Short Bus Allstar

Why?

2008-11-04T22:32:00.001-05:00

I just don't get it. No clue.

Hiatus

2008-09-29T19:22:00.003-04:00

As probably already noted, this blog is on hiatus and will continue to be so unless something major happens. Until then, enjoy going about your day without checking in...there won't be anything to see.

Country

2008-08-22T21:14:00.001-04:00

So I guess I can officially claim to be a country fan. Having purchased the MegaTicket for the summer, I have lawn seats for seven country concerts. Last night was the fifth of those concerts with Kenny Chesney in town. I must say it was quite a show, one of the better overall concerts I have seen, though not quite the “show” as far as lights go as Rascal Flats, but still a great show. Thus far we have seen Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, and the aforementioned Rascal Flats. We skipped the Montgomery Gentry/Toby Keith show due to my surgery. The concerts are a pretty good time. The seats are in the lawn, which is about all you want for the summer shows. Last night, however, we managed to pull a seat upgrade that moved us under the awning and half way to the stage in that area. With a pretty typical digital camera zoomed in, there was plenty of pictures and video shot with Kenny taking up the full frame. Of all the shows to get the upgrade, last night was the one to get it. Much props to Lilley and wife as they told us about the usher who was sporadically handing out a huge stack of tickets to fill the closer seats as the lawn sold out in a hurry.
Another thing about the shows, they have all been on Thursday, Friday, or Sunday, with most being on Friday. Always a bonus. With these nights, it makes tailgating prior to the show much easier. Just as a football game, tailgating is half the fun. Needless to say, the people watching is AWESOME. Take anything you could stereotype in the south, add alcohol and music, and you have the pre-game for most any of the shows.
The remaining schedule includes Brooks and Dunn with ZZ Top and Martina McBride. The first probably being pretty interesting, the other, so-so for me. All the acts have had big openers including Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Leann Rimes, and Jewel.
For those who have the option to catch a ticket package like this ($200/season ticket) I strongly recommend it if you like the music at all.
These aren’t Grand Ole Opry shows with some twanging and guitars. They are legit shows that rival most of the rock acts on the road.

Birfday

2008-07-08T18:37:00.002-04:00

So the birthday weekend was pretty great. I should really say my birthday week as things spread out over that time frame. I got home Monday evening to find birthday cards from mom, grandma, and my uncle all waiting for me. Normally I wait to open them but knowing I would be out of town went ahead that night. The next night Beth came to the house in spite of my completely crappy attitude from the previous work week and thus far that week and was determined that I would open my gift from her early, though I wanted to wait. Turns out she got me a Wii and wanted to set it up ASAP so we could practice for our trip to MD. More on that later. It was a great surprise as I thought she was maybe trying to get me one but had dismissed that idea for some other things that I figured her more prone to spring for. We did get a little practice time in that night and the next evening at her place. I found out two things real fast about it. The addiction factor is as great as anyone has described it to be. It is extremely portable and easy to set up. Maybe because TV inputs are easier to deal with our maybe because the last time I set one up I was 15. Who knows.
On to Thursday: We checked with USAir and found that at least 6-8 seats were still open on the early afternoon flight to Salisbury MD (Beth’s hometown, on the Eastern Shore and NO WHERE NEAR DC and NORTHERN VA) and with her frequent flier status we could bump up “standby” without any additional fees, so we both jetted from the office at lunch and were in the air at 2:45 instead of 7-something. That made Thursday so much more enjoyable as we were there in time for happy hour, which we took full advantage of with her parents and neighbor, then to a fantastic steak dinner with plenty of sides at her parents place. Remember, as I mention food, I haven't eatne normall for nearly three weeks, and not had some of these things for much longer, so they were big treats.
Friday (birfday) we headed out for a run with the rest of the neighborhood (I mean this literally as at least 10 people were part of this) that a neighbor had organized. There was another birthday person in the group so that was pretty cool. The rest of the day was hanging out and attempting to help her dad get the boat ready for the weekend while Beth took great care in soaking us both down with the hose…numerous times. Her parents gave me a pretty funny card and cool tie to go with the additional card Beth gave me so I would have something to open that day. We cleaned up and headed to the country/yacht club (Country club on the Wicomico River with several docks) for the traditional fare and fireworks. I gorged on fried chicken, ribs, dogs, burgers, and fixins’. The only downer was the 45 minute delay for the fireworks due to the omnipresent thunderstorms of the weekend. The delay was well worth it as the show was pretty awesome. Some of the best fireworks I have seen and we were very close to the launching area so seeing them fire from the bases was really cool. I found out that the person who has always done them was letting his license expire and this was sort of a farewell show for him. It was great and all the members talked about how it was one of the best he had ever put on. After we got back to the house around 10:30 Beth and I were sent to play with sparklers in the driveway while candles were being put on my surprise cake. It was a Smith Island cake which I highly recommend to anyone that gets a chance to have one. Think ten very thin layers of a pretty rich cake with icing between each. It was topped with three candles to signify the looming big 3-0 for next year. Needless to say they were the one’s that don’t blow out though I managed to get one all the way out prior to using any water.
Saturday we decided to ignore the overcast and somewhat foggy weather to experience Ocean City, MD. Think all things you associate with Myrtle Beach, dated 25 years older and crammed on an island less than a quarter mile wide. Beth was disappointed in the place we ate dinner but those things happen. We hit a place called Seacrets and I partook in a couple drinks known as Pain in de ass. If you’ve been to a Wet Willy’s think something out of the frozen drink machines with that kind of kick. I had a couple and switched to beer so I could stay upright the rest of the evening. Beth DD’ed so I could experience it and we left her fam back in Salisbury. After this experience we hit the boardwalk for Thrasher’s famous fries (dinner was at like 5) and to see the sights. Pretty cool to see where she spent most of her free time during the summer.
Sunday we headed out on the boat for a while though her dad was disappointed in motors performance so we stayed close to the put-in location and ran the river a bit without heading down towards the Chesapeake. That night we headed out for my first crab picking experience. Picking Blue crab is nothing like the Alaskan or Snow crab most are familiar with from your typical seafood joint. The crab house was all wood with long picnic table covered in brown meat packing paper and was all you can eat. They bring fried shrimp, clams and chicken, along with some hushpuppies and corn early to fill you up then the onslaught of crabs begin. I probably picked 8-10 and ate every bite of meat I could get out. Most of the meat being inside the main shell where the legs protrude. Anything else significant being in the claw.
Monday was pretty uneventful. A little lunch, handled some work calls, and saw Beth off as she is in PA for a few days and had to rent a car. Her mom was at the house with me and shuttled me off to the airport and saw me off as if I was part of the family, something they did pretty much the entire time I was there. It was a great weekend to say the least. Her family was beyond accommodating and nice, I got to see so much more about Beth, and had a fun and relaxing time the entire trip. Without my family around, I really couldn’t ask for more.

Addition: A friendly rivalry with her dad sprung up on Wii tennis. I seriously need to improve my game as he found out a way to wax me on teh return during my crummy serves. It was his home machine and he recently crossed the "pro" point plateau since our visit and I was playing as a lowly guest with no status. Don't know if that mattered but I may as well not had a front court player. We played at least a few matches every day. If I could only get him to box, I may have a chance as I am quickly approaching Pro status on my machine. I will most definitely being learning how to save my Mii so I can take my proven skills on the raod whether it's across town or cross country.

Surgery

2008-07-01T14:09:00.002-04:00

So I finally went under the knife about two and half weeks ago to help remedy the sleep apnea I was diagnosed with back in February. The procedure lasted about the 2.5 hours as anticipated, without any known complications. It consisted of 5 or so smaller procedures rolled into one to help alleviate the problem. They were a rhinoplasty (I think this was for the minor deviation of my septum), turbinate resection (more nose work), UPPP (removal of tonsils, adenoids, and other stuff), a tongue resection (they shaved the “base” with some radio wave laser thing), and something else that may have included the pinning back of my uvula if that wasn’t part of the UPPP. Basically they gutted the inside of my nose and throat and realigned some muscles so I have more room for air to get in.
Coming off the anesthesia was interesting. I don’t think anyone expected me to be talking much if any for the few days, much less within an hour. I drifted in and out while they fed me a popsicle and I tried to talk. I stayed overnight in a recovery room, hooked up to an IV for fluids that they also used to keep me on main meds. They also had this forced oxygen/humidified air thing that blew in my face the entire night. It worked to keep my nose and throat moisturized to aid in healing but the it was a very noisy machine and would gargle up through the tube that fed the pseudo mask as condensate would build up. That was annoying as hell and I would have to call the nurse to come fix it periodically and never in tune with a pain med boost or fluid replacement. Fluids worked too. Didn’t know you could go every two-three hours without drinking anything but you can. Beth and my mom were both there through the entire surgery and up through most of the evening. Mom stayed and suffered through the noisy machines and sleeping on the one chair that pulled out similar to the airline seats they advertise on international flights. I did get to watch a little TV prior to falling asleep which was pretty early that night.
They discharged me after I ate/drank the required amount and noted the jogs I had filled up over the night. I was home by 11 the next morning after the procedure had started around 1 the afternoon before. The first two-three days involved a lot of sleeping and lying around. Needless to say, between a very loving mother and girlfriend, I was taken care of quite well. We had a shift change on Monday shortly before my follow up appointment as mom headed back to TN and my stepmom came in. They pulled my packing (think a 2” long tube about the size nice pen) at this appt and the ENT indicated I would not need to come back and see him unless I had seriously bleeding later on. This was important as I had 30+ stitches in the back of my throat and obviously some healing to do in my nose as well. Things were pretty eventless through about Thursday. I was able to move from only popsicles and water to Jell-O, soup and even some mac and cheese. Stepmom went back Wednesday and I spent the rest of the week on Beth’s couch as it kept me closer to town, doctors office, and hospitals, as well as the working folks I could call if need be. I stayed on my pain meds and antibiotics and things went pretty well until Friday and the 7-10 day pain came back. Basically I couldn’t and didn’t feel like eating. The pain was worse than anything early in the week, including the first couple days after the surgery. It sucked and I doubled up on pain meds for about a day (it was allowed) until it subsided last Sunday. Since then things have been improving pretty quickly. I started driving (aka off the pain meds) last Wednesday, worked pretty much a full week, less Monday morning, and have been fine since.
I can still feel some physical ramifications as I get tired a little more quickly if I do any physical activity. Still can’t tell any real difference in my sleep though. Still extremely paranoid about sleeping on my back as the scarring isn’t complete and therefore I still snore some. It’s definitely not like it was and the doc indicated to Beth that I shouldn’t snore in the future. Granted that carries a big asterisk as any significant weight gain will make this entire process null and void. I did have a set back last Thursday with a pretty bad nose bleed overnight but that was attributed to a scab falling off and the associated blood clot letting go in my sleep.
Here are a few things I learned during the whole process:
Cherry is my favorite Jell-O flavor.
Cookout (local Carolina chain) has the best milkshakes but Ben and Jerry’s has an ice cream, mocha-something that is the best cold dessert drink I have ever had.
Chicken noodle soup goes right down but pudding sticks to the roof of your mouth and tongue like a champ.
It’s easy to lose 10-12 pounds on a liquid diet.
Ensure is only good in chocolate. If you are depending on the vanilla for your protein, just let your muscles go for a while.
Don’t take Percocet on an empty stomach. If you take it with Tylenol or in a double dose, you will be loopy and make funny faces and expressions.
You can bleed a ton out of your nose or at least it looks so when you wake up in your own stuff.
Chips are your enemy. Stay away from Mexican joints that bring them to the table with salsa. The temptation is almost, if not more, than the will power to abstain.
Shopping in advance for any form of anniversary is a very, very good idea.
Even if you think you can go back to work and put in a full day and be as effective as you were, forget it. Accept that you will need at least a few weeks to be back to 100%

I am going to MD for the holiday weekend to see where Beth is from and grew up. It should be fun as there is a lot to see and do in just a few days. Just hoping I am back to 100% when I get on the plane in a couple afternoons so I can keep up.

Some random things from email

2008-06-17T09:39:00.003-04:00

Laid up at home on Oxycodone and getting kinda bored with it so here is some banter off of email I received today. More on why I am home and doped up later;

.Subject: London Times Obituary of the late Mr. Common SenseInteresting and, sadly, rather true.
'Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years.No one knows for sure how old he was,since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
Why the early bird gets the worm;
Life isn't always fair;
and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault. '

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY OPEC
Sells oil for $136.00 a barrel. OPEC nations buy U.S. grain at $7.00 a bushel. Solution: Sell grain for $136.00 a bushel. Can't buy it? Tough! Eat your oil! Ought to go well with a nice thick grilled filet of camel ass!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

2008-06-08T21:56:00.000-04:00

So, the posts are getting a little more spaced out but much longer. Don’t know that I am keeping anyone in anticipation as the antics and rants have been on the decline but I am staying very busy so I thought I would give another update.
Memorial Day Weekend has come and gone and we kept to the plan of stopping by and seeing the Mouse. After the girl hooked us up with a first class flight upgrade (both ways) and huge discount on rental car we headed off to Animal Kingdom then possibly one of the other parks. The heat and humidity was ridiculous but the park was a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed the Safari ride though I couldn’t convince her to do the Everest Coaster, though she offered to stay in line with me if I wanted to ride it that bad. I do recommend Yak and Yeti if you are there for lunch PF Chang-ish, about the same price, and I actually liked it a little better though the menu is tremendously less in total options. After sweating our way through the park, we decided to check in to our hotel for and get cleaned up for dinner and Downtown Disney for the evening instead of upgrading the already pricey tickets and trying to see part of Magic Kingdom or Epcot. Definitely the right call as it decided to pour down the typical Florida afternoon shower within 15 minutes after we checked in. We also had the opportunity to ride the free shuttles/monorail/water ferries around the park hotels and check them out. It was fun for the girl to relive some memories of past family vacations spent at these locations as we strolled around, especially at the Polynesian. Dinner was at a seafood place on “the water” at Downtown Disney with some excellent beachy drinks and some time in the Downtown Disney bars. Having gotten up around 5:30 that morning and being out in the Florida heat, midnight pretty much came as our time to call it a day/night.
The next morning we tried to score a ton of Hilton Honors points but had been suckered into something much more time consuming than we had been promised. We managed to get out of it having only lost about an hour or so of time and maybe a little extra sleep but no biggie. My advice if you didn’t already know…if you go to get the extra points at the Vacation Club desk, take the points for showing up at the desk and pass on the rest. After this little time detour we headed for the folks place in Venice by way of a little shopping/site seeing in Sarasota and the St Armand’s/Long Boat Key area. The girl had not been that far south on the gulf side before I think she really liked seeing Sarasota. It’s a pretty town, especially if you are into boats and that part of the coastal life. I know she definitely liked shopping at St. Armand’s though the weather was still extremely muggy though we had the ocean breeze to help. That night we met my grandfather and his lady friend for another seafood dinner, this time at an old time fishery in a little area known as Placida. It was great and was a perfect dinner.
Sunday we had intended to go to Siesta Key, regularly ranked as one of America’s top beaches but decided on a big sit down breakfast first. Turns out all the parking for the public beach, including multiple small access areas were full by noon or so. Honestly don’t know if we would have done any better grabbing breakfast on the way and going straight there that morning. We ended up back at a beach much closer to the house and saw some folks parasailing from where we were set up. Decided that was a great idea, so we cut the beach time short and headed around the jetty, 10-15 min by car, swim it in under 5 if you can handle the current and dodge the boats. It was a great idea and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Especially cool since we could go up together and talk, laugh, and take pictures as we sailed over the gulf. They even did the feet dip thing as we were probably 100 yards behind the boat. That night we had a very nice meal at a restaurant at the jetty and watched the sun go down over the gulf. While waiting on our reservation we spent some time on the jetty watching a small school (pod?) of dolphins chasing fish where the canals dumped out into the gulf. Very cool and we took a ton of pictures there.
Monday came around and it was time to head back to Orlando to catch our flight home. Not until we spent a couple hours on the beach and having one last nice lunch and a few drinks.
Getting back was a bummer as it always is after a great vacation. They are always too short but I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Hoping we can get back down there later this year…hopefully without as much of an agenda so we can enjoy some of the simple pleasures after cramming as many of the fun options as possible in the long weekend.

Guess It's Been a While

2008-05-18T17:24:00.002-04:00

Guess it’s been a while since I posted much of anything on here. So what’s been going on since Cup? Let’s see I think it goes something like this:

Took the girl to George Strait in Cola. Great show for the music but downtown Cola is not my favorite place and the crowds of local yokels always rub me the wrong way there. It’s a late Thank god for 8th row seats with people who, for the most part, know how to act.

I hit G’ville and the ATL in one weekend. One for an ASHRAE conference and the other to meet the girls cousin who is due August. Pretty fun trip as we hit the Farmers Market in Decatur and a cool Mexican spot near downtown called No Mas.

Hit Kingsport for a quick trip over Mother’s Day for a little yard work and to take her to dinner.

Speaking of that weekend and expecting ladies, congrats to the Rochmondfordstiensburgs. Seriously, big congrats go to Brad and Lauren for the birth of Kate Emerson. They are the first of my close friends to have a child and everyone seems to be doing well.

Planned a little traveling. Heading to the folks place on the gulf coast for Memorial Day weekend by way of Orlando. Thanks to Mickey for having cheap airfare. Think we will stop by and say hey to him and his crew for a day or so on the way to the coast the end of the week.

Hosted JDGA. Battled some drizzle with 11 others. Great to see a bunch of those guys, about half of which were in from out of town. Others from around here I don’t see as much since I’m at the lake. The foursomes crushed their handles by the 16th holes respectively. Other than the grill running out of gas a quarter of the way into cooking burgers that night, the weekend went well though it’s obvious we aren’t the same drinkers we were when it was founded.

Scheduled my surgery (finally) after all my insurance approval went through. That will go down on Friday, June 13th. Who knows how long I will be laid up but I hope not more than a week as I want to get out of here for the 4th of July celebrations I especially like to partake in. Maybe this year they will be in MD but we will see.

This weekend out of the past 6 weeks or so has been one of the best though. Started it off with the Jason Aldean/Tim McGraw show Friday night with the girl and some of her friends, one of which I know from work as well. Truly slept in for the first time in a while that night without the affects of poor sleep from having too much fun the night before. Was on the lake by 10:45 yesterday morning for the second time this season. Saw the Red Bull sea plane actually on the water. Didn’t get to see take-off but saw him fly over a little later. Headed back in to town after picking up some great picture and making a stop in Birkdale for a little wine tasting and shopping. Had some dinner on the balcony then off to meet some friends for free beer (we tipped really well) and to meet the new kickball teammates we will have in a few weeks as they celebrated the end of their spring season. Finished up the weekend with a trip to Southpark to blow some cash on needed work slacks, swim suits and a new belt. Hit the grocery store and Charlotte farmers market for some fresh tuna and veggies. Going to wrap up the weekend with a little wine I’m about to pop the cork on, watching the rain move through, and a nice meal off the grill that should be interesting. Get a good nights sleep and start the short week off well rested and ready to roll.

As you can see things have been pretty darn good and I haven’t had many stories of stupidity or things that have really ticked me off to write about. Good things.

CUUUUUUUUUP! Part II

2008-04-08T20:43:00.002-04:00

Okay, so it has taken about this long to make sure all the stories are straight.
Here is what I know happened from first hand knowledge:
We got up and rolling at like 7AM and I was sporting a Vineyard Vines tie and blazer due to the cool weather.
We left about 9AM from Charlotte and maybe were at the spot setting up at noon. About an hour later than desired...it could have been more like 12:30.
I started the "Cuuuuupppppp, wooooooooo!" rallies around 10AM somewhere south of Chester. It caught on like wildfire. Nothing like having a bus of 23 people yell "Wooooooooo" as though it were scripted without breaking stride in conversation when a "Cuuuuuup" was let loose. Agent orange got a phone call and message with the first "call' of the day.
Set up was easy, the food was good, and we had a ton of freaking alcohol.
We did have numerous women, not just men, jump off the bus following the first bathroom stop, to pee in the woods/weeds/front and side yards of the houses along the route. Can't say that anyone was innocent. This was on the way down.
I drank a lot, ran into frat club, talked shit to some dude that told me to go back to Villanova even after he heard me speak (what a douche), and got kinda pissed when it started raining.
It rained. A lot in a short time period, and I still don't have my tent back, not that I care about it at this point. Thank god I am the weather man and convinced the girl that she and I needed to take rain coats. Double edged sword for me for helping get stuff gathered up. Great call for her.
Keg tosses happened after the rain while waiting to get out of the infield. I thought about playing along until I saw some dude about my drunken level fall on his ass after trying the spin and toss technique.
I don't remember riding home but do remember making my hair into a drunken mohawk and full spikey look after getting on the bus post rain.
I fell off a two foot wall, and landed funny and was bruised for the next four days after we got back.
Got cleaned up and sober enough to make a Chairmen of the Board concert in Charlotte after the four hour return ride to top off the evening.
I dozed off on the couch before making it to bed.

Other things I was told happened but don't remember:
I stepped into a heated argument and gave numbers to the good guys. Drunk fighting didn't happen.
I was the only person to play along with the organizers dance party on the bus. No shuffle involved.
Cucumbers were apparently the most awesome food ever and I hate a whole bag of them while trying to drink a Jack and Ginger that was more like Jack with a splash and throwing out a mostly good piece of chicken.
I missed one of the pit stops on the way home as I was passed out.
I took a bunch of pictures with the girl. I'm lucky she is still dating me as I could have passed from the scary old guy behind the hotel desk in a few of them. Okay, most of them. Thank god she was partaking in the alcohol too.
I talked to some lady in a van while the old dudes in the back drank the rest of the Jack straight from the bottle. Apparently she and I were friends.

More stories to come I am sure. It's just been over a week.

By the way, it rained late in the day. That sucked.

CUUUUUUUUUUP! Part 1

2008-03-28T13:46:00.002-04:00

As you know, some of the best Double D stories and some legit short bus action has occur ed at the glorious event known as Carolina Cup. Hours on end in a bag chair, drunk on a Bud Diesel Bender will cause that to happen. Well, this year will be my encore appearance. Don't think I have made it back since then, and definitely haven't tried a repeat performance of that day outside of football season. Riding a 25 person bus down from Charlotte, leaving at 8:30AM. That's right, I'm taking a short bus to CUUUUP! By default, and the fact I am the tailgate guru during football, I am providing a tent, a couple of chairs, and the cube cooler along with organizing food and drink for a 6-7 person faction of the group. We are meeting another bus full of people coming from Columbia. We should have roughly 50 people in the two spots in the infield (K102 and 103 for those in attendance). Should be fun. I am going full Country Club with seer sucker and a sweet new tie. Hopefully the weather will hold. Forecast has bounced from mid 70's with a chance of a thunderstorm (Tuesday) to low 60's, cloudy and a chance of afternoon shower after five (earlier today). Hopefully I will have a good story or two come next week. Maybe they won't be too good though as that kind of story usually brings great laughter at a heavy Double D expense. Until I am back...CUUUUUUPPPPPPP! WOOOOOOOOOOO!

TN

2008-03-28T13:39:00.002-04:00

Went to TN a couple weeks ago. It was cold and snowed but I got to see a buddy of mine who is on his third tour in the middle east and finishes up his last tour sometime in the next 6-8 months. Girl went along and we had a chance to finish up the whole meeting of the parents trifecta. Things went really well at Dad's. Much, much better than mom's visit. Their report card came back stellar as well so I feel a tremendous amount better about that aspect of the relationship going forward. Trip was uneventful as a whole, asaw a ton of HS friends, which is always good, and we got back to Charlotte at a reasonable time on Sunday. All in all it was a pretty good weekend and releived some unneeded stress I had building up after Feb.

JDGA

2008-03-04T21:38:00.002-05:00

The weekend will be April 18th. If you want in...let me know. Game plan will be to have everyone roll in that Friday afternoon. The rest of the schedule will be set according to the number of people coming to town. Golf will be that Saturday starting around lunch.

Parents

2008-02-26T20:07:00.002-05:00

So the last two weekends were spent meeting and greeting family. As previously mentioned, I met Beth's parent's last Friday as I helped pick them up from the airport. The original plan was for me to meet them Saturday afternoon and help her dad install a fan in her room and then go to dinner later that evening at a favorite restaurant of ours up near the lake. Saturday ended up having a change of plans. They decided to do some shopping and running around in South Charlotte and the fan was put off until Sunday afternoon. I snuck off to get 9 holes in but back to the house in time to get cleaned up for their arrival. I met them at the house and showed off a few things I have had assistance picking out for decorations. Dinner went very well and was excellent as always. Sunday I headed into town prior to the call I had been waiting on to pick a few things up and was literally within two blocks of Beth and her fam when they called to see when I could meet up. We knocked the fan out without any hassle, something I wish I could say about the experience with the chnage out I did on my own a month or so ago here at the house. As soon as I walked in with the ladder and assorted tools here mom said they would be ordering in if that was okay for dinner. It turned out we went out but I was already obligated. Felt kinda bad about it and offered to pay Sunday night, just as I attempted Saturday as we had a glass of wine at a little shop near where we had dinner. The response was not to worry about it, as long as I treated Beth fine, they had no problem picking up dinner/drinks. All I could do was smile and thank them again and again. Needless to say, I think things went as well as I think they could have and I wouldn't change any of it. Definitely spent a lot more time around them than expected but there was plenty of kidding around and never an awkward silent moment. Even dorked it up talking some engineering stuff with her dad for a while Saturday afternoon.

This past weekend was a reversal as my mom was in town for her birthday. Beth met us to go to dinner at the same place as the previous Saturday night. Conversation was easy as Beth's mom is also in education as is mine so they had plenty to talk about. Saturday I took mom shopping and she met us out and about for a while then again later in the evening for dinner. Afterwards we took mom by her place uptown to see the view then they said their goodbyes and we headed back to the house. I received approval without even an attempt to ask, which made me happy. I have no reason to believe this will be any different when she finally meets dad and company. She has already swapped some messages with my oldest sis on Facebook. We may be headed to TN in a couple weeks for a Crawfish Boil for a friend back in the states on leave from the middle east. Assuming it works out for both of us, I guess she will meet the rest of the immediate fam that weekend.

All in all I am happy the way things have worked out thus far. Some folks have made a much bigger deal out of meeting the folks than I think it is at this point. However, with things going well both weekends, it gives me a little piece of mind as out families are both extremely important to both of us, especially their opinions on many things, including people we associate with.

Wow, this posts sounds cheesy.

The last 3 or so weeks

2008-02-16T10:36:00.003-05:00

I am targetting the weekend of April 11 or April 18 for JDGA unless we wait until late May early or early June to assure the courses are in better shape. Need feedback. Spread the word.

Beth (yes, girl has a name) has her parents in town. First night was pretty uneventful and all nervousness was eased in a hurry as her dad intentionally botched my name as I was introduced while helping pick them up at the airport. I will be helping him with some home improvements at her place while the women shop this afternoon. Should be interesting.

I have been diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. It explains my roof rattling snoring. Currently using a machine called a CPap while sleeping when I am home. I hate the damn thing but it works. I refuse to travel with it though as it requires it's own computer sized travel bag. Had to upsize my carry on for Mancation 08 to Steamboat just accomodate the damn thing. Hopefully I won't have to fly with it again because security was a pain with it. I am on track to have corrective surgery (UPP) for the apnea as well as a deviated septum. Looking forward to it in a strange, sick way but will most likely be laid up for a week to ten days from what the E.N.T. specialist who will do the procedure told me. Looking at late April to early May for this. That explains the timing of JDGA to bring this post full circle.

Hopefully I can post more about Mancation (not to eventful but a lot of fun) and this weekend in the coming days.

Also, I gave up liquor for Lent. I went to uy Ginger Ale at the store this week then walked right out of that aisle....no point in having that mixer for a while. Should keep St. Patty's day more subdued as I have been pretty good recently anyway. I'm sure you can guess why. However, Cup is the weekend following Easter. I am going on a bus with at least 20 others. That could be interesting. Let me know if you are interested in jumping on board in the CLT with us.

Surprised...nahhhh.

2008-01-27T17:08:00.000-05:00

First, this post is about government ineptitude so if you are tired of reading on the subject, go ahead and move on.
As most people know, the Post Office is a pretty sloppy crowd, especially regarding customer service. Mix this in with the wonders of getting a passport and I am sure you can tell where this thing is going. I decided sometime ago that I needed to get a passport. You can't even go to Canada these days without one. Not that I have anything on the horizon but why limit yourself if a sweet E-saver hits this spring or something, right? The fam has been known to hit the Caribbean too. Last time I wouldn't have been able to join them, even had I had the vacation time and been invited/known in advance.
Anyway, I requested an official copy of my birth certificate from the state of TN sometime ago and received it. Didn't want to run the risk of the Passport folks shooting down a faxed or photocopied version. Got it pretty quickly. Filled out all my info online on some interactive PDF type file and printed it off. Had check book in hand for the fees and was ready to go. Checked for the nearest location and even called to see if they were open, very busy (why back the journey if you're gonna wait an hour), etc. Well, it was Friday afternoon and they didn't answer. I was a little perturbed and my timing wasn't exactly smooth, but you know, I figured I would flow through the process in a hurry while the everyday morons were filling out paperwork or getting denied. The non-answering at 2:00 kinda bugged me but I decided to run over there. Walk in, see a few folks (less than 10) sitting around then went to sign the waiting list sheet. I see that it has been marked through. Officially post hours were 9 to 4. It was 3:30. At 2:10 the lady running the show had apparently marked through the remaining time slots for the day with a note saying "No more appts today." What kind of sloppy ass deal is this? I mean seriously, I know you are busy. I know it's Friday. Your website says you are open until 4. Don't freaking mark through the afternoon slots and make them suddenly ineligible. Sorry you are having a shitty day and lots of people are getting their passports today. Even the dude at Walgreen's knew why I walked into the store and directly to the photo booth at lunch. It was a busy day for that process apparently. He obliged with the digital, ran the prints in the computer and asked if I wanted to wait or come back in 10 min (which I did) and have my pictures waiting. What was so damn hard about that? Nothing and he had his money in no time. If you are gonna post working hours, fine, stick to it. If you are going to change or tweak these hours then do one of the following. Post an exclusion on your site if possible. Leave an outgoing message on your voicemail (which didn't exist) or answer the damn phone. A 25 sec phone conversation would have alleviated a pissed off customer, another person clogging her waiting room, albeit temporarily, and saved me 30 minutes of driving around. Sometime in the next couple mornings I am hitting the Uptown P.O. where they also do passports. Yeah, it's further from the office. It will probably be as busy or busier during that time of day, but I'm hoping they will at least handle the process properly. I would rather that branch get my money anyway.

I'm not dead

2008-01-15T23:00:00.000-05:00

Yeah, it's been like 3 weeks at least since I posted. Nothing out of the ordinary to report. Saturday's have consisted of trips to Southpark and running errands. Friday's have been going out with friends. The work week is the work week. Guess that's about it. Hope all is well. I'll get back on the JDGA thing soon. Not going to have people bet and declare to early on.
On a side note, Mancation '08 - Steamboat Co is like two weeks away. And I caved in and bought George Strait tickets in Cola for the 26th. You can guess what prompted the latter.

I accept

2007-12-27T14:43:00.000-05:00

So the gauntlet has been thrown down and the challenge has been accepted. At this time unless Nobrainer has done something crazy we don’t know about, we don’t have a spring loaded with weddings and bachelor parties. As I apparently have the most centrally located residence, with plenty of attractions and opportunities in the general vicinity for stupidity, and plenty of room for people to crash, JDGA Weekend – Spring ’08 is in planning. Tentatively schedule this sometime in mid to late April, with a week or two space between then and Easter, most likely following the holiday for obvious reasons. A request has been placed for a 3 day event. I will commit to at least a two and half day (Friday afternoon/early evening kickoff, Saturday, and wheel everyone out on Sunday). If we can make it three full and pull everyone in on Thursday night, even better. Go ahead and start marking your calendars now. If you are reading this and aren’t familiar with the JDGA, this is your open invitation to join us. Be sure you have a fully capable foursome and a handle of Jack for your initiation though. If you can't pull this together, plan to take your ass back home in shame. That is all.

'Tis the season...

2007-12-22T20:25:00.000-05:00

...to be jolly. 2007 has been a pretty darn good year and is ending on a high note. I could complain about a few things but that would be stupid and petty. Here's to hoping you all had good '07's as well with a positive outlook on '08.

I wonder

2007-12-13T23:43:00.000-05:00

As I watch more and more friends slip into the world or serious relationships and marriage it makes me wonder about where I fit in. I really think I am a Short Bus Allstar. Obviously I can't figure out these people called "women." I apparently have no clue and if anything, am digressing. I thought I was doing better but that answer is no. Recent occurences have made me ponder all this a bit. I've found that Redheads really have a way of screwing with my head. I have known that they grab my attention more quickly but I also seem to be drawn that way more readily in recent times. And just when I think I have one figured out a little bit. here comes a curve ball. Guess I need to get back on the bus and go learn some more life skills in special ed.

Time for a change

2007-12-04T09:36:00.000-05:00

Well, this little blog has gotten a little bit more traction from friends outside the realm of a dozen or so college buddies. Because most people outside that group don't get/understand the "Wha" thing (HS friends think I go straight to unintelligible after a few drinks) I've decided to rename the blog. As most of the posting involves antics involving alcohol, be being generally pissed about something, or just some geenral ramblings and observations, and very little legitimately useful information or insight for the educated world, I think the new name fits well. I also think it's something everyone can agree on as I pretty much fit the bill outside of work.
The change in format was as much because Blogger added some easy to use templates and the ability to post/upload some photos without having a host server link.
Hope you all enjoy the updates. Maybe I'll have some new crap up, inlcuding but no limited the commonly reocurring issue with people called "women."

HA HA

2007-11-16T14:37:00.000-05:00

This is for the folks from TN. Some old HS friends thinks it's lame (or at least try to make fun of me) as I do this as well as participate in Clemson Athletics blog as well. Basically, if you are one of those people, I'm laughing at you now, because you have been suckered into visting Whatown. You probably don't understand the name as it comes from a story from my freshman year in college that didn't involve drinking. If you are coming back, it's because most of this crap I write probably amuses you. If you have no clue who I am, then I'm sorry because half this crap probably doesn't make sense. Regardless, I hope everyone gets a laugh out of most of my stories/rants/comments/perspectives if they are meant for me to vent or makes you think about the one if twenty taht are half way serious.
Have a great weekend. Hopefully it will provide another great trainwreck that I will be able to post about following info from multiple third party sources as I am headed to Clemson for two nights worth of debauchery.
Oh, and someone call BB, or get ahold of his athletic department tudor and let him know I wrote this.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

2007-11-04T22:07:00.001-05:00

So I was in Durham visiting friends and catching the second half of the Tiger's butt kicking of the Blue Devils part of this past weekend. The friends whose home we invaded hada Nintendo Wii. It was actually pretty cool. One game inparticular was the similuated boxing game that comes on what I believe is the base game card with the machine. If you don't know, the Wii uses some pretty cool technology to go wireless on the controllers without having to aim directly at an infrared receiver. With these controllers, most sports games require you to simulate the motion intended for the result you want. So in boxing, so are pretty much shadow boxing. Pretty cool for a while but when you play roughly three hours, and you haven't been working those muscles, espcially in the back and shoulders, you are sore. So, yes, you read this correctly. I'm pretty sore from playing video games. Laugh now, but go play this game for a while (and yes it's very addictive) and talk to me a day or so later. You'll feel what I mean.

Pet Peeve

2007-10-23T08:40:00.000-04:00

I've kinda had an issue with this since everyone started carrying cell phones several years ago but it is become progressively worse. I see it being the worst in the twenty something age range where most people use a cell phone and don't have a home land line. I am guilty of this part. Unless you specifically use TiVo or live in an area with terrible cell service (obviously not anywhere near a city, town, or interstate) it's not necessary to have a land line anymore. I don’t even think apartment complex dial in boxes require the use of a land line if the connected cell phone is relatively close by. However, if you are one of these people that use a cell phone as your primary or only non-work contact please learn some freaking etiquette. This includes the PROPER use of functions on the phone you probably spent too much on. These include some of the following:

If you are screening your calls, and don’t want to answer a specific one, then learn how to let it go to voicemail. Often times people forget they have a phone with them and not on silent/vibrate. Learn which button silences the ring and which one dumps the call to voicemail. If your phone is off, I’m going to voicemail within a ring if not immediately. If you are away from your phone, it’s probably going to be something like 5-6 rings on my end. If it goes three then I get dumped, I know you are scrambling to silence the thing or more than likely screening the call. At least make me think you aren’t screening my call and let the ringer run it’s course before I….

Leave a message. Don’t call me 4 times in an hour but not leave a message. If you need to get a hold of me, let me know. If you just want to say hey, let me know. If you are going to be stopping by or want to grab a drink later, let me know. I may be in a meeting. I may be taking a nap. I may be on the other line with the folks. I may be out to dinner. Hell, I may be screening my calls. If I have a message not only do I know what you are trying to get a hold of me about, I can find a way to answer if the question requires a timely answer. I can always bang out a text or give you a quick call back from the pisser. Nothing is more annoying than having your phone in your pocket constantly buzzing. I know the difference between a new call and a message (voice or text). With a message I know it’s something that may or may not require attention. If it’s a call with no message, I assume it is of little importance and won’t call back or respond.

This works the other way around as well. If I call, I will almost always leave a message if I don’t get you. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, listen to the message before you call me back. You may not even need to call me back. I may tell you when I’m going to be at the tailgate or that I’ll be a minute or two late. It may also say that if you don’t get this for 15 minutes, don’t worry about it. It may also say that I am about to hook up with the hottest chic in town (stretch I know) for some unknown reason and that if you do call me back I will kill you, but will fill you in on the details later. You may even be bale to shoot me a quick text back that takes care of my question, who knows. Regardless, listen to the message first. PLEASE!

If you are one of those people that answer your phone at dinner, meeting, some casual place where you are with others, keep your conversation volume to a minimum. I don’t want to hear one side of a conversation I could give two craps about from 20 feet away. I’m probably talking to someone else in this public place. Think about the rest of us. This especially applies to all the Nextel people out there. If you aren’t in your work truck, office, or work site, turn that damn thing off. If you are leaving it in your office unattended, turn the damn thing off. When you get “chirped” and don’t answer, everyone else has to listen to the effing thing beep for the next hour and those things are relatively loud. As a matter of fact, if you don’t absolutely have to have a Nextel, don’t get one to start with. Get a cell phone and coverage that let’s you be “paged.” Plus you won’t have to wear that holster anymore. Oh, and if you do Bluetooth, try to avoid it in the grocery store. I really do think you are randomly talking to yourself or me for at least the first 15 seconds I hear you or see your mouth moving.

When in the car, wear a headset, Period. Afraid you will look like an idiot with one on if you aren’t talking? Fine, leave it lay to the side or in the center console. Don’t like the Bluetooth flashing light in your headset? Me neither. Get a car with it already installed or get a wired headset. Bluetooth headsets are cool until you take them off and can’t hear your phone ring. I am tired of getting stuck behind those of you in the left lane with you phone propped against your shoulder while you pretend to drive. If you are doing this and see everyone and their third cousin pass you on the RIGHT, get over. Check your mirrors first and try not to swerve too much. You’ve already not been doing this as well.

That is all…for now.

It's been a while since I blabbered

2007-10-11T22:31:00.001-04:00

OK, so it's been a week or two since I wrote anything and that was a late update on something from a week or two prior. Um, so the follwoing things have happened in somewhat of a time line fashion. I haven't gotten stupid drunk though I had a few while being really pissed about the VT game this past weekend. Been out a few times and did see Poot at the tip top of his game before he had consumed al ittle much to be effective. It was awesome.

I bought a new car and got ride of the Jeep. When I realized two trips to the shop, this spring, totaled at least 6 months of solid car payments, it was time to get rid of it. Especially before new tires were needed or soemthing else started rattling. I got less than street but what I thought was a fair trade in value, combined it with a little cash on a payout from the commissions ode from teh old job and snagged an 07 4Runner Limited off the lot at the end of the month. It's got all the options (4WD, sunroof, hitch package) I wanted except Nav but all the guys on the lot told me to get a Garmin if I wanted it anyway. And that would be much cheaper anyway.

I used the rest of the cash to paint part of the downstairs of the house. It looks good and the color was needed. I'm waiting on a print to get back from being framed and most downstairs decorating will be done until I either get Xmas gift cards or some commission checks that matter. I did finish the "Clemson" bonus room painting. It's not great but tolerable in my eyes. Definetly had to retape some places and probably have no less than 5 coats of paint on some edges where white meets one of the colored walls. Now I need crap to put in it. I have picturessherem, a bean bag chair and the dart board with home-made backing. I also have an old TV stand from Paul. Need a new TV. Don't know whether to upgrade the one in my bedroom and move the old one there, or to geta larger Tube TV for a cheap price at Best Buy/HH Gregg/Circuit City. It's not gonna get much viewing time, more a way to keep up with a game it folks are offer and we are shooting darts or hopefully playing the foosball that I hope to have in there by mid winter. I also want to make a room downstairs a sitting room and had it painted with the kitchen and den. Needless to say, that will be a while though.

On the work front things couldn't be better this week. I landed a job that will get me a sales volume equal to abotu a third of what I have to do for the year to make quota and be bonus eligible. Our physical year started the 1st of this month so it's a good quick jump. I have some good stuff in the pipeline as well so I should be able to close out a few more smaller but equally important orders in the next month. If I can be to or past 50% of quota by Christmas, at least on bookings, it will be a good year. I am enjoying things more, responsibilities are growing a little as I get more comfortable with the product and I can actually take a fair amount of credit, working with my boss, on securing this large order as well as another good size job over in the hometown area in TN. The peopl e I work with have gotten comfortable with me and visa versa.

I could alwasy bitch about one of two subjects but we rant plenty on The Sporting Gnomes site and women will always be a point of frustration until I actually meet someone worth a crap who isn't wishy washy and knows what they want as well. I did randomly ask out the cute teller at my local BOA. Supposedly she is talking to someone and is frustrated with it and told me to check back in a week or two. Either a good blow off or quick, polite reaction but definetly not a "No.' I'll check back and probably get that later but at least threw it out there to see if anything stuck.

10 Yr Reunion

2007-09-30T22:21:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I attended my 10yr HS reunion back in TN. Stayed at my mom's on Friday night and at the location of the Reunion Saturday. To give an idea of the lay out of this place, think convention center type place with a hotel tower (6-7 floors) on one end of the building, a decently sized bar and lobby area along with a very large outdoor patio, then the far side of the building are the ball rooms.
Highlights were as followed.
Alcoholess tailgate prior to the HS game Friday night.
Me doing 42 push-ups on a platform held up by 4 scrwany HS kids ala the Tiger at Clemson games. Search youtube for my name and 42 pushups. I'm not stupid enough to post the link.Yes this was on a dare and I made $25 for it. It kept people interested in the game too so that was fun.
A set up basketball game with 12 of us playing full court complete with scoreboard and ref. 32 minutes of basketball. 53 total points and lots of shots. It was fugly basketball but one of hte most fun sporting events I have particpated in since HS. We even had shirts made up. I may get a pic link of that action up at some point.
The reunion complete with competitions to see which table would go to the buffett line first. So mishandled the last three tables were waiting to win a competition while there was no buffett line. They did show a slide show with pictures of past and present which was pretty cool. I definetly dipped it low, grinded on married women with their spouses there, did a little Vanilla Ice dance, then hit on a chic there with two kids and currently going through a divorce. She was sans kids and soon to be ex husband.
I walked back and forth making my own cheap and strong drinks a couple times before saying screw it and bringing in a bottle of ginger ale and a bottle of Jack (empty water bottles refilled) to keep my own party going. We ended up on said patio after midnight when the party was ended due to contract. They let us drink our own stuff without question as late as we wanted as long as there were no complaints from other guests. I was up until after 3 though everything after 1:30 is a blur.
Checked out on time (I think), went back to my mom's, slept a couple more hours, and got back here around 8:30 that Sunday night.
It was a helluva weekend as most of my HS crew was in for this. It was great seeing everyone, especially as I have missed out on a few gatherings those guys have put together since. Hopefully we can get together like that more often and the emails about in general things that have happened are still popping up. I just hope we can keep the college crew doing the same regarding getting together in mass.

A Few Notes

2007-09-20T22:32:00.001-04:00

So, they reversed the extra payment into my account. Guess I could have kept my mouth shut but I would have felt guilty about it. The funny thing is, it's not my old companies fault. It supposedly had to do with Paychex. With that in mind, they make enough cash, once it was in my account and clear, those morons should have had to eat it. Oh well.

On to more pleasant thing. 10yr HS reunion this weekend. A few events planned. It should be a good time. I hope so. Seeing some of the folks will be interested. I keep up with most of the guys still. Seeing all the girls that are married, and many with kids will be weird. Should be fun like I said though. Hopefully I'll have a good story or two come Monday.

Avast!

2007-09-18T09:30:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow, Sept 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I expect emails to be written as such. It also should be fun to listen to some of the morning radio shows as they typically pick up and run with this. One was prepping us this morning for tomorrow on air festivities. Now if I could only find a lady pirate that will let me shiver her timbers. Aye!

I'll Take It...Maybe

2007-09-14T08:41:00.000-04:00

So, I'm going through my normal routine a bit later than normal. The bosses car is dead (battery) and we have been trying to jump it, unsuccessfully. As I am waiting on him to figure out what he is going to do, and if I need to tote him around, I figure I will do my normal check email, online bank statement, ESPN, etc. to start my day. It’s what I do when I come into the office. If I don’t go through this routine, I’m usually set up for a crappy day. Anyway, tomorrow is the 15th which means I get paid either at midnight last night or tonight. I hadn’t quite figured out when JCI posts to your account when the date falls on the weekend. I check the account and my check is in and showing pending. However, I also noticed that my account is up from what a normal paycheck would reflect and commissions aren’t paid mid-month. I check the details and low and behold, my old company has a payment pending into my account as well. Extremely odd as they pay commissions quarterly and I got that check a couple weeks ago from previous services rendered. I noticed the amount looked familiar and cross checked it to my last check from them. The totals matched exact. It was for half what my typical check on salary draw was, when I was there. Now, both of these payments are pending so there is a chance that the one from the old job will be rescinded. I have never seen this happen though. Usually once it is showing as a pending payment and monies in your account, it’s as good as there.
Now the fun part. Do I call my old company? Do I let it slide and see if they deduct it from what I believe will be my last commission check from them in a couple months? Do I not think twice about it until tomorrow AM when it will be either officially posted or not? Ethics suck and I honestly don’t know what to do. I would have understood this maybe in the first month after I left, but considering they had my time documented well enough to give me half a check for my last week or so, previously, why would they have me in at all now? Had it happened in July, I would have happily called, told them what was up and had it corrected. At this point I kinda look at it as a “If your accounting is that screwed up, tough crap, go fix your own problems.” I am guessing taxes and everything have been taken out since the amount match perfectly. I’ll check the mail for a pay stub or something on paper from them. Maybe they shorted me on my commissions for the amount of half a check and found the mistake. I didn’t notice so that’s mighty nice of them to take care of it. Of course, I might have caught it had they sent me my June commission numbers as well. Who knows? If I get more info, I’ll crank out an update. Otherwise, one of the dude’s (and his Mexican’s) coming to give me a paint estimate this afternoon are gonna get the job and it will be as if I didn’t have to pay according to my budget and bank account.

I love you, Tonya

2007-09-01T12:34:00.000-04:00

Yes, Tonya. At this moment, I love her very, very much. You are probably asking who this person is and why I love her. Well, Tonya was my customer service rep for Time Warner Cable. See, on Thursday, I ordered the ESPNHD package for college football season. When you have a decent TV, it should be put to use this time of year. Sunday's are for yard work and house chores. Saturday's are for beer and college football. Well, I ordered the package at work and was instructed to check it out when I got home that evening but everything should be good. With the use of computers they can adjust your service now with just a few key strokes, or so I thought. Well, with previous committments on Thursday I didn't get to check on the service but did last night. I found quickly that I did not have my HD ESPN, or the Deuce. After searching around, I did find that I had some kind of Major League Baseball package with a bunch of games. Nice consolation prize I guess but not what I wanted. Now keep in mind, I was on the phone 15-20 minutes just to say "Hey, upgrade my HD package to include ESPNHD, thanks." So last night I get on the phone and get what I assume to be a trainee. I was on hold for nearly 15 minutes before I got a voice then was on with her for an additional 30 minutes. I reset the box, checked the channels, etc. I was put on hold for a few minutes. Supervisors were supposedly being used, I don't know. Then I went on hold and got the same intiall music I get when you first dial into the system. It was time to head out and I punted. Total time on the phone, 1hr and 10min. Read here to see other great communications companies and their service. Got home last night with fingers crossed, no dice. Well, I jumped on after Gameday this morning and thought i was going to get more of the same. On hold for a customer service rep for about 10 minutes, then I got Tonya. Told her the issue, what I think had happened with the MLB package and that I was a TWC customer because of the local Adelphia service buyout about a year ago. Within five minutes, I was looking at the clean, crisp, clear HD ball game while the MLB package was being cancelled. I was elated and Tonya could tell as she got a chuckle out of my candidness. I'm glad there are a few diamonds in the rough, that actually know their jobs, in the customer service world.

Random Weekend

2007-08-28T17:20:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was quite random. After taking my 2 hour post work Friday nap I got up and running just in time to catch a ride to the Rusty Rudder. The lake action is usually stronger on Friday's as that crowd is typically done and done come Saturday nights. The crowd was surprisingly week and I attribute it to the pre-season game for the Panthers that were in town. That was fine as a couple of us hung on the porch; I drank $1.50 beer and got a free ride out of it. Low key with cheap beer. Works for me. During the time there I received a call from a 919 (Raleigh-Durham area) but don't know the number. It was definitely female and had it been on a voice message I would have enjoyed it for many nights to come. Apparently someone wanted to enjoy the rest of the evening (the call came in around 12:15) with me and was at a bar down town. I have no clue what the name was but they claim to know me from a bar downtown we have been frequenting on Thursday night the past couple months. I was told in some very descript terms what they wanted to do, they wanted to know where I was and why I wasn't at the bar I had met them. I had excused myself about 30 seconds into the call. While standing on the side deck I still couldn't figure out who it was and wasn't going to ask again. I laughed heartily, told them if they wanted me they needed to come to the lake and let it go. Having taken a long nap I was up around 2:30 after getting dropped off at home. I decided I would find out who this was as I suspected it to be a prank via a friend of a friend’s phone from someone who knew where I headed out too periodically. At 2:40 they answered and went back into the same dialogue questioning my manliness as I hadn’t come downtown to meet them. They asked for my address and I told them simply to get in a cab, come to my exit, and I would guide them from that point. I went to bed and didn’t get a call but I also haven’t figured out who it was either. Inquiring minds want to know as it was a helluva prank or I missed out on the easiest action since, well I won’t go into that.
Saturday was good times. Lilley and wife ventured up to the lake and we headed to the sandbar and watched girls dance like strippers on the other boats. Matt and I also got the tailgate game plan together for FSU and I issued the email upon returning home. Did a little yard work had one of the best evenings at home in quite some time. Hopefully I will be able to go into more details on that one in the future.
Sunday was pretty standard. Slept in, did housework. hung by the pool and had dinner and Skippy and wife’s then killed a bunch of time on the phone that evening with friends and primarily family.
Considering I had a really good weekend and don’t have anything other than the phone call off the wall to report, I found it kinda random, but I’ll take it anytime. A positive ending to the call and it would be damn hard to beat.

F-You Fortune Cookie Man

2007-08-16T15:29:00.000-04:00

Ok, I know the little Chinese folk that run the cat buffet don't actually write these (they were started by someone in the San Fran area years ago and their are varying stories with some roots in ancient China) but I'm still gonna blame them. The sad thing is, I like the one we go to here, it tastes good and has 97.5 health rating. Unheard of in the buffet world. But they pissed me off todya. On to my story and issues. We all know I have an issue with over thinking and over analyzing pretty much everything. We also know that all fortune cookie messages should be followed with "In bed," or at least it's much more fun that way. Well, as if my complete analytical treatment of everything, including figuring out the best place to meet women and what their actions and words mean, I get slapped with this at the buffet today at lunch. "Your mentality is alert, practical, and analytical", in bed. Great, so I am cursed with the same problem between the sheets that keeps me from getting there to start with. I needed any help screwing things up instead of just doing the screw part? To top it all off, I'm head to Chucktown this weekend, where the odds are supposedly so good for guys. You know why I am going though? Oh yes, an engineering professional organization conference where I will be representing the Charlotte Chapter in all the business meetings, dorking it up through late afternoon Saturday preventing me from heading out on the town until then. Will I even feel like going out. Probably not since I have breakfasts for this damn thing at 6:30 both tomorrow and Sat. morning. Of course fortune cookie writer man has already screwed me. 1 of 4 engineers at the table and I get this one, real effing nice. F-you fortune cookie man, f-you.

Maybe I am useful

2007-08-13T22:38:00.000-04:00

As we have all learned, I can't paint. From now on, I won't paint. Well, can't say that, I won't paint other than the ongoing touch up and fixing of the job mentioned a week or two ago. Especially considering the amount of original paint that peeled when the tape came up along with the places the new paint peeled back from the edges. One thing I will say, if you start having orignal paint peel along with your tape, spray down the tape with Goo Gone and let it soak for a minute. It seemed to help on the last quarter of the room that I peeled.
Anyway, though I can't paint, it seems I can do a few handy man things. Hung a bunch of organizer stuff in the garage, replaced all my kitchen cabinet hardware (a 5 y/o could have pulled this one off, but I expedited it with the use of a screw drive bit on a drill) and my most recent feat.
I've had some moderately annoying electrical clitches with my refridgerator. Needless to say they didn't spring up until about the time the one year warranty was up on anything other than the refrigerant cycle. Read in the compressor and other parts that allow the appliance to do it's work. Your heat pump kinda works the same way. Anyway, the light was randomly fading in and out on the front panel for ice and water. The water dispenser wouldn't always work, neither would the ice dispenser. Skippy tended to be on the receiving end of this until the past month or so and therefore I didn't seem to worry too much about it as I didn't know the frequency of the problem. Well, I came home the middle of the week to find the ice in the dispenser fused up as though a thaw and re-freeze cycle had occured in teh freezer. A clicking sound was coming from the rear of the fridge. I got it restart after simply powering off then replugging it (causing the cover plate to the recepticle to completely crumble and fall in the process). After getting home Friday, I foudn it clicking again, warming inside in both the fridge and freezer and the restarting trick to not rememdy the issue. Off to the store for 50 lbs of ice and to the grarge to round up all the coolers. I let things go, keeping all the perishables iced over the weekend, 75% of which I was able to save. In the process of this mess, I checked the pack, removing a cover plate and finding the sourse of the clicking sound. I knew it was electrical from the previsouly mentioned problems and the fact that the little fan in the freezer was attempting to spin but only doing so in sync with the clicking sound and never actually "kicking on." Today I got after the job at hand, first calling GE's service hotline and having what I was afraid of confirmed. Everything but the condenser and associated parts was out of warranty. Tomorrow being the earliest they could come giving me a lovely 8-5 time frame with a call ahead that I had to request (and probably wouldn't actually occur). While on hold, I was instructed that parts could typically be purchased locally from a distributor (not the same place I bought it from though) . At the same time I was already online checking out the GE appliance home page which luckily had a parts listed also present. I scheduled the appt for tomorrow but was able to track down the part number (I had the model and serial numbers of the unit with me) while at the office. A phone call later and I had tracked down the part, at a store just up the street from a customers office. Three hours later I had the motherboard for the fridge in hand. 6 hours later, the board was installed and I was up and running again.
I will say I am proud of myself. I know I've saved a fair amount of cash even if the board was much more than just a possible capacitor to be replaced ($100 vs 25 or so) compared to $70 for a service call and whatever parts and predetermined labor fee I would have been hit with for a 15 min job. I don't have to spend half tomorrow waiting for a call ahead. I didn't drop $10 on ice tonight. I actually gambled on a solution and won. Keep me away form the paint. Give me something with nuts, bolts, or real basic electrical stuff (I self diagnosed the boat but didn't have the tools to make that one happen). OK, so be leary about the electrical stuff but I'm getting better at it. Now, if things would go my way with wood products I would be ok. Good tools would help. Guess it's time to call and cancel that appt for tomorrow.

Weather Man

2007-08-10T13:28:00.000-04:00

Those who read this probably know I have an "thing" for the weather. No, I don't get "excited" by it but I like to know what the forecast is, like to know there is a chance in hell that the forecast I am getting will be correct, and I like taking my own stab at with a bit of commentary on how it will affect goings on. Let me continue by saying, this week has sucked. OK, I know I live in the Piedmont area, an area prone to high heat and humidity during the summer. Hey, we get mild winters and the legitimate threat of severe weather (Tornadoes, Hurricane's, etc) are minimal compared to other places with a similar climate. This will be the 3rd or 4th day in a row that the thermometer has topped 100. I'm not talking hit the mark, I'm talking exceeded it. So hot that even with my windows down, the steering wheel is almost too hot to touch. I had some Nivea Q10 heat so much in my car yesterday that it oozed out of the pump, with the cap still on.
Now I knew it was going to be a warm one. Initially the week was forecast to be much like what we had the one prior and this upcoming. Mid 90's lows around 70. As the week went on, not only did they update it but the temps kept bumping up, and have been achieved. This weekend we are supposed to be back in the mid 90's and sadly this will be our "relief" for the next week as Monday and Tuesday it's supposed to push 100, again. The 10 day has us in the upper 80's the end of next week, and you know that crap isn't right. That forecast is only based on historical data for the date and has no relevance to what is actually going to happen. I guess all this will make fall that much more pleasurable. "Sweltering" tailgates in the sun in the 80's won't seem nearly as bad. I know I won’t have to worry about melting Bowman at least. Now if my grass would just stop growing, I would be ok. Mowing in this crap sucks. And for you people in the swath from Augusta GA through Fayetteville NC, I know, you have it even worse but you knew this going in.

Kinda Sad

2007-08-01T23:54:00.001-04:00

I jsut watched 40 yo Virgin for the first time. Laughed my ass off and wish I would have seen it earlier. This isn't the sad part. I can understand half what the character was thinking. Sad...really, really, sad.

Not Gonna Do It

2007-07-29T20:05:00.000-04:00

So, with the new job and everything I've decided I would be making some home improvements. I have quite a list including cutting in a new landscaping bed in the back and transplanting the front bushes to back there this fall and putting some new stuff in the front. Most of the changes will be on the inside though. I've already installed some of the Rubbermaid rods in the garage and moved the shelving around. Inside the house I have a plan that will probably take several months to move through. Cabinet hardware has been replaced in the kitchen and I plan to switch out all the knobs throughout the house going from teh old cheap looking brass look to the more up to date brushed nickle. There will also be some lighting changes sticking with darker metal theme. Skippy's old room is being turned into the "Man Room" that will be for fun and games including darts and foosball. The formal living room will become a sitting room with a couple comfortable chairs, bookshelf and the bar. Some of the most noticable adjustments will be with regards to paiting though. The kitchen. living room, maybe sitting room, and the man room are all getting fresh coats. To see what kind of skills I have, I began work on the man room this weekend. It's getting an Orange and Purple theme to go with the Clemson and some UT pictures that will be in this room. Took a couple hours to tape off the windows, doors, outlets (after removing cover plates of course) and intersection with the ceilings and other walls. I've put two coats on both walls. The colors look good, the workmanship sucks. If you get up close, especially to anywhere that required detail work using and edger foam or foam brush and there are clots, small run lines, and just not an overall good looking detail job. Becasue the room will probably not see many if any women, I'm not going to worry about though I have no clue what it's gonna look like when the tape comes off. Since most of this is detail work high against the ceiling or only noticable up close the hell with it. However, knowing I've spent a fair amount of time, and more than expected cash to get these results you can bet your ass Mexicans will be hired out to take care of all the stuff downstairs. It's gonna cost me a little but I should be able to leave in the morning and come home with a painted house once I figure out what the sitting room will get and who the best option to use will be. Why didn't someone warn me before. Wait, they did, and I was a dumbass and didn't listen.

Add...I just did some more finishing touches type stuff like giving the dart board backing a coat of orange to match. That was a disaster trying to get all the edges before it went on the wall then watching the plastic drop cloth stick and smear. I f'ing hate painting. This shit better me in decent shape when I pull the tape. I have a feeling I will have a little sanding and some more touch up to do this week to get some serious streaks out but after that, I'm paying someone to the other room fo sho!

Tasty

2007-07-10T21:29:00.001-04:00

I just had a four scoop reminder of why I love Bryers Rocky Road ice cream. It's great. Go buy some and enjoy yourself. That is all.

New Start

2007-07-10T19:55:00.000-04:00

Well, the new job has officially started. I received my new work computer this morning and am trying to get all the proper software loaded while fighting the corporate red tape for a phone, straightening out my benefits packages, I've already started learning plenty. I knew I would be thrown into the mix immediately but reviewing final submittals for the new Wachovia High Rise that is under construction, is a bit more than I was expecting in the first two days. I have great accounts both with engineers and contractors in the Charlotte market and I'm looking forward to the added responsibility. I'll keep things up to date as things move along. Not many exciting things to report at this point otherwise. About two months until football season so the stories are just down the road I'm sure. Oh yeah, the boat did crap out in the middle of the lake last weekend but I was pulling up next to a freind and was close to the ramp so getting back in was easy and uneventful. The question is whether I bother fixing it.

Sorry Kids

2007-06-24T22:33:00.000-04:00

OK, it's been quite a while since I blogged. A bunch going on so if you think some of this stuff is worthy of longer posts, let me know and I will expand my ramblings.

First the work stuff. My last day wasn't the 19th as the expected. It ended up being this past Friday the 22nd. Things were delayed due to a death in the family (thanks for the messages and condolences from those that knew) I had to back things up a few days as I was in WV most of the week prior to this past. I had my exit interview on Wednesday. It didn't have nearly the fireworks I was expecting. Spoke with my boss about an hour and half over lunch. He had previously heard most of what I had to say over the past few months from me so it wasn't a ton of surprises. Stayed pretty busy all week but I think I was as professional as possible and left them in pretty decent shape with regards to my accounts.

I'll be "unemployed" until July 9th. Will be spending most of the week of the 4th in Florida with family. I'm looking forward to that as well as getting some stuff done around here in the mean time. Probably spend a day or two in TN as well.

Speaking of family, I was looking through some of my sisters pictures on Facebook today. Since she is college bound later this summer she got her account set up. In the pictures is a shot of my 12 yr/old brother with a traditional pyramid as seen in beer pong in front of him. I know he had seen it at a tailgate with us old fogies but wow. He looked a little glazed but I doubt my sister would have let him partake. It's just weird seeing a him playing this at my parents house

Done and Done

2007-06-06T08:28:00.000-04:00

I turned in my official two week notice yesterday afternoon to my boss Rick who is the company President and heir apparent to his father. It was twice as smooth as I imagined it would be. I was not counter offered which was a pleasant surprise. I expected it but I also think it is a move of desperation. To borrow a phrase from Nobrainer, "Desperation is a stinky colgne." With this in mind I was extremely pleased to not have to deal with it and proud my boss didn't go that route. This occured between 5:30 and 6 last night. This morning we told Richard (Rick's dad and the CEO). He was shocked and disappointed that I would be leaving. Rick was also disappointed but not nearly as shocked. I have a feeling this stems from a fear he has had over the past year or two (he expressed this concern) along with the donscontent that I have been expressing from time to time and my curiosity in leaving this office for another one in the company. I will be having an exit interview sometime this week over lunch. I really don't want to sling any mud or say something taht could jeopardize a good working relationship moving forward but I think if their are any fireworks, that's when they will happen.

Go Time

2007-06-05T16:04:00.000-04:00

It's go time as in I'm gone. Details to follow.

What's Wrong Here?

2007-06-01T11:00:00.000-04:00

We've had two temp's in our office helping with phones and some secretarial work this week due to family illness issues keeping some of our normal support staff out. The first one sucked so I don't care that she didn't come back. No surprise. The other is here and owrking up front. I think she is different from the one yesterday. I didn't pay enough attention to lock in what the other one looked like other than she had one of those funny pull over hair do's with the hair on the "pulled from side" cut really close. Anyway, the one here today is driving a Mercedes ML type SUV. It sports a vaniety tag reading "BlkBarbie." I kid you not. Obviosuly not mom or dad's car. I jsut wanna know how payments are taken care of on a temp workers payroll unless she is doing this to fill time between normal jobs or works like 18 hours a day doing other stuff too. I thought I had de-senstized myself to stuff like this but I was shaking my head again this morning, so I guess not. Doesn't "that" Barbie have a name anyway?

***********UPDATE****************
I officially feel like a fool. I overheard an introduction of the the temp from last week to the lady she was in for this morning. She was brought in as our regular person was iffy depedning on her husbands health after the weekend. Anyway, the temp apparently has served time in Iraq with our armed forces. To what extent and in what role, I don't know, but either way I should maybe not be so quick to judge in the future. It's something I do, I know it, and this time it made me the fool....again.

Ouch

2007-05-25T13:04:00.000-04:00

My face and brain hurt. Out of four of us who drank heavily, we went "0-fer" with regards to making it to work on time today. If I hadn't awakened to the sound of Mexican's building houses behind my friends place, there is a good chance I would still be asleep. Still uncertain if I slept somewhere other than a bed for any length of time. I didn't crap myself, but I missed a damn good opportunity. That is all.

Countdown to Begin

2007-05-23T13:30:00.000-04:00

According to a phone call I just received I will be receiving a formal offer from York/Johnson Controls in the coming days. Once this offer is officially received I will hasten my current withdrawl from current employment. Unless a mighty stout offer is also received in the coming days for a sales position based in Richmond involving coal and material handling systems for industrial and utility (power production) facilities, I plan to stay put in Charlotte and start playing ball with the big boys. Getting into the corporate world should also give me the chance to move up the ladder should it be the thing for me and my skills allow for it. I'm just excited that I get to move into more of a truly technical sales position, or so the plan goes.

Chess Match

2007-05-17T17:53:00.000-04:00

Well, I think the chess match has officially started. My boss randomly sauntered into my office about 5:45 this evening while I was finishing up a quote. A fair amount of evenings, he or I am already gone. He asked about the Columbia thing and I said that I just don't want to go. Said I had thought about it a lot. The market is what I am looking for (no BS) but I just don't like the town. Said I had spent some time there and tried to give it another shot but I just don't like it. Most of which is the god's honest truth. Needless to say it caught him off guard. He wondered if I had been going down there or thought about getting in that groove. My answer was the above. He said he had to go but we would talk more about it later. So now what. I am supposed to have some finality on two options in the next week. The third is out there and Career Builder has all my info and I have shot my resume out to a few local corporations in the Fortune 500. If I wanted to do insurance he would be a piece of cake. Since the resume has been up they have emailed me a ton and called a few times. They make telemarketers peons on the scale of annoying people.
Sounds like I need to throw the strategery gear into 5th and figure out a plan. Hopefully I can sneak my Bishop around before the King rallies his knights and pawns.
Stayed tuned, conversation may get interesting for a change.
but for now...it's time to get out of here and go have a beer or three downtown.

Business and Women

2007-04-27T09:08:00.000-04:00

I've come to the conclusion that businesses are like women. They talk and talk and talk about what they want to do and what they would like to see happen and then they don't make a frigging decision FOR-E-VER. Please people, for the love of god and all things sacred, make up your mind and let me know your decision! In the mean time, the folks over at Tums thank you.

Go For It!

2007-04-17T23:12:00.000-04:00

Run for President, Nancy Boy, and see what happens. At least it's cheap to give Obama a buzz cut. Further proof that most dems have no freaking clue how to do anything but spend more of the taxpayers dough.

Updates

2007-03-20T13:14:00.000-04:00

I'm going to Richmond on Thursday afternoon. Should be a good trip. Dinner that night and something formal the next morning or so the story goes. I am also supposed to have a formal interview next week in town with a major equipment and controls provider. Columbia and the contracting position in Charlotte are still viable options at this time as well. Hopefully I'll have more direction this time next week. Until Thursday I'll have to continue BSing my bosses as they know I am going to Richmond thanks to Terry "Captain Fuckup" Haywood in my office.

Poot coined a term "Haywooded" about 18 months ago. It's when you get screwed by Terry. Often times he knows this has happened after the fact at best but doesn't realize he is screwing you in the process of the event. Sadly, even afterwards, he doesn't always realize it. In this instance, only I know I am an getting screwed and can't really get any understanding out of other folks I work with. Anyway, since he has known I was going to be out of the office he has mentioned it in front of Richard (the big boss) on the way to lunch yesterday, then again in our weekly meeting this morning in front of both Rick and Richard. Both Rick and Richard are going to be gone Friday (Rick for the rest of the week). They asked where I was going to be so I had to give them a story and flat out said Richmond but used family as an excuse. I had to be sure I had something worthy of being gone on short notice. They don't care to have Terry as the only sales person here and have even had me come back from work trips a day ahead of them to hold down the office after Terry has been left alone as the only commercial sales person (Charlie, the old industrial specialist doesn't count) for more than a day or two. With this in mind, I didn't want them to have any reason to ask me not to leave. Anyway, I BS'ed the family thing like it was my dad's request. I'm just hoping karma doesn't bite my ass. I do have an aunt in Richmond and my dad is the one that put me in touch with the right folks for this possible opportunity. Not all my story is crap, fortunately. And I may try and have lunch with my Aunt on Friday.
I am also hoping my reasons for going have been enough not to raise suspicion nor generate anymore questions. Had it not been for Captain Fuckup, Rick would have left for the week without realizing I would be gone later too and the likelihood of Richard even realizing would have been slim. Now I just have to find a good story for my return and the family stuff I was doing come Monday. Let's just hope the interview goes so well, I am convinced it is a good idea or that it doesn't work to the point I can chalk it up to time wasted and that going was good learning experience.

CEO

2007-03-06T10:18:00.000-05:00

We've all seen those cheesy sayings, especially on shirts. Thing's like "The only problem with winning the rat race is you're still a rat." and "You are the CEO of your life." I'm sure someone who reads this has a parent with a shirt or note pad with emblazoned upon it. If you have this(and are under 50) you shold be shot to help rid the world of lameness.
Anyway, with all that is going on I've decided to have one of those CEO moments. A plethora of options are presenting themselves but one that stands out to most is Vegas. I'm gonna let it pass. I've heard both ends of the spectrum on living in the town and there seems to be no middle ground. More importantly, the position requires a minimum two year time committment, in my mind, to really get established and make headway. It would be in sales with equipment I am not currently up to speed on so a product learning curve would occur first then relationship building. My gut says I'll be wanting to head back east in a few years. Some have voiced concern that I would go wild out there. That't not it. Being away from those folks as they have families as well as being away from mine is my concern. Doing something like that at a young age would probably be fun, no disagreement. Let me go be a facilities engineer and live it up then. Otherwise, I see no reason wasting the time and money a trip would consume for a position I am having stronger and stronger reservations on taking. There are options on the coast and I love nothing more than drinking and being on the water so I think I have plenty of fun options around.

Piece of

2007-03-04T17:42:00.000-05:00

Shit car. After getting jerked around by the morons at Home Depot for the better part of the weekend on an aerator that Poot and I were splitting for our yards, they now get to stare at my car in their lot until sometime Monday morning. The jerking around came as the idiots that rented Poot the piece of equipment gave him no instruction on the 4 different switches on this thing nor the levers. No operation manual or "quick start" sheet was provided either. Within about 5 minutes we had the machine cranked and within another 5 we had it working properly, and figured out how to control it. Finished his yard and took it to my place, figuring I would knock my yard out in about an hour. Poot hauled it up there, thinking he could bring it back, to the local HD where he rented it, and we would be done without any trips today.
Engine turned over initially then sputtered out in about 10 seconds. That was the end of any hope. Poot called the knuckleheads we rented it from and all they could say was "you probably flooded the engine, let it sit." They mentioned something about not knowing our mechanical inclination and messing with the spark plug but that was it and gave no detail. We had already "let it sit," which I did for another hour, then again overnight, getting no crank at any time.
At this point I gave up hope on getting my yard done this weekend. Returned it about 9:30 this morning to find out they were going to give us another machine for an additional 4 hours (not to be billed) which also meant I was going to have to bring it back to the south side of town today, not tomorrow. Fine, just get this over with, as little confrontation as possible, please.
Got my yard done, came south to drop it off, had a few other errands to run on this side of town everything is good. Jackass as the rental counter wanted me to back to the rental door because he couldn't come out into the lot. I was in the first spot in the aisle directly outside this door and wanted to do some other shopping after returning the equipment. With a crappy attitude and disbelieved look I finally back over unloaded and jumped in to re-park and get on with life as HD had pretty much wasted a solid 6 hours of my weekend already. Oh, and they have the nerve to tell us that we got ahold of some bad gas with the first machine as it was running fine after they drained the tank. It just so happens we never had to refill it as we were running on the tank they provided us in the beginning
Time to get moving on. Car won't crank.
I've had some power issues indicating the alternator was going bad, or at least had a bad spot. Occasionally it would clock and not fire the car but nothing too bad. I was always able to get it started, much like a contrary starter. Granted I had been putting off having it looked at, I really didn't think I was engaging in very risky behavior. Poot came up to HD, gave me push and I guided it into an easily accessible spot in their lot. In the morning, I will see what the dealership can do about towing it down. They will be fixing it either way as I am only a couple miles up the road. Should make for an interesting way to start the week.
Either way I am in an extremely pissy mood at this point, have an evening of office work ahead of me I had hoped to nickle and dime my way through over the past two afternoons and evenings when I thought all this other stuff would be done. Fortunately Poot is running me to meet Skippy who is riding with the fiance to work in the morning and letting me bum his car during the day while, hopefully, mine gets fixed.
We'll see how it all shakes out, the story could get even more ridiculous with a car dealership and their service department involved.

Update: It's not the alternator. Apparently my battery is shot and won't hold any charge. This will make the second battery in 18 months after the original lasted a good 3-3.5 years. While at the shop they recommend a transmission flush (at nearly 100K miles, I'll go with it) and a new water pump as mine is leaking. I wanna call BS on this but know better. I have noticed what I thought was a bit of an excessive condensate trail. I've had no overheating issues but better safe than sorry. It's gonna sting when I pull that credit card out. At the same time, I'm that much closer to a free flight outta here to somewhere relaxing.

Change O Plans

2007-02-23T13:42:00.000-05:00

So, as some (or most) of you know I am headed to Vegas for a "Bachelor Party" in March. Said "party" was going to be legit the weekend of St Patty's Day. That didn't work out so I had to bet and declare with a firm that wants to speak with me about a position out there. The weekend that things are supposed to happen is the 29th through April 1. A good friend was supposed to coming out that Friday to meet me after my day long interview. Turns out he had RSVP'ed a party in Tampa for the same weekend, many months back, and had forgotten about it. Not a big deal, I'm a big boy and can travel alone. My thing was, I wanted some folks out there to party with the other two days of my trip. Especially on my first trip to Sin City. I was also hoping someone who had been would be able to make it so they could point me at least somewhat in the right direction. So much for that. Now I'm to the point where I don't care who goes with me, as long as someone comes to hang. Again, I can mange on my own but a partner in crime is always more fun. Any takers?

Channel Surfing

2007-02-11T22:18:00.000-05:00

I'm not typically one for the awards shows but stumbled upon the Grammy's tonight. I was bored with Sunday night TV and started flipping chanels and decided to see what was on the HD Discovery channel. In the process I got the Grammy's on the HD CBS chanel. Initially I caught a tribute to the Eagles by Racal Flats and Carry Underwood. They had one award presentation then a 60's, 70's and now R&B collage with Smokey Robinson, Lionel Ritchie, Chris Brown and surprise pop up by Christina Aguilera. The music in both was surprisingly good. Christina was doing an old cover and looked good in some classy all white suit get up. More importantly Carrie Underwood (who won the one award I saw, Best Newcomer) was freaking rediculously hot in HD. These are the moments I'm glad I pay extra. Now on to the Military Channel to regain my manhood from watching this stuff alone.

Big D

2007-02-01T14:16:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so the conference was uneventful. I did the networking I set out to do. Some travling this spring may result from it and I will keep you posted if/when that unfolds. As for the goings on there, not as eventful as I had hoped. Our hotel was not downtown. Not that being downtown has the benfits it did in Chicago. Dallas is one spread out place. It was $15 no matter where you go, and that was without the $2-3 a person extra, above two in a vehicle. Most of the time boozing was spent in the hotel bars where a 16oz draft Fat Tire was $5.50 (I'll pay between $4 and $6 in Vail for this, or $4.50-5 for a bottle) or $5.75 for a bottle of anything else, including but not limited to Mich Ultra. And yes, we did havea female sales person with us drinking this. That's some screwy pricing, and no there wasn't a 7eleven close by.
On the last night though, I got to verify some things being quite large in Texas. At the new D bar, things were quite large. Double D met some double D's. The nice part was, unlike many clubs that I have either expereinced or heard of, interaction was allowed. None of this "Not between the knees dancing" or "Touch me like that again and your outta here buddy" crap or any of that. The girls earned their cash and whether or not you were allowed to "verify" the construction of the goods, you could without comment anyway. We'll say that was the best $20 I spent all weekend. Just $20 you ask...yes, just twenty in the club. When you sell a few hundred grand worth of a product for one company you get the occasional cover/drink/dance treatment and if you are really lucky, you may cram into a van with a dude inthe luggage area going to the club but take the stretch hummer home because you just don't want to wait on a cab.

Leave a message at the beep.

2007-01-26T12:05:00.000-05:00

Today starts my ventures about the southwest and Rocky Mountains over the next ten days. I leave in a couple hours for ASHRAE in Dallas. 2 days of sles meetings, dinners and hospitality suites and another day and half of product show and suites. The room ain't cheap but I am splitting it with a coworker. The flight is taken care of via a credit from a trip I was supposed to take last spring. It could be intersting. Most meals and some alcohol is comped but I am going with an agenda other than just having fun a learning this year. It's all about networking and getting my name out. Hopefully I will have some good leads when I return. Hopefully I will also find out if everything is really bigger in Texas. We'll see, and if i do, it will make for some good reading later on. I mean why not, it's not like I am going to have to deal with anything past the next four days.
I get two days to pretend to catch up in the office and get some house chores such as laundry done before heading to Colorado with Poot and a couple of his boys to go skiing. That is a straight fun trip. No doubt. Super Bowl parties at 9000 feet should be a good time. I would say cheap drunk too, but I know nothing out there is cheap. At least it takes less, especially when it's my favorite beer, Fat Tire. Can't get it east of the mighty Mississippi so I must enjoy it as much as possible while there.
If anything fun or interesting happens, I'll throw a post up at my earliest opportunity.

Beep............

Stereotyping....No, Not Me.

2007-01-08T08:02:00.000-05:00

As anyone who has traveled through Charlotte knows, I-77 can be quite busy. Traffic jams can occur at any time of day due to the city (and possibly state’s) inept at preparing for a growing population and the infrastructure issues created. Throw in that Charlotte is a distribution hub for multiple truck lines with it being an interstate crossroads and you can imagine the challenges on the roadways at any given time. As we all know, the morning and afternoon rush is going to be bad, it doesn’t matter if you are in Atlanta or Anderson. We have it no better here as you could guess.
In a rather quick manner, I learned some of the tricks for navigating the interstate at least coming into work in the mornings. Certain lanes move much quicker as they are not subject to direct merging on and off at the main downtown interchanges. From time to time to though, you get some real winners in these lanes. You know. That person that even in heavy, slowly moving traffic, stays back 5 car lengths and lets every Tom, Dick, and Harry merge in front of them. That same person that may pull up relatively close at a stand-still only to be the main reason of the snake effect once motion resumes. Normally they are in some clunker that just doesn’t have any acceleration left in the engine or somebody in an SUV busy talking on the cell phone (no headset). These are all stereotypical and it’s pretty easy to ID the driver type. This morning, I had the winner or all winners though. For starters, the car was a white Chevy Impala, government tags, and car ID number in the back window. A head silhouette was not present, at least not enough to see any curvature. No extra antennae present. The lag behind the car(s) in line was more than the usual 1-2 car max, and exceeded the 5 or so lengths I have come to sometimes accept before sputtering off multiple slurs and explicatives. It was easily 7-10 at any given time. Note, this was noted at speeds at or below 30MPH. You know where this is going. Automatically, I’m thinking fat black woman in her 30’s maybe pushing 40. I zip out into the left lane next to the HOV lane (this lane is usually slowed up by the HOV folks being forced to merge back in on down the road about a ½ mile) and pass them. Sure enough, I hit the nail on the head and to top it off, she is on her cell, no headset. I instantly begin thinking about writing this post as I cruise along. Typical Char-Meck government worker. Spends her commute on the phone then bitches about answering it when she gets to work, making sure that what ever service is providing the municipality is done at a bare minimum level.
Commute continues as normal. I have passed most of the main turnoffs where the bank folks peel off so traffic has lightened up, at least until I approach the lower side of the downtown loop where merging delays are common. I am catching traffic ahead of me with no one closing in behind me until I see what approaching, the White Impala. This crazy ass lady is still running her jaw and now she is doing 70+ and coming up quickly on one big ass bottleneck. Fortunately nothing bad happened. She got on the breaks, actually got in the quickest lane for traffic passing straight though and held her ground through the slow down without leaving big gaps. Who knows, maybe she got off the phone.
This is the kind of crap that kills me though. And I am sure it’s not limited to our traffic but damn. The sad part is, it takes about 2 seconds to profile the driver simply by the vehicle type. People can say what they want about racial profiling and all this PC crap. Until incidents like this morning start becoming young white men, I’ll keep calling it like it is.
Oh, and did you hear about the pizza joint in Texas taking pesos now? That’s a whole ‘nuther story. Yeah, that's a can of worms I'm not getting into this morning.

2006 Review and 2007 Predictions

2006-12-31T10:52:00.000-05:00

Major things from 2006.
Started talking to chic in early part of year only to find out by mid summer she is absolutely nuts. Liked a lot for a while. Communication with her is back but only as a joke almost.
Bought a house that most of the readership has seen as did Poot.
Finished grad school in June and finally got my piece of paper in early December. I think I need to get that framed soon.
Had a big ass party to celebrate birthday and the two other good things listed above. Awesome time seeing everyone. Chic in first comment was a bit of a buzz kill there but oh well.
Joined a social club to get out and meet some other folks since bars = talking to the same few people I went out with and spending lots of cash and having a 50/50 shot at making a fool of my self.
Sat through a football season with lots of hype and promise to watch it fall apart down the stretch.
Met a couple chics that I enjoyed talking to and spending time with. The one in Charlotte is a straight friends zone thing. The one in the upstate is really awesome but may never speak to me again because of the train wreck that was this past Friday night. For those details talk to Poot, Agent, or Jessie. I recommend the second two for a clearer rendition of the night. Sometimes you get what you deserve.
I thought I had gotten better about getting plastered. The reality is, I am just as bad about it as I was if not worse. Instead of spreading it out though, I throw several days worth into individual evenings and end being a real dumb ass. Effects are probably worse this year than in ones past as the stories aren't any funnier but the things I do have much longer staying power.
Married off several friends and watched another get engaged. Congrats to all these folks.

2007 Predictions/Expectations/Direction
Keep doing the social club. Will try to do some of the stuff that aren't happy hour and sports related. Otherwise my under 35 network won't expand, which it hadn't really been doing as planned. I'll probably get frustrated with is by late spring and say screw it.
Get more involved in doing things for my professional organization as I am in line to be VP then President of the local chapter beginning fall of this year and rolling through 08-09 on the time line.
I will be attempting to cut back on the booze. It's fun at the time. It accomplishes nothing. I'm too old to act like I'm 20 on weekend nights. Any help or friendly comments to take it easy will be greatly appreciated. Hitting be in the head when I take these comments as a challenge to prove I can drink more will be acceptable and is officially encouraged. Please have someone print this off as a reminder I said it.
I'll actually get to the doctor and get my body checked out. I'm sure this crap with my skin will be something extremely odd and will continue to piss me off as it gets worse before they find a medicine that must be taken 14 times a day to get better. Alcohol won't be recommended with it, which won't be as big a deal. Unfortunately, neither will be lots of summer sun without 30+ sunscreen. My pastiness will continue.
I'll keep being a workaholic and hopefully doing well. Little things at work will continue at piss me off after they build up in which case I will look into other job options. The likelihood I actually change will be less than 5% as I get away with a lot at my office.
I'll enter the 07 college football season with high hopes. The Tigers will find a way to dash those. Some one will be the new Proctor.

Keep on keeping on and see what surprises pop up. There is always something out there that blindsides us. Who knows what it will be in 07.

Mid-Holiday Report

2006-12-27T11:48:00.000-05:00

So this is how things have shaken out since the post last Thursday afternoon:
Got email diss from Charlotte girl and went to the party with Poot as mentioned in comments on the last post. Party was a pretty good time. Good drink special, decent music but low on scenery other than the girls that work at the place, which can never be complained about. Called to wish the other a Merry Christmas while traveling from one house to another on Christmas Eve. Rang three times, then sent to voice mail (typical when someone sees who is calling and hits the ignore option). No text messages, calls, or emails since, sent or received. Last night I drank a big glass of fuckitall and have said the hell with them. They have to make quite an effort for any further attention.
As a funny side note, I did get a Merry Christmas email from crazy girl from this summer. Apparently I am still in one of her email lists for some reason. I replied, more to be a smart ass than anything. I'm guessing she didn't realize I am still on that list though I haven't received anything in quite a while from her and she would peridocially send forwards to a large list of people. Anyway, referenced seeing her at a big social shin dig though I we never spoke. Wished her well and said to let me know if she ever wanted to get together or chat. I expect nothing more than a smart ass email from her or nothing at all. I have little desire to see her unless she decides she wants to prove some big talk in the bedroom from before. I really don't expect to hear from her at all.
On to nothing inparticular but at least not going to think/worry about where I stand with what was believed to be current options. Will laugh if I hear back from the crazy girl from summer. Any suggestions on how to fill some time this winter are more than welcome.

Confused...In Need of Help

2006-12-21T16:54:00.000-05:00

I'm once again in need of the publics’ opinion. As Agent Orange once stated, I live in a Soap Opera and it entertains him greatly. Some of you are familiar with my efforts over the past few months, some, not so much.
Quick re-cap. There was slump buster that most of you know about. She has not been and won't be part of any future considerations of options and hasn't been in them for over a month now. Her purpose has been served outside of being a decent person to hang out with in town with other friends present. These other two individuals of interest have been at least acquaintances since early in the football season. One, a person I met here in Charlotte, the other, a person I met during the season that lives in the upstate.
Breakdowns:
Charlotte girl. Cute, kinda country as she grew up outside Aiken. Lives here and we know each other through friends. We have dinner or hang out occasionally. Tonight possibly being one of those nights. She will randomly call without prompt and talk for 10, 15, 20 minutes or so. She has mentioned New Years plans and asked if I want to join her and two of her girlfriends. I have somewhat declined as I am not interested in the uptown on NYE thing. The last two years this has been attempted and neither has been a rousing success due to crowds and additional cost in comparison to a normal night out. She is quite attractive as Poot can attest. I can’t read her or her intentions. Though she definitely shows interest in keeping contact. Joining three girls out sounds like a sucker punch for a free sober driver or an attempt at a set-up with one of the friends. As mentioned, I can’t read her though.
Upstate girl. Many of the general readership has met this one over the course of the last half the season of home games. She took my extra ticket to GT along with MD and NCSU. We hung out a little prior to the USuCk game as well. I stayed at her place the Saturday of NCSU and slept on the Aerobed as I intended. She has come to Charlotte, and stayed at the house with several of her friends for her birthday a couple weeks ago. Contact prior to that was sporadic via phone and every couple of days while checking on football plans via email prior to her visit. Now emails are at least every other day and we have spoken on the phone in similar intervals, with time lengths anywhere between 10 minutes and close to an hour. I am not making half of these initial calls/emails either. I even received an email this morning after she didn’t get a chance to call me back last night as she was out late, asking if she could call me back this evening while she was traveling. That came along with the text message sent late last night indicating she would call today instead. She has no NYE plans and they haven’t really been discussed past the fact she has friends that want to do something in downtown G’ville and may possibly do that. She, like I, am not too geared up for heading out on NYE with the clustered masses and would much prefer hanging out with friends or a house party. The funny part about this one is she has told mutual friend(s) that she doesn’t want to give me the wrong impressions or that things are “like that” between us. My quandary with this one is I don’t know many, if any girls, that aren’t interested in a guy that make this kind of effort to stay in regular contact with them. May be it’s the time of year and she’s single. Maybe she is interested. I was filled on the past relationships the other night without prompt so I know she is getting pretty comfortable with me and the info she passes along. Now if she would just make her intentions or wants more apparent, I would know how to handle things and which way to go.
Now, here is what I feel my options are and I would like general feedback to he above, alternate opinions, or your thoughts on the following:

Option 1- Hope to hang out with Charlotte girl tonight. If she makes a special effort to hang out, see what happens. Push to do something on NYE or at least the night before depending on how her out of town visitor situation plays out. Mainly hoping for her to show her cards tonight and go from there with her.

Option 2 – See how conversation with Upstate girl goes this evening, and assume it goes well as it has been, especially after the wealth of personal info given last time. Parlay it into additional conversation over the holiday weekend by phone and suggest to just hang out NYE with her doing something low key just to have something going on.

Option 3 – Let tonight happen as it may. If Charlotte girl doesn’t call to hang out, I go meet Poot at some party around 9:30 and get my conversation in with Upstate girl prior to or on the way to meet him. Don’t mention any plans unless they are presented to me by either female. Assuming none are, play things by ear over the next week. Don’t bring up the subject of NYE put don’t avoid it, and be as equally prepared to head out of town or out on the town next weekend as I would be to sit around and watch football all weekend.

There it is. Let the fun begin.

Number 3?

2006-12-06T09:24:00.000-05:00

I hope not. Saw the crazy girl last night that I was big time "into" this spring/early summer. I didn't speak but it was the first time I had seen her out and about since I quit. Her friends that are so damn cool usually are having parties and I have been out of the downtown loop for a while. Presence was duly noted with an eye lock across the floor fora few seconds but no other acknowledgment or attempt to communicate. The only reason I ask if this could be good thing three is I had been waiting for this to happen at some point, especially with holiday social parties going on. I didn't know how I would react, had come up with some things to say, but didn't know if I actually would. Obvisouly I didn't. I'm not worried about it, and glad it has happened so now I'm not doing double takes when I catch a red head out of the corner of my eye. I thought it would be more of a bumping into her kind of thing in, forced contact and forced speaking but am the encounter or lack their of went as it did.
Now to cross my fingers and hope this was more of bound to happen thing and that my number three is actually waiting around the corner sometime in the next few days. Hopefully so as I believe these things happen in a week to 10 day time frames and that span will quickly have come and gone by the end of the week.

UPDATE: Number three has been completed. My class ring was found in Clemson by a meter reader and returned to the alumni association and should be back in my possession Friday.

Official

2006-12-04T14:43:00.000-05:00

We all hear about bad things happening in three's. Maybe this is a week for me to have good things happen that way. With a little help from Paul, I finished decorating Casa del Wha for Christmas (not the holiday's) yesterday evening. I must say it actually looks like we are adults and know what we are doing. No foam finger tree toppers (sorry Poot), and no beer cans from the tree. I even have multiple wreathes hanging about.
The second good thing of the week was my MBA diploma showed up in the mail at the office today. Classes, as you probably know, have been done since June for me. I expected to get this sometime in September or October as my paperwork would process with the rest of the summer finishers and diplomas were to be sent out. My name is due to appear in the program the end of this week though I don't plan to go through the ceremony and have another hot dog stand incident. After battling the admin departments in the grad and business schools, along with another office (registrar maybe) who swore it had been mailed previously, I reign victorious and without an additional dent to the pocket.
Now for the third thing. Who knows what it will be as my prior hurdle was reached over a month ago, thus being a singular event (which did pretty much happen in triplicate itself) so I have something else good coming. Tomorrow night is Second String Santa. A large sociallite shin dig in Founders Hall at the B.O.A. coporate tower. I am hoping I can hit all three over as many days, otherwise something good better come up towards the end of the week.
My confidence is high, which usually sets me up for disappointment, but hey, maybe I'm on a roll for a change. Stay tuned, blog activitiy and the fun factor may be on the rise!

Two Posts in One

2006-11-14T11:13:00.000-05:00

You folks get a buy one get one free day.

First: Why I hate USuCk. I had started to accept them. I even had gotten to where I hoped they won games when not playing us so that the rivalry would gain more national attention and have more bearing on the wide angle scope of college football, not just on a couple local recruits. But in typical USuCk fashion they are almost good enough to win some decent games but can't come through. Now I have to leave Tennessee at the absolute butt crack on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (tradition indicates I go drinking with friends the Friday night after). Also, we had hoped to throw one more kick ass tailgate for the last game of the year. Can we now, oh hell no. At best we can plan for a post game event but I would hate to plan a celebration for game that is always close, regardless of record. USuCk, get to do what you are good at and suck on deez...
Oh and Spurrier, you are a bitch, with a faggy looking visor. I hated you at UF when I was a big Vol fan. Now, I hate you the most.

I am headed to TN for Thanksgiving if you couldn't tell. This weekend is actually completely uncommitted and I look forward to it. The football games have been fun (though the recent outcome have been a bit rough until this week) but i am ready to sit on my butt, do yardwork only if I choose to do so, and go uptown like I used to on Friday and/or Saturday. I've seen most of this readership recently so I nothing big time to report. I do havea request for any info on the Richmond VA area if it is available. Just curious to know, will advise why later on.

Quite a Chuckle

2006-11-06T22:43:00.000-05:00

A store that sells new husbands has just opened in New York City, where woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates: "You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights.The shopper may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you cannot> go back down except to exit the building!"
So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door reads:
Floor 1 - These men Have Jobs.
The second floor sign reads:
Floor 2 - These men Have Jobs and Love Kids.

The third floor sign reads:
Floor 3 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, and are Extremely Good Looking.

"Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

She goes to the fourth floor and sign reads:
Floor 4 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Good Looking and Help With housework.

"Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!" Still, she goes to the fifth floor and sign reads:
Floor 5 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-Dead Gorgeous, Help with the Housework, and Have a strong Romantic Streak.
She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the Sign reads:
Floor 6 - You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at the New Husband's Store.

To avoid gender bias charges, the store's owner opens a New Wives store just across the street.

The first floor has wives that love sex.

The second floor has wives that love sex and have money.

The third through sixth floors have never been visited.

Just a thought

2006-11-03T13:14:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I get pissed off at people. When that happens, I think "God, I would love to beat the stupid/shit out of this person." Then I come to my senses and realize that if that occured, I would have to bury their clothes, and it makes me chuckle. Not currently feeling this but this mood/thought typically comes at some point on a Friday when something that shouldn't get messed up, does. That's all.

Damn it Paul

2006-10-28T13:08:00.000-04:00

I get back in the game and I have no one around to enjoy the sweet goodness that cracking a bottle of Single Barrell Jack Daniel brings when it touches your lips. Damn you Paul, damn you.

My Bad

2006-10-18T00:23:00.000-04:00

As with most of the blogs linked on teh sidebar, less Nobrainer, I've been pretty slow and boring in posting recently. Sorry folks. I've been pretty darn busy but no great stories have entailed. Went home, sister backed into the car but no major damage though the fam sent me back to Charlotte in a sweet ride for about 10 days while mine was made pretty again. Had dinner with them tonight as they spent the day in town and swapped cars back. Been doing some random stuff at night, working a lot, working on the beer pong table. Took a long weekend following Temple game. Spent Friday sleeping. Seriously, due to hang over, until 3:30 and not back to normal until like 6. Weekend was dedicated to doing a bunch of piddly stuff around the house. BAck in the gym routine. That's about it. Most blog efforts are at the Gnomes along with Agent and some of Nobrainers attention. This weekend holds much promise with the biggest game in the ACC schedule in the Valley to coincide with Homecoming. Serious tailgating will ensue. The reason the effort but forth for the pong table. Guess that's it. I come up with stupide story to tell over the weekend or some insight or why I hate the national media or why I think gas prices suck (well, maybe the first one of that batch). Until then, hang on for a few more days. Some girl may get drunk and hang around me long enough to make things interesting between now and then. Honestly, no one in mind, but stranger things have happened.

Will the author please come forth.

2006-10-10T22:24:00.000-04:00

I wish I could claim the following but can't. As one friend who recieved the same email has already stated, "We should build a temple to this beautiful, anonymous writer and all the truths he speaks of." I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did. It does hold lots of truths. Without further ado:

During my five-year college reunion in May, I snuck into my old fraternity house, which at the time was being used as some sort of communityservice dorm. As I wandered about taking pictures, a student approached andasked politely, "Excuse me, who are you?" Instinctively, I turned around andyelled menacingly, "Who the fuck are YOU?" The girl scurried off, but theincident made me introspective.

Here I am, twenty-seven-years old, with a relatively successful career,regular car insurance payments, and pillowcases that match my comforter. Yet at the same time, I can't drink one beer without drinking twenty, I can't converse with a girl withouttrying to take her home, and I can't even step foot in a fraternity housewithout immediately regressing into an asshole. While college is many yearsbehind me, vestiges of the experience remain deeply ingrained inmy personality. Welcome to the world of a recovering frat boy.

-Of course, I'm not the only one. There's an entire faction oftwenty somethings out there who live seemingly mature lives - but only to the naked eye. Take my friend Mike, a successful software developer in NewYork whose downtown apartment has actually been passed down for years tosuccessive generations of graduates from his fraternity like an off-campusparty house. Or my buddy Justin, a writer here in LA who is looking to moveto a new place - but has yet to find one big enough to fit his beer pong table. Unfortunately for him, "Hardwood floor quickly soaks up cheapbeer" is generally not an amenity typically found on craigslist.

-Recovering frat boys aren't required to have ever been Greek. In fact, theydon't even have to be boys. On average, every other Evite I received fromgirls over the past year has been for some sort of elaborate, costume/themeparty that reminds me of sophomore year. If you're a strong, independentwoman in her mid-twenties who is still throwing parties entitled Pimps &Hos, Forties & Hos, or Golf Pros & Tennis Hos, you are mostdefinitely a recovering frat boy. Dressed like a whore.

-To me, the phrase, "Let's grab a drink" is both the rallying cry and secretpassword of the recovering frat boy movement. For some reason, no one usesthat phrase until they've graduated college, and then they use itso frequently it becomes virtually devoid of meaning. If you really thinkabout it, you only actually grab a drink with about 10% of the people you saythat to. Of that 10%, most think you literally want to have a solitarycocktail and exchange pleasantries or discuss current events (thesepeople are often married or lawyers). The remainder - who you quicklyrecognize as kindred spirits - take "grab a drink" to mean "play beer pongand find that party where chicks are dressed as hos."

-Why is it, then, that so many of us, whether subconsciously or not,have adopted this quasi-Peter Pan lifestyle? These days, it's no longer, "Iwon't grow up." It's more like, "OK, I'll grow up, as long as I can stillthrow up once a weekend." I think the answer is simple: because we can. The world is changing. Getting married in your twenties is no longer the norm -in fact, those unfortunate souls who do are now outcasts, scorned andshunned, spit on and kicked to the side of the road by the rest of ussingle folk. And that means we now have more time to live our lives the waywe want to and, most importantly, have evolved the ability to do so whilestill excelling in the adult world. People ask me all the time how long Ican continue calling myself a recovering frat boy. Those people areusually sober and annoying. And my response is always the same: "Who the fuck are you?"

Thank you kind sir, thank you. And as an aside, my own beer pong table is, and has been, in the works. Much more than the Orange plank sited this past summer. It should be ready for Ga Tech next weekend if I get after it following the Temple blowout this week.

2nd Residence

2006-10-05T15:27:00.000-04:00

I've decided to invest in real estate. I am currently working on a 4 bed room, 2 bath chalet in the friend zone. It's quite spacious and will be upfited with the finest amentities. It's also easy to get to. I personally prefer to take the expressway. My decision was based on the fact I spend so much time there that just pitching a tent for the evening or renting from month to month are a waste. As most of this readership has ventured far from the friend zone, feel free to come back and visit periodically. It gets pretty boring here as there are less and less of us hanging out in the area these days. At one time Heilmann could be counted on to be here but he has long since pulled up stakes and moved on. I applaud the rest of you for getting out, many before you ever really got there.

When in Springfield...

2006-09-26T17:58:00.000-04:00

...eat at Doe's, as in Doe's Eat place. No this isn't an attempt to make a funny rhyme with the Simpson's Springfiels and Moe's. It's a little whole in the wall looking place in Springfield, Missourri. Looks like a place you would grab lunch at with the single guys at the office who wouldn't get vegetables if not for the meat and two place down the street. However, this place is known for it's steaks and hot tamales. Apparently it's a small chain in the south central (or at least central) part of the country. I think it's only in some smaller to mid-sized towns, not your typical high end big city steak place like Sullivan's, Morton's, The Palm, etc.

No steak (other than the filet's) were under a pound and a half. I knocked down a 1.5 lb T-bone. It was about an 1 1/4" thick and cooked to perfection. Probably one of the best steaks I've had, easily top 5. that includes a couple trips to some of the places listed above. Washed it down with a cold beer and lead off with a little salad and some hot tamales. Fantastic meal, and I didn't have to pick up the bill. God, I love factory trips. Night before we ate the country club that Payne Stewart belonged to growing up. They have a trophy case dedicated to his memory. That was a ribeye night along with some great appetizers. Those midwesterners sure know how to put away some beaf, I mean food. Well, to them it's all the same.

As mentioned I was on a factory visit to Loren Cook Fan Company. These people know fans. Top notch product line with one of the widest arrays of products on the market, great pricing, customer service, quality and reputation. Needless to say I'm about to bust one with the excitement of now being able to rep this company. It means good things for the Double D in the future.

Oh, and if you go, be aware they have a nice little downtown area reminiscent of Clemson. Reminiscent because of the string of bars that attract the college crowd. Missouri St. (20K+ enrollment, formerly SW Missouri St of NCAA B-ball tourney notability) is there along with a few small schools. Plenty of hot brunnettes, definitely the girl next door/farmers daughter types. Needless to say I enjoyed the scenery when we were out at night or at lunch/dinner out. The Cook folks take note of this and are known around town too. Everywhere we went we had the top notch/hottest waitresses and were taken care of right. If any of you have vendors that want you to spec/use their product, you need to find a place like this to go on a factory visit. Otherwise, get your company to buy my fans and I'll take care of you. Good times for a work trip, good times.

Whatown

2006-09-21T09:07:00.000-04:00

I’ve been meaning to post but have been pretty busy so here are some thoughts about things that I have forgotten, read about, etc.

First, Tuesday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day….and I missed it. I think we all did. I found a couple sites that talked about it. One had some cool terms but no phrases. Most we all know but it’s still funny. I would have worn an eye patch just for giggles at some point had I been warned in advance. I remember several radio channels talking about it last year but not this year. In honor of the day though I got me a cool pirate name.
Bloody Tom Rackham
Every pirate lives for something different. For some, it's the open sea. For others (the masochists), it's the food. For you, it's definitely the fighting. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham...blah blah blah.
Get yours here before ye get to swab the deck you land lubber.

Second, an article came out in my professional organizations email newsletter. The title was “Survey Says More Engineers Going Online for Information.” You can probably guess where this article is going so I’ll save you the details. To my professional organization, and I try to keep this blog PG-13 in language, I say with resounding tone “NO SHIT!" We should sign you up with the NSA due to your excellent investigative skills. I bet Heilmann knows someone they can get in touch with for a position as we all know he really doesn't design computer hardware like his cover job indicates.
Third, the same email also had a quick snippet about HP releasing a new engineering calculator that hooks up to USB ports and has all the bells and whistles. Surprisingly it’s the HP50G. 50 sounds about right as many of us had the 48G or GX starting somewhere around 10 years ago. I’m curious what this does to the used calculator market for old 48GX’s still in good condition. I really would like to get a replacement seeing as how I am still attached to the old one and it’s busted screen. Still looking for someone to sell one at a reasonable price.

Finally, I am headed to Springfield Mo. this afternoon for training and should be back to the QC sometime midday Sunday. Hopefully I will be able to get one last day on the lake. For those that don’t know Springfield is the state capital and about 30 miles from Branson, the midwest version of Gatlinburg, which is also known as Myrtle Beach in the Mountians. You get the drift so I expect to see some funny crap, at least in the airport. If I have internet access in the room, you’ll hear about it sooner rather than later. It’s a work trip for a new fan line. Lots of drinking will be done on someone else’s tab. It will be with old people. I hope to not sing Karaoke like my last trip to Missouri. My drunken rendition of the Chuck Berry classic “My Ding-a-Ling” was not too good but I still give many thanks to the Univ. of Missouri Co-eds who were kind enough to step in and sing back up for me. That was a funny trip but 3 years ago now. Wow, I’m getting old fast.

Fitty Cent

2006-09-14T14:56:00.000-04:00

Roughly the amount gas prices have dropped in the past month or so. Some will point to the decrease in traffic with the summer travel season past, others say futures pointed that way prior to Labor day, I say we were getting screwed all along. Nothing in Iran or Iraq has really improved. Yeah, discussions are headed in the right direction but did you see what Iran said today? "Things would be calmer in Iraq if the US wasn't there." If this isn't sneaky attempt to say if you leave things will calm, I mean, give us an opportunity to take finish what was started 25 years ago and raged for 8+ years, I don't know what is.
Anyway, that is another story, but as for the gas, I find it quite humourous. There are three gas stations at my work exit. At 7:45 AM they were either $2.59 or $2.64 a gallon. At 1:30PM they were all $2.49 for regular unleaded and the premium was down around the regular prices from a couple days ago. Just this week I think they are down between $.15 and $.20 a gallon. Rhyme nor reason to this other than oil per barrel has dropped. I jsut find it amazing how much they can drop this. We all knwo the basic trend of running up fast and cutting back slowly but to drop back this fast over a couple days? Makes you wonder how bad we are getting shafted.

Remember

2006-09-11T09:05:00.000-04:00

Most of you are probably looking for a recap of the Boston trip but that will have to wait. Today we will be keeping in our minds the events of 5 years ago when our great country came under attack by a radical sect of a supposedly peaceful religion. Never forget the events of this date nor the many events that occured in the 20 years prior (Trade Tower explosion in early '90's, USS Cole, etc) and keep in mind the common link all these events have. My senselessness will return later this week but today we are being serious in Whatown.

Chowda!

2006-09-07T10:59:00.000-04:00

This weekend bring on one of my first true road trips to watch the Tiger's play since fall of '00 when we watched a debacle at the hands of FSU in Doak Campbell then laughed for the next month as the voters from the same state couldn't figure out how to punch a ballott card, but I digress. True, I have madea couple over night trips to Raleigh but when you are crashing on a friends couch, is it really much different than going back for a home game and doing the same at a friends place in Clemson?
Big weekend planned. Touching down in the land of uber-liberal dems with funky accents and good seafood around midnight. Nothing on the agenda specifically for the day tomorrow but a Red Sox game is in line for tomorrow night. Tickets are around for everyone making the trip. Late night possibly planned following the Sox game.
Saturday is the main course with the BC/Clemson game kicking off about 3:30 on ABC so keep your eyes open for us. Plenty of tailgating isplanned for pregame. Psot game is still a mystery as who knows what energy we will have following the day. Hopefully a good meal in the Italian north end will be on tap but I have no problem grabbing some seafood on the wharf. We'll see how that shakes out. A good report will follow I am sure. Return Sunday morning. Early flight out, layover in ATL, and back to the Queen City around 2, hopefully in time to get into something fun in that afternoon/evening unless I fall on my face from exhaustion.

Labor Day Plans

2006-09-01T13:56:00.000-04:00

So, big weekend ahead I am hoping. Tonight will be strictly tailgate prep. Patting out burgers, getting the coolers ready and making sure the Jeep is packed properly with all the main equipment. Drinks will be had as the liver needs to get it's act together as well. The hell with a night off. So, all the readers of this little rag will alreay know where I will be tomorrow, so you'll get details on the actuall shananigans next week. I should be returning to Charlotte sometime during the 11PM hour. Additional Satturday debauchery is doubtful but if the heat and beer are not too draining, I may make a cameo at a party or one of the bars at the lake.
sunday and Monday should be good as a day on the lake and a round of golf are in the cards. I'm looking forward to this part of the weekend almost as much as tomorrow. No offense, but it's nice to be able to go do things near home form time to time as for a long time I would end up just screwing around online or watching TV/movies.
I think Poot is involved in most of this same stuff. He has been on a bit of roll in at least getting phone numbers of chics to hang out, so manybe I can provide a mode of entertainment if we can get them around. Here's to hoping he, Nobrainer, and myself have a helluva weekend wiht plenty of eat, drink, sleep, wash and repeat.

You can take Reality TV and..

2006-08-29T21:57:00.000-04:00

well, if that reality TV is "Dirty Jobs", put it on the damn TV more. I find this show to be a damn riot. Tonight's episodes included Mike Rowe (the host) on location at a Monkey Refuge while he is supposed to be off the South African coast filming something for shark week. Apparently they have Spider Monkey's at this place and lots of them. It makes the line from Talledega Nights about coming at Chip like a Spider Monkey extremely relevant not that it wasn't funny anyway. The other episode he was chipping hardened concrete from teh inside of a mixer truck with a jack hammer. This is a hilarious show as they only bleep the comments and don't completely edit out those parts. It gives you a true understanding of the pure hell that many of them all. Be glad you are sitting behind your desk at work reading this and if you haven't tuned in, do it soon.

D.L.

2006-08-22T17:48:00.000-04:00

No, I don't have any juicy gossip of fun conquests for the readers out there to keep quiet amoungst themselves. Sorry to disappoint but half of you would have received celebratory phone calls on that anyway. This is pertinent to my last post about the moron and the softball game from last week.
After hobbling around in a cheap-o brace that provided little actual support last week, watching teh swelling hardly subside, and more than likely tweaking it while buzzed with customers at a conference in the mountains the end of the week, I finally went to the doctor. The hell with the the family doc, I hooked up with the Ortho guys immediately. Sweet talking the receptionist for an appt the morning of the phone call was easily my biggest accomplishment here. Doc checked it out, thoroughly, took some x-rays, saidI had a sprained MCL, gave me a Robo-Cop brace and said take it easy for the next two weeks. If no improvement between now and then, an MRI would be in my future to check out possible tearing though he felt that was unlikely. So, I'm on the DL. The brace is pretty nice though and provides a lot of support but is a a bitch to get off as bending the knee that far is not exactly comfortable. Golf is still in the cards for Sunday. Hopefully enough progress will be made by then and the brace will keep that from being an issue. Football season could be humorous though as I will be sporting this thing at the first tailgate. I may be "That guy" in khakis and rainbows just to cover it up and prevent any cool knee brace tans. Until it comes off though, I think I may try and play it off, espcially considering I have a good sympathy story togo with it. Unfortuantely Poot and company lost the championship game I couldn't play in. It had little to do with my not catching and a lot more to do with our good pitcher not being on the mound and the backup getting shelled past the teams ability to score. Oh well. My days of fastpitch are probably over as I think I will stick to the slowpitch leagues and try and get on a co-ed team. I doubt any 120lb chics will be trying to break my leg...or at least I hope not.

In the News

2006-08-15T10:52:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting at my desk today responding to way too many emails mainly because it hurts to walk. Last time I checked going for the catchers knees neither constitutes a slide in the traditional since of avoiding a tag and scoring nor is it "running over the catcher" where you put a shoulder into their chest or shoulder in hopes to knock the ball away. It seems more like an "I'm a dumb ass and don't know what I am doing" or an "I'm a prick who takes adult softball way to seriously" move. At least he went out with what one can hope is a concussion. Now I understand we all want to win when we play. Guilty as charged right here. Guess I am more pissed off than anything. It hurts to walk as mentioned and not being quite the youngster anymore I have a gut feeling whatever is wrong with my knee isn't going to be healed up anytime soon. I'm just a terrible injured/sick person more than anything and get mad about it.

Well, now that you know why I am sitting here reading the news and replying to the morning email barrage, this is what I have come across. Is anyone really surprised? Is it really news? I can't believe (read in sarcasm so thick you need a steak knife) that people who actually made the effort to relocate themselves are fairing so much better than those who sat on their butts only to get stranded atop houses that weren't swept away. You can use all the excuses you want about these same people being far worse off beforehand, etc, etc, but that doesn’t mean you can't make a change. Things sucked where you were, you got moved whether by your own accord or someone else’s and now you are some place new which means maybe you can at least attempt a new start is it really any big shock?

In another story, unrelated but in the same lumped headline section there is apparently a charm school for men where you spend a nice chunk of coin to learn to approach women, initiate and hold conversation, and read their subtleties. They through you to the wolves after doing some teaching then the following morning the group comes back together for a debriefing. Oh yeah, and utilizing the affects of alcohol is minimalized though bars are used in the trial runs along with bookstores and other social places. Classes are in NYC, LA, San Fran, London, and Sydney AU. Great in theory but can John Doe function back in his normal environment knowing no-one there is grading his efforts other than the two buddies he hangs out with weekly that are in the same rut? I have my doubts. I am guessing the removal of heavy alcohol would alleviate some problems for a lot of guys out and about. That and women actually using body languages and gestures somewhere in between simply moving hair behind their ear and grabbing a guys crotch.

Sunday Night Quicky

2006-08-13T23:59:00.000-04:00

Yeah, so I spent both Thursday and Saturday nights at Poot's due to excessive alcohol. Stellar performance as you can tell. It can't/won't happen this week though as I am in the mountains Thursday night through Saturday for a conference. As you may have read over at the gnomes page, the beach held some of it's expectations. I guess that is it for now. Nothing big to report. No block buster ideas or deep thoughts and no antics that are unexpected or trumps to previous events or Nobrainers protected post. Football season is less than three weeks from now though so you folks know what that means. I am setting a couple goals though. First: To make all games other than FSU. Tickets are either set up or easily obtained for all the remainder other than Va Tech. Second: I will not "take a nap" in the Jeep or deface any of Peppinoes serving wear now will I do these acts in any other vehicles or locations. I plan to have my first "clean" Clemson football season. could be interesting, I just hope there are no Fun Bobby reprocussions from the plan.

Redneck Riviera

2006-08-01T09:13:00.000-04:00

Due to a NC Hospital Engineer Association Conference I will be in Myrtle Beach next Monday, tuesday and Wednesday night. Fortunately I will only be "working" about 3-4 hours each day. Unfortunately, I won't be down there with anyone I know to hang out the rest of the time. The bossman will be there Monday and leaving after the expo hours at 2. I havea room so if anyone decides they want a dayor two off to hit the beach or a golf course, let me know. I'll have my sticks. I don't plan on hitting any of the fun locations (Master's Club) but if I get bored enough I may have no other choice.

Today

2006-07-29T12:41:00.000-04:00

Last night I worked until 6 or so ended up home by 9:45 and in bed by 11. What a wuss. Today I have mowed and trimmed by yard and am watching Modern Marvels - Metals and the history of going from copper, bronze, and steel. My mainliness is returning. I'll pobably clean and lay out in the sun like a little woman at some point in the next day and half but don't worry, I have plenty of beer and Jack around to balance that out.

Isn't it ironic

2006-07-26T09:21:00.000-04:00

My A/C is out and I can't fix it. Just don't have the equipment to pull it off though through consultation with Poot, I know what the problem is, just not the severity. Good part: because I was smart enough to get a home warranty included on my house at time of purchase, someone else gets to pay all but a minimal fee. Bad part: I know at least half a dozen contractors that do both commercial and residential that would be happy to take care of my needs. I, however, was not given the option to select who comes to fix my problem (and possibly pronounce it deader than hell and get another half ton larger unit) and now have the joys of the dreaded time frame waiting on some rinky dink contractor to come tell me what I already know and probably not do a job worth a damn. So much for industry connections on this one.

I think Tater would approve

2006-07-21T17:40:00.000-04:00

It's been a damn good Friday I must say. The best part is the weekend is just getting ready to start. Didn't make it home last night as having had a few drinks and being kept in close watch by local law enforcement, I needed to stay at a friend’s house. Too bad the friend didn’t have mammories but oh well. Anyway, woke up around 8 grabbed a shower, didn't shave and headed to my first contractors office. Other than a bit of dry mouth, nothing noticeable about me screamed I'm wearing the same shirt I wore out last night and the same pants for two days. While there they kept making requests for me to price additional stuff on a couple jobs I am doing with them (first jobs with this crowd) which increases my price and profit while taking a little away from the competition that is already on the job for some of the same equipment I also sell.
Contractor stop two was to drop off some submittal and just touch base. Same contractor called me back this afternoon and threw a softball up for me to knock out on a nice little warehouse order. Contractor stop three was to have lunch with a new estimator/project person along with a partial stake owner of a firm that I have been racking up orders with. My big boss made the trip and they talked a little money. Us getting paid as a firm means I get paid. I like getting paid, a lot. I think some details were straightened out so I won't have to wait as long in the future on their orders hopefully.
Contractor four stop after lunch and I firmed up my first pool unit (think big expensive equipment) order, got my PO and released it. Got another little order while I was there.
Conveniently, they are just down the road from the DMV where I was able to get my updated license. That's right; to top off my day I officially received my driving privileges back with a little piece of plastic. Granted, there is a stipulation (1 beer an hour or so basically) on the back until 2009 but that's cool. I think I learned that lesson.
So to recap: Contractors are liking me right now. Battles I have been fighting on getting orders are being won. I got my license back with an updated picture even. I haven’t shaved since yesterday morning since I partied last night and still felt like a rock star this morning for the most part. The weekend is just beginning. And some advice to Nobrainer is making his research show some results. Awesome.

Done and Done

2006-07-15T01:40:00.000-04:00

As reported previously excursions to the North End (Italian Side of town) and a Bo-Sox game were set for Wendesday and Thursday nights during my Boston excursion. Planned and accomplished. Parking in the North End was impossible ( a couple guys had a rental car) but after 15 minutes of circling one way streets about as wide as my front door, we got a great spot (probably for local residents) within a block or so of many of the authentic restaurants and Hanover Street, the main drag. We were smart though and got off the main drag and found a joint that seated maybe 40-50 people max and had dinner there. Good wine, great food (I had my standard Veal Parmesean) and good company. Following we ended up at a place called Mike's Pastries. When in Boston, find this place if given the chance. AWESOME Tirmasu and tons of delicisous looking candy, gillato, pies, etc. Don't know how some of it would hsip but worth it if you are a yankee and yern for this stuff or if you are asoutherner and want a real taste of some of these delicacies for the pallett. It rained off and on most of the time we were out but our time on the streets themselves were pretty dry so that helped.
Thursday we were on a mission. Red Sox tickets were to be had. Of the 7 in class, 6 intended to go and three were able to secure in advance. The other three of us journeyed downtown via a cab to the T-line and on in via this route this time around. Snagged Right field bleacher seats for $50/ea but three in a row. They faced for about 23 but just to get to go to a stadium that old with that much history was worth every penny. Who knows if I will ever get back in there before a new stadium is built as this was my forth Boston trip and first time they were in town or it was even baseball season. Had a couple hot dogs, spicy brown mustard, relish and all, peanuts, and a couple beers. It was straight out of Field of Dreams minus score keeping and James Earle Jones. I was like a kid ina candy store. Got back to the hotel about 12:30 with plenty of picso n the camera phone as the digital stayed in Charlotte due to my lack in faith of fun for the week and inability to read an online schedule in advance.
Return trip was rather uneventful though I think I could teach whoever runs shuttle logisitics at the Charlotte Airport a thing or twelve. Class was good. Got to see more of Boston than my prior trips combined and now I am ready to start having a normal life less grad school here in Charlotte from here through the duration.

Not so bad

2006-07-10T18:25:00.000-04:00

Thus far the trip hasn't been too bad. Got a front seat shuttle ride to the hotel and had no issues getting picked up and getting out here. Dinner in the hotel bar was more than a little steep for a panini and 4 beers but it was expected. Thought there wasn't going to be any places to grab food close by and even more concerned that most of the other trainees here wouldn'tbe people I would care about grabbing dinner with anyway. As it turns out, as long as a couple folks are willing to split the cab fair, there are plenty of decent, cheaper places around to eat. Most of the people here are younger, including a pretty cool chic from Omaha that has been to a couple of the same sales and training meeting that I have in the past. Always nice to see a familiar face and a group of young folks up for going out at night helps the attitude. An excursion to the Italian northside of town is in the works for tomorrow, also helping keeping the cost down and getting some fun in with a good meal. To top it off, I can't read the schedule and the Sox are in town Thursday night and we are goingto try and pull that off. I may be broke at the end of the week but if I can have an Italian meal from folks who don't speak any other language and get to see a game in Fenway, I won't care, it will have been worth the entire trip. Oh, and the class isn't going so bad either.

Going to Boston

2006-07-06T22:58:00.000-04:00

I would write about the weekend that was, however Nobrainer has the pictures covered partially. References abound throughout a couple blogs I think, and if you knwo the crew on facebook and myspace then you have seen even more of hte debauchary. Thanks to everyone who made it. You missed a helluva time for those that missed out (not ro rub it in, honestly). If you want more details, get a hold of the right people and get the disk.
Mom is in to see the house for the first time tomorrow and I fly to Boston Sunday afternoon for a weeks worth of training that I am not so happy about. I don't expect us to have this line more than 3 years from now, it ain't gonna be a cheap trip (which I am partially responsible for paying on), I won't make any money being out of the office, and I am busting my ass to get to a somewhat decent place before leaving. Oh, and hte Bo-Sox aren;t in town not that I would be less than a $40 and hour commute to Fenway from the hotel to see them if they were. I don't even get to be a tourist for a day. Maybe something random will happen. Blogging will either be light or heavy depending on what I manage to get into and free hotel internet access. If nothing else, throw some crap up for me to read while I'm on the road.

Oooooficial

2006-07-02T22:43:00.000-04:00

Well folks, keep your ear open for the fat lady. Grades are posted and the Double D finishes with an A of all things. That's right, not only did I complete the progaram, I went out with a pseudo bang. Unofficial (but close enough) GPA, 3.286. Yeah, thats a good half point above Clemson M.E. Amazing what a couple years and a change in perspective will do for you. Most of you are here or on the way so celebration starts soon. Gonna be a blast!

Moment of Silence

2006-06-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

Former Clemson University President and 2 time football letterman Walter T. Cox passed away Wednesday. This link will take you to the details via the Clemson News page where all the details can be found. Many of you are familiar with the name as the plaza area we routinely pass through outside of Johnstone A and the Student Union is named in his honor.

Welcome to....

2006-06-29T10:21:00.000-04:00

Toronto, Birmingham, or New Mexico? Wow, sounds great! Oh yeah, we are going to continue to welcome folks to Houston, but we haven't figured out what we are calling this new/replacement bowl game. The above have all been approved by some Bowl Liscensing Committee to host during the following post season. This, on top of the added BCS game in Arizona and all the bowls I can't keep straight anyway as they all go by their corporate sponsor names instead of their traditional tag (It will always be the Peach Bowl damnit). My math isn't too sharp today but I counted about 32 games for the post season. That means 64 teams get to travel. No less than a third of them will lose money (ala Tiger to the Humanitarian) in this venture. More than a couple won't be able to pull a fan base large enough to see their share of tickets for the event, even if it is in a decent place. Toronto? Are we prepping some Sunbelt talent for the CFL? New Mexico, package in a January ski trip to Taos and I may consider it, or not. Can you say watered down? I didn't even think their were enough teams with winning or .500 records to fill that many slots. I think starting this year, I will not ackowledge any bowl that can't be played after Christmas Day and start whittling them down from there on merit of existence.

Class Post VII (The END)

2006-06-26T15:22:00.000-04:00

Well, Verizon has been a complete bust as far as being a news maker over the past 6 weeks or so. They did decide to sue Vonage, the internet long distance provider whose stock has floundered since it's IPO release. News of the lawsuit coupled with other factors has the Vonage stock tradings below $10. It IPO'ed at $17. The base of hte suit is patent infringement as confirmed last Monday.
Otherwise, Verizon is plugging along with little coming out abotu he NSA case hitting major headlines. I'm sure there is some other blog talk but unless it hits the big boards, I'm not really paying attention as it is probably hearsay or speculation though some good juice occassionaly does sneak out.
At this time I'm signing off as far as posting about Verizon for class. As it did spark my interest some future post may arrive if something really major hits but nothing on a regular basis. To those who found this blog via class, feel free to keep tuning in and feel free to comment. My antics can often be found here and the comments usually invoke a laugh. This class ahs slowed some things down but as it is my final hurrah in the MBA program posting may gain some interest and hopefully some humor as I get to pay attention more to the things outside of a text book. It should get good when they involve filling in the blanks that I can't seem to remember. As for the normal readership, you know what to expect out of me.

Class Post VI

2006-06-23T08:37:00.000-04:00

This post is a little random but does relate. The reason I began focusing on Verizon was the whole NSA mess that I thought was going to hit the fan with wire tapping and phone records. Needless to say, all the three letter agencies in Washington have made it "disappear." Well, at least until today. Talk about the media flare up over the wire taps will probably resurface with the announcement the government has also been monitoring bank accounts. In the wake of 9/11 and the fact that we can pretty much target knuckleheads in our country who are up to no good (see recent events in Miami) this doesn't surprise me. It's not like you and I have much to worry about....unless the IRS has a reason to be not happy with you. Anyway, I think it is good anti-terrorism practice and the reality of it is we are protecting ourselves and until the media reports these things, we aren't any worse for them or even affected. I'm guessing the banks will get to share the scrutiny Verizon and the other telecom folks have but don't expectto hear much about it for a while. At least once the new wears off.

Class Post V

2006-06-21T10:04:00.000-04:00

Verizon Communications announced a major agreement to help bring Public Television to digital programming. That's right, now you get Big Bird and the Seasame Street gang in all their colorful glory. I will admit programs like Nova and some of the other nature based programming will be pretty cool in HD. The big deal with this is the fact that prior to the agreement. those people on Verizon's FiOS fiber optic TV service did not have access to these channells and their programing. Though it doesn't do anything for folks in the Carolinas, large markets in FL, MD, NY, TX, CA, and MA do have the 400 channel cable option. This is a major achievment if you are a big Public Television supporter. Honestly, I can't say that this would affect my desire to pick up the cable package since my days of Seasame Street are over and I was too old to get hit with the Barney craze. Now if Ken Burns updates The Civil War documentary with some cool effects suitable for HD, I would be excited. For the parents out there, I hope this helps you in some way.

Class Post IV

2006-06-18T17:49:00.000-04:00

In an article posted at CNNMoney there is an interesting run down of "Old School" companies (Verizon falls under this as they are a conglomerate of formerly established firms) that are freezing their pension plans. Many of these are a direct effect of issues being encountered both on their bottom lines as well as what is being seen across their industries. In a big surprise, IBM froze their plan. Both Verizon and IBM are increasingly competing with tech stars that never adopted the tradition pension or benfits plans, keeping thier cost down. Also with the addition of foreign competition that already competes at lower marginal costs, companies like Verizon have no choice if they want to keep costs down and compete over the long haul. This occurence with the likes of GM, and the airlines is no surprise as they have been hurting for a while. Seeing it in "healthy companies" come as a surprise to many but shouldn't. If you are with these firms, consider yourself lucky. At least your parent company is having the foresight to do something now instead of waiting until it's to late (Delphi, UAL, Delta...)

CLASS POST III

2006-06-11T11:43:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in class, the newsi n hte Verizon/NSA fiasco is there is no news to report. I have been tryingto keep up with this and other thna the initial flurry not much has been said. I expected this to drag out as the government is involved but nothing has happened at all in the past couple weeks it seems. For those who know Verizon only has one of the main names in cell phone service/coverage here is a quick snapshot at some corporate info so you can realize how big they are.
Headquartered in Bedminster, NJ, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD).
Customers
53 Million
Employees
56,000
Annual Revenue
$32.3 Billion

This info is straight from the home page found here.
What you see aboveis jsut he Verizon Wirelss info. Verizon Communications is much bigger. Their numbers are here

Updates, sorta

2006-06-09T08:30:00.000-04:00

So another week has come and gone and I have not had much to say. Work is staying busy and class is on a compacted schedule so things are moving along and I'm just happy to keep up. Along with the crazy schedule has come little progress on the dating scene. Last Thursday night happened and was nice. An agreement that schedules suck and neither party (her more so than me honestly) has the ability to fully invest in it so we were just going to keep doing whatever it is we are doing. Buffett concert came around Sunday, TRAINWRECK. She was there, the Margarita's were too strong, I drank most of those, then it started raining. Dark, cold rain, all parties overly drunk. One big mess. All parties made it home by the grace of god. She had carpooled up with friends from her side of town. Since then, I have talked to her all of about 5 or 10 minutes. The mess of the concert has supposedly been forgiven/deemed not a big deal but her schedule has prevented any further visits and I have the gut feeling that things aren't ok. At this point, I'm going to just go with it, let her make a call on what happens next and start moving on and seeing what else is out there until she figures out what she wants and if I'm part of that equation.

Loooong Weekend

2006-05-29T23:32:00.000-04:00

Well, here is a quick update of the long weekend: Aforeblogged about dating fiasco straightened out. Was taken not jsut to grille out with the other couple but a whole crowd of folks, most if not all of whom already knew girl and were paired off. So, as Agent as mentioned, I was taken out in public. Another date is in the works for Thursday probably, then Buffett concert in a week. The rest of the weekend went as follows: fiasco scheduling began Friday, I drank a 6 pack of Bass and packed it in for the night around 1. Did house stuff Saturday like wiring the bedroom stereo (the old faithful set most are familiar with). Recaptured the apartment fan, and painted the ceiling of the garage. All painting now done. Went out Saturday night with a friend nad stared at lots of nice scenery at a couple venues in Southend and Uptown while avoiding Speed Street crowds. Yesterday, Coca Cola 600. Drank from 11:30 through end of race (you can take beer in) . Got seperated from the crowd I was with early as there were plenty of seats and the one I ended up in was in roughly the right area. Started walkin back to car after race, still seperated. Became directionally challenged but knew of the main road I needed to be on. Started walking and later jogging once I was on the road with only cars passing me. Cell phone rendered useless due to high volume of calls. Was picked up about 6-7 miles into my voyage "home" by one of the car loads of people I had been with, approximately an hour and half after race. I think I am now known as Forrest Gump with those guys. Home and passed out in bed around 1. Woke up with Wal-Mart feet/legs from the journey and took it easy msot of the day. Trying to swap out fans this afternoon. Would be easy if the existing one would come off the damn ceiling. Put up some window shears in the front foyer around the door. Putting an end to any voyerism. Any suggestions on how to remove the initial mount of a suspended ceiling fan owuld be appreciate. Thing doesn't twist and there are no accessible screws that I can find. Much more frustration and there may be a rather hefty drywall repair bill for ripping it out in unconventional manners. Heilmann stopped in with the Missues to get the car as I was about to leave. He was little lighter in step. I wonder why? That brings us back to the date thing and being in public. Typical Wha events already cleared for the weekend so it was a safe bet for her. That's it. Hope everyone else had a great weekend, all in all, I can't complain.

Try, Try Again

2006-05-29T15:13:00.000-04:00

Well, tonight is on after 3 reschedules starting with last Friday night. Grilling out with girl and one of her best friends and that girls boyfriend. Sounds to me like a couples thing. Does that mean we are a couple? I don't have a freakin clue but being brought around the friends has to be a good sign. Watch for an update later to see how things went. Until then, I have more house work to do though great strides have been made.

Alrighty then

2006-05-26T20:35:00.000-04:00

So, you can't beat a Friday date that turns into a Saturday date that turns into Saturday lunch that turns into Monday date. Yeah, that's fun when you are actually in town and had tried to plan accordingly. Stuff happens but damn. Oh, nad when you read this, don't think it became this wonderful weekend with another perosn, those are reschedules. I better get rewarded for patience in the not so distant future otherwise, I'm taking this show back on the road.

Interns

2006-05-26T09:59:00.000-04:00

I love interns. Not in the Monica and Bill kind of way. We have one for the summer. We had one two years ago but he didn't have much personality. The new one is a local Charlotte kid who is an M.E. at Clemson right out of his Sophomore year. Seems to be picking up what we do around here quickly, fits in with the craziness and wears Orange on Friday's (along with other days). The best part is he does my bitch work. All the little things that take more time than I have to invest but he contractor likes, he gets it done. The icing on the cake is we made him the Bojangles runner this morning. A job typically reserved for me and my hang-over Friday antics. He is still not of legal age however but having been in his position before, I have a feeling I will be taking care of the ocassional bee double E, are you in, this summer. Good stuff.

Class Post II

2006-05-24T16:51:00.000-04:00

As reported by a UK site Monday, Verizon is close to gaining rights to a 45% stake in itself held by European Telecom giant Vodafone. The deal is supposedly worth about $56B. Sadly, I had to go to the second page of google to find even this as hits on "Verizon" get lots of kickups on their retail online sites for various products along with numerous venues around the country where they have naming rights. No kickbacks on the recent NSA "scandal" and definitely no mention of it on their site. I don't think this is going away but until the accusers have some hard evidence I don't know how much we will be hearing. On a brighter note, it looks like they are coming out with some new Motorola. The QTM will be exclusive to Verizon customers and is "much anticipated." We will see.

Class Post 1

2006-05-17T14:23:00.000-04:00

For the regular readers feel free to comment or do the normal, read through, and move on. You will see the "class post" a few times over the coming weeks as weare doing blogs for one of my grad school classes. Now for the meat of this post.

As we are covering current events in class and how they may affect management policy, I will be interested to see how the NSA issues work out with Bell South, AT&T, and Verizon. Verizon today announced they were only providing documentation in accordance with the law. Bell South has made similar comments, leaving AT&T as the only one of the three to not deny some form of shady involvement. Read more here. Not surpisingly Verizon's stock is down due to the knee jerk reaction of Wall Street, however, there could be a number of hefty lawsuits regarding privacy from this, depending on how it washes out. I will be keeping an eye on things and posting updates and my thoughts as we go.

You got booted

2006-05-08T21:56:00.000-04:00

Most people are familiar with the song they play on American Idol when someone gets kicked off. "Bad Day" It getsa lot of airplay on the Top 40 and Adult Contemp radio channels. More than I care for though the song can be quite fitting from time to time. Suprisingly, since I have been living on my own for a month or so, I have been able to avoid that song at least once a week. Of little shock it's at then end of that show that I no longer get my dose. Don't get me wrong, Pickler was hot, dumb blonde and the McPhever chich is rediculously sexy but I just don't care for the show. Other than a couple Kelly Clarkson songs, what has it really produced? Not a whole damn lot.
Anyway, most of the last paragraph has been a random tangent not related to this post. My day has been crap.Stayed at the office until 7ish, came home and still have an hours work to do only so I can get up early and go back to work to get out this quote (that I will type myself, thank god I am one of 5 sales people in the office proficient enough to do so) but that is not the issue. Today's mail was packed. Lots of the nomal crap and some I was expecting. Of the crap was a Williams Sonoma catalog. Cool kitchen shit that I can't afford or even afford to finance. Pipe dreams. That was fun to skim through. The others, coupons. Not just any coupon though, 20% off at Bed and Bath. Not the crappy one purchase thing we got in the mail, but the whole damn purchase. Yeah, so that would have started offsetting the other. I won't say the number but let you math wizards or calculator owners figure it out. Due to previously mentioned incident, my car insurance is officially upa factor of 4, inclusive of my copolicy discounts, etc. The base was somewhere in the $400/6 month range. You do the math. So between the coin I will be forking out (expected, but not at this level ) and the coin I didn't save because the coupon vendors are about a month late (who lives without most of this shit or without updating if they had already planned on it for that long) I am not in a happy mood. I'm celebrating tonights glory with a tall Jack and Ginger or 5. If ya hear me, raise a glass. If ya don't, raise one to "Fuck It" or go away.

Oh yeah, and other stuff isn't going the way I hoped unless I got a really good phone message while I was posting this. Again, fuck it.

Had Enough

2006-05-05T15:36:00.000-04:00

OK, I've been relatively quiet on here for a while now. Posted some comments in the Stack, on the Hate Capacitor, and on the Agents site but nothing full blown on here. I've hear enough of this bashing of oil companies now all you Commie pinkos and tree huggers are gonna get it.
The prices are up, yes. GET OVER IT. Just because you are paying $60 bucks to fill up your SUV don't bitch at me about it. I am too. If it bothers you that much, go get a Kia Rio or the new little Chinese thing about to hit the market. Yeah, didn't think you would. You wanna know why they are making more money, it's a combination of things, so quit bitching about how you paying at the pump is padding their pockets and read on for a moment.
Oil companies don't just make three grades of unleaded gas. For example, everyone's favorite "crooks," "gougers," "thieves," etc. Make the following products:
Fuel for automobiles, aviation, and marine transportation vehicles.
Lubricants for the the same transportation sectors (motor oils, gear greases, etc), basestocks for conversion to other products by third parties, synthetic lubricants, metal processing fluids, paper machine oils, compressor oils (refrigeration), hydraulic oils/fluids, turbine oils (power production) and others.
Chemicals (now this one is very broad so I will hit the high spots) including polyethylene, plastomers, polypropylene, elastomers, alcohols, and products used for aromasizing and dearomatizing fluids, just.
Basically if it is a direct or by-product of oil, they are in the industry. Does this mean that anything that is a lubricant, fuel, or plastic is made by ExxonMobile, BP, Royal Dutch Shell or ChevronTexaco, no. They do pump a large percentage of crude from the ground and even the Dow's and Duponts of the world have to get their fix from somewhere. Even the smaller energy firms are getting their share. Take for example Penn-Virginia Corporation. The stock was in the mid $20's in summer of '02. Today it is at about $74.50 or so. This companies core businesses include oil and natural gas exploration and production as well as land management for coal properties from which they obtain royalties on coal and timber production by lessees. They are the primary stake holder in Penn-Virginia Resource Partners, L.P. who announced yesterday a $25.1M distributable cash flow in Q1 '06 up 54% over the same quarter last year.
See folks, it's not just the Gas manufactures making money in this industry. Take a look at any half way decent run energy company who is in the Coal/Oil/Natural Gas realm at this time. Profits and stock prices are up. They were in the right place at the right time. Many of you have heard of Hubbert's Peak from an article posted months ago on Nobrainer's site. This is one reason. It basically states that from this point on oil production can only go down. The last significant oil find was in the late 70's. Everything else is miniscule in the grand scheme in enabling us to match supply to the ever increasing US demand, much less that of the uber development occurring around the Pacific Rim (including China of course) and India. So basically we have increasing demand worldwide and decreasing supply. Last time I checked, any economist would tell you this means you can expect prices to go up. Unfortunately in this case, it's not something that can be righted as the market can't correct the supply side. Many folks say open Alaska or build more refineries. Well, have fun. There is a reason no one has built a refinery in the US in 20-30+ years, and the EPA weighs in strongly here along with the insane cost. Also, opening Alaska will mean that we live the good live for a little while and then we run out sooner. I'm guessing at some point someone in the middle east will get pissed enough to not sell to us. Fine, then we have a backup. Until the reserve is truly needed, hold it. Everyone still gets from point A to point B, our machines still run and every other product I use is plastic, was wrapped in it at one time, or has a part made from it. Apparently we can manage fine, it just costs a little more. Speaking of costing a little more, I have a comment on this as well:
I sell a commodity item, something that gas (since this is what so many people want to focus on) was. It quickly is becoming something much different. I sell many of my products at 15% mark up. When the metal markets went crazy a couple years ago (due to many of the same expanding markets) my prices went up. My mark up, by margin (percentage) stayed the same. The thing is 15% of 100 isn't as much as 15% of $125. If my cost is now $125, you are now gonna pay $143.75 instead of $115.00. So my cost went up 25% and so did yours but the volume gap is now $18.75 instead of $15.00 between my price and yours. Voila, my profits by volume increase on the same units sold, welcome to the wonderful world of inflation.
Is it unfair for the oil companies to make money this way on their many products? No! Right place, right time, barriers to entry, and previously taken risks in capital investments and product diversification covering a multitude of markets. Next time you hear about these guys making a ton of money congratulate them on a job well done, instead of chastising them, unless, of course, you've got a couple billion lying around to do some exploration, production, and refining after you've waited 10-20 years to clear the EPA and get your stuff actually built.