissed. I had called in a repair about 10 days prior, and somebody came to look at it one day while I wasn't there. Apparently they didn't fix it. I left a searing voice mail at my apartment complex's phone number, and someone came out 20 minutes later, shot some carbon-like gunk in the lock, and now the key turns exceptionally well. I have no idea why they didn't just do that in the first place. It would have saved all of us a great amount of aggravation.

We've had sleet, rain, and icy roads here for the past few days. The icy roads part really was just yesterday and today, and even then not too badly.

I have 2 months left to train for the next re-match of Me versus My Boss, arm wrestling! Yes, we're both nuts. My boss has beat me, both arms, twice in a row now, and I cannot let that trend continue. One of my staff, who used to be a competitive swimmer, has written me a nutrition plan, and her partner is going to write me a work-out plan. I'm sooooo gonna kick ass in 2 months.

I'm currently reading The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. It's so-so. It won the Newbery a few years ago, and I thougt it would be more amazing than it is. Oh well.
I stopped reading a book called Deep Ancestry about the Human Genographic Project. The first 1/2 is fascinating; the second half (at least the part of the half that I read) is getting bog-downy, so I stopped. Still, take a look at the first part if you can. It's by Spencer Wells.

My car will be one-year-old on Friday. I'm going to throw a party for it...cake and all. I still haven't named it. What should I name it? What should I put on the cake?

Financially speaking...I started a 529(b) college savings account for my nephew when he was about 1. They're commonly called UFunds. I've been putting $50 a month into that account since then. I have it automatically transferred, so I never even see the money. I'm hoping that in 2018, when he reaches college, it'll have at least $25,000 in there. Maybe that'll buy a book or two, if he's lucky. If you have any youngsters in your family, I encourage you to open one of these accounts. You put the account in your name, with the child as beneficiary, so you get to control/manage it, without any effort on the part of the kid or parents. Fidelity.com and Vanguard.com are two good places to start.

That's all I can think of for now.

Lotsa Stuff, I Think

It's super-nice to have 2 days off in a week again. Ahhhh.

Christmas went well. My younger sister brought her boyfriend to meet the family. She's never done that, so I guess it's serious. I'm happy for her as well as a bit jealous. I have nothing bad to say about him, though I didn't get to interact with or observe him enough to say yet whether or not I like him. Time will tell.

My nephew was adorable on Christmas. It was his 3rd Christmas that day, so he was fairly bouncing off the furniture by the time I saw him.

I received an air mattress to use in my car when I go camping. I also received some iTunes gift cards, some cash, and some kitchen stuff. Everything was great except the kitchen stuff. I keep telling my family not to get me kitchen stuff for Christmas or birthdays, but they won't listen.

I'm very concerned about the health and general well-being of a couple people on my staff. Of course I can't go into the details here, and their issues are personal in nature, but some people feel compelled to tell me some of the serious things that are happening in their lives.

I witnessed an auto accident this past Saturday. There are several verrrrry wonky one-way streets around here, and a lady in a mini-van was driving the wrong way down one of them at exactly the wrong time and was T-boned by a sedan whose light had just turned green. The driver of the sedan was injured, so I had to call 911 and try to keep the lady from moving around too much until the FD, PD, and ambulance came. Had it been a few seconds later, I would have been at that intersection, turning right. I'm not sure if the minivan was on the path to have hit me, but it does make one take pause.

I bought the first Season of Stargate: Atlantis on DVD. I absolutely love it. Currently I have a particular crush on the character named Dr. McKay. He's sort of like the character of House, actually, just without the cane, and he's a scientist instead of an MD. On TV the show is already in its 3rd season, but the DVD set of the 2nd season isn't due out until the very end of February. I wonder why there is such a delay. The music on the show is amazing. Check it out if you can.

My fishies are all doing well, as is Gracie. The crab is getting bigger, the snails are snailing away, and the fish are simply cute. Sometimes I'll put my finger in the water in my tank at home just so the smallest of the balloon bellied mollies will kiss it. Gracie was mad at me during December because I was only ever home to sleep and shower. I've been trying to spend quality time with her in the past week so that she'll quit missing the litter box 'accidentally'. She likes to watch DVDs with me.

Of course, I can't remember 80% of what I wanted to say. Many times each day something will happen and I'll say to myself, "That was blog-worthy. I should write about that tonight.", and then I forget about it by the time I sit here to type.

If you're all very good people and post me lots of comments, I just may post a picture or two of that book I created about my trip to Glacier.

Now, go confidently in the direction of your dreams........sorry, I can't remember who said that.....