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Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
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9:04 pm - I'm in Ottawa this week......
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Only it's Illinois and not Ontario. I'm here on business, doing an audit of one of our plants in Utica. I'm having so much fun.....
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| Thursday, May 28th, 2009
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9:06 pm - travelogue part 1, finally?
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| Friday, May 8th, 2009
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10:50 pm - Star Trek
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We went and saw the new movie last night at midnight. Which made going into work today was sooo much fun. I'm just getting too old to stay out until 2:30 and then get up at 5:30 to go to work.
The movie was fun. But it kills 45 years of Star Trek history. I'm not sure how I like that. Chris Pine in skimpy grey briefs was nice, although not on the screen long enough. And even though I think Zachary Quinto is very attractive, he still gives me the creeps from playing Sylar.
Lynn flies out in the morning to spend a couple of days with his sister and mother in Colorado Springs. His mother wanted me to come too, but I'm working tomorrow and Sunday. I also decided I should go see my mom on mother's day.
So it's time to go find something to eat, since we both have to be up early. I have a store meeting at 7:00 and he has to be at the airport at 9:00.
current mood:  tired
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| Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
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9:04 pm - We're Back
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We're back from the short trip across the Atlantic. Yes, as everyone keeps telling us, it was too short, but well worth it.
We spent one day in London and than it was off the Amsterdam for two more. We are already talking about possibly taking two weeks and getting a Eurorail pass for next year.
( Read more... )
current mood:  exhausted
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| Friday, March 20th, 2009
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9:46 am - Woo Hoo, Spring is here!!
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I'm really happy spring has officially started. Although it was warmer on St. Pat's day, than it is today. But that's ok. Warm weather is just around the corner.
Speaking of Tuesday, it was very warm out, so all the boys were out in shorts and t-shirts. And people wonder why I like warm weather. :)
13 days and counting......
I've said this before, but I really think we have become way too sensitive. There are times when I get really tired of political correctness. Yes, the comment last night probably wasn't a good one, but does it warrant the "TOP STORY" on every news feed and the topic of everyone's debate? Does it really need to have the president of Special Olympics making a demand for an apology from the White House? Come on, aren't there more important things to worry about?
There are times when I think we give words too much power. Maybe I just had the old adage about sticks and stones beat into my head so much as a child, I still fall back on it.
On a totally different subject, one of the managers at the store was fired yesterday. This individual was brought in about 8 months ago. One of these that thought their sh!t was all that. Ruled by coercion, manipulation and bullying everyone around them. Told people that he was a manager and they weren't so do their f***ing job and shut up. Well several people got fed up and sent a petition to the corporate office back in November. Half the store signed it. And there was the normal response of "we're investigating and as soon as we find something, we'll let you know."
After not hearing anything since December, HR started calling everyone who signed the petition, the first of the week, to say the matter was being handled locally and that they were closing the case. Everyone assumed that was that and nothing would happen.
Fast forward to yesterday morning when he was fired. But not for anything relating to his poor managing skills or the above mentioned petition. No, he was fired because he stole from the store.
I guess that sends a pretty clear message, you can treat people however you want, but don't steal from us.
Oh well, I guess I should get back to work.
Only 13 days......
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| Saturday, March 7th, 2009
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11:01 pm
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I have to ask myself, is it a good thing when you are in Starbuck's so much and always order the same drink, that they call out your order by your name?
"I need a Mike"
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| Monday, March 2nd, 2009
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10:58 pm - Reservations are made
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I just made my reservations.......
MCI - ORD - LHR on Apr 2
Spend the day and night in London....
LHR - AMS on Apr 4
Two wonderful days in Amsterdam....
AMS - LHR - DFW - MCI on Apr 6
This was supposed to be a birthday present to myself, but the tickets I saw last week were gone today. So it will be a couple of weeks later.
I'm already excited. :)
current mood:  excited
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| Monday, February 2nd, 2009
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1:55 pm - The Pony Express had nothing on today's Postal Service
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So I received a somewhat larger stack of mail on Saturday. Didn't really think too much about it, until I started opening some of it.
I found it strange that I was getting things, like the utility bill that just came earlier in the week, again. A shipment for tax software, that arrived a week and half ago. (That I had to reorder, because it never arrived the first time.) And couple of other items, that appeared to be duplicates.
Then I opened them and found they were all from November. A 10 week delivery time just seems a little bit excessive.
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| Monday, January 5th, 2009
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3:25 pm
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So another year is over and a new begins. L and I went out for A drink at Missie B's on NYE. Wasn't as busy this year, but still crowded. We only ran into a couple of people we knew.
XMAS day wasn't any more exciting. Which was fine with me. L ended up making hoodies for his family and several friends. We also made several batches of cookies to take into the store.
My vacation wasn't really a vacation, since I had to come into to work on 6 different days to fix problems. And then got told that some of the VPs didn't like that I took off at the end of the year. Can we say "screw you"? But I'm smiling, really I am.
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| Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
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12:38 am - Movies
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Several days ago, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kishenehn had an entry listing his favorite top picks for gay genre movies. There were several good ones listed in both his list and in suggestions in others' comments.
I think there should also be a list of REALLY BAD gay genre movies. A few nights ago, I saw one that should definitely be on that list. If you are looking for something really bad and campy, maybe of the a bad movie night, then "The Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror" is a must see.
I did see another movie this week that was pretty good. Not of the gay genre, but still hot eye candy worthy. I picked up "Wanted", when it went on sale last week. If you liked "The Matrix", you would probably like this one as well. Plus it has James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie. Both of whom are very nice to look at.
I also recorded the third installment of the "Librarian" series on the DVR, but haven't watched it yet. That was the movie that was filming this spring when I was in New Orleans. So I actually got to see a portion of a scene being filmed. Plus I got to see Noah Wiley from about 10 feet away while he was on a break, smoking a cigarette, and trying to stay warm between shoots. Hey, if he'd asked, I would have kept him warm. :)
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| Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
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8:41 pm
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I got up early this morning and made it to the polling location a few minutes before 6. The line was already around the building, waiting for the polls to open. And the parking lot was completely full. I followed everyone else around the block to find parking on the street. Made it back a couple of minutes after 6 and the line was already moving.
It took me about 45 minutes to get in and out, then it was off to Starbucks for coffee. The line was almost as bad. Apparently, everyone else had the same idea. Go Vote - Get Coffee. So it was 20 minutes in Starbucks and then into work. Ended up leaving work at 11:30 to head home and pack.
I was on the road by 2:30 and made it to St. Louis by 6:30. Even with forgetting that I-64 is closed between I-270 and I-170. Got checked in to the Hampton by Union Station and ran down the hill to get my fix. And what do I find to my horror? Starbucks at Union station closed a couple of weeks ago. The closest one is in Central West End. Which means I probably won't be able to get coffee in the morning before heading to my meeting.
Oh well. And to top if off, I just checked some of the election results and early numbers look pretty crappy. There are times when I getting really frustrated with some of the F'ed up people we have in Missouri.
current mood:  pissed off
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| Friday, October 31st, 2008
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8:45 am
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Ok, another trip next week. This time it's a meeting in St. Louis. So I get to drive down Tuesday afternoon. That will make Tuesday very busy, voting and driving.
The meeting will be all day Wednesday and until noon on Thursday. Then drive back to KC Thursday evening. Lynn said he might drive down and join me, it depends on what days he has off next week. But even if he does, this trip is just business and no play.
( political rant ahead )
current mood: pissed off
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| Monday, October 20th, 2008
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11:31 am - The Travel Update
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Ok, I guess I should finally post the update on the last couple of trips. Let's see if I can remember.
Rhode Island and beyond......
We went to RI the last week of August.
This trip was mostly "business". Ok, it was a 1-day seminar that ended up being 5 days total.
We flew into Hartford, CT on Saturday and drove to Providence. We stopped in Hartford and bought a GPS. Surprisingly, it came in very handy.
We went out Saturday night and found a couple of bars. Just to see what they were like. The one place was interesting. Apparently it gets quite frisky in the back corners. Although I didn't see anybody doing anything.
Sunday we drove out to Provincetown, MA. We spent most of the afternoon and evening wandering around the area. Then on the way back, we almost ran out of gas. There aren't too many gas stations that stay open on Sunday nights on the Cape. We found one open station, and the kid said we just made it, because he was getting ready to close.
Monday was a quick trip through Boston and then up across the state line into New Hampshire. Total state tally up to 44.
Tuesday, I had my conference and Lynn went down to the beach. He told me how wonderful it was. :)
And back home on Wednesday.
Ok, it's time for coffee, so NYC will have to wait for the next update.
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| Monday, October 13th, 2008
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12:52 am - I'm Back
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We're back from NYC. It was a very fun and busy few days. I'll update with the trip details, later.
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| Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
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3:34 pm
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I'm getting excited. We leave for NYC, one week from yesterday.
But things aren't all great...... Apparently, I got into poison ivy last week, so now my arm and face are all broke out and swollen. It's looks really hot, in that weird elephant man kind of way.
L and I have been cleaning for the last two weeks, trying to make the place look half way presentable. The week after we get back for NY, his little brother and his wife are coming to visit. And will be staying with us for a couple of days. We're still not sure where they're going to sleep. But somebody is going to have to share a bed.
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| Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
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3:56 pm
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I started getting ready for all of the upcoming trips. I knew there were a few things I needed to do, like getting all of the mobile electronics charged up, getting travel size toiletries for the carry-ons, etc.
Monday, I went to pull out the little IPod Shuffle I won last year and start charging it and discovered that sometime in the last three months, it must have fallen out of the pouch on my backpack. Where it happened is anybody's guess. So I was IPod-less. Well, even though I said I would never intentionally go to the dark side, I did. Went out and bought an 8GB IPod Nano. It's all charged and has 1.5GB of music transferred to it.
I was happy to discover something fun about ITunes. I have purchased a few CD's over the last several years that I couldn't play in the computer because of their crappy DRM. Apparently, it's not a problem for ITunes to extract the songs for transfer to the IPod.
In other news, I went over to Mom's last night to mow her yard. When I got there, I found out that it had already been partially mowed by my brother over the weekend, the neighbor next door Monday morning and attempted by my sister yesterday morning. The partial and attempted are because the mower died while my brother was using it. I guess he fiddled with it but had no success. I tried cleaning the spark plug but it still won't start. I'll go buy another and see if that fixes it, otherwise I'll be buying a new lawn mower as well.
I was able to get a lot of the weed eating and trimming done, that I haven't really kept on this summer. But I'll still have to finish the last of the mowing as soon as I get time.
She also told me that she thinks she may have cracked a rib while she was cleaning out her chest freezer. She said she was helping my sister-in-law clean out the freezer and was leaning over the edge trying to reach the bottom and had all of her weight resting on the edge. She said she heard and felt a loud pop and than has been in pain ever since. I told her she needed to go get it checked but she is stubborn and said even if it is broken that won't do anything. Don't know what will happen there. I guess if she finally gets into enough pain, she'll go and have it checked.
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| Thursday, August 7th, 2008
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10:18 pm
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I got an email a couple of days ago about another training session in Dallas put on by HP and AMD...... So Lynn and I are flying to Dallas the afternoon of August 17th for a short course that evening and returning O'Dark thirty on the 18th.
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| Monday, July 21st, 2008
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3:34 pm
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L and I went to another special preview showing Thursday night. This time it was "The Dark Knight". I was impressed. I think they did a good job, and I can see how Heath Ledger went nutso doing it. I did hear a couple of people comment that they were surprised that one of the characters was killed off so quickly. But, they are "assuming" that character is dead, they don't "know" he's dead.
In the process of making all of the arrangements for the trips to Rhode Island and New York. Since the RI trip is for business, all the information has been sent to the travel agent for her to handle. It kind of irritates me because I do all the checking work up front and she just puts it in the system. But I still have to pay a $25 per reservation agent fee.
As for the NY trip, I have the reservations for the show, and the hotel, but not the flights. So might ask why, and maybe I'm being petty..... L's mom and step-dad have offered to "pay" for the flights to as a gift. I say pay in that it would be using their frequent flyer miles. The issue, the only return flights that meet their criteria leave on Sunday morning between 6 and 8 am. I'm sorry, I would rather pay for the tickets myself and leave late afternoon, than be gracious and accept having to leave at crack-ass dawn, just to be cheap. Is that wrong of me?
Other than that, things are about normal. Work is work. The store is trying to hold it's own, even though we just opened a new location 4 miles away.
I assembled two new desktops in the last week. One is an Intel Q6700 with 4GB RAM, 1TB SATA drive, and ATI HD2600 graphics. The other is an AMD X2 4400, with 2GB RAM, 1TB SATA drive and on-board ATI graphics. Both have been sitting there for months. I finally had to build one since the system I use to transfer old albums to digital bit the dust a month ago.
Oh well, I guess that's about it.
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| Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
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1:09 pm - The next trip is in the works.
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So I booked the tickets for Equus last night. We'll be staying in NYC October 8 through October 12 and seeing the show Thursday night. I don't know what else we'll be doing while we're there. Anyone have suggestions?
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| Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
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4:33 pm
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Well, it looks like I will be knocking off a couple more states in my quest to visit all 50. I'm scheduling a trip to Rhode Island in late August. So I'll hit RI and Connecticut for sure, and if I have a little extra free time, I may even try and drive up to Vermont or New Hampshire. I'm only going to be there 4 days, and 1 1/2 of those days will be for work. But it's a relatively small geographic area, so who knows.
I'm currently at 40, so 80% complete on the goal. Of course my other goals are trips to Europe and Australia.
L and I are still considering trying to go to Manhattan to see David Radcliffe in Equus. But we may have already missed any chance of getting tickets. (Well, other than a year's salary to a scalper of course.)
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