The Snowball Is Rolling Again

Last night The Date and I got our bills together once again and put them in order and started the snowball once again. With both of us working full time we'll have these hammered out in no time at all! I don't have exact dates figured yet but it won't take long.

I'm by myself from now until the seventeenth at work. Thirteen work days and it'll be hectic! I know the phone will ring off the hook constantly, that's the way it goes when there is one of us to man everything. Just the way it goes. He's earned the leave, it's part of our compensation for working there and you are free to use it whenever you wish.

War and Peace isn't going so well. I am roughly fifty pages in and it's a staggeringly deep novel and possibly too much challenge for me right now. I'm having a hard time concentrating on it, dense Russian literature isn't easy. I will probably have to postpone War and Peace and go with something a bit more fluffier right now. I've got a bajillion classic novels on my Kindle so it'll be easy to choose something a bit easier and then tackle War and Peace in the future. I'll browse my Kindle app today at work and see what I've got on there!

Busy Day

Yesterday was pretty busy despite my coming home six and a half hours early to go to Urgent Care for a sinus infection. I'd had just one too many sinus headaches over the past two weeks and enough was enough. I took the bathroom door off of the hinges and sanded the bottom smooth to shut over the new threshold R installed, got the final adoption papers filed with the lawyer, took Thing 2 to the doctor and got her some medicine for a bronchial infection, checked on a car for her with the bank, and last but certainly most important had lunch with my honey!

That is a rare treat, especially now that we are both full timers but what a treat it was:) How often do you get to set down with your spouse and have lunch? You can talk about your morning, while mine wasn't all that whippy hers was pretty good and made mine feel better!

We ate at BWW, the first time in a long time. We had the lunch specials with boneless wings! A nice combo along with your wife's company:)

Wednesday is when I'll be alone at my shop for nearly two weeks as my coworker is going to two cooking contests. One in Las Vegas and one in Tucson. It'll be a busy couple of weeks but I'm fine with that. He's pretty good and has a good chance to make it into a bigger contest. These are winner advances to the next round contests. He's taught me a lot about smoking and we talk over recipes and cooking techniques quite often. I'm a better griller but he's a better smoker!

Off To Another Workweek

Thanks to a fine meal cooked by Crime Reporter last night I still feel stuffed! We had burgers, baked beans, pasta salad, chips, and red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting! All outside under a tree with a noisy bird in it.

That was a good time!

The bathroom is nearly finished, many thanks to R for putting the great new tile down! There are a couple of details left like painting and such. If the neighbor comes through tonight I'll start sanding the upstairs floor. He said his company has a floor sander and would bring it home with no problems. He's a good neighbor!

The Date is now on recovery from the show, she'll have post show blues for a few days but she'll also be able to heal up from lots of bumps and bruises she received from the show. Ankle, knees, elbows, shoulders, and other assorted booboos. I'm glad we got to do the show though, it was a fun one! Set strike went quickly yesterday, taking things apart is much faster than putting them all together! As far as I know the next show will start building their set next weekend. The Date is doing costumes for that show so it'll be a easy transition from the post show blues for her:)

Closing Night

It went well enough, the audience was the smallest of the lot and a bit more subdued than previous shows. With that said they still hit their laugh lines and still had a good time!

A fine show run and a fun show!

I picked up two scrips for Night of the Living Dead last night as well. This is going to be my show this coming October and I'll have auditions this summer so I can shoot the video parts with the actors and get it all edited.

Yes, this is going to be a fine stage directorial debut. The video/live action combination will be a great addition to this show! It's fairly short and is one single act, however this will be an added advantage in that there will be no intermission and once the show starts, we have the audience until it ends! Even if it were longer I'd probably still consider running straight through with no intermission. Horror movies just work better that way and this would be no different in that respect.

I'll put on a memorable show, that I promise!

Last Show

Last night a great audience! They laughed at everything and loved the show! Tonight is the last chance to see Wrong Window!

Awesome day out, bordering on hot and air conditioner weather but I'm sure we'll resist. Starting the search for a car for the soon to be sixteen year old Thing 2. Looking in the VW arena of cars available. Dependable, fairly priced, great mileage, and safe. Sounds like a perfect fit!


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Two Full Weeks!

Today is two full weeks of my honey working her full time dream job! Yesterday she had everything all to herself as her boss was gone for the day. She's really loving the way the show is going and has been really busy.

Tonight is the start of the closing weekend of the show Wrong Window. The comedy Hitchcock spoof that is very good and The Date has a really funny role in it! Well actually all of the roles are funny but I'm biased:)

Tonight, tomorrow night and that's it folks! Get your tickets to the show!

I received a tenth cigar bomb yesterday too! It had, ten premium cigars in it! Top shelf stuff too. I've got a tremendous selection and LOTS of extras to go around. So if any of you are interested in having a cigar, let me know or interested in learning the art of smoking cigars, again let me know and I'll hook you up!

The Ninth Bomb

Yes, one more box of cigars arrived yesterday! The ninth! It contained ten very premium cigars too! A couple are pretty hard to find. Awesome selection and another amazing gift from some generous brothers!

That's one of the amazing things about the cigar community, everyone helps everyone. They love sending boxes to people and the troops with their favorite cigars. They love adding this and that in there and surprising people!

The Cigar Asylum fits in with my natural generous tendencies and I'm considering joining one of their fantasy baseball leagues. I don't watch baseball but my humidor is overflowing and there is a cigar entry fee so it'd be a chance to send off some nice cigars to the troops and get some extra room in my humidor for the two entire boxes of cigars I still have!

I'll probably do it, it's only a five cigar donation for the troops and five for the winner.

All in all I'm really enjoying the cigar hobby and I've literally got more than I can smoke in a year at my slow pace of smoking them!

American Horror Story

Well after it setting on the DVR for months I got around to watching this show the past two nights. It was pretty good, like a long rated R ghost story. It was violent but not as bad as Sons of Anarchy believe it or not.

All in all it was a very well written show, the twists at the end really made it shine but it was solid all the way through. Not for everyone though, not at all.

It's Wednesday and by all accounts should be a pretty nice day out. Our inspection at work has gone well, I've had two over the shoulder inspections so far. They literally stand by you and watch you work. I passed without any problems or discrepancies. Pretty good for someone that's been there nearly twenty years!

I mean I should know how to do this stuff with my eyes closed, well I do. A lot of things I'm not very good at, the list is numerous but the things I do know how to do, I'm pretty darn good at!

Rolling Through The Week

It's Tuesday and we've got an inspection underway. It's a major inspection and there's a lot riding on it from our and the company's best interest. So far we are doing just fine but again it's just underway.

I received four more boxes of cigars yesterday, I'm not kidding. One box had two full boxes of cigars in it! It's been crazy! I'm totally speechless! I guess it means you can practically live in an online community as well. The Cigar Asylum town is a pretty nice place to hang out!

There's a lot of very cool and generous cigar smokers there and they are all willing to help a guy out! They send constant care packages to the troops via donations and funds out of their own pockets, they "bomb" unsuspecting people such as myself just because they can. They are fast to help and slow to anger, who could ask for a better group of people?

Rainy Day

This morning I got up, showered, put a roast and veggies in the crock pot, let the dog out, fed the herd of pets, and I'm making coffee while I'm blogging! The Things are on spring break so I'm not taking Thing 2 too school this morning. I'll kind of miss it for a week, it's nice to get up at the same time and have bonding moments while we are getting coffee in the mornings.

The radar shows it's going to rain or sprinkle at least most of the day. Fine by me, we need it. We have no show or rehearsal tonight so we won't have much to do this evening but chill out and rest! It'll be nice!

We'll get home at roughly the same time, by then the roast will be done, and we'll just be able to enjoy each other's company for the evening! Something we've haven't had an abundance of the past three years, evening time when families are traditionally together after work.

Last week was pretty nice but we also had tech week to go to every evening along with a show on Friday and Saturday. This week we really don't have anything until Thursday to do! Talk about nice!

House Hunting

We decided we'd take in a couple of open houses today. The house we were mainly interested in was sold before the open house even opened. The other two were similar to stepping back into the late sixties. Pink tile and all of that. All in all it was a bit disappointing.

It was a cool day, we didn't do a whole lot. The evening is being spent watching Frozen Planet on Discovery! Love these wildlife shows!

The show last night went well other than a couple of distracting distractions in the audience. A couple of loud elderly ladies in the front row couldn't help but telling each other and the cast about how much they disliked the show. Then the dreaded cell phone user who didn't turn their phone off before the show.

But the cast was on regardless and tech went well:)

It appears as if we'll have quite a storm headed our way and should be here in a couple of hours. Love sleeping in the rainy evenings! This was a good weekend:)

Slice Of Heaven

Opening night was great, the audience was so into the show! They laughed at everything! There were times when there weren't even laugh lines and they chuckled! It was very very good! The gathering after the show was a lot of fun as well! We just hung out at Pan's and had snacky food.

The actors were ON, everything flowed, the show ran great! I'm proud of my Honey and the rest of the cast!

The Date went and sang Karaoke after with a couple of the cast mates and R. Thing 2 had to go to work early this morning so I took her home and hit the hay! It was a long day but a darn good day!

The Date's first week of work went far better than expected, she's really loving her job! She's learning the radio terminology and the products they offer. She's getting her new responsibilities down and she's going to fit right in! She absolutely loves her new job! She's always been a spectacular idea person however now she actually gets paid to implement those ideas! How cool is that?!

Now for the least of what good happened this past week, I posted on Cigar Asylum, my online message board go to site for everything cigars, about wanting to use my last Walmart paycheck to fill up my humidor! Well one of the veteran posters decided to send me a box of cigars and told me to keep my last check. Well all of a sudden a few others get on board and Friday I wind up with four boxes of cigars! FOUR BOXES!

Around ninety cigars headed my way from four different brothers on the board! Not only that but Icehog3 (who got the ball rolling) said he was pretty sure it wasn't finished yet! How generous these guys are huh? That's why I love the cigar community, they are all about sharing what they enjoy with others, it lends itself nicely to my nature as I love to share what I enjoy with others as well.

Good Lord above my humidor is full and I'm heading over to Beersnob's later on to share my new found bounty with him. He helped me with my cigar smoking activities through the rough times and I'm going to return the favor and stock up his humidor today!

This morning I sat out in the yard, watched the sunrise and enjoyed a Rockey Patel robusto to welcome the day!

Opening Night

If you haven't gotten your tickets for Wrong Window tonight or for any of the showings then I urge you to do so! It's a fantastic show and simply hilarious! There are so many Hitchcock references it should be a drinking game!

I'm glad things worked out the way they did and I quit Walmart when I did. Doing tech for this show and my honey is a fun treat. She has made it through a week of tech rehearsals, her first week of work, and survived Daylight Saving Time, along with the help of a lot of coffee.

I'm thirteen and three on probably my best bracket. My other bracket though is fourteen and two. We'll see what today's games hold! I'm enjoying the heck out of the March Madness app! The streaming audio has been really good and smooth! It's pretty amazing, there's practically no buffering at all! Not to shabby for a free app!

So get to the show tonight and treat yourself, it's been a fun show and you'll enjoy the heck out of it!

The Madness

One of my favorite sporting events of the year starts today! In fact it might be my second favorite. I like fantasy sports first, probably March Madness second, Super Bowl third (mainly because I enjoy fantasy sports more than the actual games anymore) and the two NASCAR races at Bristol.

Everything else is watchable but mainly if I'm in the mood. I'm all for the sports surviving in the sports world though, I just need to be in the mood to watch. Today I've got two brackets going in the work pool, five dollars a bracket and it pays three places. I've won the whole thing once, last time Duke won the championship! I believe I tied for second one time as well.

So today you get to follow all of the first round games, I can do it all on my iPhone. Got the March Madness app and it'll give me live game audio, video if I paid 3.99 for that option but over 3G it'll be worthless, and push updates on scores, close games, buzzer beaters, and of course upsets! Not too shabby for a free app!

Let the madness begin!

Tech Going Well

We lined out the fireworks effects last night and have all of the lighting and sound effects pretty close. I have to tweak a couple more and that should lock them up for the show. The actors are ready for an audience, they want to get the laughs and know when to pause everything. They are right on and will pitch perfect opening night!

My honey loves her job and is trying to hire two new people to sell ads. She works with Ten now, the former manager of the defunct and dearly departed Oklahoma Storm and also fellow fantasy football owner and competitor. Ten usually puts together a strong team and is one of the teams you really dread to play because somehow they always score a ton of points. But as I've blogged about him before, he's a great guy and fellow conservative and we have enjoyed the occasional political discussion!

It's practically summer out now. Temperatures are in the eighties and I'm starting to believe the easy winter we had is an indication of a harsh summer. Last year was blistering hot but the winter before that was very rough as well.

So now we're going to kick this day off and get things started!

Great First Day At Work

My love had a fantastic first day! She loves her new job! She has her own office and she gets to do what she loves to do! She's going to be super amazing in this job and have a good time doing it!

Tech rehearsal went good and bad. Good because of the actors, they had their lines down and did a great job. Bad because we are still having to retool the fireworks effects and it's just got working as well as we'd like.

We are going to try another technique tonight and see if that works better. Hopefully it'll suffice! We'll see!

Big Day!

I'm all excited that my honey is going to her first day of work! I hope she's pleasantly SURPRISED and it turns into a CHOCOLATY good day! It's going to be her dream job and even though we've got the start of tech week tonight and it's a traditionally busy week. It's going to be a good week and that's going to start today!

Congratulations to my baby, I'm proud of you, I love you, and I'm so happy for you!
You're going to do great today!

The Concert

Was really good last night. Cell signal was horrible though. I wrote my blog standing in line and posted it but it didn't make it up!

Heart sounded really good! For Nancy and Ann Wilson, 57 and 61 respectively, they did a great job! The crowd was full up and it was standing room in the back. they did nearly two hours! A ton of their famous songs, including the Swiffer song! Ann was drinking from a mug, hot tea or coffee probably but after one song she did take a shot on stage near the drummer:) got to keep that voice tuned up!

The sound was really good but not overpoweringly loud or distorted. It was a good evening!



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In Line For

Heart!
We had a really good set call this morning. Put some polish on the set, got the light cues lined out hopefully. We'll know for sure tomorrow night. A few things here and there to get set for tech week!

So to chill out from set call we decided to take in a concert! Heart is playing at an Indian casino north of Newkirk near the state line. They've been getting good acts through there lately. Up coming shows are George Thoroughgood, Boston, Willie Nelson, New Edition, Shinedown, and others.

There are worse ways to spend a Saturday night with your love!
The gates are about to open!


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Great Reharsal

This show still has a week left in rehearsals and it's practically ready for the stage now, tech not withstanding. No one got too lost and everyone was having a good time on stage. That's the mark of a good show, when the actors can have fun with the show and with each other then you know you're going to put on a fun show!

When you dread going to rehearsals, it's a job, and you aren't having any fun at all with the show then you know it just isn't going to be that good despite the show material itself.

All in all I'm glad I have this fun show to work on as my first show back in over half a year!

I'm Back

It's great to be back up in the tech booth for a show! Watching my honey on stage is a thrill not many get to witness but I'm one of the lucky few! To be able to see your wife on stage and doing such a good job while having fun is priceless!

I'm glad everything worked out right so I was able to do this show with her! For a while I felt like I would never be able to get back into the booth again, at least for a while longer. Well everything DID work out, although unexpectedly but it happened.

This is one funny show too, I was chuckling up in the booth at most of the lines. I've trained myself not to laugh as it is distracting to the patrons below. We learned long ago they can hear everything we say up there! No kidding, that's a long way up too but they can! Regardless it's funny!

This will be one of those shows that won't get old too fast. I've worked shows where after the first night of tech you are bored with it, that makes for a long run. This one will still be good on closing night. I can tell:)

Good job honey, you are great up there! I'm blessed to be able to watch you the next three weeks on stage!

Doing Good

The warmer weather is having a great effect on my mood. Yeah it's windy as all get out but you get that here. It's just a natural fact that we get tornadoes and wind. However this year the tornadoes are hitting east of us from Alabama north to Indiana. It makes me wonder what we will wind up with this season.

Tomorrow and towards the weekend we'll be having a high chance of slow moving soaker rain. That'll be nice as we are still drought ridden in many places. I put down lots of weed and feed on our yard over the weekend so that'll help kick that off and get it going.

I'm starting to come down after my high of quitting Walmart now. Yesterday was one week and that's plenty of time to stop being giddy, now I'm just thrilled that I get to start tech rehearsal tonight with The Date and Thing 2. Next week is tech week but we are going to get things started a bit earlier as they need light adjustments to get things rehearsed correctly.

Easy enough and I'm glad I get to hang out with my family in the evenings for this:) Sometimes the little things mean the most!

Tuesday's Here

Work was actually really good yesterday! It's a LOT easier going from work to home rather than from work to work. And before you tell me, "this is another whiny two job blog, I'm not reading!" I really don't know what this blog is about yet but even if it was it's my blog and I reserve the right to post anything:)

I came home after work and I have energy now. I did the dishes, made some pulled pork sandwiches for myself for supper, and watched a little TV. I watched a documentary on the Military channel about an Able Archer wargame that good place in 1983 that nearly brought us to nuclear war with the old Soviet Union. It was a simulated attack from Russia on us and our response.

Back then leaders didn't talk much at all, they allowed the spies to do the talking for them. The paranoid Soviets were positive that we were using this exercise to perform an actual attack on them. Their spies reported that there were no preparations and yet they had their fingers, literally, on the launch button. Three hundred missiles were poised and waiting for the code, submarines were in place, underground silos were opened, and the bombers were in the air.

The fallout of this wargame was that President Reagan decided that if we were going to have missiles aimed at a country then we should talk to them. Those talks eventually brought the USSR to its knees and it fell apart as we all know.

From the brink of nuclear annihilation to a country primed for freedom. Well with new President for life Putin in office who knows what will happen now but the people aren't happy he's there. Sometimes the KGB just won't go away.

Cabaret Performance

For those of you that don't have Facebook and read my blog anyway I'd like to show you my wife's cabaret performance! Piano Genius was on fire that night! They both put on a set of Ray Charles, Etta James, Otis Redding and others I don't know! It's a long set, nearly forty five minutes but if you like the blues you'll enjoy this!

One week from today my honey starts her new job! She was going to start today but her new boss said come on in the following Monday. Thing 1 has some doctor appointments this week to follow up from her hospital stay so it's going to work for the best this way.

She's been so excited all weekend, myself as well. We'll finally get to be that family that comes home at roughly the same time and can spend the evenings together! That's for the first time since before we were married. A real normal family because our times haven't meshed before. She's worked a lot of night jobs or had class while everyone knows about the last seven months of what I've done since I've hit that over the head a bajillion times here!

It's going to be a bright (bright) bright (bright) sunshiny day!

And For The Good Times

So today I've decided it's going to be the first smoke of 2012 for the Big Green Egg!

Two, giant pork shoulders or Boston Butt roasts. They will sit, unmolested in the Egg for hours, absorbing a delicious mixture of hickory and maple smoke! The connective tissue breaking down slowly over time to leave gloriously flavored meat!

A porky, smoky, slice of heaven pulled and chopped into tiny pieces and slathered with sauce and love on a bun! Thus today I'm babysitting my ceramic smoker outside, enjoying the warm breezes and wafts of pork flavored smoke!

With God above as my witness today is a good day!


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Ok, To Sum Up This Week

In one single word would be FABINCREDIBOUSTIC!

First it started off like any other week, on a Monday. I don't mind Mondays, they are good days actually. You can never ever have a week without it starting off with a Monday. That's fine, a rose by any other name would smell like Friday, or something like that.

Walmart was Walmart. No biggie, it was busy but they had left a guy off of the schedule so we were short handed. They say it was a scheduling mistake but the guy who wasn't scheduled decided it was time for a week long, non paid vacation anyway. Completely understandable since he had only been working less than two months and this was his first job in two and a half years. Not sure how he went as long as he did without a vacation! Poor guy.

Back to the story, short handed in produce. Tuesday and Wednesday are scheduled days off for Burgie (with a J sound) and that left me, by myself for the remainder of my schedule. So for the rest of how that night went you can refer back to Tuesday night's blog.

I've literally been giddy ever since that moment!

So Wednesday morning rolls around and The Date had a job interview, she called me and was excited about it. We talked and it would be a good job but not a great job due to the money. But a great job due to the work and how fun it'd be. So we were genuinely excited for the prospect and potential!

Thursday rolls around and R comes in from out of town for cabaret on Friday night and to decompress a bit! Always great hosting him! The Date turns in her resume to a local radio station that's looking for a sales and marketing director. They literally call her back in two and a half hours after that to ask her to interview the next morning, Friday morning.

She is giddy excited all night and the next morning! Along with cabaret that night it's a good day anyway and we were excited about that evening! So she interviews at ten thirty that morning, eleven rolls around and I text her to call me when she gets finished. Then eleven forty five rolls around and she calls!

THEY HIRED HER ON THE SPOT! Her dream job! She coordinates events and sales now! Incredible job and all of a sudden all of the hard work and bad breaks we've had over the past three years just kind of faded away! She looked at me last night and said she felt like she was dreaming!

Well we woke up this morning and she was still hired and still had her dream job! We are so excited about this, it's going to be an amazing opportunity for her and us!

Cabaret went amazingly well, Piano Genius and my baby put on one heck of a set! They were nonstop great! Hot, sultry, and very good, note perfect and killed the audience last night! They were on fire!

Oh and as the sprinkles on the already massive sized cake of goodness we had yesterday, we also got our tax return:) God is good and His blessings poured out on us yesterday!

Even Better Day!

Last night after work I got to pick up Thing 2 from orchestra rehearsal and then we came home to grab some food. The Date was at rehearsal for cabaret and Wrong Window so we had an evening to get some things caught up that have fallen behind since I was working all the time.

So we headed to Atwoods and got some gardening and lawn care supplies. Oh, and some oddball cokes. Thing 2 got some orange cream, I got a strawberry crush and some butterscotch root beer. All in glass bottles!

I can say this as well and it helped contribute to the incredible mood of the night, Walmart paid up! So after Atwoods we travel to the mall and Thing 2 gets a couple of pairs of footwear. Some dress boots and some heels for cabaret tonight. I drop in at Hastings and pick up Hank 3's Ghost to a Ghost (Very spooky, ghostly, gothic album) on sale! It's either a five star or one star album, just depends on you. There's not a lot of middle ground with him as I've blogged before. While I'm doing this Thing 2 is getting a dress at Ross for tonight. She found a great one!

Then we head home for the evening with all of our supplies and footwear. The Date arrives back home soon with some incredible news, another job interview this morning!!! My great night has gotten better again! I had a hard time wiping the grin off of my face all day and especially in the evening!

So I wake up this morning and I'm still happy! Tomorrow will be the start of my first weekend off since August! Yes, in nearly seven months I'll finally have a full weekend! I've been miserable so long with the two job thing I really didn't realize it after a while. I had no idea how bad I really felt, how angry I had gotten.

I knew I was worn out and constantly tired. Now I feel like I could run a marathon on my mood alone!

Still Happy

Yesterday I felt like a prisoner with his first day of freedom after being released from jail. I was giddy all day long. This morning I'm a bit upset as my Walmart check didn't get deposited. This was for the two weeks prior to this week. It was worked, I got my deposit numbers texted to me, and now no money!

I'm going to be calling someone today and I'm getting paid.

With that one aside, yesterday was a great day for all involved! The Date had a great day and obviously so did I! I called the produce section and asked to talk to Pam, the department manager. She was always nice and I wanted to tell her I had quit as she probably didn't know.

Well turns out the lady that works 4 am to 1 pm was the only one there, everyone else had called in! That meant that after she went home at 1 NO ONE was going to be there until 4 am again this morning! I can only imagine how mad the managers were with ChristinA about her temper. I could only hope they put her in that section to do the work I would have done:) Likely fantasy but still a pleasant thought.

Back To The Theatre

Barely an hour after quitting Walmart I already had tech work at the theatre for the upcoming show Wrong Window that my gloriously gorgeous wife is costarring in! This is my first show since 1776 last year! Now that's a long time!

ChristinA, the manager that was the catalyst for my quitting last night probably isn't a bad person. She's probably just a very unhappy person and takes it out on the associates around her. I'd like to say I didn't resort to personal attacks on her, her obvious problems, or anything about her. Her attitude however is deplorable. She's mean, angry, and walks with an air of superiority.

She didn't know the situation and yet jumped to the conclusion that someone had just left trash to dump. A very inaccurate assumption on her part and couple that with her horrible attitude and not to mention the sheer gall it takes to jump down someone's throat the moment they show up to do their job and if there were any justice in the world SHE would be out of a job not me.

That's not the way the world works though.

My quality of life has dramatically been raised due to ChristinA though. I'm now home in the evenings and as it happens I'll be able to spend more time with my family:) The show is a start and I'm happy to be involved and thrilled to have been asked! I now have weekends free again, the first time since last August. No more sixty six hour weeks. The money was nice but you know something, it's not everything and we'll get by regardless!

So...I Kind Of Quit Walmart

I guess the last straw came tonight. Here's what happened.

I get there early and clock in. 4:45 on the dot! I get into the produce back room, take care of the organics, take care of the cardboard, and do some stocking.

About six I decide to take out the trash because it's over flowing since I'm usually the one that takes it out.

The Walmart managers decreed that every two hours from seven A.M. on they will be there to unlock the compactor so everyone can dump their trash. I know this and left the trash on a cart knowing they will call me at seven to dump the trash as I know no one else will do it for me.

So the call comes over the intercom that they are there and it's open. I start heading back and arrive to the strains of Christina's whiny voice reminding me that there's a compactor schedule. I reply I know there's a schedule and proceed to dump the trash. Keep in mind it's heavy, sixty or seventy pounds a bag and there's four of them.

I admit to being a bit grumpy however she started on me and I snapped back at her. She says don't snap at her. I'm only doing what I'm supposed to do, dumping the trash no one else will dump. She says we need to go to the office to talk about it. I say I'd love to, and then it starts.

The frustration starts to flow, I tell them I was left again by myself another night because they left Nate off of the schedule. I was holding things down again. And she says I'm not going to talk to her that way.

1. I wasn't out of line.

2. Again she jumped on me first with a very nasty attitude while not knowing or asking why I did what I did.

She again said we need to talk in the office, I said that we didn't. I tossed my badge at her feet and my box cutter on the floor and left.

I feel like an oppressive weight has lifted from me:) I'm done, even if the huge cow like manager got on her chubby knees and apologized herself.

Goodbye Walmart. We've been together since August and I feel our time has come to part ways:)






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Judgment Day

Michigan is a make or break state for Mitt Romney. Arizona is about as conservative as our state is and they should dislike Romney but would they go for Santorum or Paul? It will bring the final front runners into focus and probably be Newt's Waterloo. He should go the way of fallen contenders after today but is going to stick around for Super Tuesday on March sixth anyway.

For the first time Ron Paul has leapt in front of Obama in a national poll and would beat him 43% to 41% but the poll is within the margin of error. Paul, the conservative/libertarian even picks up disenfranchised liberals dissatisfied with Obama and his handling of...well everything!

Our country needs attention right now. We're broke, we're mired in financial disarray, and I still feel that our economic woes aren't over with yet. The next administration will have a lot of work to do. Hopefully a willing and conservative congress, united on common grounds behind him, and we'll start to see a lot of progress as we get out of these Carter-like years an onto bigger and better!

Keep watch tonight, if Romney takes Michigan then he could wrap this up soon, if Santorum does then it'll be a longer fight for sure.

One More Time

Here we go for another week! The Date is nearly off book right now from Wrong Window! They still have a month of rehearsals left! She and Piano Genius have also been practicing very hard for Cabaret this coming week, they sound incredible!!!

Don't miss this show, you'll be disappointed if you do! If the blues is your thing, you'll enjoy this very much!!! It's going to be great and I'll make it this time too as I'm off Thursday and Friday!


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How Walmart Lost My Optimism

I'm really not liking a lot of our Walmart customers. Me, the optimist who always believes in a better humanity, a better tomorrow. That things will always get better than they are now.

A few months of working retail and seeing how people treat each other and naturally you as a worker will change that point of view. My main pet peeve is that they will take something from the store, most likely frozen, and just leave it where ever they feel like, to thaw and ruin.

They'll get huge carts full of groceries and just leave them on purpose somewhere. Last week there were two large carts packed full...just left between produce and meat. This happens every week!

Last night I almost got ran over by a manic nine year old that his oblivious mother, and I use that term lightly, let push the cart. Naturally he pushed it as fast as he could making people down the action aisle dodge him! I wanted to thump the kid on his head and resisted the urge to knock him the F out! I know that's bad but I did resist, however that doesn't change the fact that I had that thought and urge.

If I knew how to work the intercom I'd get on there and say something like, "Will the clueless person who left X in the produce section to thaw/rot/or generally tick me off, please report back to produce so you can be humiliated in front of the other clueless shoppers please!"

Which would be immediately followed by a meeting in one of the manager's offices, in which they would likely secretly thank me for doing what they've been wanting to do for years!

It wasn't but a few short weeks ago I was literally frazzled, my brain's circuits were fried. I came home and went immediately to bed and stayed there in the dark. The Date would ask me a question and I had a hard time answering. There were so many people in our section it was like Six Flags in our area!

I will recover my optimism once again but for now it's in a trunk, packed up in the back of my head.

She's Home!

We got Thing 1 back home yesterday to rest in her own bed! She's resting up and getting ready for a handful of doctor appointment followups in the next couple of weeks.

She's doing well and feeling better! Thank you all for your prayers!

I stopped off yesterday after work and got a haircut and straight razor shave at Blue Jay's. I really enjoy that place, it's a bit of a throwback place where men can hang out. He usually has beer in the refrigerator next to the barber chairs that you can help yourself to, even on the base haircuts he uses a straight razor to do detail work and a hot towel.

The straight razor shave, once a mainstay of the barber shop has seemingly faded away over the years. I don't grow much of a beard over the course of a week however he told me the experience really wasn't so much about the shave but the relaxation that comes along with the shave. I believe that! It was nice!

It's a great experience and I'd recommend it for all of my men friends out there!

Good Interview

Thing 1 is still in the hospital. They are going to do a scope sometime today and see what else is wrong. She is still in pain. That's a tough virus.

The director's interview went really well. I feel confident they liked my ideas for the show and are probably going to put it on the schedule for this October. I think we came up with enough alternatives to a drop down screen and projector to make it a viable show.

It'll be a fun fun show to do!

Maybe Today

Thing 1 could possibly come home today from the hospital! The let her back on solid foods and hopefully she'll get over the nausea part. She's had a rough couple of evenings but we are hoping the virus is passing now.

I've got a director's interview tonight at the Theatre. I've submitted Night of the Living Dead as the Halloween show. I wanted to incorporate video into the production as in filming the opening cemetery sequence and opening with that and then the basement and closing sequences where the zombies are rounded up and shot.

It's a bit ambitious but someone has to break down those barriers. If the tech side can't be ironed out then I said I would resubmit another season when it can be done the way I see it.

I'm off this evening and I'm glad! I need this break badly now. It's been tougher on me lately. My coworkers at Walmart have decided to play musical call ins lately and I'm seemingly the only one that comes to work when scheduled to. Last night I actually had a coworker but he got a reprimand on his call ins.

I guess the difference in me and them is that I'm willing to do what it takes to support my family and one of them doesn't particularly care if he keeps a job or not.

Rolling Along

Thing 2 has given herself quite the short haircut, she looks very Joan Jett-like at the moment. She wanted her natural color to come back in faster.

Thing 1 is still in the hospital and they are still thinking it's a virus of some sort. Still no solid foods but they are keeping her for observation and doing blood work until they know for sure.

It's my Walmart Friday, naturally one of my dwindling coworkers called in last night and left me alone to do everything. Meh, I guess it's no big deal in any case. It's a matter of priorities as Teehee and I discussed last night. He stopped in for groceries and we had a nice chat for a bit. It was nice too, he made me feel pretty good! A rarity for me recently as life seems to have me and my family on the kicking tee for a while now.

We'll survive, we'll always survive.

Random Notes

Well the initial diagnosis of Thing 1's kidney stones proved false. They now don't know what is causing her pain. After an ultrasound, and X-ray they came up empty handed on any kidney stone. They should have something figured out today we hope. The Date is worn to a frazzle. She's slept by her side the past couple of nights, rarely leaving her. Any thoughts and prayers headed to us would be greatly appreciated.

Thing 2 and I have carried on and are holding down the fort. I'm glad that we were off yesterday! That was a big help in getting things prepared for the week and I did get a little rest yesterday before heading to work.

I finished the Hunger Games trilogy. It might be for young adults but the content is definitely more horror adult. There are some grisly deaths going on there and some scenes of horror. I'm now embarking on War and Peace and I'm going to make a run at that novel. I've read it's really good after the first hundred pages and it's a still a struggle up to four hundred. We'll see. I'll do my best.

I had a nice chat with my Northern Brother yesterday and he was telling me he remembered how he enjoyed our food when we had a restaurant. As well he should, he worked there quite a bit and did deliveries from time to time when we moved it to this town and made pizzas. Those were fun high school days!

He asked if I was ever going to open up a restaurant. I said I'd love to and have even talked to The Date about what the ideal restaurant would be like here for us to run. It'd be amazing! I'll keep this cat in the bag for a while though but rest assured I'd be able to cook as much food as I ever wanted to and feed as many as I could. Nothing would go to waste, ever.

Kidney Stones Strike Again

Not me by the way, but we believe Thing 1 has one and is currently in the hospital in order to determine if it is or isn't a stone. She had a CT scan and the appendix was ruled out as a cause. The Date has been by her side all night.

I'm headed up there very soon to see her and see if there is a diagnosis yet. After having over twenty of the things I can tell you what the symptoms are and it looks to me that she has them. We'll see though. She'll have to drink more water from now on for sure.

Thankfully I'm off today as it's President's Day! I'll have to head to Walmart later on but if things aren't settled yet then I'll probably call in. We'll see how it goes.

Bright Sunny Day

It's more like spring right now than winter. The mild winter continues. The rain from yesterday and the day before are long gone. I've still got to go in and do my time at Walmart today though. I'm not thrilled about wasting such a nice day but hopefully tomorrow will be better and we can enjoy that one too.

I've got to tell you all why Thing 2 is a special girl. Something she did yesterday was simply amazing! Her place of employment was going to throw away some bananas that were starting to brown. A whole shopping cart full! So she went to her manager and asked if she could buy them because she couldn't throw out good bananas while there were hungry people out there.

The manager agreed if she could find a box then she could buy one bunch and stuff the box with as many as she could get in there. So for less than two dollars she bought a huge box of bananas and The Date and Thing 2 went in search of a place to give the bananas to.

The YWCA took them and were grateful to have them. They never get fresh donated fruits or vegetables. Then in a moment of sheer brilliance Thing 2 asked her mom, "Why didn't any of the older people there think of this? I'm fifteen."

Yep, brilliance I tell you.
I'm very proud of her, she'll do well in this world.

Hank 3

I've been skirting the fringes of enjoying the music of Hank 3. Country music royalty with a lineage second to none. The son of Hank Williams Jr. and the grandson of Hank Williams Sr.

He takes the mantel of outlaw country from the early days pioneered by Johnny Cash, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, and naturally David Allan Coe and brings it into modern times. His music borders on punk mixed with Appalachian mountain music. He's not afraid to mix in zydeco with thrashing guitars or crying steel guitars.

He'll never be heard on broadcast radio. He hates pop country with a passion. His latest effort was released last September and was three separate releases. The main was the double album effort Ghost to a Ghost/Gutter Town. The first part is his version of country, heart rendering loneliness along with ghostly arrangements and raw country lyrics. The second a mish mash of whatever you have and was allegedly inspired by his living in a haunted house.

It's either a love or hate work but it's undeniable that it's unique and creative. Perhaps one of the most creative recordings to come along in a long time in fact.

If you are a country fan of the older stuff, can't relate to the new class of manufactured music sung by generic acts, or just in the mood for something different Hank 3 is your cure.




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Amnesia

Abostang was kind enough to buy me a game called Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It's on many lists of being one of the scariest games ever created. Why? You can't fight back.

It's dark, atmospheric, the sound is very creepy, and it all evokes the afraid of the dark primal fear inside you. You wake up in a dark mansion and have to find the inner sanctum. Something is following you, sometimes it's invisible and you can only hear it while you are running through water.

Abostang and I were on Skype and played probably about half of the game last night, I got stuck a few times while he had a few of the puzzles figured out by the time I got there. We both explored different areas and it's gone pretty well so far!

Oh, one other thing, if you stand in the dark too long you lose your sanity. However sometimes you need to hide from the thing following you and hiding in the dark is the best way to do that.

For a twenty dollar game it's very reasonable considering the only time I've felt like this while playing a horror game was the first Resident Evil. That had some legitimate scares in there and it was so fun! Amnesia is on par with that.

It's for the PC and any PC today can easily handle this game.

But He's Good

“Safe?" said Mr. Beaver."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.” C.S. Lewis

This is a quote from The Chronicles of Narnia. It refers to Aslan the lion who is the king of Narnia as they are talking about if he's safe to be around. Well he's a lion, lions are dangerous. Even tame lions are dangerous but Aslan was good and that made all the difference.

God is good but he's also a terrible God. Sometimes we think of him as a buffet. We'd like some of his goodness, mercy, love, and joy but often overlook his holiness, justice, sovereignty, and wrath. Equally all apart of Him.

I've heard people say they use parts of the Bible and it's more of a guidebook to them. Yes and no. More no actually than anything else. It's a tapestry of God's revelation to us. I've often pondered at how an atheist can look at the grandeur of nature and not see God at work.

You can't have God's mercy while being impenitent at the same time and at that point the guidebook is clear on what happens so tread lightly. He's dangerous.

First Friday

Of the week. Yeah, I'm off from Walmart after tonight. Last night wasn't too bad, busy enough the evening went fast but slow enough to catch my breath from the horrendous weekend and Monday night that really killed me.

I hauled pallets on Valentine's Day from the back and located them for the overnight stockers to put on the shelves. It wasn't hard and a nice change of pace from the produce section.

Work was work actually. I call Walmart, Walmart and my real job work. I miss one day and things pile up. Now that's not a bad thing either because if we get caught up with the very few remaining amount of people we have now then we'll never get anyone again. One of our guys who just came off of shoulder surgery is going back soon to have the same shoulder worked on again. He'll be off another three to six months very soon.

We are used to being short handed though, it's the way we roll. If we had a full crew I don't know if we'd know what to do anymore. It is what it is.

Valentine's Day

The day that really singles out single people and exorcises them right out of society. There's not a day in the year more polarizing than this day. You loyal readers know this as I was single and struggled through this day year after year for most of my adult life.

I finally just called it Tuesday instead of Valentine's day. Just another day on the calendar, another day to look at the bright side of things, and another day to be happy I was alive.

A day is just that, a twenty four hour period in which the sun rises and sets in our sky. We get morning, afternoon, and evening and we get it for another day. We can do what we want with it but I chose not to dwell on the fact I was single and to enjoy everything I could about it otherwise.

So if you see a single person out there today, either include them or steer clear of them but be nice to them either way.

Snow Storm

We had a good four or five inches of snow last night. Schools are closed but I'm headed in to work today and then Walmart after. I'll be leaving pretty soon actually, I need to allow myself some drive time.

The snow is starting to melt a bit already though, there's a warmer southern wind blowing. By tomorrow it should be clear roads and business as usual!

The Broken Streak

Well my blogging streak that went back to 2006 was broken yesterday when I failed to blog. I got busy yesterday morning and after I got home I had forgotten all about it! I had blogged every day since since the streak started, over two thousand consecutive posts.

Well as I've said many times lately it's more like an exercise for my brain than it is to actually keep track of what kind of film I'm working on. Lord knows that died off a long time ago. Projects nowadays just seem to hit the talking about stage and die off a quick death from there.

For the past six months it's been about a lack of time and money. Before that it's been a lack of motivation I guess. I don't know the exact reason for sure. Probably a combination of many things at the wrong times.

Well I guess the top news is the death of Whitney Houston today. I've got a hard time sympathizing with her or her indulgent and likely drug induced death. She had a beautiful voice but she traded that away for drugs instead so I don't really call it a tragedy. I'm sure someone will say she was in pain, well so what. Lots of people are in pain daily, lots of people struggle on a daily basis but don't turn to drugs to numb themselves from it.

Her life turned into a train wreck and she struggled a lot. She had a great gift and threw it away. I felt the same way about Heath Ledger, I don't have a lot of sympathy I guess for self indulgent superstars who can't recognize their own talents and choose to take care of them.

Very Good Day!

So today I decided was going to be a good day! The Date and I decided we'd spend it together and we headed to the city. On the way we treated ourselves to Eischen's chicken for lunch.

With full and satisfied bellies we arrived in the city and headed to the big mall. The Date wanted some flannel pajamas and I needed new socks and boxer briefs. We chatted all the way down, and just enjoyed each others company.

We headed to Macy's and found her perfect paid of pajamas and then over to Penny's and found what I needed. It was just nice to get out of town for a while and enjoy my day off. I can't really qualify with words how much I enjoyed today.

After we found what we came for I talked The Date into having a Chinese reflexology massage. She enjoyed the heck out of it! We then headed our weary selves back home where The Date had to work Dinner Theatre tonight. She'll be super tired when she gets back home after working all evening. She'll probably be asleep before she hits her pillow in fact!

Here's to a great day, may we have a lifetime of them!

I'm Off Tomorrow!

I'm blessed with a job in which I can take every payday off and still earn a little bit of leave. I'm taking tomorrow off for that reason! I'm already off from Walmart so having a real day off from both jobs will help. Once I'm able to quit Walmart then I'll concentrate on building my leave back up again. It won't take long either. In June I'll earn more than I am now and I'll be topped out as far as how much I can get.

That's the hook of this job, they give you more time off each year and more money. Before you know it you've been there forever!

Tonight I'm cooking sweet and sour chicken for Crime Reporter and the family. I do so love to cook, there's something simple in the process. Preparing food for others to share, it's something we all need to do a few times a day. Might as well learn how to do it right:)

Keep an eye towards Syria. Let me tell you the Middle East has always been a powder keg but I am not sure that the public will support another ground incursion. We are war weary right now. We've cleaned up Iraq, Libya, working on Afghanistan, and Iran is always on the horizon. Yes Syria is a bad place and they are killing hundreds of people per day. It needs help but are we really in the position to send that help right now?

Syria is going to explode and that might trigger the strike against Iran that Israel is waiting on. Talk about world war three, that should do it.

Notes From Walmart

These are just collected mental notes I've made since I've worked at Walmart. They are only based on my observations and my own internal dialogue. They may not reflect reality, just what I perceive people are thinking or doing.

As I'm coming in I see the McDonald's manager chain smoking his life away. He has a defeated look in his eyes as if to say, "Everything has lead me to this, what happened?" He lights another cigarette off of his last one and leans against the wall. I'm sure he's calculating how many he has to smoke before his life is sufficiently shortened to his satisfaction.

You can always tell those customers who have a bit of self awareness from those who don't. You can always tell who is lonely and who isn't. You have the people who have no awareness at all and walk around in their own personal world, customized just for them with McNuggets in the top of the shopping cart and throwing things into the basket as slow as possible. They also will clog up the aisles with no regard to those around them. You don't exist to them because they really don't know anyone is around them.

Usually these people are very overweight. A testament to their sloth and arrogance. "I own this space, it's mine and so is your space. My time is my time and so is your time, the time you wait on me to move from your speedy life. So here I shall stand, in your way, causing your frustration and annoyance."

Then you have the lonely, those who spend hours in the store in the evenings as if picking up the energy of those around them will ease their loneliness. Three or four times a week they need their fix of people. They will put on their best clothes and stroll the entirety of the store. Wanting nothing but to feel connected to something, something other than what they have. Spending time with their friends, the strangers around them. Perhaps holding out the hope of a short conversation with someone, anyone. Sometimes I oblige.

There are those who wish to break free and yet trapped by the job. You might throw me into that category on some level but not with that job, my real job. Those who know they can do better but the years have passed them by faster than they thought possible. What happened when they had the chance? Did they decide on security instead of the unknown. The devil you know I suppose. The ones you have at home depending on you, so you do it and do it and do it. You have fun when you can, you keep busy as if that helps fill the space where fulfillment would have fit nicely.

And that brings to a close a few of my mental notes I've collected over my working career at Walmart. They aren't bad nor good. They are just what I see and due mainly to my boredom and overactive imagination the situations I paint for them.

Two More Days

Yesterday when I got to work at Walmart they had a gap in workers and everything was low or out. One of the managers asked if I'd clock in early and get things caught up since we were busy. I did and I got to come home a bit early!

It was a busy night but it went by fairly fast. I've got two more nights and then I'm off two. I'll have completed nine straight days of Walmart labor. This coming February twenty seventh will be six months. Hard to believe really. Six months.

Hadn't really planned on working there six months but that just goes to show how my plans usually work out, they don't. For whatever reason they never do, something comes up and spoils everything every time.

I'll have Thursday and Friday off though and I'll enjoy that a lot! Then it will be back to the normal schedule I was working, five on two off at Walmart. It's not complicated really as in reality it's always seven days a week at one job or the other.

Meh Game

In ten years will anyone remember this rematch from a few years back? Perhaps not, we'll see. A few miscues on either side and one crucial catch kind of dictated how this game went. It really wasn't that exciting or high scoring.

Both teams played a very controlled style of football. It wasn't a thrilling game such as when the Rams played the Titans and the game ended literally on the one yard line. It wasn't high scoring and it wasn't a blow out.

The commercials had some funny spots and I likely missed the best one because I had to work and showed up in the second quarter.

Work was alright. Busy and one of my coworkers got a DDay or Decision Day. That means they are on Walmart probation. It's a shame too, she works very hard and didn't come back from lunch the day before as she got ill after eating. She's had a rough life and still has a sense of humor about things.

I've been trying to get her to go back to school again and learn to be a X-Ray tech or something along those lines. She said that was her dream job and there's no reason she couldn't accomplish that with some hard work. Not as hard as working the rest of your life at Walmart hard though.

Perhaps this is the bit of motivation she'll need to pursue a better life for herself. I hope so! She's a good person!

While I was at work yesterday The Date and R installed a new porch light! Incredible what a difference a small thing like a porch light makes! She's one of a kind, my love, my wife:)

Super Fun

Last night was a lot of fun! Haven't been bowling in forever and it was just enjoyable! I bowled an outstanding thirty nine the first game and came in last. The second game I had three fluke strikes in a row and won. Don't know how but I did it.

Tonight is the Super Bowl party and I plan on making buffalo chicken dip. Very simple recipe and it's awesome for sports parties!

A can of chicken breast.
Buffalo wing sauce (your favorite brand)
Ranch dressing (your favorite brand)
Cream cheese
Shredded cheese (your favorite type)
Spice it up with sliced jalapenos.

Put the chicken in a baking dish and use a fork to separate it into smaller pieces. Add in the sauce, the more you use then the spicier it will be. Use the Ranch, the more you use the creamier it is. Put in the cream cheese and shredded cheese. Put it in the oven at three fifty for twenty minutes and it's done!

There are no correct amounts to this recipe. It's all up to your individual taste!

Super Bowling Saturday

Tonight we are planning on doing something really fun! It's been forever since I've been bowling and I'm sure that The Date will wallop me. She had a bowling class, she knows way more than I do and if I can keep the ball between the gutters I'll be doing good. I'm thinking I can break one hundred!

Piano Genius, R, and Thing 2 will be attempting the ball rolling sport. It should be a lot of fun! I'm really looking forward to seeing how this is going to go!

I've got the dog on my lap, a pulled pork roast in the kitchen that R had a recipe for, and I'm done with my Walmart shift for the day!

Let the ball rolling commence!

Rainy Friday

Yes it's Friday for some, just another workday for me as my first Friday isn't until next Wednesday. Then I'm off from Walmart for two nights.

Anyone noticed lately how Hillary Clinton has taken to wearing Mao suits? She's got her hair combed straight back now, has the little button collar of a dark suit around her throat. Mao would be proud.

Well whatever her reasoning is I'm sure she'll enjoy unemployment this coming November.

I'm into the third book of The Hunger Games and it's alright so far. Second chapter so I can't tell much right now about what's going to happen yet. After this I'm going to attempt War and Peace. Much has been made of the length of that novel however it's really shorter than many novels I've already read. George R. R. Martin's series is longer for example.

Depending on which translation you get it's around twelve hundred to thirteen hundred pages. The Kindle version I got was a tick above twelve hundred. I understand the first hundred pages are a bit tough to get through but it flows after that. We'll see, I'm about three hundred pages from starting it so it'll be soon.

Groundhog Day

Well today is my mother's birthday and it is also groundhog day. When Punxsutawney Phil (yeah I had to look up the spelling) will be held aloft by the mayor or some such office and we'll see if he sees his shadow or not. If he sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter if not we get an early spring.

I don't know about you but this entire winter has been pretty much an early spring. Very mild and little in the way of snow or ice. I guess it's making up for last year's very harsh winter. We had it all last year and lots of it!

Regardless of Phil's prognostication this year it's too late for a long cold winter. We might yet see some rain or perhaps even snow but it's too warm to stick around long and it's too late in the winter for spring not to be around the corner.

Not Even Close

Florida decidedly gave the primary to Mitt Romney last night, walloping Newt by double digit numbers. It appears that we'll have a moderate as our nominee this go around. Let's hope that his VP pick is a stalwart conservative and can steer Mr. Romneycare away from such notions in the future.

I'd be thrilled with someone along the lines of Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, Tom Coburn, or of course Rand Paul. Ron Paul has stated that this is his last hoorah and he won't run for office again. Any of those conservatives would do well to keep Mr. Romney's feet to the fire and on the straight and narrow. I've no love for Mr. Romney, he's plastic and distant but most of the country has little say in the matter.

His election will likely hinge on that VP pick at this point. He pretty much has the nomination wrapped up and while I've no love for Mr. Gingrich's occasional forays into the liberal realm and even less for his personal life the fact is that he just isn't playing well to the people. Romney's defeats have been narrow, his victories massive.

This is our system and until we come up with a better one we'll continue to get candidates such as Romney to guide the country back to prosperity. God help us.

Florida

Today is the most telling day of the election season. Florida is up for grabs by the GOP and whichever candidate wins tonight will likely be the nominee for the general election in November.

I'll have to listen to it on the WunderRadio app at work this evening but it'll be interesting. Romney has a big lead thus far. I've been very clear that I'm not a Romney fan. If I had my druthers I'd take Ron Paul in the general against Obama.

I was watching WWII in Color on the Military Channel over the weekend. They were showing the events that lead us up to WWII. We had a massive and booming economy, we were the forefront of industry in the world bar none. We had a military but it wasn't near the military we have today. The public was still war weary from WWI and had no interest in fighting for Europe again.

Slowly FDR prepared us for another conflict against evil and then the Japanese did what FDR couldn't and got us involved.

My point is that the economy that we had prior to December 7, 1941 is what Americans today want again. A vibrant and booming economy. We want to be the world's leader again in everything. We need to be building flat screens here again, we need to be building iPhones here, we need to start cutting China out of the manufacturing loop and bringing these plants home for Americans to man.

That's my libertarian side of me talking because we don't need to be isolationists right now but we do need to start withdrawing a lot of our interests from around the world home and put those resources to work for us for a while. We've always been accused of nation building, well right now we need to do that on our shores for a while. Whatever laws politicians have put in the way of that need to be done away with and corporations need to be rewarded for packing up from abroad and building plants here.

We have so many natural resources in this nation that we haven't touched yet, including labor, there is no reason we can't be the dominate financial force in the world again. That's what is at stake today. I don't know if Romney is that candidate or not but I know Obama isn't.

After Tonight

I will work nine straight days at Walmart. Then it appears I'll be back to my Thursday and Friday off schedule once again. Yesterday was nice though. This weekend was really needed and will help me get through the coming workdays.

Yesterday The Date house managed children's theatre and then some friends came over and we headed out to watch a local band with a very talented piano player! All in all we had a lot of fun!

It's easy listening to such amazing talent!

Tomorrow is the Florida Primary and it'll be very telling on the whole Romney/Gingrich race. Likely whoever has the upper hand tomorrow will land the nomination and go on to kick Obama out of office. I'm not a fan of either of the front runners, both have flaws that are hard to look past. Neither one of them are Obama though and both would do a better job of governing than what we have.

Sunday At Home

My baby is heading up to the theatre in a bit to house manage and help wrangle two hundred children. She had a busy day yesterday, mine was as well at work but overall not bad.

The Date's favorite restaurant is P.F. Chang's. She loves the lettuce wraps. So I tried to replicate that recipe today and make her a special treat to help fuel her endurance and strength for child wrangling:)

The Things are both at work today and I'm not. Rare day off but I'm going to be able to tackle the week again. It'll help! So here's to the upcoming week, I'm going to be ready for it!

Five And A Half Hours

That's all that stands between me and a genuine three day weekend! I'll take care of that short shift today that lands right in the middle of my weekend. After that I'll be off to enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Last night we had dinner with Chianti and M. It was great and we came home with half a pan of Paula Deen brownies! We had a great time, it's been a while since we've hung out together.

Right now The Date and Thing 2 are at the theatre preparing for the children's theatre show, Alice in Wonderland. I'm making jambalaya and I'll be heading off to start and finish my day's work. Mannix is on Cloo network right now, it's seemingly a marathon. I'm glad this network is putting old classic detective shows on again. With any luck they'll start running Columbo or Rockford Files soon!

Day Off

I took the day off! I feel fine, feeling good actually!
Making some grilled baked beans and onion rings for a get together tonight.

I only work five and a half hours tomorrow and then I've got another full day off on Sunday!

Nothing To Write

I just don't have much this morning to write about. I'm feeling pretty good this morning, I'm off from Walmart for a couple of days. I get to work some overtime at my job on Saturday morning and then go to Walmart after that to finish a shift.

All in all things are looking good right now. The Date has gone through her script and highlighted all of her lines, she got a couple of leads on jobs yesterday, and tonight is her script read through. The play sounds really funny and she's excited about it!

This show will be the next main stage show after dinner theatre so it's got an important slot as it kicks off the rest of the shows on stage except for Shakespeare. The theatre put together a good lineup of shows this season, they really should be pretty entertaining and my baby is a big part of that!

Mozart And Onions

So there I was last night, culling onions and pretty angry actually. I didn't want to be at work last night, some genius manager had scheduled four of us for most of the night which meant everything was done before I even got to work. That means a looonnggg night for me.

So I took my iPhone and pulled up WunderRadio and started looking for radio stations to play to take my mind off of my circumstances for the evening. I found a classical station from LA called KMozart or something similar. There wasn't a Thunder game on to listen to so I said what the heck. Phone in my shirt pocket and Mozart's Second Piano Concerto was on. At least I think that's what the announcer said. Anyway it started and it really wasn't long before I could feel things relaxing a bit.

The job at hand didn't seem so rough anymore. Before long my imagination was soaring away and up into the stratosphere, taking me away from the onions, the rotten onions, and the thousands of onion skins I was cleaning out of a big bin.

I really don't have an appreciation of classical music. I don't know a D Minor from a Coal Miner. What I know though is that last night, in a night that really didn't want to end, Mozart helped me through it and got me home to my family:)

In other news The Date got a major role in another show at the Theatre! I'm proud of her!

Comic Strips

More and more I turn to the comics in the paper than any other part of it. The world news is seemingly spinning out of control. The EU has banned Iranian oil, there will be a standoff at the Straits of Hormuz, our political race seems to have come down to an adulterer and a cold moderate for President, and who knows about the future crisis that always seem to pop up.

My strategy? Spend all additional cash on the lottery and buy an island somewhere peaceful and away from the political madmen running the world. They turn everything good into everything bad, with a stroke of a pen they can impose more regulations and restrictions on a place they've never been to in their lives and effect families they never knew existed nor wanted to know.

So comic strips are what you should read in the paper. They'll brighten your day a little bit although our local paper has removed Dilbert for some reason. That was my go to strip everyday! Well I do enjoy Gasoline Alley but I've read that forever. Slim Skinner has to be one of the dumbest men alive! I do enjoy the simplicity of Mutts, it's hard to be thoughtful and simple.

I could do without a few and I'd replace Born Loser with Pearls Before Swine, and I'd dump Marvin for Get Fuzzy. Maybe throw in a couple of others here and there and I could design the perfect comic page! Perhaps I've missed my calling.

Here We Go

It's early Monday morning and I'll be headed to work and take Thing 2 to school in less than a half hour. Walmart was super busy yesterday. In fact I was going to take a picture to send it to The Date and let her see how busy it was but I was too busy to be able to do that.

The clogged aisles of disrespectful shoppers was a lot to handle yesterday. Some of them will just take something out of their carts and leave it lying around where ever. Frozen, dairy, it matters not to them. Just as long as they can make more work for an understaffed section they go home happy.

Regardless that's the job and I clean up after them while doing my regular job of moving fruits and vegetables from point A to point B. It'll be slower tonight though, it'll be easier. There won't be nearly as many people out and about and shopping. In another week we'll start to see everyone with a tax return buying new TVs. In the back room I've seen them being stocked up and put out on the floor for sale. That seems to be the number one purchase every tax season.

Anyway, I'm good, I'm feeling good this morning. I'm rested and I'm ready to take on the big bad steel toed world for another week.

Championship Sunday

Today would mean something to me a few years ago. I'd have waited on watching these games but last weekend would have been my favorite of the playoffs. Eight teams down to four and this weekend down to two.

This year it doesn't mean much at all, real life responsibilities have taken their place and leave little time or interest. I hope by next season the restrictions on my time will be a distant memory and I'll be able to indulge in watching Sunday football again.

The Date is taking care of her dad this weekend and getting him all set for another week! He needs her, it's good that she will look over him! She'll make it back today so she'll be able to take care of me and the Things this week:) We are all lucky to have her in our lives:)

Cast Iron Cooking

I was reading along one of my regular message boards and came across a thread about cast iron cooking. To be honest in all of my years of being able to cook I've never really considered cast iron in my cooking arsenal. I know my grandparents used cast iron, my mom has cast iron skillets, and I know they last many lifetimes if you care for them.

AS for me, well I guess I was just part of the nonstick skillet generation so cast iron just didn't fit in with that.

I might have to reconsider that decision though. With cast iron you can cook nearly anything and when you combine that with my Big Green Egg you can cook just about anything you can imagine. Clean up is actually easier than a nonstick skillet. You don't wash them with soap, ever. In fact according to the great Alton Brown you just take a bit of kosher salt, a dab of oil and a paper towel. Scrub it with the salt and when the salt is brown, it's clean. Dump out the salt and put it back on the stove. Finished.

Yes you can cook perfect steaks in cast iron however why do that when you can grill them? Grilling is the perfect way to cook anything, the Big Green Egg is the most versatile grill out there and can be used as an oven, grill, or smoker. It's self cleaning at temperature and efficient enough to cook steaks at over six hundred degrees while it's freezing and blowing cold outside.

I'll have to look at purchasing some cast iron cookware at some point. I think it would open up a new avenue of cooking I've yet to explore!

Weekend Ahoy!

Who's ready for the weekend? I know I am! More than that I'm ready to come home right after work tonight!

Archer started its new season last night! Great animated show! I would have paid attention to most of it but I found myself a bit inebriated last night. While The Date and Thing 2 went to Third Thursday I decided to have a drink. That turned into two drinks. And then I woke up in bed this morning.

I can't remember the last time I got on the tipsy side as usually a drink is more than enough. Actually drunk drunk has got to be months at least, maybe longer. Regardless I got there last night.

Thanks to my daily regime of drinking over a half gallon of water a day I feel fine and I'm not dehydrated! Now it's time to take Thing 2 to school and get myself to work.

Thursday Night

Since today is Walmart payday I plan on taking the fam on another short trip to eat tonight. The Date suggested a BBQ place a town away so we'll try that tonight and see how it goes.

Eischen's was a blast two weeks ago, great food too and probably worthy of a return trip.

Most importantly I'm off work tonight! No Walmart tonight! I get to come home at a regular time and spend the evening with my family instead of rolling in at ten after a thirteen and a half hour work day! Seven days a week is getting to me, I'll be honest. I'm wearing down. Night's like tonight though will be fun and that's a good thing!

My First Friday

Meaning tonight is the last night of the work week I go to Walmart. I'm glad, it's wearing me thin lately. It goes from insanely busy which makes the shift go by fast to a ghost town which makes five hours a night seem like fifty.

There is some kind of regional inspection today, blah blah blah. The managers were working when I left to get things the way they think they want the other managers to see them. They'll run around like a chicken with their heads cut off putting up displays and moving pallets of food from one section to another. What would happen if there was an unannounced walk through? They'd really start to sweat then.

Oh well, it is what it is. Getting paid every week is a huge help and the work is easy enough although sometimes frustrating. I'm settled in pretty much now and it's easier than it was at the beginning.

Another Work Week

Well four fifths of one anyway:) I had a cigar with Beersnob yesterday and we got to catch up and chat for a couple of hours over an Arturo Fuente. We chatted about politics, the economy, and a lot in between.

We both can't wait to see how Obama defends his record on the economy. How any one of the candidates left would be able to pummel Obama over the head with unemployment, massive spending, and the hopey/changey talk.

I'm still liking Ron Paul, the libertarian side of me just wants to see real Constitutional changes take place. I know that with a Paul administration spending would be drastically cut and we as a country would be able to concentrate on us for a while and get over this liberal sickness we've had. It's about to run its course and we're almost better though.

The only candidate I feel who really doesn't want the job is Ron Paul. Yes he is also to whom most 9/11 truthers run to for information but honestly I believe he feels the 9/11 committee wasn't 100% forthcoming. Personally I don't know and don't want to look into it. But I'd take a little paranoia if it limits the size and scope of government rather than the monster that uses agencies to spy on our everyday lives any day. The people should not fear our government, the government should fear us, the people.

Our checks and balances system is corroded and needs to be taken more seriously and we need to put people into place that makes that happen.

Awww

The three day weekend is one of God's great gifts to His creation.

Yeah I'm working this evening but today is mine. I'm off, I'm resting, I'm going to enjoy the day:)

Hunger Games

I've finished the first of the trilogy on my kindle. It was a fast and easy read that I finished in around a week. Not bad considering my work schedule.

I'm glad that all three books are out and I don't have to wait for the trilogy to be finished, I'd have been mad if I got the first book and it ended the way it did and I'd have had to wait for the second book to come out. The story itself is incomplete so I'm withholding judgment on the whole until it's finished.

Thus far though it appears as if the story was strong up until the last fifty pages or so and then it felt rushed. I feel a lot of that should likely be fleshed out in later chapters in the next two books, or at least that's my hope for the story.

The story is brutal though and I did find myself very engaged in every bit of it. As for the upcoming movie, meh. We'll see how it goes for the books first. As a part I wouldn't call this epic, perhaps as a whole it might approach that scale. Certainly not page wise but perhaps story wise. I should be finished with the next two books by mid February if my work schedule stays the same and the next two are as easy reading, maybe as early as February if they are as easy reading.

Good Morning

How's the blogworld doing this morning? Things are good here!
Last night was egg roll night, Teehee sent me his grandmother's egg roll recipe and Thing 2 and I made them together. Rave reviews around the house! We made the dipping sauce as well and I made mine spicy with chili paste as per the instructions.

All in all we were very well fed and we had fun making them together! We'll make them more often as they really only have a couple of ingredients. Ground pork, green onions, a medium yellow onion, carrots, fish sauce, and pepper. That's it. Mix, wrap them up in egg roll wrappers, and deep fry for ten to eleven minutes!

Simplicity!

Thanks Mr. Teehee! You've made us very happy with the recipe:)

Sort Of Three Day Weekend

While The Hunger Games are just beginning I'm due for a three day weekend in a manner of speaking. Yes it's a federal holiday but I'll be working at Walmart and have three full days off of my job. It's not actually even one day off but it's good enough as I'm adjusted to this many hours per week now.

The Date has her dad safely back at home now, he was released yesterday from the hospital. She's getting him settled back in and will be back today. He was pretty happy to finally be released and he was in good shape despite all he's been through.

All is well as can be right now.

Two Nights

I'm off from Walmart now for two full evenings! I'm thrilled with that actually! It's settled into being my weekly schedule now and there haven't been any changes to it in about three weeks. Five days on two days off.

I've started reading The Hunger Games, it's pretty good actually. Very easy reading as well, not as deep as Tolstoy by any stretch but for a different demographic for sure. While Tolstoy expounds on mortality Collins is talking to the GAP traveling teenager. That's not a bad thing, it can speak to adults as well, we just aren't the target audience and it's the literary equivalent to a Snickers bar rather than Tolstoy's steak and potatoes.

Regardless the brain needs fun reads as well as serious reads to maintain a healthy balance hence I'll be reading The Hunger Games trilogy.

The Death Of Ivan Ilyich

A true masterpiece of literature is this short story by Leo Tolstoy. Ivan Ilyich is a man who all his life believed he lived correctly and every step of it measured to his well thought out and exacting measures. From childhood, to law school, to his socially climbing career Ivan Ilyich seemingly had it all.

In contrast to this tale of mortality stands Kurosawa's masterpiece of cinema Ikiru which I've blogged about before. While loosely based upon The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Ikiru's protagonist Kanji Watanabe learns that he is dying of an inoperable tumor and decides how he is going to spend his remaining time.

The tragedy of Ivan Ilyich is that he doesn't realize his life has been dwindling away for decades until he succumbs to his illness which everyone around him has been lying to him about, even the doctor as I said. Ivan Ilyich dies at age forty five after weeks of suffering spent reflecting on how he had lived his life so correctly so why should he suffer so. Watanabe on the other hand embraces his fate and attempts to learn to life after being a lifelong servant of the state in a mindless bureaucracy.

While Watanabe attempts to find what it means to live in night clubbing, love, and other indulgences Ivan Ilyich merely enjoyed bridge, his supposed friends who only cared about moving up in position of the court system in which employed Ivan Ilyich. They dreaded going to his funeral and his wife only wanted to know from them how she could get more monthly money from the government upon his death.

Ivan Ilyich only inconvenienced his family while dying, Watanabe took up a crusade and perished knowing he made a difference to some as it came to light by those discussing him at his funeral. They only realized the magnitude of what he had accomplished when the beneficiaries of his one man crusade showed up to weep for him.

Ivan Ilyich is deep but accessible to any with a love of literature. It'll move you and perhaps you'll examine your own life in return. Ikiru is a benchmark of cinema and really speaks to anyone willing to invest the time

New Hampshire

Today is the first primary of the election year and there will be no surprises after the polls close tonight. Romney will likely be the leader despite finding conservatism while campaigning. He sure didn't govern that way but it might be different if he had big margins in congress to hold him accountable and stop the liberal agenda from creeping in.

Ron Paul will have a strong showing again and Santorum will probably place. Huntsman will likely be looking for a new job come tomorrow morning and Perry will go back to Texas after South Carolina. What can I say? I'd vote for any of the over Obama and I believe Americans that are fed up with Marxism light will as well. There's a lot of work to be done for the new President, lots of work for the new congress as well. Repealing four years of Obama regulation that has kept the job market stagnant and declining for one.

I can't imagine how a lame duck Obama would serve this country for another four years if the first four are any indication. Another four years of record debt, another four years of heavy regulation that keeps industry from thriving, and Obamacare where every employer will quit paying for their portion of your health insurance and you'll be thrown into the public system. It's darkest before the dawn and it's pretty dark out there now, more problems with Iran are on the horizon and Obama is not the man to lead us into or out of those problems.

Hurry up November, this man needs to join the unemployment lines.

New Week

Last week was a short week with the holidays and all wrapping up. This week is the first real work week of the new year. Five days at work, three more at Walmart and then I'm off from Walmart until the weekend. I'm liking the Thursday and Friday nights off schedule. It's nice and it helps give me something to look forward to each week.

This morning is a bit brisk out, it's been a mild winter thus far. I hope it stays that way since last winter was harsh and very cold and wet. Perhaps our summer will be mild as well since last summer was also very harsh and dry.

Today I'm in a pretty good mood, got lots of sleep last night. I was worn out! Hollywood Actor came over and I helped him with his laptop. There was a malicious program on it that had to come off. Crime Writer came over as well because I made lasagna and that's one of his favorite dishes that I make. So we had a houseful and I cooked! There's a lot of joy for me in cooking for others. It makes me happy and since everyone has to eat then I can make a lot of people out there happy in the right circumstances!

It won't be long before I'll be able to cook one night a week for friends again! The Date is job hunting today and I've got a great feeling she's going to find a good job before long! Her dad is doing better and will be getting out of the hospital this week. She's been handling all of his affairs and that's taken up a lot of her time. Now it's almost over and he'll be settled back into his home late this week.

Now it's time for me to head to work, I'll be back home a bit after ten tonight. Long day but these long days are nearly at an end:)

I Miss Lazy Sundays

I'll get there again though, we'll (The Date and I) will get there again. Here's what I'm looking forward to:
1. Cozy evenings at home with my family.

2. An evening of cooking for friends. Before I took this extra job we had started a weekly tradition of having a couple or three people over and I cooked and we ate together. I got to try new recipes and everyone enjoyed the experience.

3. Free time. I'm looking forward to free time and relaxing weekends. Not having two schedules to go by will be a great thing that I took for granted in the past!

That's good enough for now, we'll revise it as we need to:)

Going To Work

Thing 1 is recovering from bronchitis. The Date took her to the doctor yesterday and then she started hurting last night so we took her to the ER. She's doing fine now, has plenty of medicine, and is resting comfortably.

My brother was over this morning and we got the plumbing 100% lined out on the shower! I sealed up everything and it's drying nicely! A few pieces of molding are left and it'll be finished!

Got a haircut after work last night at a new barber shop. They offer not only very good haircuts but they trim everything up with a straight razor and offer straight razor shaves. I've got thick hair on my head but can't grow a beard at all so it's not that necessary for me. It'd probably be nice to have one done someday but I'd have to go without shaving for almost a couple of weeks to make it worth going. I'll probably be a regular there for haircuts though. Very professional and it's just like an old fashioned barber shop.

Now I'm off to work in a short while. Working until six so it's only five and a half hours today. Not bad.

Eischen's

Yesterday was payday from Walmart so I thought we'd have some fun and drive to Eischen's bar. It's actually a restaurant that sells chicken and not much else. It was featured on Guy Fieri's show Diner's, Drive Ins, and Dives right here.

You buy whole chickens, chili, or sandwiches, massive amounts of okra, and as for sides they give you pickles (bread and butter) and onions and some bread. Drinks? Well you can have beer, pop, or water. Pop is served from a can and you pour it yourself.

It's an experience and it's really worth the drive. A short drive for us. It was packed on a Thursday night, I mean packed! We enjoyed the experience and food as it was a great break from our routine! I'm thinking we should do this every time I get paid from Walmart, so in two weeks we'll go to another restaurant out of town and have supper.

The food itself? Well the chicken had great flavor, it was moist, not dry. the okra was your standard deep friend breaded okra, I make better pickles but that's just my bias, they were fine:) Thirteen dollars for a whole chicken and everyone was stuffed driving home so it's reasonably priced. All in all a fun time and we as a family needed that so that makes it priceless:)

BBQ Pit Boys

For you grillers out there I'd like to show you these guys! They take grilling, which is an art and science, and reduce it for the food heating challenged. The recipe above is for baby back ribs in pineapple whiskey sauce.

I made the stroganoff recipe last week while I was off and it's a tremendously good recipe! From their Weber Performer grill you'll learn to make all kinds of great dishes and they are made simple to understand. You don't think you can cook a brisket? Watch the BBQ Pit Boys! You don't think you can cook a pizza on the grill? Watch the BBQ Pit Boys! Great ribs been a mystery to you? Watch the BBQ Pit Boys!

From soups, chile, incredible burgers, potatoes, and even some occasional seafood, if it can be grilled they can grill it! Masters of the fire and food alike! Who doesn't enjoy watching a machete style knife doing the majority of the cutting?!?!

Even if you have no grill they are fun to watch and make grilling easy (hint: it is easy, you just have to know a few things first) and enjoyable! So here is their main You Tube page, and try not to drool on the keyboard!

And It's Mitt By A Whisker

The liberal's conservative pulled out a fraction of a win last night over the surging Rick Santorum. Ron Paul finished in show with a strong showing but not quite strong enough. Relegated to irrelevant are Gingrich, Huntsman, Perry, and Bachmann.

Everyone knows that Romney has been the front runner and odds on favorite to actually win the nomination. He's liberal enough to appeal to people who are fed up with Soetoro...er I mean Obama. He's conservative enough, and I use that term loosely, to appeal to the mainstream media's idea of conservative.

I was hoping for a Paul victory. I'm in an isolationist mood. Here's the reality of the world as I see it, we are drowning in debt. The federal government has spent way more than was allowed by law until they changed the law. We'll literally have to grow our way out of that mess and we can't do that without establishing a robust manufacturing base again. The EU is an epic failure and when it implodes we'll be the ones printing fake money out of thin air to bail it all out! All of that is happening with the rising Chinese in the background.

If pulling back some of our resources from abroad and slashing foreign aid will rebuild our manufacturing industry and help us recover from the Obonomy then I'm all for it and if Romney is the guy to convince me of that then so be it. I know Paul would have done that for sure and I know that Santorum has a plan for doing something along those lines as well.

We as a country need to concentrate on us for now and deal with the chips as they hit the floor.

Back To Work

Tonight, and for probably the remainder of my stay at Walmart I go to work right after work. I'm also likely off every Thursday and Friday! Not too bad at all as far as hours go.

Today is also the official start of the primary season! Iowa has the starter's pistol and they fired it! Now we are off and running to see which candidate has the honor of knocking off Obama and relegating him to the ash heap of history along side fellow relics such as Jimmy Carter and the Soviet Union. With presidents like him you don't need communist China!

I'm the super bowl champion of both of my leagues! Next season I'll try to pay attention to what's going on again. It was very tough this season as I was working every weekend and I just had very little interest as more pressing matters held me at bay.

It's alright though, I'm recharged now after this semi-week off and I'm feeling pretty good! Yeah, no more afternoon naps though! It'll take a day or two to get back into the swing of work but thankfully I've got a pretty good job and I can take my time.

Last Day

Yes, today was my last day off from regular work. Sad day for me. It's ok though, we all have to earn a living:)

Not much to post today as I'm enjoying the moment!

2012 And Beyond

Ok, I poked fun of the 2012 doomsday Mayan thing last night on my Facebook by saying, "Happy New Year! Go Mayans!"

Truth is the whole thing is just a calendar reset, nothing more nothing less. There's no doomsday quickly approaching us because they chiseled something in stone in the sixth century...BC. Their calendar just resets itself and starts over.

That however does not mean we are out of hot water. 2012 will be a year of turmoil on the global stage. Unless D.C. gets spending under control we'll have a worthless dollar. The EU will likely crack further apart, Spain will likely go Greece, Syria will well be Syria and be a mess.

The Mideast will be all turmoily still because that's what they do best. If there were no oil there no one would care or pay attention to their little fits. We'll have natural disasters, wars, rumors of war, famine, sicknesses, and everything we have every other year. Some lunatic will go on a shooting spree somewhere because that's what lunatics do. He'll hurt people because he's a psycho. It'll make the news cycle for a week and disappear.

Barack Obama will have his presidency ended by the American people who are fed up with him and he'll fade to a close comparison of Jimmy Carter. The GOP nominees can squabble all they want I'll vote for any one of them over what we have now, even Romney.(blech) Anyone of the GOP candidates will be far superior to Obama.

People look at a new year as a fresh slate and that's what it is for individuals and families. It'll be in the frame of what happens above though but it's up to us to make it the best year we can make it for us. No Mayan calendar will change that.

There will be ups and downs this year. Greats, goods, neutrals, mehs, and horribles happen to everyone. You won't be able to change what happens to you that's outside of your control but you can control how you react to those events. You can suck it up, toughen up, and move forward as you learn from it or you can not do that and wallow for a while and risk being stuck there for a long time.

So don't sweat the Mayans and December 21st, 2012. It'll work out just fine:)