soccer, headache, taxes, candy

I went to my FRM's youngest son's soccer game today. It was - as I expected - a blast. The little dude scored a goal early on, then switched teams since they didn't have enough players. On his new team - he scored another goal. I was way impressed - his mom says he likes soccer a lot and is having more fun with it than basketball since he gets to wear his "fast shoes".

I also found out the my FRM's oldest son is going to have a child of his own. The little soccer player's mom was trying to convince FMR's mom to bury the hatchet when her great-grandchild is born for a 5 gen family photo - but she wasn't interested. Crazy people.

I got a headache yesterday evening - all the warning signs and the inevitable decline. I took some strong aspirin and went to bed early, but it came back this morning. It's been with me off and on today, but I think another nap might get rid of it.

I sealed up my tax envelops today and apparently just missed the mail-man. Oh well, Monday is soon enough.

Last thing, funny story... When I was waiting to get my tattoo, a woman and her small son were in there in the waiting room as well - I think she was getting her nose pierced. Anyway, I was folding some paper and he can came over and said hello to me. So, I said hello back. His mother called him back over - I guess she thought he might have been bothering me or something. She said to him, "Now you know you're not supposed to talk to strangers unless they have candy,"

Which I thought was clever and funny.

That's it for now... nap time.

work, taxes, tattoo

I worked a little late yesterday and hung around the area since I had two evening appointments - taxes and a tattoo. I left the office a little after 6:30 and headed over to H&R block to pick up the city taxes that they couldn't do the day before since their "city program" was down. They had everything ready and explained a few things before I left.

I did notice later a flaw in what they'd done. One of the city taxes was missing the w-2 since they'd give me one the day before and only had 3 left - and needed four for the 2 cities, the fed and state. Easily fixed, but it could have been bad had I not caught it.

So, since the tattoo place was right next door to the tax place, I was seriously early. Which turned out to be a very good thing.

The tattoo artist - Sam (samantha) - told me that she had tried to call me. Which didn't mean anything to me since I'd give them my home number and hadn't been home yet. She made a quick call, then started me on the paper work while she had a cigarette and washed her hands. When we were both ready, she took me back to the studio and made the simple modifications to the wrist tattoo I have. (I'll get photos when it's healed up). I paid at the front counter and got the after-care instructions.

When I got home, my room-mate was surprised that I'd been able to get it done. Sam had called my apartment and spoken to my room-mate - telling him she had to leave right then and wouldn't be able to keep the appointment. He said he would try to contact me by work phone and email - but couldn't guarantee anything. This all happened at just after 6:00 - after I was already on my way. Everything worked out okay -but it was a much closer thing than I realized.

That's about it for now...

fog, sinus, sick, taxes, elliptical, tattoo

I took a 1/2 day last Friday and - after my swim - got on the road to go visit my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and my grandmother for the weekend. I got there in time to have dinner at my sister's - she makes really good soup - and we went to their church for an Easter program. Not really my cup of tea -but it was okay. The only bad parts were the fog machine - which started at the beginning and did a number on my sinuses - and the woman sitting behind us that had marinated in perfume. The fog machine also did a number on the smoke alarms - they went off during one of the songs. At first I thought the strobe lights were some kind of effect, but it was just the fog machine.

I don't know if the fog was the trigger, but I was pretty miserable on Saturday. Bad enough that I took some Alka-Seltzer plus - despite the horrible taste. We just kinda hung out for the rest of the weekend - though Mom did take me to a scrapbooking store for some cool paper.

I was sick enough on Monday to take the day off and slept most of the time. When I was awake, I did a whole lot of nothing.

This afternoon I took my tax stuff over to H&R Block. My main goal was to get the city stuff done since that was the most confusing. Their city program was down and it looks like I'll have to stop back tomorrow. I also stopped to make an appointment to get a little work done on a tattoo - just want to add a little to it. I think they were disappointed that I wasn't having a back-piece done, but that's I want. I'll do that tomorrow.

I used the elliptical last night for the first time since the latest fix. It made some weird and unsettling noises, but it held up for the 15 minutes I used it. We'll see how that goes.

That's it for now...

dinner

Went out to dinner last night at Macaroni Grill. Normally, one of my favorite restaurants - but this visit was less than stellar. For one, the bread. The bread at the Grill is awesome - that's the only word to describe it. Say it with me: Awesome. This time? Not so awesome. A little overbaked and bland.

Next, the Simple Salmon. I'm going to quote right from the menu on this one:

"Simple Salmon: Seasoned grilled salmon fillet served with grilled tender-crisp asparagus and broccoli."

Now, do you see the words "Covered in uncooked chunks of tomato" anywhere in that description?

Neither did I, but that was the reality I faced. I was able to scrap them off onto my bread plate (since I didn't need that, clearly) and work past them. Still "tainted" my fish, but a bunch of lemon juice squeezed from the lemon in my tea helped a bit.

The server kept breezing past us, asking if everything was okay - but leaving before we could give an answer.

Will I go back? Most likely. The asparagus and the broccoli were good and the fish was okay. But I'm going to be more particular and insist on a really Simple Salmon.

I've got a busy and hopefully short day ahead of me - better get back to it.

shoes, memory, swim, book

I bought some new shoes yesterday. There were on sale at Target. That's pretty much it for that topic

I had a memory 'brown-out' on Monday as I was getting ready for my swim. I took my hair/body wash out of my back and set it in my locker - then looked in the bag and was puzzled for a moment as to where I'd put the bottle - even going so far as to think I'd left it at home. Then I turned back to the locker and saw it. Then I started looking in the locker for my towel and wondered how I was going to dry off without a towel, already dreading having to use the air dryers. Then I turned and looked on the bench to see the towel I had set there. My memory is usually pretty good - it was disconcerting to have it display the small failures.

I swam a mile yesterday. Wasn't really planning on going that far, but I was feeling pretty good and decided to go for it.

Finished up a book last night - and was very disappointed. The storyline was charging along, really a fun read and then the book just sort of stopped with huge amounts of plot unresolved. On the last page - "Book One of The Fourth Realm". It's a series? Why didn't anyone tell me? Now I've got to wait for the next one.

That's it for now... later...

dream fragment, idea

I had a fragment of a dream this morning where the instant a person woke up would anchor them into a particular alternate reality. For example, waking up at 6:16 every morning meant you were always in the same reality. If you woke up a little early or a little late - say 6:14 or 6:17 - you'd be in a slightly different version of the universe, but close enough to your own that most things were familiar. If you over slept until 8 or 9 o'clock, you'd be very lost and confused - same as if you woke up early. And you'd be stuck until your next sleep cycle.

Might make for a good story.

I also had an idea for a story about a coin that controlled probability. If you made a statement - like 'If heads, then the sky is green' and flipped the coin - and if it came up heads, the sky would turn green. Seems really dangerous - which is always good for a story.

back to work...

vending machine

I just when to the vending machine and tried to purchase a delicious Twix bar. I must have hit the wrong numbers or the machine is hosed, but I got a Nature Valley Oats 'N Honey bar instead.

I'm going to eat it anyway since I'm hungry, but I'm still cranky about it.

part, call, pool, alarm

The part for the elliptical came in yesterday - my room-mate is going to call them today to schedule an appointment to have a technician come out and get it fixed since he's off today. Fingers crossed that this really fixes it.

I was in the bathroom last night brushing my teeth when I heard a weird noise. With the fan on and the sound of my own brushing I couldn't tell it was the phone until it was too late to get to it. The caller ID indicated it was the landlord - calling at ten after ten on a Monday night and then not leaving a message. My room-mate had put a note in the most recent rent check about getting the blinds fixed, but that was weeks ago and not worth a late night call. It was pretty weird. We didn't call back since no message was left - but we may call this evening. At 11:00 pm.

The pool was quiet yesterday, only myself and one other person were in the lap lanes - but there were a few people in scuba gear. They were getting ready to cross the lanes to get to the deep end when I approached and I stopped and treaded water until they got past. This is not the first time the lappers and the scuba have crossed paths, but they usually have better timing about getting past us. It was such this time that I could yield the right of way and have a slightly surreal moment of courtesy.

Since it's spring break this week, there are activities on campus that normally wouldn't be done when the students are here. Such as testing the fire alarms in the classroom buildings. Unfortunately, I had a meeting in one of those buildings yesterday. The alarms were going off as I entered the building, which should have stopped me there - but the people I could see inside were far too casual for it to be actually on fire. I went on in, up to the second floor, and stopped in the most poorly designed restroom I've encountered.

The alarms, which had been silenced, started up just as the urinal flushed itself - which was a little disconcerting. I washed my hands and when to the office for the meeting - and had to shout at the poor office manager to get her to direct me. I found the office and we were able to shut the door to dampen the noise a bit, but it was still bad.

That's it for now... later...

fog, elliptical, mask, shelf, brakes, walk

It was foggy the other day - a consequence of moisture in the air and massive temp shifts. A little scary - but only because I've read too many books - and slightly interesting on the drive into work.

The elliptical is broken - again. This is the second time that it's locked up on me - nearly fell off the dang thing this time. So, I called them during their office hours and they said they had re-engineered the part and would be sending it out to me - and would have a technician come out and install it. At first I was going to insist on a new machine, but I'd had a long day and decided to go along with the story to spare myself the stress. Next time, refund. Which is kinda sad, that I'm assuming that it's going to break again. At least I got them to extend the warranty by another three months.

I got a chamois the other day when I was out and about - figured the lighter weight leather might work better for the mask. I tried the process again and it went much better. I'll let it finish drying and see if it holds the shape.

I also worked on a shelf today - trying to make the CD shelf a little more useful. My room-mate and I tried using a dremel and a circular saw - and got close to the width needed. I worked the shelf over with a metal file to try and shave off the last little bit to make it fit. Took me a while and the final result just barely fits, but I'm bored with the project and it will just have to do.

I went to get my brakes fixed yesterday - went around 10:30 to the repair shop. They drove it around and gave me a time estimate - 3 hours. So, at about 11:00, I started me walk. Headed to Lowe's, then to the plaza where the new Target has gone in. (Looks like we're getting a Chipotle!) then into Target and wandered around there a bit. About 12:30 I headed over to burger king for lunch - and they messed up one of my sandwiches. From there, past the auto dealerships and down to the bank to confirm that I wasn't going to be wiped out by the repair cost. Stopped at a gas station for a vitamin water and drank it on a bench next to a stream at the ice cream place. Despite the constant traffic noise, it was very peaceful there.

At about ten minutes to 2:00, I headed back to the repair shop in time to see my car being pulled out for another test. Encouraged, I sat outside on a picnic bench next to subway and waited. In a few minutes they came back and I went inside to pay for the repairs and get my keys. And then I saw my car being hoisted back up again. So, I sat and folded some paper until they lowered it and gave me the final bill. It was painful, but about what I expected and my brakes are in excellent condition again. Kind of a waste of a day, but at least it's done.

So, that's pretty much it for me. I've had to do a little bit of work this weekend, but at least it's been in short spurts. Back to work tomorrow - it's spring break for us, so it should be quite. And parking will be a breeze.

later...

snow, walk, paper, game, tin man

Big snow recently. Really big snow. So much that the university closed early again on Friday. I stayed late beyond the closing time to get more work done - and as a result the drive wasn't too bad. It snowed a lot on Friday and then all day Saturday - and I stayed indoors as much as possible and was toasty warm.

My room-mate and I did get out on Saturday evening - we went for a walk around the neighborhood. We offered to help push a car that was stuck, but the driver declined our help. We also saw a snowmobiler hit a snowbank and fall over. He was going way too fast and far too recklessly. He wasn't hurt, so we didn't offer to help.

We also saw a snow covered car with the door open and a woman half-way in and half-way out of the car. I called out to her to see if she needed help and scared the crap out of her. Apparently, she was just getting something out of her car and hadn't heard us approach. We apologized and went on our way. Didn't know we needed to wear bells...

Did some work on the paper preparation - and it didn't go well. I don't know if the paper wasn't strong enough or what, but it tore in several places when it dried. I guess I need to upgrade before I try again. Maybe resume paper...

I wrapped up the Final Fantasy game this weekend - the last battles were pretty easy since I had all my characters at a crazy high level. Great animation, but a little anti-climactic.

Watched most of Tin Man on Sci-Fi channel on Sunday - pretty good mini-series. I think I'll pick up the DVD. I also want to get the Hitman DVD that's coming out soon.

That's it for now...

car show, roads, flowers

I went to a car show with a couple of friends last evening. It was the last day for the show and we didn't get there until around 6 - and the show closed at 8:00. And it was disappointing. All the cars pretty much looked like cars. The trucks looked like trucks, the SUVs looked like SUVs. Only a couple of concept cars and though they looked kinda cool, they were still essentially cars. Nothing really innovative. I saw a touch screen display that mentioned some futuristic cars - so I played with that until I got to some sketches for a "no holds barred imagination" design. It looked pretty cool - and the wheels were just spokes! Looked like some kind of hover car or variable traction smart wheels or something. The final design? An ordinary car with ordinary wheels.

We were still there when they started shutting down the lights - I thought security was going to have to drag the car nuts I was with out of the cars, but we got out unscathed.

In other news... The roads this morning were terrible. Not icy, but covered in potholes. There are a couple of spots that are really bad on my way to work. I thought I was going to get lost in there a few times. And forget listening to a CD in my car - there's no skip protection in the world that could help with my commute.

On Friday, one of the student assistants that I work with mentioned that she was trying to find a particular flower that her family exchanges this time of the year. She seemed a little disappointed and maybe a little homesick - so, I found a design on the 'net and got some supplies - and folded about 50 small flowers. A little hot-melt glue on a branch from a craft store - and a small vase with some rocks - and it was ready to go. Should be a nice surprise when she gets in. I'll try to get photos tomorrow.

I guess that's about it for now... back to work...