might as well have been the smoking section

So, I go out to dinner last night with a friend and though we have requested a non-smoking table - we have to wait just outside the bar area of the resturant. The 5 mintues turned to 10 and the smoke started to bother my eyes and my lungs. Finally, we got seated just outside what I'm guessing could be a small banquet room - as far away as possible from the smoky bar. Which was great. The server came around quickly, drinks were ordered and delivered, and the food came out quickly. I had fish and it was well prepared and tasted good. Turning out to be a nice dinner.

Then a couple gets seated in the banquet area and while I'm pretty sure that whole section was also non-smoking - the guy had a cigerette out before he even got his coat off. Coffee was served to them and she started smoking as well.

Ten feet away - no obstructions. Before too long, my eyes were bothered and so were my lungs. I started to smell it on my clothes and skin.

Never having seen anyone violate the no-smoking rule in a given area, I wasn't sure of the protocal. Nobody else seemed bothered and their server didn't say anything to them. Should I approach them? Should I talk to the server or manager? By the time the manager stopped by to ask us how things were - and it was prefunctory question at best - and the server buzzing to and from our table like a hummingbird, well, it was really too late. I was nearly done eating and dessert wasn't going to be an option.

I guess I'm tired of walking through a haze of smoke to get into a building, of waiting near a smoking section, and of the annoyance in general.

Next time I go to a resturant I'm going to pay more attention to where I'm seated and I'm going to start asking questions and pushing buttons as need be.

That's it for now - time to get back to work...

small goal

I have discovered a small goal for myself - to use an entire tube of chapstick before I lose it. Since the tube is opaque, I have no idea how close I am to my goal. I'm only going to use a "normal" amount since it wouldn't be a realisitic accomplishment otherwise.

Hey, you gotta start somewhere.


It's another busy day here at work, so I should get back to it...

busy days at work, chewie gets a new sweater

Well, it's been a busy couple of days here at work. Thankfully, I have my Wookie to keep me company. Yeah, it's a little silly, but darn it - I need a little silly in my life.

I've been working on about 4.5 bazillion differnt projects in the past two days - along with updates to a system that take 10 minutes of processing time to complete before I can work on the next one. It's some kind of system glitch, but it really does take 10 minutes to process - I've timed it. Thankfully, I can work on other stuff during that time, so I'm able to keep up with most of my other stuff.

I've got some software to demo this afternoon - and a few more things to accomplish before the day gets away from me. So, back to work.

3 stage rant, the weight of time, Menger Sponge

Yesterday, while heading for lunch I encountered...

A woman meandering slowly across a busy street using a "push to (annoy) talk" phone with a hands free headphone. She was slow. She was loud. She was annoying. And, doesn't using a "push to talk" defeat the purpose of using a hands free? Don't you have to use your hands to push on the walkie-talkie?

The guy with the surfer dude haircut standing behind me in line to get food was standing way to close to me. I mean way to close. And everytime I would try to move away, he'd hurry and catch up so that he was wearing my coat with me. And incidentally - the surfer dude haircut is only marginally cool if you are actually a surfer. And buddy - the surfing here in Ohio sucks.

A trio of fools was standing and talking - and blocking the entire hallway to the main exit of the building. I had to push my way past them to get out. I should have spilled my drink on them.


In other news... I was watching a movie called Das Experiment last night. I've seen it before and it's a good flick. One thing that did bother me though was that one of the characters was just coming from her father's funeral. It was remarked that he was 65 and had lead a good life. I'm 33 and for a moment - the weight of all those past and future years crashed into me. Not entirely sure I'm looking forward to it. Feels more like something to be endured. Which, I'll be the first to admit, is not the most healthy of emotional states. Something I need to ponder, I guess.

Which I can do while I'm working on my next origami project - the Menger Sponge. Level 2 - I think. You can do a search on the web for them - my version will take 768 pieces of paper - I think. I may have done the math wrong.

If I go full sized paper - I'll need to buy 2 reams of paper. If I cut the paper into smaller pieces, it will 192 full sheets. At full size, I estimate the final dimentions to be around 27 inches cubed. Which is big.

The challange - which I've faced before - is not in building the units, but in putting them together. I'll most likely need to glue them - and that means no mistakes can be made in the whole process. A little daunting.

Well, I've got my canned goods to pay my parking fines (one can be waived per semester with a donation to their food drive) and a pile of work to do. So, better get back to work...

birthday, BMV, parking fine, cough

It's been a few days since I blogged - got a bit of catching up to do. The birthday visit went well, I think everyone had fun. My family got in a little later than they expected so we stayed up and talked and hung out. I slept on the bench that I built - which was not quite as uncomfortable as I had thought it would be. We did a lot of running around on Saturday and then had cupcakes and presents. I got a couple of CD's and some shelves - which we put together. We also made some paper before they left - I think Dad got some serious ideas for projects.

As an extra special birthday present from the county - I also had to go get my registration for my car renewed. The BMV I go to is quick and effecient - with reasonably friend staff. However, the fee for the renewed registration was $49.50
And for that I got a piece of paper and a sticker. Great. At least the echeck was free this year...

Earlier this week I had to come back on campus in the evening - in a differnt car than I'm normally in. So, I stuck my parking pass in that car and promptly forgot it. When I got out of work - parking ticket and $25 fine.

Now, I'm an employee here and I still have to pay to park on campus - a policy I've never been happy about since it was instituted. On the parking permit application, I had to put my license plate number and on the ticket they listed that too. So, why is there not a connection between the two bits of data?

I think I can get out of it - by donating canned goods to the parking services food drive.

Still, it's annoying.

And so is the cough I've got this morning. I almost wish I would get "all the way" sick so that I could stay home and people would be nice to me. Instead, a low level cold the whole winter. Great.

I've got a huge-ass and a weird-ass project at work. I'm pretty sure it's at least 12% beyond my current skill level. Should be fun - for values of "fun" that include mental anguish and horror.

Well, I guess it's time to get back to work...

cleaning frenzy revisited, video game, and an odd dream

Chaos is easy - order takes work. Not sure if I made up that simplified description of the forces of entropy, but I'm going to claim it as my own. My parents and my sister are coming this evening for a delayed birthday visit - and are spending the night. This is the first time they've been able to do so - since I really haven't had room for them before.

And living by myself, I tend to let things slide. Hey, I'm a guy, it happens. So, the past few days have been spent cleaning. I still need to vaccume, but that's about it. The biggest part of the work has been in putting things away. A lot of picking up things in one room and taking them to another - then picking things up there and moving them again. It's a little tiring.

I also beat the second xmen game on the PS2 (on easy mode, so sue me). I've started a new game on Normal mode and unlocked a few characters. To really get the most of it, you've got to explore ever square inch of every area. There's a map, fortuantly, but no way to see the whole thing - even after you've visited an area. I get lost easily - which is true in the game and in real life.

I'll wrap up this entry with an odd dream. I was in a parking lot, trying to get to my car, when I noticed a car that was driving eratically. The driver was on the right side of the car with an oversized steering wheel. Not bigger around, but nearly as thick as a tire. The passenage was asleep through these manuvers - though from the damge to the side of the car it was clear that it had been in numerous accidents. The driver tried to run into me several times, but I always managed to get out of the way. Finally, as I got near my car, the driver jettisoned the main body of the car and was now driving essentailly a long cylinder on wheels. It headed right for me, trying to pin me and crush me against my car. Reasoning that the barrel car was much lighter, I stepped forward and held out my foot as though I was going to kick the car - and stopped it. Then I stepped forward again and tipped the car up on it's nose. The driver was trapped and furious - but I ignored him. I left my car and started to walk away when I woke up.

It's too bad I'm not a better artist - I think I could make some of these dreams into a comic book or graphic novel.

And that's it for now. Time to get back to work...

under the weather, and a small chunk of wisdom

I almost called in sick today. Last night I has stomach cramps and a fairly intensive time in the bathroom. And no, I wasn't cleaning. Not sure if it was something I ate or just the latest in my winter long battle with a cold. The cold keeps coming up with new symptoms and I keep enduring them. It seems to have allied with my headaches - and last night was a tag team rumble.

But, I'm marginally better today and I've got a meeting - so, I braved the cold and snow to come to work. Can't really say I'm happy to be here, but I'm getting stuff done. Answered some emails - tracked down a problem with one of the systems. And when I say "tracked down" - I mean that I wandered around looking for the best candidate to fix it. The only person I could find was, ironically, the very person who could make repairs. And when I say repairs, I mean they could reboot the machine. So, problem solved.

I went to the student union yesterday for lunch on the first day of classes for the semester. Normally, something to avoid - but I went for a late lunch and the crowds weren't bad. There were a lot of people there and most seemed to be wandering around. Some of that is "new students" - a group that is, collectively, always slightly lost. And it's to be expected - they're new.

But there was also a group that - in some difficult to define way - was moving randomly, but with purpose. It was like they knew where they were going, but they didn't actually care about arriving there. There was also a large contingent of people standing just inside the main doors - talking on their cell phones. It was raining, so I'm guessing they were trying to arrange a ride. But, there were so many of them that they were actually blocking the doors so that the damp people - me included - had difficulty getting in the building.

Which gets me to my point - if I can actully focus long enough to come up with one.

Several years ago, there was a version of the Transformers on tv called Beast Machines. For those readers that live under a rock - Transformers are robots/toys that change into cars or planes or something. In this case, the something was animals - except for some reason they had trouble turning back into robots. So, the leader of the group with a name so ridulous that I'm not going to mention it - trains the transformers with him to, well, transform, again.

The series stuck in my head due to one line the leader said,

"Focus on the transformation at hand"

Now, clearly this is a play on the phrase "Focus on the task at hand". By saying transformation - the focus is not on the present, but on the transition from present to future. The "process" of change becomes the important part.

Now how does this apply to me being annoyed? Some of the people I encounted were focused only on their own small slice of the present. They weren't seeing the rest of their enviroment - or the consequences of their actions. Instead of moving through a sea of people, adjusting to their ebbs and flows - I had to plow through a log-jam.

And it made me cranky.

So, that's it for now... back to work

a mildly amusing birthday story - and making paper

I'm at a time in my life where birthday's don't really phase me much - hell, I've already got the gray hair and the balding spot on the back of my head which is not a topic for discussion. So, birthdays are not a big deal - except for one thing.

I think that birthday's are a time for family and friends - not a bunch of loud strangers bellowing out a brutalized version of happy (insert resturant name here) birthday with poorly organized hand clapping.

So, if you're out to dinner with me at any time around my birthday - whatever you do, don't have all the servers come over and sing for me. I'm not going to like it.


With this in mind - and a warning to those having dinner with me - we went out to dinner for my birthday to Macaroni Grill. The food is always good and the bread is... oh, the bread is wonderful. I polished off 1.5 loaves all by myself.

Our server came around toward the end of the meal - once we had totally gorged ourselves - chided my lightly since I didn't finish my asparagas (though I acutally enjoy it and would have eaten all of them first except that they tasted like charcoal and lighter fluid. I would have complained, but I just wanted to leave and go home and digest).

She also asked if we wanted dessert - I shook my head no and so did my friend who shall remain nameless (the fate of the guilty). Friend also then added - clearly without thinking - "No, we've got cake..." - they pointed at me - "waiting at hom..."

They servers eyes - already wide enough to suggest insanity under normal circumstances - widened even further. My guilty friend - realizing the terrible and potentially dangerous mistake they had made - grabbed the server and dragged her down into the booth. They spent the next few minutes doing everything possible to convince the server not to sing - even begging her to forget that she had heard anything.

For my part - I was resigned to my vocal fate. The food - except for the asparagas - was good and I was stuffed. And there was cake to be considered later. So, I wasn't going to unleash any of my dark and terrible wrath.

Meanwhile, a compromise was reached. The server would bring cake, with a lit candle, but she swore that no one would be singing. I wasn't entirely convinced, but I had already decided it was out of our hands. She left and came back withe promised chocolate cake, one lit candle, and no singing.

She was tipped well.

Later,we discoved that we had been charged $.01 for the cake - and that it didn't taste very good.

Still, overall - a good birthday dinner. And now it's time to get...

Wait, nearly forgot. I got a papermaking kit for christmas and finally got ahold of a blender - so, yesterday I made about 10 sheets of paper with the kit. Worked pretty well - only had one go "bad". I'll make more for sure and I'm considering taking some pictures - but I'm pretty sure it'll just look like a piece of paper. Which, by itself, is not really that cool.

Okay, now I'm done... back to work...

33

Friday the 13th, full moon. My 33rd birthday. I don't really feel any older or anything, it's not really a milestone. Should be pretty low-key; dinner, cake, and presents. Well, hopefully presents. :)

I found out that my co-worker's daughter has a birthday today too - so I made her an origami dragon with the "good" paper. It's kind of pearl-green thing - pretty cool.

It's Orlando Bloom's birthday today too - but I don't have his address to send him a dragon.

Let's see... who else? Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Robert Stack, Patrick Dempsey, Penelope Ann Miller... I'm going to need more paper if they all stop over.

In other news... I found a good storage container and ChewieII is sleeping comfortably in my freezer. What? You thought I was kidding about Cryo-sleep for the wookie?

And I guess that's about it. Hopeing for a quiet, low stress day - we'll see how it goes. Back to work...

things I've noticed, stress, and a dream

I have a round "tin" of Ice Breakers mints on my desk (cool mint) that I indulge in before meetings. Seems like the polite thing to do. The tin has two openings - one labeld "to share" and the other labeled "not to share". The "to share" has a much bigger opening - a clear signal for generosity. However, even though I'm the only one who eats these, the "not to share" side is impossible to use. The opening is too small and the mints seem wedged in there pretty solid on that side. So even though I'm not sharing, I still have to them from the "to share" side - and feel vaguely guilty about it. Though it's not like I can force the mints on people.

"I have horrible breath! Hurry, take a mint so I can have one too!"

In other news... I clean when I'm stressed. I think its one of those "impose order from chaos" kinda things. I've been really stressed for a variety of reasons for the past several days - to the point where I rearragned my book shelves and cleaned out my closets. There are some who would suggest that I remain stressed and keep cleaning, and while that would help the apartment, I'm not sure my own physiology could maintain it. For the record, I've got two copypaper boxes full of books I'm getting rid of, I've lost count of the trash bags of trash to be tossed, and 5 bags of clothes that I'm giving to goodwill.

Finally, I had a dream last night that I was riding a small cart down a trail toward work - but I stopped at a coffe shop for muffins. That's not the weird part. I got up to pee, then fell asleep again. Then I dreamed that I was telling someone about the first dream - and that I was barefoot. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) I was very confused when I woke up.

That's it for now, back to work...

random notes

First up - terrible news. The Flash - the finest comic produced by DC Comics - is being cancelled this month. It's supposed to re-launch this summer, but it's going to be a long winter and a longer spring while I wait.

I won an ebay auction for a backup wookie - in case the wear and tear on the traveling orginal proves to be too much for him. ChewieII, as he'll be known, will be put in cryo-sleep when he arrives.

I got a new playstation 2 for christmas and it's allowed me to play some games that I hadn't be able to with my aging PS2. One of those games is Lego Star Wars - hilarious. The little lego dudes can use The Force to move around other legos and solve puzzles. The lightsaber battles are cool too.

I also fired up an old game called Okage: Shadow King. I've played a couple of hours of it, but I think I'm going to stop and sell the game. It's...boring. The storyline has promise, the writing is good - but there are a number of elements that make it nearly unplayable.

1. There's a significant load time when going from room to room in any building or town. And 98% of those rooms are empty, or occupied by an idiot. The time spent just trying to find something useful is terrible.

2. The hero fights his first boss battle with a stick. Not a mystical sword, not a potent spell, no might armor. A stick. First time in - and I got killed. And this was before I'd figured out the save points - so, I had to start over from the beginning.

3. The first dungon has the second boss, who I defeated fairly easily. Then I saved, went back, and battled some ordinary monsters. Did one point of damage, then got poisoned, put to sleep, and killed in the next turn.

4. If I have to battle one more random demon chicken, I might lose it.

I should just eject the disk and go back to Xmen II where I belong.

I was in a couple of stores over the weekend and was amazed again at the lack of awareness. I didn't realize I would need the reflexes of Spider-man to navigate a grocery store without being run over. After some careful study, I think I have figured out why it's so dangerous.

A. Shoppers are distracted by the bright lights and shiny colors.
B. Each one is given a steel cage on wheels with primative steering - and they navigate the store by pushing this weapon in front of them.
C. There are no traffic signals or arrows on the floor - no defined right of way.

Randomly moving, distracted people with weapons. Why not give them all shotguns as they walk in? Might save some time.

Also over the weekend - I helped a friend of mine's aunt with a computer problem. It was, thankfully, not something I could fix - since the fix would have involved 1.5 hours of a download to install. It was AOL's problem and I got out of there with a sigh of relief. Now, I like helping people with stuff - but sitting around watching a computer download some software is not my idea of a rip roaring good time. I got some notes together for when she calls AOL and I think that put her on the right track.

I'm in the process of cleaning up my spare bedroom/library - since it's a cluttered mess. Of course, this has led to utter chaos through the entire upstairs as I decompress the room in order to organize it. The chaos is still there, and I fell down the stairs when I tripped over some clutter this morning in a desperate attempt to reach the bathroom. I'm okay, if you're concerned.

That's it for now... back to work..

back from the holidays

Sounds almost like a destination - and I guess I did a bit of traveling. Here's the recap...

Friday before last, headed down to visit my folks. I stopped off at my sister's new office - a cube farm like mine, but far less oppressive. And she's got a window too. We were supposed to meet mom and dad for lunch after they picked up the christmas ham - but they got lost and were delayed. There's some debate on who's fault it is - and it's better if we just leave that undefined.

Christmas with the folks was good - got some cool stuff and had fun. We did brave Walmart the day before christmas, which was scary - but otherwise good.

After christmas, we loaded up and headed to visit the rest of my extended family. My grandmother's house was pretty well full once we had all gotten there and we got a little loud. My dad entertained the crew with magic tricks and we all had fun.

Also visited some of my mom's family - my cousin just recently had a baby girl who's just amazingly cute. Her eyes are this amazing blue - and wider then they could pull off in Village of the Dammed. It was a good thing, trust me.

My sister and I headed back on wednesday - she had to work. We were all pretty well scattered for New Year's - I spent most of it watching movies - and saw a little of the Dick Clark special.

A few comments:

Ryan Seacrest got Dick Clark's name wrong near the end - on national television.

Mariah Carrey was at her most sluttly. And she totally lip-synced. Whatever happened to the ultra-high-note Mariah we all loved?

Dick Clark... you know, I read somewhere that people were applauding his courage. I feel for the guy, but it was uncomfortable to watch him. Just my opinion.

And now I'm back to work...though I'm not really sure how to proceed. I got a lot of things wrapped up before the holidays and the boss is off today. Still, we never really slow down here...so I'm sure I've got something waiting for me in my email.

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

blood drive, comics/dice, dryer vent

I went and gave blood again yesterday - and again, it took quite a while. I think I was there for about an hour and a half, most of that spent waiting. They were understaffed and didn't anticipate the number of people coming in. I even saw one guy get all the way to the waiting area just before you give blood - and then he left. All that waiting, and he couldn't wait a little longer - he was even next when the left.

Fortunatly, the guy that took my history also came over to help with the donatation area - and I didn't have any problems getting the tubes filled, though a lady that was there did.

In other news...I tried the burger king Chicken Fries. Eh, they're just chicken strips. And they tasted okay.

Also made a trip to the comic book store. While getting the latest issue of the Flash, I also picked up some dice for one of those DVD "Scene it" games that I've played recently. The dice that came with the game are too big and they don't shake well in a person's hand. So, we kept rolling the same number and catagory. I'll need to paint/label one of them, but that's minor. The 6 and 8 sided were for the game - the 20 was just for "coolness". It harkens back to the days of dungons and dragons and getting better outcomes for rolling high numbers. I didn't really play dungeons and dragons, but I'm geeky enough that I should have. Anyway, I saw a t-shirt that said, simply, "I roll twenties". I thought it was funny, so I got myself a 20 sided die, just in case I need a little extra power or smarts. Or something, I'm not entirely sure why I bought it. Still, for an impulse buy, it only cost me 80 cents.

And last night while doing the laundry - the $#@#()* dryer vent fell off again. I did a little swearing and put it back on. So, my basement is warm, but that's about it. Not even sure why I keep bothering - I should just replace the damn thing with a regular hose and be done with it.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Time to get back to work...

chewie gets a sweater/hat, another minor coke bottle incident, and glitter

It's "Take your wookie to work day" again - this time, Chewie is sporting his new sweater.


Silly wookie.

In other news...a .5 liter coke bottle will not fit in my cup holder in my car. Coming into work, it leaped out of the protective confines of the cup holder and vaulted to the floorboards. It was still closed, fortunatly, but still annoying.
Again, no issues in opening it.

Finally, I had to call my sister last night. I got a christmas card that had glitter on it - and the glitter of course got on my hands. My sister has glitter, ummm... "issues" and she was the first one I thought to call to help get it off me. She suggested that I not touch anything and immediately scrub my hands. But by that point I had already touched the phone and the phone had touched my head - setting off a mock panic attack for both of us. It was pretty funny.

Well, that's it for now...back to work.

in the news, and a strange headache

In the news today we've got:

The NSA spying on America
The president apoligizing for the war
and the House voting to cut health and social programs.

Of those three, the apology upsets me the most. Mainly because it's so empty. Do we really believe that he's sorry? Do we really believe he's taking responsiblity?

Nope. And the thing that really gets me is that he's still not doing anything to end the war and bring our troups home - troups that shouldn't have ever been deployed there.

I think that someone saying "I'm sorry," by itself, isn't saying much. People should follow an apology with an attempt to make things right. Repair what's broken. He's still doing the same things and making the same mistakes.

Along those lines, I saw a T-Shirt with a big "W" on it - the label was "Worst Ever"


In other news...my school has a new slogan that actually makes me vaguely interested in the sports teams. "Fear the Roo". :)

In still other news... I had what I think was a cluster headache over the weekend that I mostly slept through. Woke up in the middle of the night having to pee and with a headache. Took care of what needed to be taken care of - then went back to sleep somehow. I woke up with a bit of a headache and that soon faded out to the sharp stabbing pain that only manifests when I cough. And today, that's nearly gone too. I guess if I'm going to keep having these, at least I slept through this one.

That's it for now - time to get back to work...

flying soda, echeck, parking rant, phone bill

This morning, while I was getting into my car, I set my bottle of soda on the roof so that I could check to see if I needed to scrape my windshield or if I could just brush it off. Instead of putting my soda in the car - as I should have - I left it there and reached in to start the engine and get my scraper. The ice on the roof - with the vibrations of the engine - caused my plastic bottle of soda to fly off the roof, hit the ground, slide under the car next to mine and come to a rest in a snowbank.

So, I went around and picked it up - there was a lot of foam at the top, but the bottle was undamaged. And on the way to work, I sort of forgot about how shaken up it was and that I should be careful. I twisted off the cap at my desk and...

...nothing happened. It was fine. The soda must have settled down somehow during the car ride. Strangest thing.

Last evening, I went to get my car e-checked since my registration is due in January. And if I did it in 2005 to avoid the long lines, it would be free instead of the ususal $19.50

Now, I'm not sure how the line lenght is going to be differnt from year to year - but free is better than 20 bucks. There was no line when I pulled up and my car passed. Took maybe 7 minutes total and I was on the road with my certification in hand.

I had been a little concerned since there had been issues with the cars computer and the oxygen sensor, but they must have been electical ghosts and didn't affect the tests.

This morning, I had to pass up a prime parking spot at work since some dufus had backed into their space - and done a poor job of it. This is one of the many things that annoy me. If you're going to take the extra time to back into a space - do it well so that you don't mess things up for anyone else. And frankly - you're not Batman. You don't need to fly screaming out of your parking space to chase down the bad guys. Get over yourself.

This past week, I've been taking a closer look at my phone bill. I was concerned about the amount I was paying for my local service and the plan I had wasn't really what I needed. So, I called them up and looked for options. They couldn't offer any savings on intraLATA calls and the unlimited residence service, even with all the extra stuff removed, was still over 20 bucks. I ended up saving 5 bucks, but I've got no features on my phone. Hell, if it was any simpler I'd be using bare copper wires or tin cans and string. And it's still over 20 bucks + all the the federal fees and charges.

I'm strongly considering giving up on a land line entirely and going the cell phone route.

Now, before you get all up in arms - keep in mind that my biggest concern with those things has been the people that use them. I'd be getting a simple phone with a simple plan and using it primarly from home.

The very notion still makes me queasy, but the merger of SBC and AT&T doesn't give me hope for better customer service or reduced prices.

And I guess that's it for now. Have a good weekend and I'll get back to work...

danger at the supermarket - and dessert

I had to make a trip to the supermarket last night to get supplies for the holiday party dessert I was making. As I headed toward the entrance, I heard/saw two people sitting just past the soda machines outside, having a smoke break. As I came past the machines and into their view, one of them threw a cigerette at me.

Now, I know that they were already throwing the cigerette when I came into view and they didn't hit me - the cig landed between my steps. I shot them about half a glare since no damage was done and if I got really worked up every time someone did something stupid in my presence I'd be in jail now.

They shouting an "I'm sorry" as I walked on. I think one of them was still out there when I left after getting my few items.

And of course I forgot one thing I needed - so later that evening I walked down to the Circle K and picked it up - then walked back.

For those interested - the dessert I made is as follows.

27 Ho-ho's
1 large package of Jello Chocolate Pudding (with three cups of milk)
24 crumbled shortbread cookies
1 full container of cool whip

Yeah, it's evil, but I only make it once a year - so, it's okay.

That's it for now, gotta go do some work...

A trip to the mall

Well, I did it. I went to the mall again. There were some "items" that I didn't get enough of - and I had to go back for more. I headed out right after work - hoping my slightly early exit strategy would shield me from the masses. It only partly worked.

I went to JC Penny's and rightly surmised my "items" would be on the second floor. But if there was a pattern or an organizational scheme in place for the stuff there, I couldn't find it. And as a result I had a difficult time finding my items. Once I did - I had to stand in line. That part went better than I expected, despite someone trying to place a catalog order. Hello? Isn't that why you have a phone? Or the Internet?

Anyway, got through the line and headed to my car. And then things went horribly wrong. Every route I tried was backed up. And I'm reasonably familer with my area, so I know a lot of routes. After several attempts at a better route, I finally got myself on a straight shot and waited things out. I was lucky that I got gas beforehand - that's all I'm saying.

Got home, got the incomplete present unwrapped and re-wrapped - then watched "the ring: two" again and played video games.

Also, one of my colleagues sent me a gift bag with Coca-cola, Doritos, and chocolate as a thank-you for helping her out with a variety of projects over the year. I gorged myself - it was excellent.

That's it for now - time to get back to work...

broken boot

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with my work boots. I think they're comfortable and they say, "This is a guy that knows which end of a hammer to pick up," - which I do.

However, they are fairly difficult to take off and put on - without almost totally undoing the laces. Which I didn't do last night. And as I grabbed the heal to give them a good yank - the heal came unglued from the rest of the sole.

I managed to get the boot off - and I think I can re-glue the boot with some shoe-goo. Still, I'm bootless for the moment and had to wear shoes that are not suited for this kind of weather. Annoying.

Well, I guess I could keep typing about other non-important things, but I've got a meeting to go to...so, back to work...

something in my soup

Today, for lunch, I had Campbell's Chunky soup, with sirloin burger and country vegetables - and brown rice. Anyone looking though my kitchen cabinets will find many more cans of this same soup - it's something of a staple for me. Today, however, I was surprised by what I discovered.

In the middle of a bite, I bit down on something that I couldn't immediately identify. Which is odd all by itself since I'm deeply familier with this soup and rice combo. It "felt" like I was biting into a piece of wood.

I spit it out and it sure looked like a small piece of wood on closer examination. It had grains and the texture and hardness were along the lines of wood - though there was a small hook-like protrusion on one side. Since I can't imagine how wood would enter into the soup making process (except maybe a wooden crate with vegetables in it - though I would hope they have a filter for that sort of thing) - I studied it a little more carefully and decided it must have been the solid core of a carrot. It was the only vegetable that might have produced this unique shape - though the hardness was unusual.

I check the rest of the soup and discovered no other weird items. Still, it was damn odd and I'm going to see if I can get a picture.

That's it for this update - though I will say that holiday shopping today wasn't as bad as I feared. With the exception of Best Buy - it was worse than I expected.

Later...

the heat is on

The call to the landlord was successful - by the time I got home, the heat was back on and my apartment was toasty. Well, not toasty since I don't keep it that warm in there, but still nice.

Christmas shopping is proceeding on pace - I've got my list of people to buy for and I think I'll be able to knock it out this afternoon with a trip to a couple of stores.

Had a moment of swearing on the drive to work this week - a small section of road closed for no apparent reason. It's not the first time this has happened on this stretch of road - nor is it the first time that I've gotten in the turning lane and then been trapped by other traffic when I didn't seen the poorly positioned signs. As I've mentioned before, I'm a Point A to Point B kinda guy - and I had to loop around past Point E to get to work. Annoying.

Let's see...what else is going on? Well, we met the new VP on Friday - seems pretty cool. From his resume, he's got a "rep" of sorts about downsizing companies - but from the brief talking to him, it sounds like he's got some good plans and that he's got the same kind of concerns for our processes that we have. So, should be cool.

I guess it's time to start my deep breathing and non-stress shopping mantras. I'm...well, let's just say I'm not good with crowds. I had joked about wearing a protective cup and carrying a sword, but I think instead I'm just going to play it cool. As the Jets would say:

"Just play it cool, boy. Real cool"

And on the disturbing note of me quoting West Side Story - I'm outta here...

cold in the apartment

I usually keep my apartment a little cool in the winter - but it was downright cold yesterday when I got home from work. I turned up the heat and went about my business - but eventually noticed that it was still pretty cold. I checked the vents - no heat, no air movement. Not good.

I had company over last evening and we checked the furnace. If the pilot light was where we thought it was - it was out. All of our attempts to get the furnace going met with failure - but fortuantly I live in an apartment and it's not always my problem. I bundled up for the night and just made a call to the landlord - and left a message.

Fingers crossed that they can get over there today and get things resolved. I've got a back-up plan (I always have a backup plan) - but it's still troublesome.

So, I'm at work and at least it's warm here - better...

wait...

Yes, it's for real. One of my co-workers (and I use the term "work" loosely) - was just now snoring in his cubicle. Loud enough that I could hear it over my headphones.

His phone started ringing as I approached his cubicle and that woke him up.

That's just...you know...wrong.

And now it's time to get back to work for me...

traffic and groceries - the clueless reign

So, I'm driving on route 8 south recently and noticed that traffic was slowing down. I attributed this to late rush hour traffic, but then I heard on the radio that there was an accident. On route 8 south. Just before the Perkins exit. I glanced up to see the sign above me: Perkins exit, 1/2 mile.

Great.

But, traffic never came a complete stop for more than a minute or two at a time. It mostly just moved slowly until I got right up to the exit. Police stopped all the traffic for a moment to get the ambulances out of the way, then they headed out too. Suddenly, the way was clear and we all surged forward with the post traffic issue euphoria. Like emerging from a dark and evil forest into a sunlit meadow - or maybe I've read too many books with evil forests in them.


Last night, I stopped for groceries. Which is always an adventure in itself. I'm pretty good at moving past the clueless, but a poorly placed shopping cart changes things. I got stopped a couple of times by these people, but was mostly unscathed until it got time to check out.

The store I went to is poorly designed in that there is little approach room to the checkout area. So, instead of forming proper lines, everyone just gets kind of bottlenecked. I saw an opening, looped around the doughnut display and was about to queue up when an elderly woman blocked my way. She asked me "Are you going out?"

Now, I think pretty quickly so this is a slowed down version of what when through my head:

1. What?
2. What is she talking about?
3. "Out?" Does she mean outside?
4. Does she think I'm going to steal my groceries?
5. Maybe she's angling for help getting her groceries to her car.
6. Then why did she ask me before I was done checking out?
7. Maybe she's referring to "out" as a direction to move my cart.
8. But "out" which way? Out toward the frozen food? Out toward the check out?
9. Wait, maybe she's trying to invent some grocery store slang and "out" becomes the shortened form of "check out".
10. Hmmm...well, duh. Of course I'm going to check out. She can't be that daft.
11. I've already spent too much time figuring this out - time to use misdirection and then cut and run.

So, I pointed in a direction past her and said "I'm going that way". Then I re-angled my cart, went on past her and found a line that looked longer, but saw that people only had a few items each.

I lost track of her at this point, but it was a strange moment - and that's what this blog is all about.

Back to work...

a trip to the gas station

I had to stop for gas last night after work - and I passed up a couple of stations on the way so that I could go to the one I usually go to. Which was cool since the "regular" station had cheaper gas than the others in the area. Of course, everyone else knew that and it was chaos to get in there and get to the pumps. I got in line and I'm sitting there waiting. I don't really want to move since there are so many cars going a lot of differnt directions and I didn't want to add to the confusion. Since the woman in front of me has gone inside to pay for her gas - and apparently rewallpaper the building since it took her so long, I decided to pull around her to the only open spot in the place. Though, this will entail me going in reverse which I don't like doing.

I finally get into place, get out of my car and go to fill up my tank...

...And I realize that the gas tank is on the other side of my car. Embarassed, annoyed, cranky and irate at myself - I get back in my car and leave the station. I go down the road to a nearly empty station (with slightly higher prices) and get $15.00 worth of slightly more expensive gas.

Now, I've owned my car for several years now and I don't think I've even done that before. I'm going to blame it on the frustruation of the crowd, but it could just be that I'm slightly stupid.

And on that note...back to work...

weatherstripping, dryer venting, and epic danger

This past weekend was "project weekend" - a mystical time where I actually try to get a bunch of stuff done instead of just sitting on my ass playing video games that whole time. To be fair - I did plan some games, but I also got a lot done.

DVDs - I went through my collection, found the ones I didn't want anymore and traded them for a couple new ones and a CD.

Video games - same deal here, except that I had so much in trade that I had to get a "trade slip" for a future visit. Which is cool.

Got some christmas shopping done - and then decided to really get to work. Started with rearranging my movies and games - since they now fit better on the shelves. Then I headed to the door.

The weather stripping around my front door has been coming loose for a while now and though I could have called the landlord on this one, I figured that I could handle it myself. I mean, how hard could it be? (yes, I am an idiot)

I bought the new stuff at home depot - then did some rough measuring and tore out the old loose stuff. The new stripping looked like it could only go in one way so I got it in place and then tried to close the door.

Note the use of the word "tried". Yeah, it didn't really go well. I found a couple of problem area and found a nail that was coming in at a bad angle. A bit more swearing and I finally got the door to reluctantly close.

Next up - the clothes dryer. I wanted to get one of those airflow re-directs that you put in the hose to send warm air into the apartment, instead of outside. It's a good idea in theory and didn't seem to look too difficult in install. (see note above about me being an idiot).

My first attempt was using the exisiting vent tubing. The inherent problem is that the tubing is a spiral - and the re-direct box opening is round. So, the cuts were a problem, the fasteners were a problem (and it didn't help that one was broken out of the box), and it was dark and dusty behind the dryer.

20 minutes after it was all in place - and in the middle of drying cycle - I heard a crash. Sure enough, it was in pieces on the floor. Not broken, just fallen loose. I swore, put it back together and started it back up. Later - another crash.

So, back to home depot for more tubing, since I had convinced myself that was a the problem (still an idiot). The foil tubing seemed more flimsy, but also more fire resistant and the new metal ring clamps seemed the way to go. This meant that I also needed to get on the floor behind the dryer to fasten the tube to the dryer itself - and since I didn't have/couldn't find a flashlight - I did this by candlelight. Don't worry - I vaccumed most of the dust up first. Tightened everything up and it looked great.

Then - another crash. Swearing. I tried again and tightened up every clamp within an inch of total molecular fusion. Started it up - threatened the dryer, the vent system, the entire basement and it's contents.

And it's still in place - or at least it was when I left the apartment this morning.

So that - along with shopping and wrapping some christmas presents - was my weekend.

Oh, on a final note. I've gotten into the pseudo-habit of pulling an Emeral style sauce pan spin when I'm getting ready to cook (i.e. heat up something from a can). This weekend, however, the pan flew out of my grip, sailed through the air, and hit the gound with a crash. It didn't have a lid, so the huge dent in the side doesn't seem to matter - except as a warning to all my other kitchen implements.

I barely made it out of the weekend alive. Now I'm safely back to work and it's time to get busy...

man out of time...

Which sounds a lot more interesting than just saying that I forgot my watch. Which I never do. I'd be more likely to forget to put on pants than to forget my.... wait, okay, I am wearing pants this morning. I had to check.

Had trouble getting up this morning - and then I had to scrape off my car. I hate that. It's my least favorite part of winter. I'd rather drive in a blizzard. Well, not in NE Ohio - most of the people on the road with me seem amazed by this strange "snow" thing. They have to drive really slowly to observe it. Madness.

That's about it for now, time to get back to work...

messed up dreams, messed up hair

I'm back from an extended Thanksgiving weekend (well, I was back to work yesterday, but I was really cranky and didn't feel like blogging), and started out this morning with a really weird set of dreams that I kept dipping in and out of. They mostly revolved around getting a team of scientists to work together in a lab that was full to about waist level with a very runny clay. It was sort of a team build exercise and sort of a computer engineering problem.

I took a quick shower and apparently didn't dry my hair enough - the hat I wore to work really messed up my hair. Which I didn't think was possible considering how short I keep it cut.

Actually, I'm only guessing that it's messed up. I can feel that a section in the middle front is sticking up - and the rest is fine. Oh well. I'm in a cube farm and with no meetings I might not actually see anyone else today, except when I go to lunch and I'll be wearing my hat again.

I beat Spawn: Armageddon last night - on easy mode. The normal mode? Quite a bit more challenging - though ultimatly nothing to write home about.

And I guess that's about it - time to get back to work...

On the way back from getting my lunch I saw...

1. ...a man wearing a black cowboy hat, a black leather duster, and grey-ish boots make from (or made to look like) the skin of a cold-blooded animal. Maybe a gator.

2. ...a guy wearing gray hooded sweatshirt that said "Smartass University"

3. ...a girl with purple streaks in her hair wearing a leopard spotted coat. The leopard spots were a normal color.

There's never a dull moment as long as you pay attention.

Back to work...

feeling a little rant-y

I got a call last night from a charity group. I won't say which one, but I will say that they used the "gosh, oh golly gee, ah shucks" approach to communication - as though that will ingratiate me to support their cause. You know what, if you're the token idiot (or if you just sound like one), don't freakin' call me, okay? It's not amusing and I'm not your buddy.

This morning, on they way to work, I saw a guy on a bike on the sidewalk pull out into traffic to swerve around a car - who was also pulling into traffic. Hilarity would have insued if it was actually funny. Instead, there were screaming brakes, loud horns, and I'm sure some general swearing. Idiots.

Wal-mart, self checkout. Okay, if I'm using one of these things, it almost automatically means I'm not an expert at it. I was trying to get a few oddly shaped items scanned and into some clearly defective grocery bags and the woman behind me had already placed all her crap on the converer belt - and was tapping her foot and looking at her watch. Well, maybe she wasn't actually doing that, but dammit, she might as well have been. It wasn't like I was standing there reading the labels on a soup can or something, I was trying to get out of the braincell killing flurecoent lights and a little patience on her part would have been nice. I glared at her when she started to scan her items and made her move so I could get my cash back. Wanker.

And yes, I do complain about people in lines being slow, but this is my blog and I say she should have been patient.

Let's see...I'm really on a roll at this point. What else is pissing me off?

Holiday shopping is usually annoying, but I haven't really started that much yet. And World Market was cool as usual. The weather has been cold, but I'm adapting. Got a bit of a cold, but it's not bad. So, I guess that's it for now.

Back to my regular mood and back to work...

random stories

This is going to be something of a random blog entry - a little bit of all over the map.

1. The last time I visited my family, while we were in my parents mini-van coming back from dinner, my sister made a joking comment about how not knowing what I was getting her for Christmas might kill her. I replied and said "Well, I'll send flowers. I mean, I'll bring flowers. Yeah, bring flowers".

I think you had to be there to appreciate the comedic timing, but trust me - it was freaking hilarious.

2. A couple of weeks ago I actually saw someone on a segway. First one I've ever seen "live" and in use. He was moving along pretty well with it, but he still looked like a dufus.

3. I'm feeling a little under the weather this morning - pretty much all the stuff that nyqule is supposed to take care of, but I didn't actually take any. I was late to work this morning and I'll need to stay a little later to make up for it.

4. My grandmother is in the hospital with pneumnoia. She's doing better now, but they had fist diagnosed it as the flu and that she should just "tough it out". We're generally a little cranky about that one, but not much we can do from here. At least she's getting good care now.

5. There is no five. I've run out of stuff to say that doesn't talk about mucus and I think that's a line I don't need to cross today. So, time to get back to work...

crossing guard - bonfire - weird dream

I was off-work last Friday - though I went in for a bit to work on my web page and do a little reasearch. When I got home, I decided to go for a walk. Along the way, I was waiting to cross a busy street and I noticed a girl on the other side - very intently watching the traffic. The cross traffic stopped, left turn arrow kicked in, and I watched for the left turn lane to clear so that I could get an early - but still safe - start across the street. When the lane was clear, I started walking so did the girl - holding up a small red stop sign. She met me halfway across the road, then escorted me the rest of the way to safety of the curb. Apparently, she was a crossing guard and while it was the time for the school-aged children to be getting off of school, I do not look like a school-aged person. I guess she was there for anyone crossing the street, but I'm pretty sure I could have handled it myself.

Later that evening, I went to a bonfire one of my friends was having. The directions I got off the net were ever so slightly wrong, so I ended up parking in Sri Lanka and walking until I found the right place. Had a good time there - mostly just good naturedly bitching about work. :) I left a little after midnight and then had an early morning for breakfast with my ex-roommates mom and grandmother. Yeah, I said I would try and distance myself a bit, but the her pancakes are the bomb!

Also over the weekend, I had a weird dream that I grew hair on the bottom of my feet. Kind of like a reverse hobbit or something. I also dreamed that I was driving a jeep and I had to cross several hundred plank bridges, all in a row, at high speed. It was bizzare.

That's it for now - time to get back to work...

not quite a nightmare

I dreamed last night that my family had moved back into together and back into the first house we lived in while in Illinois - a big 2 story farmhouse. It was christmas time and mom was busy decorating the house - and unfortunatly woke up the ancient vampiric horde that had moved into the basement. I carved myself a couple of nice wooden stakes, hardened them in the fireplace and went hunting. My sister went the Palidin route and was in charge of the holy water. She prepped a big red bucket of the stuff and we doused the head vampire before I moved in for the staking. Crossing the two stakes held him at bay, then I staked him and used the second stake to pound it in. Worked pretty well and I didn't have to worry about a hammer. Unfortunatly, instead of turning all the ohter vampires back to normal, killing the head vampire only pissed off the rest of them. We spent the rest of the dream on the hunt through the house and then the rest of the town. I was exausted when I woke up.

Back to work...

work stress and a run-in with an ex-roommate

So, I was over at my ex-roommate's mom's place - putting plastic on her windows. She'd been wanting me to do it and though I usually call first, this time I just stopped by after my post halloween hair-cut.

I had the double-stick tape in place and was trying to get the plastic unfolded when my ex-roommate pulled up to deliver some fish to his mom from the resturant where he works. We talked for a bit and he helped a little with the plastic, but it was....

It was the kind of awkward of two people who were friends, but haven't seen each other in ten years and realize that they don't have anything in common anymore.

I could tell the converstation was struggling, so I asked "How are your boys doing?" - which should have been a fountain of topics for most parents.

His reply was "Oh, you know how they are."

Except that I didn't - I haven't seen them in a year and I was asking. I realized then that it was over - if he wasn't willing to share even the most simple of topics, we couldn't really communicate.

I was still working on getting the plastic in place when he announced he was leaving. He said his good-byes - leaving me to finish put the plastic over his mom's windows. I finished up my work fairly quickly - I've done this several years in a row - and headed out too.

I think I need to distance myself from his mom and his grandmother a bit more - until he makes an effort to seek me out again, I don't think I want to run into him. It was just too awkward.

In other news...man, work has really sucked this week. And it was a short week for me at that. I've been swamped pretty much all the time and I keep getting these big projects with impossible deadlines. I guess it's job security, but man - I've been hopping. And I found myself clenching my teeth in a meeting. Not good.

But, hey, it's Friday. And I've got no major plans for the weekend. Maybe I'll clean out my closets and do a little woodcarving.

For now, though, it's back to work...

Halloween campus tour

On Monday, I took the day off and made my annual campus tour - in costume. One of my favorite days of the year, I usually make my rounds and try and visit as many of my on campus friends. This year, I apparently didn't plan as well and missed quite a few people. I was also easily distracted and ended up back-tracking a bit.

Here's a link to more detail and pictures:

http://gozips.uakron.edu/~aws/costume.html

I had a blast - again - and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Got some good reactions from people walking on campus - and a few people that were too "cool" to react. I mean, how could you not react?

I also clanked my way through the library and apparently disturbed a girl that was studying. She took one look at me and turned back to her book with a "sniff" of disdain. I just shook my head as I went on past - wondering if she had ever been a child. It's freaking Halloween - enjoy it!

My ankles are still pretty sore, but I'm getting better. And really, a little suffering for my art is fine by me - it's only one day and it's always fun.

That's it for now - time to get back to work...

links to CyberSecurity videos

Got a few links for you:

http://video.uakron.edu:81/ramgen/zippy/attachment_disorder.rm
http://video.uakron.edu:81/ramgen/zippy/the_trash_man.rm
http://video.uakron.edu:81/ramgen/zippy/password_patty.rm

staring your's truely. My film debut - I'll be on imdb.com before you know it.

I'm ready to go for halloween - and no, I'm not going as a nerd. That would be too easy.

That's it for now - back to work...

a long day and a long blog

You may want to grab a soda and sit back for this one - it was a really long day yesterday and lots of stuff happened. Here we go...

Got to work early with all the stuff I needed for our CyberSecurity Awareness day. Headed out with the crew to the Student Union to help set things up - and mostly held balloons and watched eveyone's stuff. Then I grabbed my bag and headed for the restroom - to make my transformation into Zack Geekis - computer nerd. And the hero of the three videos we did for the event. Once fully nerded up, I sat down at the Prize Wheel (tm) and talked to people for about 4 hours. I gave away a lot of prizes once we got the sytem down and made a few people's day.

When my shift was up, I headed back to the restroom to de-nerd. And, incidentally, I should have gotten some kind of hazzard pay for what was going on in the other stalls while I was in there.

Grabbed some lunch, ran into some friends from the HelpDesk, and headed back to work - only to get a call that posters and buttons were needed at another location on campus. Since I had no way to contact those at the Student Union, I put my coat back on and headed back over to pick up the items and make a delivery.

Back to the office again for some more work and a little problem solving, then out the door at my regular time. First stop, comic book shop for some reading material, then over to Burger King. This is where things started to fall apart.

The clerk atBK was friendly enough, but very difficult to understand as she tended to slur her words together. The portions were smaller than I expected for my afternoon snack, which worried me a bit as I usually need some food in my stomach to keep from getting sick when giving blood.

Food in my belly, I headed out again to the public library where the blood drive was being held. I got there at about 5:10 pm and went in the front door where the signs were. Unfortuantly, that was the end of the signs. Once inside the library there was no indication that a blood drive was going on. I searched the first floor, then headed to the basement - which was distressingly under construction. Back up to the first floor, then outside to see if they were having a blood mobile instead. No luck. Back inside and to the information desk - where people cut in front of me and generally ignored my existance. Then over to the check out desk where I waited in line for a couple of minutes before I finally was able to ask someone - and they had to look it up. I was told it was downstairs and that I should just follow the yellow footprints on the floor.

Yes, that was my sole navigational aid.

Guided by the footprints, I made my way back downstairs and went past the "under construction - do not enter" signs to the meeting room - and the blood mobile.

It was now 5:25 and I sat down to wait. They had a line of people 7 deep waiting to give histories, one person taking the histories, and one person actually taking the donations. Not a good sign. Fortunatly, I had plenty of paper with me and proceeded to fold.

And then I noticed that it was taking longer to go through the history than it was to actually give the blood. Never seen that before and clearly the person in that area was the bottleneck. So, we waited. A few people left to get magazines and come back. One guy simply lefft.

At 6:30, I was finally called to do my history thing. And it took forever, even though they got some more people working. They also had trouble with my new vs. old card as the system wasn't reading my double red donations.

Finally, over to the donation area. Being an old hat at this, I didn't expect any trouble. I'm apparently a fool.

The needle hurt going in and kept hurting. I kept my mouth shut since the only resolution is to move the needle - and that usually just makes it worse. I did my squeezing and focused on the task at hand - going through at my usual pace. Finished up when I expected and the tech went to fill the little tubes. And that was a problem. The little clamp/spout/needle they use to put the blood in the tubes wasn't working - even after she fiddled around with it for a few minutes. She called in the other guy that was working there to help out when he was done with his people. He fiddled around with it too and couldn't get them to go.

So, he gave up and she started to do the wrap up procedures. She seemed disappointed - and then told me that it since they couldn't get the tubes filled, they couldn't use the blood.

Well, there was no freaking way I was going to let that happen. Not after all that. So, I suggested that they use the other arm and get the tubes done. She seemed plesantly surprised that I volunteered for that and then had me switch sides so the other guy could do the tubes - we was apparently better at than she was. Well, no duh.

I think we freaked the people in the room out a little since it looked like I was set to give yet another pint. The guy started to work on getting the tubes filled and the needle he used hurt far worse than the regular one. Finally done - two arms, two bandages. I got out of there with a small can of pineapple juice and a sigh of relief. I'm still going to give blood next time around, but I can't say this was a good experience.

But, there's more. A friend of mine and I went out to grab a late dinner and on the way back to my place he looked in the rearview mirror and swore. The car behind us was dangerously close. While we watched, it slammed on the brakes, then accelerated. Then it weaved from one curb to the other and finally slammed into a parked car on the side of the street. We were half a block away when we saw this, and quickly pulled over and when to check on the driver.

The woman that got out of the car, dusty from the airbags and dazed from the impact, was also totally wasted. When we asked if she was okay, she said "no, I'm really drunk". The car was totaled and the noise alerted the damaged car's owner - who came out while someone else called the police. My friend shut off her car - since she'd gotten out and left it running - then tried to get her out of the street. She wandered around despite our best efforts - and kept asking for us to give her back her keys so she could call her boyfriend. We gave them back to her, since it was clear she wasn't going anywhere. Even with her keys in hand, she kept insisting that we give them back so she could make a call.

The police arrived a few minutes later and my friend gave me his keys to drive his car out of the way and back to my place - only a couple of blocks down the road. He stayed to give a report to the police and I played video games until he got back.

So, over the course of one day I:

1. was a movie star and game show host
2. gave blood from both arms
3. witnessed a car accident

Heck, I'm tired again just writing about it. Better get back to work so I can rest up.

later...

the beeping! the beeping! the beeping of the fryer!!

So, I went for a walk last night to get some contact solution at the drug store - and then I decided to stop at McDonald's for dinner. Which is nearly always a mistake, but I figured that I could get a quick bite to eat and escape with minimal damage. While I was ordering, I accidentally caught my laundry wound on the edge of my pocket and started bleeding again. I was still waiting for my food when I realized the blood was running down my finger. I grabbed some napkins and managed not to bleed on the floor. The fries weren't ready, but they said they would bring them over to me.

So, I sat down with my book and started eating. The sandwichs were, to my surprise, prepared correctly. To my further surprise, they actually tasted good. Amazing.

And then the timer on the fryer went off. The strident beeping could be heard throughout the resturant. And it was unending. Not like a microwave that will eventually shut itself up - these just keep beeping and beeping. It was bad enough that I couldn't read. And you know it's got to be bad if I can't read.

My sister has complained about this in the past - she has very sensitive hearing. My hearing isn't as good as hers, but I'm more easily annoyed now that I'm a little older.

I ate more quickly than I would I have liked and pretty much gave up on the book. Could have been a good experience, but the assault on my ears was too much. I'm really glad I don't work there.

Back to work...

stupid injury, costume work

I worked on my halloween costume over the weekend - well, mostly Sunday since that was the only day with nice weather and I had to work outside. No hints on this one - you'll just have to wait. It's going pretty well, but it's more work than I expected - and a bit more expensive.

In other news - I had a laundry related injury last night. I was getting my clothes out of the washer and saw something shiny at the bottom. I lunged for the quarter that must have fallen out of a pocket during the wash and slammed my knuckle into the washer hub - hard enough to break the skin. I got the money anyway - then had to hurry and get it cleaned up and bandaged before I bled all over my clean laundry.

It was sad and pathetic.

Back to work...

having arrived

When I started my blog it was a small kinda thing, just me and a journal of sorts that I linked from my site. After a while I decided to turn on comments, and later still I decided to let my blog be refernced by blogger - meanings that it would show up on their lists and people all over the world could randomly visit and read what I had to say.

Unfortuntly, this also attracted comment spam - people that set up programs to automatically dump bogus comments into blogs with link so they get a higher page rank. Wankers. So, I had to take some time yesterday to clean those up and set the blog to send me email if someone adds a comment - valid or otherwise.

I guess my little blog and I have finally arrived if the spambots have found us. I'll try to keep it clear of the spam and keep on writing weird stuff that happens.

In other news... you know, I don't think I really think I have much in the way of news. So, I think I'll stop right here.

Back to work...

the protest

I was headed up campus yesterday to reboot a server (hey, I'm all about pushing buttons) and I saw a protest/demonstration was going on along the commons. There were several college age student looking people holding signs and flags. I was in a hurry so I didn't stop to get the full drift of the protest - but I think it was something about "Obey Jesus - Start War!"

Which, clearly, makes no sense. I think they were trying to be ironic - which is fine in casual conversation and bumper stickers - but in a protest if a person has to stop and figure out what you're talking about, well, they most likely won't stop.

The bigger problem is that even if they had been straight-forward in their message, it wouldn't have mattered. I think I agree with their convoluted message so far as I believe that war itself doesn't really ever solve anything - but I feel no more strongly about it now that I know I have the support of a few loud college students that can make signs. And if I thought war was a good idea - would they have been able to sway my thinking?

Not likely.

If they had made the local news, had the story picked up nationally, been in a report that sat on the president's desk, would it have mattered?

Besides the point that we're not really sure he knows how to read - I don't think it would have mattered there either. A college campus protest does not set national policy.

Maybe it mattered to the students with the signs. Maybe it gave them a sense of community and helped them hold onto their ideals. And maybe they'll end up in a position of power at some point in their lives and will be able to make a differnce.

As for me, well, I had to go push a button and get some lunch.

I guess that's all I've got to say on that particular subject - so, time to get back to work...

growling, running, cleaning

It takes quite a bit to get me really angry - but I'm very frequently annoyed. Very. Frequently.
And I've found myself, well, growling at people. Well, not actually at them. Just in the back of my throat. I don't think anyone has heard me do this and I'm not sure how I'd react or what I'd say. Case in point... yesteday, in the student union (and this happens more freqently in a crowd) I was trying to accomplish what should have been the simple task of going up the stairs to get some lunch. While trying to navigate the crowds - which were formidable - I also had to contend with this guy moving slowly and aimlessly in the middle of the hallway. I saw him from a distance and tried to plan a route past him - but his random wanderings were aligned with my path despite my best efforts and I pretty much had to stop and wait for him to move past before I could proceed. As soon as I got an opening, I took it - growling low in my throat as I went past him.

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm all for quiet comtemplation and a slow pace - where it's appropiate. Museum, park, forrest trail - all valid. Crowded building with uninspired arcitecture? Nope, let's hustle, people. Nothing to see here. Move it along. Hence the growling.

In other news - I've been doing a little running the past couple of days. It's been too long and I'm out of shape, but at least I'm out there trying. It's about 15 minutes of running and walking - which is not very much. Still, gotta start somewhere. If I can get in the habit of doing this - then I'm more likely to get a treadmill and use it when the weather turns cold and I can't run outside. Well, I guess I could run outside in the winter, but that's a little more insane than I'm willing to be.

I also did a little cleaning/organizing/ de-crappifing my apartment. Tomorrow will be a year to the day when I kicked out my former room-mate - I think a little clearing out is in order.

Work has kinda sucked the past few days, but I'm getting through it. And that's about it. So, I should get back to the grind...

smell, animals, Sarah McG, ansa-phone

The smell this morning as I walked out my front door was that of Liver and Onions - one of my least favorite foods on the planet. I'd rather be covered in angry spiders than eat that crap - and the smell isn't anything to smile about either. Maybe I need to move...

Over the weekend I went to a small zoo in Wheeling, WV. It was raining and there were other events happening in the area, so we pretty much had the zoo to ourselves. A few animals of note:

Ostrich: There were 4 in the enclosure and they were as facinated with us as much as their fairly small brains could be. My friend opened up his umbrella and the male suddenly started following us as we walked along the fence. A mating display, perhaps?

Deer: They had a petting zoo type area with deer that we went into. One of the deer walked right up to me and stopped with what I'm guessing was an expectant look on its face. I didn't have any of the pellet food and didn't plan on letting a deer eat out of my hand - though that's what it was expected. So, we just looked at each other for a moment - each of us having reached the limit of what we were prepared to do. It was an interesting empass.

Frogs: They had a display of poison arrow frogs. Those things are wicked cool - so bright and shiny that they looked like plastic until they moved.

River Otters: My favorite animal on the planet - they had two in a large watery area with underwater viewing. We got to see them right up close as they swam, ate, and played in and out of the water. Just amazing. And the otters seemed interested in us too - they came right up to the glass and peered at us and tapped the glass before swimming off again. I could have stayed there all day.

Also that weekend I got to see a Sarah McLachlan concert on TV. Just awsome - I think she's one of the most amazing and powerful singers out there today. And you could tell she was really enjoying putting on the show. She... resonates... with some pretty deep and powerful emotions.

In other news...my ex-roommates mom called last night and asked if I would stop over and set up her answering machine/caller ID. They seem to go in waves with their requests - though this one does seem to be taking longing than usual to get through. So, I'm headed there this evening.

That's it for now...time to get back to work...

car revistied, work, annoyed, good deed

Well, it's been a few days since I mentioned my car - the check engine light went out the day before my appointment. I drove in a variety of conditions and the car had no problems. So, I called and canceled the appointment - saying it was like a kid that didn't want to go to school, but felt better when a trip to the doctor is suggested. The mechanic had good laugh with me.

Yesterday, on the way to work - the engine light came back on. I not sure if it means there's a problem or just a loose wire somewhere. I'm keeping an eye on things and I'll get it checked if anything else weird happens.

Work has been busy and stressful - a couple of projects have sprung up out of nowhere and gotten rapidly way more complicated than usual.

As a result, going for lunch has been an exercise in frustration this week. It's like people are trying to get in my way on purpose - though the worst has to be the chicks that sit right in the middle of the stairs at the main entrance to the building - chatting on their cell phones while eveyone else has to try and get around them. Maybe a good swift kick to their heads...no, must not let the idea even form in my head.

To try and counter-balance things, I did a good deed again and took my ex-roommate's grandmother to bingo again yesterday and then picked her up in the evening.

Oh, and I got some more halloween supplies last night. One more major component to acquire and I'll be ready for the assembly.

That's it for now - time to get back to work and and put out some fires...

Nerd, car, and halloween prep

Over the weekend I went to a costume shop that is going out of business. Found some good deals for my costume this year and got some ideas for next year as well. Spent too much money, but hey, it's my favorite holiday of the year and I've got my fan base to think about.

Yesterday during a drive home, the check engine light came on again. I've got an appointment to drop the car off tonight and have it worked on - again. For apparently the same problem that they "fixed" before. So, I'm doing it all - again. I'm more than a we bit cranky about the whole thing, as you can imagine. I might have to pack my Mr. PotatoHead "angry eyes".

In other news... I'm involved in a project to put together some videos and a website for Cyber Security Awareness day here on campus. In the videos, I'm playing the part of "The Nerd". So, today I nerded myself up and got my picture taken for a fake ID. I think I managed to pull off the look - I was nerdy that I wanted to give myself a weggie and shove myself in a locker. Yeah, I was styling. Just a few minutes ago I de-nerded myself - though I'm leaving the stuff here at work for when we actually film my part.

It was scary how easy it was to slip into the role - and how nerdy I still feel afterwards.

I think I need a shower. With lots of pumic soap.

That's it for now, back to work...

And yes, I'll post a picture at some point.

why it's a good thing I can't blow people up with my mind

It's been a rough day - things keep breaking and landing on my desk. And at lunch today - everyone was in my way. Everyone.

1. The girl that had to get 8 little cups of catsup for her small order of fries.
2. The nimrod who couldn't find the napkins and made a huge deal of it.
3. The twit on her cell phone - standing on the stairs.
4. The...well, just the random collection of clueless idiots who couldn't see beyond their own small and dim view of the world.

While standing in line I actually had some serious thoughts over whether it would be better to make their heads explode or to just set them on fire. It's messy either way, but I figured that the burning alive would be more painful and I really didn't think that anyone of them deserved an easy way out.

Clearly, I have issues.

And now it's time to get back to work... Oh, the joy is neverending...

good deed and preying mantis

I had a message on my answering machine from my ex-roommates grandmother yesterday when I got home from work. Rather than call her back the nan0-second I walked in the door, I spent some quality time in the bathroom with my new comics. By the time I was done - and yes, I did wash my hands - her currently out of town daughter had called as well. Same topic - could you take grandma to bingo tonight?

Well, as it turns out, I could. So, I called her back and made arrangments. I picked her up from her house and dropped her off at the bingo location with a hearty "good luck". The plan was that she would get a ride home from one of her friends - but she asked if I would be home that evening in case that fell through.

Now where, in all of this, is my ex-roommate? Apparently working, as was "that woman" as the grandmother refered to his girlfriend.

As predicted - she called again later that evening and would be needing a ride. So, I put my shoes back on and hopped in the car. Halfway to the bingo palace - terror struck.

Something huge flew past the front and side of my car before slamming into the open window frame on the driver's side of the car. It was a preying mantis and it was huge. Huge, I tell you!

The impact broke at least a couple of legs and the force of wind kept him from getting back underway. So, he was essentially stuck on the ledge of my window.

Now, I like bugs - because in most cases I can do my thing and they do their thing and we're all cool and stuff. Here, I was trying to do my thing and this particular bug was clearly up in my business.

I finally escorted him out of the car with a bit of scrap paper when I reached a red stoplight - no, I didn't touch it directly. We'd both been through enough. And it was huge.

I rolled up my window a bit once he was gone and then completed my appointment with the lucky bingo lady - who had picked up 50 bucks and a stuffed dog.

Good deed complete.

Well, that's it for now - time to get back to work...

Did I mention it was a huge bug? Huge!

catching up a bit

I haven't blogged in a few days - been real busy with work, including working a couple of late nights. Big projects mostly, but also just a lot of random stuff.

I another cluster headache over the weekend - this one hit me while I was a passenger in a car on a trip. The "normal" sequence for this is: distorted vision, headache, throwing up, sleeping, recovery. Being in a car threw that out of wack and it was touch and go for a while. Feeling much better now.

Watched some of the Firefly DVD - great show! Real story driven sci-fi, which is usually rare in the face of fancy special effects.

I also watched the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on DVD. Pretty good, but I wonder how much a non-fan of the book would have gotten out of it. It was more than I expected, but not as much as I would have hoped for.

The DVD included a trailer for the Chronicles of Narnia - which looked really good in a Harry Potter sort of way. There's a shot of when they first open the wardrobe - amazing...

Talked to my sister last night - she's recovering from a huge quiz and was doing battle with a giant bug while we talked on the phone. I think she eventually won - but it was still twitching when we finished our conversation.

Well, I guess I should get back to work - or maybe go grab an early lunch. In any case, that's it for now...

I see a beige phone and I want it painted red

(apologies to the Rolling Stones)

We need a red phone for the video that I'm going to be in about Computer Security - so, that was job last night. Went fairly well, though my attempts to preserve it as a working phone failed when I forgot to cover the handset jack before spray painting it. Oh, well. It was most likely a lost cause anyway.

Otherwise, it was an evening of video games and paying bills.

Well, that's about it for now - back to work...

car saga concluded and a call from mom

Well, I was able to pick up my car yesterday - though it was a near thing. I called early on in the day and was told it was the thermostat that was sticking and some contaminents in the anti-freeze. They suggested a new thermostat and a "flush and fill". So, I okayed that and they got to work. Before I headed to my meeting in the afternoon I called again to check the status and they said they were having trouble with air in the radiator - but they would call back soon and leave a message if I was gone.

They called back and left a message - the air was a real problem and they would need to keep it an extra day. The second message was them saying it was resolved and done and ready to go.

So, I got a ride over to the dealership, handed over my arm and my leg, then they drove my car around and handed me the keys.

I'm poorer than I was, but at least that light is off of my dashboard.


I called my folks last night and found out that my dad had won his age group in a 5k run - which was very cool. Mom was out, but called me back when she returned. She's back in Ohio and doing fine - though still a little tired. She's planning on heading back in a few weeks as they ERV drivers - and she's an expert on those. The shelter she worked at was considered a model for how it's supposed to be done and one of the directors said they couldn't have run it without her - so, high praise indeed.

Otherwise, not much to report except that I'm busy again today at work. The only reason I had time to write this much is that my 9:00 appointment is late. Well, I guess I should start on some projects until he gets here.

That's it for now...time to get back to work...

car saga continued

Directions gathered, route planned and I'm off to see the dealer - dealership, that is. Or more accurately, drop my ailing car off at the service department. To my surprise, they are still open and not that busy. I give the guy my keys and he pulls my car in and we proceed to "Fill Out The Paperwork" - a ritual that I really dread. He tries to make some small talk and I politely respond - but really I had planned on dropping the keys in a slot with a note and going to dinner, so he's on borrowed time as it is. Nice enough guy - right up until the point where he says its going to be $100 just to run a diagnostic on my car.

Wanker.

Well, good luck, buddy. 'Cause Monroe couldn't even get the socket to work to make a connection. You're going to have to earn that $100.

And if they can't figure out what it is...well, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Then I'll set fire to the bridge and storm the castle. And then I'll go get my swords.

Oh, and they are also going to cover a couple of recall issues that I've been neglecting. Well, one I've been neglecting since it didn't refer to "a screaming fireball of painful death and massive destruction" - which is my criteria for having someone waste my time while pretending to do me a favor. The other notice I hadn't heard about yet.

They aren't going to charge me for those, fortunatly.

It was a busy day yesterday and today looks to be about the same. I hope I don't get stuck here late again as I've got stuff to do this evening.

That's it for me - back to work...

the drums

I was in the student union today to drop off a disk and get some lunch when I heard the sound of drums. Loud drums. Hurt your ears kinda loud drums. There was a parade going through the student union as a group of guys in full tribal robes pounded on their drums as they marched through the building. It was almost painfully loud.

Now, while I applude the way they embraced their culture and the skill at which they played - I have to wonder if they realized that these drums are traditionally play Outside?

I have no idea why they did it or what they were all about, but it was loud. Very very loud.

Back to work...

car issues, parking permit, quiet weekend

So, I'm heading out to visit one of my friends on Friday and my check engine light comes on. So, I pull over into a nearby park and pop the hood. Which is foolish, since if it's not shooting out flames I'm not going to know what to do with it. I'm not a car guy.

No fire, but the light is still on. I drive directly back home and notice that the car is running just a little bit hot. Not much, not in the red zone, but just a little hotter than usual.

I took it over to a Monroe service station and they told me that they could look at it first thing Saturday morning - so I left it there and walked home. They said it would be $50 just to look at it. And somehow I knew:

a) They won't be able to figure out what the problem is and
b) They'll still charge me.

Well, I was half right. They couldn't get their diagnostic computer to make a connection - they suspected a bad socket or something. But, when I went to pick it up, they just handed me the keys and didn't charge me. Which was nice - though it would have been nicer if they had been able to actually fix it. They suggested that I take it to a dealership.

I took the car home, checked the phonebook and called the two dealerships listed to work on Chevys. The service area of the first one was closed and wouldn't be open until Monday morning and the second took all my info and gave me an appointment - for tuesday morning.

Gee, good thing it's not important or anything.

So, I drove it to work today - windows down and heat turned up - and again it got slightly hotter than it usually does. And of course I hit every single freaking red light on the way here.

I'm got tranportation lined up to leave the car at the dealership tonight and I'm really hoping it's something simple and cheap.

Because the cost of my parking permit just got taken out of my most recent paycheck. But wait, Anthony, don't you work there? Yes I do. And you have to pay to park on campus? Yep.
Isn't that wrong? Well, I think so. Do you kinda wish you could charge the parking office for helping with their web pages. A little, yes.

So, my finances are a little tighter than usual. Great. And I was planning on getting my Halloween supplies soon. Looks like I'm going to have to wait a bit.

Otherwise, a quiet weekend. I worked on my stained glass and a couple other little projects. Did some reading and played video games and watched movies.

I'm hoping the week is quiet - the boss is out of town at a conference and I've got plenty to keep me busy.

Well, that's it for now. Back to work...

broken mirror, solder, and a rough week

Just about to wrap up the week, so I thought I'd take a few and drop a quick post.

1. I broke a mirror last week. It was the mirror I use to help put my contacts in (not that I really need it, but it's part of my "putting in my contacts ritual" - i.e. force of habit). A little square mirror and I dropped it on the vanity around the sink. It really bothered me, not because of the whole 7 years bad luck thing, but because I don't break things. I'm always really careful with the stuff no matter what I'm doing, but the mirror slipped out of my fingers and broke. Weird.

2. The soldering went well last night, but I decided not finish it since I was getting tired and was already up too late. In any case, once I get my own soldering iron, I should be able to wrap it up in no time.

3. It's been a rough week here at work - and we had some server issues today that put a few of us in panic mode until there were fixed. I'm a little drained from the incident, but since it's almost time to go home I think I can last through the last few minutes and the drive home.

Well, that's it for me - I'm outta here...

headboard and a weird dream

I worked on the headboard yesterday when I got home and got all the pieces put together. Things went pretty smoothly, though I've got one screw that my drill kept slipping in that I'll never be able to get out. Otherwise, it went just as I had hoped and I was able to attach it to my bedframe yesterday without any problems. I'll still need to take it down and do some sanding and staining, but it was a very productive afternoon. I think the project costs on this one are about $38 so far. The stain won't be too much more, so all in all it's been very cost effective compared to buying one in a store.

So, is there a footboard in my future? Not likely. The attachment point for the foot of the bed is a hook-like shape and that would take some construction beyond my ability. Plus, I tend to flail around quite a bit when I sleep and smacking into a foot board wouldn't be fun.

I had a dream last night that I was pregnant on the beach and went into labor - which apparently was a snap. I was instructed to cut the cord myself - which seemed a little much to ask of me after that ordel - but I did it anyway. Not a lot of detail in this dream, but even this little bit was weird enough to note - though it's not the first time I've dreamed about being pregnant.

Tonight's projects involve a trip to the comic store (it is wednesday after all), a trip to home depot for paint and stain, and maybe the grocery store if I have time. I want to try and do a little more stained glass before I return the soldering gun.

Well, that's it for now, time to get back to work...

lumber, solder, update from mom, and vampires

A quick stop at Home depot for wood screws and I was ready to begin my headboard project in earnst. Though, as it turns out, I didn't get to that part. Took me a while to get everything set up in the front of my apartment and just as I was ready to fire up the circular saw and cut my lumber, my neighbors cames out and started talking two doors down from me. I went back in and started my laundry, then watered my plant, but they were still there. So, I just picked up the circular saw and turned to them until I got their attention. I apolgised for the noise in advance and they said it wouldn't bother. 10 seconds later they had all gone back into their apartment. Hey, I warned them. The sawing when pretty smoothly, but I thought that the sound of one power tool in the evening would be more than enough, so I packed that project up and started on the soldering project while I still had light.

In between there, I called my mom since I hadn't been able to get a hold of her yesterday. She was happy to hear from me, but couldn't talk as they were getting ready for a wedding at the shelter where she has been volunteering. So, I told her I'd call her later and I went back to my soldering.

The new soldering iron I got worked great! I think I might actually be able to produce something worthwhile - though I had a little trouble with the outer edges. Still, not bad for my second attempt. I worked on that until it got too dark to see, then I went inside to have dinner while everything cooled off enough to put away.

Mom called me back after dinner and said that the wedding went really well - and all the "gear" (dresses, cake, tuxes, etc) had been donated. So, she was helping get stuff returned - and apparently trying to chase down the flower girls who were having too much fun.

She's doing well, but she's tired and ready to come home. I gues the scheduleing has been weird - alternatly shorthanded and then overflow. She sounded like she's in good spirits and in her element - helping people and organizing things. :)

After talking to mom, I fired up the playstation and made some progress on castlevania: Lament of Innocence. For a vampire hunting game, there really aren't many vampires so far. I would have also liked to see more selection in the weapons - but the whip will just have to do for now.

Well, I think it's going to be a busy day for me - better get to it...

travel, car, lumber, headache

Did a little traveling this weekend - went with a friend down to columbus so that he could buy a car from his brother at the dealership where he works. The dealership is about 20 minutes away from where my family lives, so after picking up the car we headed further south and visited my dad and my sister for the afternoon. Spent most of the time out on Dad's deck and enjoyed the weather and the conversations. Had to head back on Saturday since everyone had plans for Sunday, but it was still a good, if rather short, visit.

On Sunday, I headed to Home Depot to get the lumber for my headboard that I want to build. Had a little trouble with the in-store traffic. Loaded up the car (good thing I have a fold-down back seat) and headed home. I started to get a headache and some distored vision, so I took some Aleave and tried to sleep for a while. Got up, had some dinner and did a little reading before I went to bed. Didn't get anything done on the headboard, but I think thing should go smoothly this afternoon when I get home from work.

Also, a big thank you to my friend who loaned me a higher powered soldering gun. I'm going to give that a try this evening as well and if it helps, I may get one of my own.

Well, that's it for me - time to get back to work...