Surviving Christmas and other crap

In my previous post I went on a little pity party rant about how busy my December was going to be. Well, it certainly has lived up my expectations, and even surpassed those expectations in some areas.

The choir schedule has been nuts. But I’ve been able to shuck my bowling responsibilities temporarily to make it a bit easier. My FaithWorks schedule has been busy, but not actively leading discussion this month has saved a lot of stress. Plus, Head 2 Heart is pretty much done for December. We have a Christmas Party on Sunday, but there is no prep work required for that. Once I get through the Christmas Concerts this Sunday the hard part of the season will be over with.

The past three weeks or so have been quite and education and test to my generally patient demeanor. I’ve had two pairs of pants ripped and cleaned up more feces than I guess I imagined I would be. Hank has certainly been an education. Once I can get him past the potty training thing and the biting thing I will be so very happy.

I’d like to compliment Derek on his new blog. Who knows, maybe this will spark a new career for him as a sports columnist…watch out Mitch Albom!

What Have I Done To Myself?

It seems that I have done an impressively inept job of keeping this blog updated. I think that I have managed to slip to level of Son-O-Hal. Who has managed to update his blog twice since I last updated mine. Since Derek has resurrected his blog, albeit an entirely new version, it’s time that I start updating mine. So, what have I been up to…

With the counsel of my top advisors I have decided to get a Labradoodle. I took them with me to visit the breeder to see the puppies. They, my advisors (ages 4 and 3), played with the pups and helped me make up my mind on getting a boy. I’ve decided to name him Hank. Hank is a dark cream color and should grow to be about 60 pounds or so.

I will admit that I am starting to get excited about this addition to my life. I will be picking him up this coming Sunday. He’ll be 6 weeks old at that point. I am using vacation days and a personal day next week so that I’ll be home to begin the fun filled task of potty training. It may be wishful thinking but I'm hoping to have the worst part of the potty training done by Thanksgiving weekend. This is one area where dogs far surpass children. I get to start training him on this immediately, no need to wait two-plus years. And, if he doesn’t get it I can lock him in his crate until he does. Yes, I realize I have probably just pissed off parents and dog lovers in one fell swoop. I will pause here long enough to put on my fire proof suit.

In other Ragryph happens, my bowling team is playing quite well. At the beginning of the season I was able to orchestrate a trade that shed last years worst bowler, in exchange for a bowler that was new to our league. The first night after the trade went into effect our new bowler, Steve, threw a near perfect game getting ten consecutive strikes and ending with a one game score of almost 280. Since then his average has been more than double what we gave up. We have been able to climb our way back from last years basement dwellers, to first place contenders.

I have found myself involved in my churches Head 2 Heart program, which is a reformed version of the confirmation classes that many of us went through. I am leading a small group of 7th and 8th grade boys. I have been tasked with reinforcing the lessons for the day, providing general life application, and hopefully make this stuff move beyond just memorizing Luther’s explanations to things like the 2nd article of the Apostles Creed.

This has been an overall positive experience, although one I still feel less than qualified for. If I didn’t have enough respect for junior high teachers before, I certainly do now. If I didn’t question that sanity of people who ‘enjoy’ teaching that level, I certainly do now.

I have found myself in the role of quasi-president of FaithWorks. I have mentioned this group in prior postings. Basically what it has turned into is a young adults ministry at my church. We cater to the 20 and 30 something’s that frequently get forgotten.

We have restructured our group to have a point person in charge of coordinating each of our areas of focus (service, fellowship, and personal growth). I have been appointed the person to coordinate communications between the group and the church, which essentially makes me the unofficial face of the group.

We have begun the shift from Bible study group to a group of small groups. I have agreed to host/lead one of these groups in my house. Right now it looks like we definitely have two groups and maybe three as we transition into January when we kick this thing off. As part of this we are having once a month gatherings called FaithWorks Union. We're going to be hosting guest speakers at these events. It is my responsibility to invite, recruite, and schedule these speakers. We brainstormed a list of candidates that includes about 25 people ina variety of walks of life. This will be a very interesting process.

This is also the fifth year that I am participating in my church’s Senior Choir. With the Christmas season approaching very quickly, things in my life are getting very busy, as you can see. In addition to the normal Wednesday night rehearsals, we are now having ‘special’ Sunday night rehearsals for the mass chorus deal. Plus, we’re going to occasional rehearsals on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I really think that I will collapse from exhaustion after this years Christmas concerts.

All of this is going to come to a painful head this coming Sunday. The choir is singing at the 8 and 9:30 services. I then have to get myself together to lead my Head 2 Heart group at 10:45. At 12:30 I have to take my group over to a H2H bowling/fund raiser event. I then have to be at the breeders house at 4, she lives an hour north of me. I then need to get back home to get the new puppy comfortable with my house, and me, and his crate, so that I can be at bowling by 5:45. I also have to be at the first ‘special rehearsal’ for the mass chorus performance at 6. The up side of this is I get to work on my omni-present skills, which I haven’t exercised in a while.

Ok, that gives you an update of what I’ve been doing, and what I’m looking forward too. I’m going to wrap up this entry here. I will make an effort to keep this going with progress reports, and hopefully pictures (if I can figure out how) of Hank.

Pondering a Puppy

When I was in junior high we had a dog. Her name was Duchess. She was a full blooded Collie. She was a great dog. Pretty much ever since we had to have her put down I’ve said that when I get a house of my own, with a fenced in yard, I’m going to get a dog.

If you know me you know that I have been in that situation for more that two and half years now. I have spent the better part of that time trying to convince myself that it isn’t such a good idea. The arguments I’ve used have been; there is no one home during the day to take care of a dog, they can be expensive, they are a serious commitment of time and energy.

Well, I have been completely unsuccessful in convincing myself that I should forget about this idea. Periodically over the past year or so the thoughts keep coming back. This has been the case over the past couple of weeks. It’s actually been to the point of causing me to do a fair amount of research.

The internet is truly an amazing tool when it comes to such a project. I found a couple of websites that offered information on pretty much every breed of dog known to man. There are specialized sites giving more detailed information on pretty much every breed known to man. There are a few sites that I came across with tools that help identify the breed that would best fit your life style. I have come to discover that buying a dog is a serious decision that needs to be thoroughly researched.

I used a couple different tools that are designed to match people with breeds. They asked questions about my lifestyle (busy or laidback), the number of people in the house, how much I want to exercise the dog, how much I was to groom the dog, and many other things. Both tools came back with similar lists of about a half dozen breeds. The two lists had four breeds in common, those were the Golden retriever, Labrador retriever, the Golden Doodle and the Labradoodle. My first question was what the blank is a doodle?

Come to find out that these are both cross breeds between a poodle (standard or miniature) and a Golden retriever (Golden Doodle) or a Lab (labradoodle). These are interesting, sometimes goofy looking, and dare I say it, cute dogs. Anyway this isn’t a discussion on breeds, but rather the decision to get a dog.

I start doing some research on the different breeds and learn what I can about them. All four of these seem to be a good match for me. The interesting thing about the doodles is they don’t shed, or very nearly so. The other interesting thing I learned is that going through a breeder will cost you anywhere from $500-$800 on the low end to $1200 to $1500 on the high end. With the average around a grand FOR A DOG.

In talking to a co-worker of mine I find out that one of my ‘dotted line’ managers owns a labradoodle. I talked to him about his dog. He’s had the dog for about 6 months and is totally happy with his decision. He said that training was a breeze, and all of his concerns going in, turned out to be no big deal. This helped in my thought process. I asked how much he paid and he said $850, plus all the first year shots and spaying, and all that.

I sent a note to a friend whose sister is a vet and whose mother is heavily involved in Leader Dogs,…you may know them too. My thinking her is I can ask the vet a few questions to confirm that these are the breeds I should be looking at. Also, I can ask her about rescue type situations, maybe get some breeder recommendations. If I can talk to her mom I can find out about adopting a ‘career changed’ leader dog, and not have to worry about training and temperament and all that kind of stuff.

I learned of an option that I didn’t previously know existed. I could also get a puppy from the Leader Dogs and raise it for a year or so, then turn it in and get another. Sort of like leasing a car I guess. The advantage here is that if a dog I ‘raise’ gets rejected I’d be the first person they would offer the dog back too. The other plus here, according to what I have read, is that they would cover all the major costs of the dog, during that year.

So, now the biggest issues I am dealing with are in two main areas. First, which road do I take: breeder, rescue, or leader dog. Next, do I have the time to commit to the training end of raising a puppy, am I up for the ‘potty training’, house training (temperament), socializing, and everything else that goes with it. Is it fair to have the dog in a cage, or ‘doggie den’ the whole day while I’m at work, and while I’m away from home?

This is where I’m at right now. I haven’t been given the contact information for the two people that I’d like to talk with. Once I speak with them I’m hoping that my concerns will be answered by people who know more about this than I do. Any comments would be helpful here to.

The Tigers Tale

I have been asked to comment on the current state of the Detroit professional baseball club known as the Tigers. Surprisingly I have done very little of that in this forum. So I will make a few comments.

This team has improved over last years performance. In the context of two years ago it is almost unbelievable the amount that they have been able to improve themselves. This is a credit, in no small part, to Dave Dombrowski the Tigers general manager. Without him I don’t think we would have signed Pudge or Mags or any of the other free agents we have.

Much of the first half of this season we were without our ‘complete’ lineup, due mainly to injuries. In spite of that we were still able to hover around the .500 mark and play competitively. Around the All-Star break we got all our guns in place and had the pitching staff running quite efficiently. I was feeling pretty good about my pre-season prediction of at least 82 wins and not being taken lightly in the wild card race. However something has gone foul.

As of July 25 we were 49-49, and within 4 games of the wild card spot (granted, with many teams to climb over). Well on the way, I thought, to fulfilling both of my predictions. Immediately after that we went on a west coast road trip which turned out to be very bad. Then just before the trading deadline we traded away our third closer of the season. At the start of the season we had, arguably, one of the better bullpens in the division if not the league.
We had two experienced closers and one good setup guy. I wasn’t surprised when we traded the first one to Philly. It actually turned out good because we got a good infielder for Urbina. I just wish they had traded Percival instead. Then a few weeks ago Percival suffered a season ending, and possibly career ending injury. That promoted Farnsworth to the closer role. Most Tigers fans were surprised when Farnsworth was traded to the Braves, leaving us with no experienced closers at all.

Since July 25 the team has gone 4-9 and slid into the outter reaches of the wild card race. Derek can attest to the fact that I was not one of the people getting their hopes up for a wild card berth into the playoffs, even after the team got off to their first respectable start in recent years. However, the performance over the past two weeks is going to make fulfilling my predictions much more difficult. The general conscensus, after the Farnsworth trade, was that the Tigers 'gave up' on their shot at a playoff spot. I don't think that was really ever in the minds of the management. However, it could be argued they gave up their chance at getting over .500.

I still believe this team has what it takes to finish the season with at least 81 wins. Which would give them the first .500 season in more than a decade. Now, whether or not I believe they will do this is another story. I’m not convinced anymore. Fortunately the moves they made this year will help in the long run, and the guys we have in AAA will help a lot in the near future. I’m not sure the goals I saw for this year will be met.

Enough about that.

There isn’t too much else I want to talk about today. So,….until next time…

Hello? Is Anybody In Here?

It has been unbelievably quiet in our little corner of the blog universe. Most of us haven’t posted anything in more than a month, me included. So I’m throwing this out there in hopes of reigniting the activity that once was.

This has been a good summer, and year, so far. I have done a lot of stuff and met quite a few new people. Some of which I hope will be long-term friends. Much of my activity this summer has been spawned by the people in FaithWorks, my Bible study group; nearly all of whom I didn’t know prior to the start of 2005.

I have really busied myself with this FaithWorks group. Which if you don’t know is a 20’s and 30’s ministry at my church, that I had a hand in sparking and getting organized. I don’t do much in terms of leading studies and organizing events and such things. What I’ve found myself doing is keeping the church aware of what we are doing and trying to let people know we exist in hopes of growing our numbers. As a result I have become the ‘face’ of the group. I have taken it upon myself to submit a weekly 'blurb' in the bulletin, and I also maintain a blog for the group.

People I barely know have been coming up to me and talking to me, which is a hard thing for me to get used too. I’ve been getting emails from our pastor on a variety of topics. I still haven’t gotten used to seeing his name pop up in my inbox. I received a phone call from the congregation president asking if I’d be willing to serve as an elder,…no thanks. I received a call from someone I think is a ‘leader’ in congregation asking if I’d be willing to be a small group leader/mentor for the confirmation class thing called ‘Head to Heart’. The guy said ‘I know you’re active in the young adult ministry. You are exactly the type of person we’re hoping to see involved here’…I don’t know about that. I have to do some thinking and praying on this one.

I have done two things this summer that I probably wouldn’t have given any real thought to a year ago. Both of these things are the result of ‘seeds’ being planted in my head at the Alive 05 festival, which by the way was unbelievably cool. One of the speakers that was there asked everyone who considered themselves to be a Christian to stand…being a Christian music festival pretty much everyone stood up with some level pride. Next he said ‘if can recite 1 verse of the Bible, and a explanation of its meaning and context, for every year you have been a Christian, stay standing'. Well needless to say nearly everyone sat down. After talking to a couple of my friends, and listening to a couple other speakers make similar points in their presentations, we decided to challenge each other to read the Bible over the next year. We found a plan that will get us through the readings in one year. We started on July 1. Already I’ve been surprised by what I already knew, but was unable to place it in any kind of context. So far it's going well. I've missed a day here and there but was bale to catch up. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up.

Also at Alive 05 they had several displays set up for Compassion International. This is a Christian organization where you can sponsor a kid in an impoverished part of the world and make a monthly donation to help that kid, and community, be able to get the things they need (food, clean water, basic health care, education, all in a Christian environment). They had many ‘commercials’ throughout the festival for this. I started talking to one of our Deacons, one of our Pastors, and a couple others who have knowledge of this sort of thing, and yes I did some praying about it. It’s probably obvious to you, but I decided that this is something I should do. The thing that surprised me is that I decided to sponsor two kids: aboy from Guatemala and a girl from Ecuador. I have a lot more information if you’d like to learn more. I will fill you in periodically on how it’s going.
I was also exposed to different ideas and theories at this festival. We’ll see if any of those lead me to action. Those theories fall under such topics as technology, music performance, and dating. Lots of material there, for another blog. Maybe even several blogs.

Completely unrelated to all this I have decided to do is take a photography class. I'm hoping to learn how to take better pictures. I already enjoy photography and looking at other peoples work. I'd like to learn the techniques and tricks for taking better photos. I'll let you know how it goes. This also means having to buy a new camera, since my old one bit the dust.

Outside of all this, I have spent the last few months trying to get myself ‘up to speed’ in my new job. When I think I’m just about there I get hit with a new project and I feel like I don’t know anything. This has been a good learning experience for me, but I don’t really feel like I have a good footing yet. Maybe that’s good, I don’t know.

On another topic, tomorrow is my birthday. Does anybody else find it hard to believe that I am now in my mid-thirties? It seems so weird to even say that. This fact has definitely caused me to reflect on my life and the things I’ve done and not done. The conclusion I’ve reached thus far is that yes, there are things I wish were different about me and my life, but all in all I’m pretty happy with where I’m at.

Alright that’s enough for this entry. Ok everyone, get out there and start blogging again!!!

What Is That Smell?

It’s been a long time since I’ve gone camping. Now, I don’t really considering staying a cabin to really be camping, but it’s the closest I’ve come in quite a few years.

This weekend was a really good one. I left with a friend at about 3pm to head ‘up north’. We made a stop at Birch Run to walk around and do a little shopping. We went to dinner at Pizzeria Uno, then headed up. We got there at about 8:15pm; there were about 10 people there already. By about 9:30 or so everyone was there, about 40 people.

We had a bonfire each night. The ‘keeper of the fire’ did an impressive job with keeping the fire big and hot. Saturday night’s fire was so hot that the flames were actually blue. I felt like I was sitting on planet Mercury warming myself by the sun.

We had three study sessions on Saturday, and one on Sunday morning. The topic was very interesting. We talked about Jesus’ presence through out the Old Testament. The pastor that led the discuss showed us how to read the writings of the prophets and constantly ask the question, where is Jesus in this. In particular we read through Psalm 1, and analyzed it verse by verse. It was pretty interesting. This is apparently one of the approaches that Luther took in his studies.

Anyway, like I said the weekend was really good. I met lots of people that I didn’t know. I met a couple people that I went to high school with, and one person that I haven’t seen since I was in school at St John.

The one and only low point of the weekend was an unidentifiable aroma that almost visibly hung in the air of one of the guys bunk rooms. The question most heard in that room was ‘what is that smell’?
The weather was hot and sticky. The air in the room was heavy with musty humid moldy smells, along with the sweat that naturally occurs in that weather. Being in the woods we were all wearing bug spray, which added another layer to the smell. The smell of smoke from the bonfires was also distinguishable. What wasn’t distinguishable was several other layers of odor that I think I am a better person for not knowing their source.

We left on Sunday right after lunch. We made it home by about 4 or so. The first thing I did was jump in the shower, and throw my clothes in the laundry, to get rid of ‘that smell’. I had a few people come over to watch the Pistons game. A couple that I met at the retreat came over as well as a couple other friends. As the game progressed ‘that smell’ became detectable again, but this time it was coming through the TV and it’s source was down in San Antonio, Texas.

Busy Days and Broken Toilets

It always seems that as the temperature climbs my calendar gets fuller, especially the weekends. I am coming off my first solo close at work. Which has kept me very busy during the day. Life in general has kept me very busy in the evenings.

This coming weekend I am going on a retreat up at Loon Lake (I never heard of it either). It should be fun though. I am going with a bunch of people from my Bible study group, we call ourselves ‘FaithWorks’ (http://faithworksstjohnrochester.blogspot.com/).
In a couple of weeks a few of us are going to a music festival thing down in Ohio. It’s a Christian music thing. There is going to be a couple dozen bands, speakers, seminars, in addition to other things like a water park and various other activities. I am taking Michael with me. I figure this will be a good opportunity to spend time with him, expose him to different kinds of music than what he normally listens too, and let him meet some of the kids that he’ll be in the youth group with next year.

I have spent the last several days getting things together and figuring out what I need to accomplish prior to each of these trips. On Monday night I got home from running errands, just in time to watch the Pistons win game 7 of the conference finals. I sit down on the couch and I notice this odd noise, like water running, but not a noise I normally hear. Going to investigate I realize the noise is coming from the tank on my toilet. It was making this odd hissing noise. I pulled up the plunger thing and made the noise stop. This stopped it but only for a short time. But the game was on so I put it out of my mind.

Getting ready for bed that I used it and it flushed just fine. I decided to look into fixing it the next day after work. Tuesday morning after using it I flushed and…nothing happened. Opening the tank I realized the plunger thing was all the way down and the water was rushing in non-stop, but the tank was not filling. Inspite of not having any caffiene yet I knew I needed to turn off the water. I also knew I was in for a lesson on how toilets work. At work I found a website called toiletology 101. It was full of very helpful information. I learned things I had no idea about. Like the valve thing at the bottom of the tank that seals it allowing the water to fill up has a name. That valve thing is called a ‘flapper’. And every other part inside your toilet tank has an actual name as well. This all makes perfect sense but have you ever opened your toilet and asked yourself ‘what is this piece called?’ I never had.

Anyway, I figured out what I needed to do to get it fixed. I went to Home Depot and bought the replacement parts. With a little bit of help from my Dad (he had the tool that I discovered I didn’t have and didn’t realize I would ever need) I got the job done in less than an hour. Now the toilet is fixed and is much quieter than before. So things are good again at the Ragryph house.

I’ll fill you in on the happenings of the retreat when I get back.

The Past Few Weeks

Over the years that I have lived alone there has been many times that I have thought it would be a good idea to get a roommate to help with expenses (particularly during those rough stretches of eating mac & cheese for weeks straight and dodging phone calls from creditors). I count myself fortunate that I have found a way, purely by the grace of God, to provide for myself well enough to survive living on my own.
I have been faced with that decision again in recent weeks. Not because of my need, but because of the need of a friend. I learned by the example of many people in my life, when you have the ability to help you should do what you can. I offered my help to a friend up to and including allowing them to move in with me, if they felt that was a good option.
It appeared that it was going to head in that direction until this weekend. I spent Saturday with this person and their dog at my house, cleaning up the yard (mowing and such things). I found myself stressing out about the dog, it figured out how to open the gate in all of about a minute. This dog, while friendly and apparently smart, is very high spirited and curious. That whole evening I spent thinking about this and praying for the wisdom to determine if this was really the best course of action. That whole experience just reminded me of how much I like living alone.
I had a couple conversations with this person on Sunday and together we came up with other ideas and ways that I could help out and make things easier. We found a couple of solutions that will provide the freed up cash they need and the space that I need. Things are resolved and back to normal…I think. For the foreseeable future I will continue to live alone.

On a different note, here is an update on my job situation.
I seem to have finally shaken my old job. After weeks of sitting with my new team but doing my old job, and making trips back downtown to do filing of all things, I think I am now fully dedicated to the new position. That’s both good and bad. The good is that I am no longer under the tyrannical thumb of my old manager. The bad is now I am stuck on the see-saw of learning new things and fighting of boredom.

So this has been my life during the past few weeks.

Pretty Good Weekend

I guess I should start with a quick synopsis of how last week went. Last week was my first experience with ‘close’. For those of you not in the finance world, this is the period where the prior months books (transactions, invoices, etc) are closed. This process involves making changes, adjustments, and general fixes to the books. For my team this means hundreds of journal entries (debiting one account and crediting another).
Close is generally three to four days. During those days we work from 8am to 8pm. This month, as I’ve talked about before, I was training on the new job while still performing and training a new person on my old job. Lucky me close overlaps with the peak of the invoicing cycle. I know to a lot of you working 60+ hours in a week is somewhat routine. But for me, I’ve gotten used to the 40-45 work week. Too much more than that and, well…

Anyway, on Friday at about 3pm my manager walked around told everyone to go home. Let’s just say there was no need to tell me twice.

Friday night was good. We had Kim’s birthday celebration. You can read all about it on her blog. Saturday was pretty good as well. I got to sleep in a little before heading out loan James my VUE so he could move a dresser. I got some yard work done during the day. I had hoped to get the whole yard mowed and cleaned up. It took my about two hours, and four full lawn bags, to do just the front yard. I ended up not getting to the back yard. Hopefully the rain they are predicting for this week will hold off long enough for me to get some of that done.
Saturday night I had the guys over for cards. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve done that, so it was nice to be able to play again. Surprisingly enough I was the big winner of the night (for only the second time in the last six months or so). This time we actually played until only one person was left standing. I took the whole pot, which was about $45. Not a bad return on my $5 buy-in.

Sunday morning I did the church thing, of course. Went to Panera with a few of my Faith Works friends, which has become more or less a normal thing for me. I then went out to lunch with the parents and Michael for Mothers Day. We all gathered at Kim and Chris’s to spend the afternoon, and have dinner over there. Now I’m home, sitting on my back porch at my new patio table, typing this on my still-new laptop; enjoying the last few moments of this pretty good weekend.

An Actual Son-O-Hal Sighting

I have just two things to report on from the 'Life of Ragryph' files.

First, I made myself look like a complete idiot over the weekend by buying a new patio furniture set during a snow storm. Second, there has been an actual first hand sighting of Son-O-Hal.

As you know a freakish snowstorm hit this area over the weekend. We were punished with about 24 hours of continuous wet snow. After a few weeks of beautiful weather (sunshine, little rain, or even clouds, temps in the 70’s and 80’s) we get hit with this crap. The local weather men insisted on repeatedly reminding us that the average last snow fall each year is April 22nd; this storm hit on 4/23. Of course the underlying message in this statement was ‘come on folks it’s not my fault I only report the weather I don’t make it!’

I have needed a new patio set since I moved in my house two years ago. For the last month or so I have been planning and shopping to buy a set. Well everything came together this weekend, so in spite of the snow I went to make my purchase. One thing I didn’t think of was the packaging of such a product. I was buying 6 chairs and a table. I figured I’d be able to get all of it in my truck. This is after all why I bought the thing. Let me back up a bit.

I found what I wanted at Home Depot. My local store decided it would be a really good idea to cram about 12 different display models and all the under stock for these displays in a area about the size of my living room. So after finding what I was looking for, writing down the part numbers and locating the boxes on the shelf I went to retrieve a flat bed cart. I soon discovered that an empty cart could barely fit through the aisle. I struggled on my own (as there were apparently no employees working that morning) to get the box of chairs onto the cart. After taking a minute to catch my breath I fought to get the table box on as well. That’s when I finally looked around and realized I just trapped myself in a patio furniture prison. I had to stand on a chair in order to get back to the handle end of the flat bed. Finally an employee surfaced and he looked rather annoyed when I hollered at him from my prison cell to get a little help getting out. We had to move several display units out of the way for me to even move the cart.

Once my escape was secured I got out to my vehicle to realize it was now snowing harder than when I entered the store. With the tail gate open and the seats folded down I began the process of lifting the chair box into my vehicle. I was struggling to this by myself. Graciously some guy stopped to give me a hand. Once the box was in he chuckled and said ‘yeah, dude, that second box is not gonna fit in here.’ The chair box was almost the exact size of the inside of my VUE. So I sat in my vehicle with the table box leaning on the side of car, snow falling at a pretty steady pace, waiting for assistance to arrive. Right now the boxes are sitting in my garage untouched. After I recover from the indignity of that experience I will get the thing assembled.

Last night I had a personal sighting of Son-O-Hal. I am happy to report that he is still upright, among the living, and apparently still has all ten digits on his hands. Which leads me to question his lack of postings. As a side note he was having dinner with Wife-O-Hal, and Hal-Himself. I thought that Brother-O-Son-O-Hal would like to know that all appeared to be doing well.

The Drugs Are Kicking In

I’m sitting feeling like crap, watching Pistons game. I took some medication a little while ago. Hopefully it will help. It looks and feels much more like winter outside than spring. Supposedly we could get 3-6 inches over the weekend. I don’t believe it. Ok, truth is I don’t want to believe it. We’ve had such nice weather for the last few weeks.

Anyway, I thought I’d give you an update on my week. As you know this week I started a new job. I’m still working for the same company and I’m still in the finance organization. My new job will be doing journal entries, database maintenance, and various kinds of management reporting. Along with a variety of projects, in fact I got pulled into one of those already this week. I’m working with a group to write up a users guide for one of the main management reports that we get requests for.

I’m not able to really dive into my new job yet, because I’m still doing my old job. I was asked to do invoicing for the May cycle, which starts on Monday. In addition to doing that I am training a new employee on how to do the job. Things seem to be going well so far. Hopefully that will continue into next week.

Apparently the drugs I took are kicking in I keep zoning out and forgetting what I’ve written. So I’m going to wrap this up.

iPod One vs Ragryph's iPod

Sometimes I come across stories or news articles that should be prefaced ‘hey Rob this is something you should rant on for your blog’. Here is one time that I just can’t resist that urge. **NOTE** this rant contains some quotes taken from the cnn.com article. I don’t feel the need to footnote them, sorry.

Last night I saw a story on NBC Nightly News, and I read the same story on cnn.com today, about President Bush’s iPod. First of all this story belongs buried at the bottom of the ‘Who Cares!’ file. But, since they published it I guess I can rant on it.

Apparently he is coming under some level of scrutiny for his choice of songs. One person from Spin magazine (who automatically looses my respect because of his employer) says that having “My Sharona” on his iPod isn’t “consistent with Bush's image as protector of conservative values." Because it is a song about a man pursuing a much younger women and contains lyrics such as: ” Such a dirty mind. Always get it up for the touch of the younger kind”. Another ‘journalist’ from the London Times, Caitlin Moran noted: "No black artists, no gay artists, no world music, only one woman, no genre less than 25 years old, and no Beatles."

Being a rather big music fan, and an owner of an iPod with some 650 tracks on it, this got me wondering what these people might say about me based on my choices of music.

I meet the criteria of having black artists with; Marvin Gaye, Arrested Development, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and Dr Dre, ray Charles. I think I meet the criteria of gay artists with; Depeche Mode, and Duran Duran. I have what could be loosely defined as world music in Ashley MacIssaac. I have several women artists, including; Julianna Hatfield, Bjork, and Twisted Sister, er ah Shakira. I have plenty of stuff that is newer than 25 years old, and sorry Derek, I have several tracks by the Beatles.

So what? What does all this mean? Can you really pshyco-analyze someone based on the music they listen too? I wonder what my music says about me?

Would you say that I am about to join the Green Party because I love Pearl Jam's music? Would you say that I endorse heroine use because I listen to artists like; Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and heaven forbid Nirvana? Does it mean that I’m a womanizer because I enjoy Ray Charles, and Motley Crue?

What does it say that I have Marilyn Manson, and the Sex Pistols songs that make frequent references to being the anti-christ along side songs written by Marin Luther an songs performed by Amy Grant Michael w. Smith and DC Talk?

Am I ready to denounce my citizenship and become Canadian because I listen to Our Lady Peace, the Gandharvas, and the Barenaked Ladies? Or am I going to become Irish because I like U2, the Cranberries, and the Corrs.

Am I going to start wearing makeup and burning my own personal hole in the ozone from hairspray because I like Poison and Def Leppard?
What does it say that I like Rage Against the machine, Rammstein, and Bob Marley?
Better yet what does it say that I like Bach, Pacobel, and Motzart. Or that one of my all time favorite songs is a half hour long performance written entirely in latin?

Maybe it says that I’m from Detroit that I listen to Kid Rock, Eminem, Bob Seger, and Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise.

What about my guilty pleasures, like; Avril Lavigne, Falco, LL Cool J, Save Ferris, and Hayden.

The beautiful thing about art, and especially music, is what I love and can’t possibly live without you might think is crap (right Derek). Or what you like I can’t for the life of me understand. I love music and can’t understand when someone can quickly and easily peg one song or one band as their favorite. In my opinion anyone who listens to just one genre of music and rejects any other genre of music just doesn’t know enough about music and the unbelievable beauty in even the crappiest song.

Fluff

With all the recent blogs on capital punishment, euthanasia, and such, I thought I’d post something with fluff. Here’s what I did this weekend.

Friday I went out with work people to have a going away gathering for three people on my team (including me). My last day isn’t until this coming Friday, but we scheduled it early because one of the other guys had his last day this past Friday.

Saturday I didn’t do a whole lot during the day. I played around with my new laptop and my new wi-fi zone. I discovered that I can sit on my benches at the back of my property and still get a decent signal to move around on the internet. That is far better than I expected it to work.
Saturday night I had some guys over for card night. As usual we played no-limit hold ‘em. I invited a new guy to play with us. He turned out be much better than he let on. I won the first hand pretty soundly. I didn’t win again for about 1 ½ hours, and not for another hour after that. I won exactly three hands and bought in three times (after the initial buy-in). It was ugly.

Sunday, I did the church thing of course. We found out that one of pastors (the one with the longest tenure) has turned in his resignation. I was pretty surprised. I couldn’t help but think that there may have been more behind it than what people are saying. I really hope there isn’t anything more, but I can’t help thinking that way.

After church I stopped at Home Depot to get lawn bags. Those things are expensive. But, I desperately needed to clean up my lawn. I decided to stop in at Linen’s and Thing's to pick up a couple of things I needed. I came a across a fire pit that they were selling. I’ve been toying with this idea ever since Chris put the bug in my ear. Anyway, this thing was exactly what I had in mind, and was a pretty good price. So I had to buy it. It went together pretty easily. It’s basically a cast iron bowl (about 30 inches diameter), on a small stand. The bowl is quite heavy, but it looks cool. That is going to be a nice place to hang-out on summer evenings.

That’s about it. That was my weekend. I did watch some of the Tigers games, and little bit of the Twins/White Sox game yesterday. Nothing to terribly exciting, but a good weekend in all.

Euthansia and Living Wills

I have very strong feelings about euthanasia. Euthanasia is completely wrong and indefensible in my mind; no matter who the person involved is; no matter what the stage of life; no matter what the medical condition of that person.

I have these strong views, in part, because if my first doctors had had their way I wouldn’t have made it through the first month of my life. My parents stood their ground against those doctors in making the decision to give me every possible medical treatment to save and improve the quality of my life in those first few days. Because of the severity of the birth defect I was born with the doctors told my parents; I would never walk, I would likely have brain damage, and that I would never be a productive member of society. Thanks to God, my parents, and one incredibly skilled surgeon none of those predictions came true.

I believe that God uses situations like mine and the Terry Schiavo case, and all trials no matter how great or small, for the good of those affected. It’s pretty clear that nearly all of the American population, and probably a lot of people around the world, have been exposed to the Schiavo case. My hope is that there will be good that comes out of this. The good that I hope comes to most people through this is that people will see the importance of the living will.
If she had had a living will the courts, and all involved would know who she wanted to be in charge of making the decisions at the end of her life. She would have also given that person, or persons, the guidelines by which to make those decisions. I have established my wishes through a living will as well as had discussions with those I designated to make those decisions. That way everyone, the doctors, my family, the courts etc will know who has that power. This I think is a major problem in this case. Both her husband and parents feel they have the right to make these decisions. I hope they are making their stands with pure intentions and love for their family member, and that there are no ulterior motives involved.

My hope is that everyone will contact a lawyer, or get the do-it-yourself kits to create a living will. Have conversations with the people involved and make sure your wishes are known. This whole case would have been resolved 15 years ago if she had had those documents in place. Now that she has passed the family fighting seems to be continuing. Yet again, things that could have been avoided if the proper documents, and conversations, had been handled.

Enough About That

The polls have closed. The votes are in. The name of my Bible study group has been decided. Enough about that for the moment.

Is Barry Bonds hanging it up? I seriously doubt it. In my opinion he has more to gain by coming back and making his run at the Babe and Hammerin’ Hank. If nothing else his Jupiter sized ego (roughly the size of his steroid inflated cranium) will drive his return just thumb his nose at people like me who wish he’d just go away.
Missing this coming season, half the season, or even just six weeks of the season at the age of 40+ will hurt his chances of him breaking a record that I for one hope he doesn’t do. According to a report I watched on ESPN the rapid decline in athletes bodies after the age of 40 can be dramatic, and would normally make this pursuit a long shot , even as close as he is. However, I couldn’t help but notice that all of the examples they cited were well before the ‘steroid era’. Is there anyway to tell what level a chemically enhanced athlete, over the age of 40, can perform at and for how long? Enough about that thought.

My week so far has been a fairly interesting one. Sunday the choir sang at all three services. Our director was gracious enough to schedule our singing all prior the sermons of each service. I sat through the 8 o’clock. After we finished with the 9:30 my stomach was growling so I made a quick run up to McDonald’s. As I drove back, it was about 10:05, I got a phone call from a friend of mine who I saw in the 9:30 service. She called to tell me that something happened during the service and they cleared out the sanctuary. Apparently an elderly lady in the congregation had a heart attack right there in the pew. After much commotion, speculation, and whispering, she was pulled out on a stretcher. There are two pieces of good news here: first she was conscience and alert (rumor had it that she was dead) second, for those of you that are aware of my track record, I was not even in the building when it happened!

My bowling team, predictably, got thumped this Sunday. With one night of bowling for score left I, like Bonds, am tired and need a rest. This has been a long season. We have the slightest glimmer of hope that we can pull ourselves from 10th to 9th. Yeah, …enough about that one too.

One of my small group friends keeps putting a bug in my ear, and I think it’s starting to borrow its way into my skull. Am I crazy for giving consideration to becoming a foster parent? This is a blog in itself, I’ll have to revisit this. Any thoughts?

I have been dubbed the ‘communications director’ for my Bible study group. I administered the name voting and started throwing around ideas for creating a simple website, or Yahoo! Group. I accepted the role mainly because it’s something I think I can do and do reasonably well. This on top of agreeing to serve a third season as my bowling leagues treasurer.
The name we voted for, by a slim margin, was Faith Works. I created a blog for the group. If you are so inclined you can visit it at faithworksstjohnrochester.blogspot.com.

In other thoughts…the Tigers starting pitcher Jeremy Bonderman seems to coming along nicely with developing his change-up. I’m excited to see what this season holds for him. Can he emerge as a true ace? Also I was thoroughly amused by Kwame Kilpatrick’s State of the City address last night and his comments about how this city has been dilapidated since he was a child, but now that he’s mayor ‘it’s suddenly MY fault’. No Kwame, no one blames you for creating the mess, but it is now your responsibility. Anyway, enough about that.

Pay Up Kwame!

It’s been a week since my last post. I better get something up here before people start throwing things.
This has been a fairly uneventful week. Each day this week all I could think about, on my drive in, was how I don’t have to do this much longer. The only problem with those thoughts is that it makes the drive in feel so much longer. I think I’ve already got one foot out the door. The only thing keeping my in the proper frame of mind to focus on my job are the two people I am training to replace me (that’s right 2 people are replacing me). They keep asking me questions and asking me to review stuff with them. So I still remaining focused, for now anyways.

Tuesday evening a bunch of us from work went to Mr. B’s for dinner and drinks. It was supposed to be a time to catch up with a few of our people that have been transferred or on TDY assignments. But most everyone that I hoped would be there bailed at the last minute, so it was me and a bunch of the ‘new’ people on the team, including the two that are replacing me. It was a good time, and I still got home in time to watch Oakland University win their play-in game. I just hope they can give UNC a solid game today before being thrown into the 16 seed heap.

Wednesday I had church and choir. As I was leaving work I got a phone call offering me great seats to that evenings Pistons game. Apparently they were tenth row. Mark would have gone nuts sitting that close to the action. But, it had been about three weeks since I’d gone to choir and we have Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and of course Easter Sunday to rehearse for (6 services in all). So I made the responsible choice.
An interesting thing happened during church. It was the final Lenten service and the new pastor, Pastor Timm, and one of the deacons were conducting the service. Our Senior Pastor sat right behind me. Normally I would think it doesn’t really matter much who is sitting around you during service. But I found myself very self conscience, and thinking to myself ‘why do you feel so self-conscience about this?’. I don’t know, it was just weird.

Thursday I picked up my taxes. Once again the City of Detroit owes me $7. Pay up Kwame, that’s my lunch money! Also on Thursday I was able to watch some college basketball, as the tourney officially started. I watched a pretty entertaining Nevada – Texas game. I didn’t get my picks done in time to join any pools this year. In fact I didn’t actually finish them until after the games had started. But Derek, you’ll be happy to know that I was honest and didn’t look at any results until I was done with my picks. Surprisingly, as of the time I went to bed last night I was 8-0. Of course I missed all four late games and still haven’t checked the results of those.

Tonight could be rather emotionally draining. My small group is getting together to watch the original version of the ‘Passion of the Christ’. We’re starting a short Bible study based on the movie. That movie is pretty intense, if you’ve seen it you know.
In other news relating to my small group we have decided to name ourselves. It will help with promotion and bringing new people in. Anyway, I have taken the reigns on administering the vote. The four nominees are: ‘Called 2 Belong’, ‘Faith Works’, ‘Fellowship of the Mat’, and ‘Wisdom Seekers’. I’ll fill you in on the outcome once the polls are closed.

That’s about it for this update. I don’t have anything too exciting planned for this weekend. My bowling season is mercifully winding down, only three more nights of suffering.

April 18

Well, I had a good update going but I just got some news that is causing me to scrap the whole thing and start over.

I was going to wait until Monday to ask my manager for an update on my potential transfer. She beat me to the punch. This afternoon she called me in her office and gave me the details.
I will, as I expected, be moving to the FLC (Finance Leveraged Center). My start date with the new group will be April 18. So, one more month of driving downtown every day.

I think I already know how I'm going to celebrate. I'm going to buy myself a new toy. I'm thinking about replacing my pc with a laptop. I need to start my research to figure out what I want.

Busy Weekend

I am coming off a busy weekend. Friday night I passed up my usual dinner with the family for ‘game night’ with my new circle of friends (a.k.a. my small group Bible study people). It was fun. We went to dinner, then off to play games. I learned a new game called ‘Spinners’, which is a variation on dominos (no, not the pizza chain). I didn’t get home until almost 1am, which made Saturday morning that much more of a challenge.
I showed up at the designated meeting place at 7:30am; yes on a Saturday morning. We eventually made our way down to this school and got there a little before 9. At one point during the drive the person that got us all organized was telling us who we would be working with. She said she left a voicemail for this guy named “Greg Krueger, or is it Kreuger”. Some of you know him. I haven’t seen Greg in quite a few years. I didn’t immediately recognize him without hair.
We got started on our service project a little after 9am. We worked pretty much straight through noon. I started out by taping off borders and trim and doors; much of that time spent on my knees. I then went to work painting in one of two hallways we were working on; a lot of my time was spent painting above my head. When we got there the place was dingy and dark, and kind of depressing. I could hardly believe it was actually a working school. It’s amazing what some cleaning and a fresh coat of paint can do to a place.
We found out that this school is one of a handful of Lutheran schools in the city of Detroit currently. It was mentioned to us also that nearly a half dozen of those that are open are likely to close in very near future due to shrinking enrollments. It was a really good day, being able to contribute and ‘give back’ as they say.

Sunday the family celebrated my nephews third birthday. That was fun. The kids all had fun playing with the new toys. Predictably the shirts I gave him were quickly discarded for the new collection of toys, even though the shirts were pretty cool.
Bowling went about as well as I expected. We were facing the best team in the league (not the first place team, but no doubt the best bowlers). We went into each game with a 200 pin margin in handicap. The first game was kind of close, we lost by about 30 pins. The second game was our best, winning that by about 20 or so. The third game we fell apart. Once again all three games, as a team we finished between 775 and 800, which is pretty solid. We just got very few breaks. There are three nights of bowling left, two for score. I think I’m ready for the season to end.
This has already been a long week and it’s only Wednesday. Both Monday and Tuesday I have had stuff going in the evenings, right after work. I got home both nights after 9:30. Tonight looks no better. Maybe Thursday I can go home and relax. We’ll see, I’m sure something will pop up.

The Miracle of Plastic Cups

A seldom heard from voice has resurfaced. Thanks for dropping by Ritch. Just one thing though, I don’t remember asking what the weather was like in KC, just like I don’t ask Derek what the weather is like in NC, and I don’t torture myself with the weather reports of say the Bahamas, or Hawaii, or Tahiti for that matter. I’m not trying to draw a comparison between KC (the fine city that it is) and the any tropical paradise, but compared to what we’ve got right now 60 degrees might as well be a sun drenched island in the South Pacific.

Let me begin by offering an explanation to my somewhat cryptic clue in my previous post. As many of you know I did stats for my high schools varsity baseball team all fours of high school (Yeah, even us non-athletic types should be able to earn letter jackets). During my freshman year we played an away game at one of conference rivals (I use that term loosely here). Our first baseman, a senior at the time, was covering the bag as there was a base runner on first. A rather sharp grounder was hit toward him. I watched as he hunched over to field the ball. In less than a second the ball took an unexpected bounce which lifted the kid several inches off the ground. After he dropped to ground in the fetal position everyone there knew he forgot one very import piece of athletic equipment. Thus, I learned the importance of plastic. The coach, or someone, went through the guys bag to find his cup, which was walked out to him as he was helped back to his feet.
My other significant memory of this place involves Derek. He was my stats colleague for my last two years. Due to circumstances that I don’t full remember (hey, this was more than 15 years ago folks) he arrived at the game with a bladder that was nearly at capacity. This was a miserable game day, weather-wise. Really the only thing I remember from this game was Derek jumping around, squirming in his seat, and nearly crying the whole game. Derek probably would have benefited from the use of a different kind of plastic cup at that moment.

The site of these games, and the place that I am visiting this weekend, is the no longer existent Lutheran High School West in Detroit. Along with Lutheran High East, and I’m not sure how many others closing, the presence of Lutheran high schools in Detroit has shrunk significantly. The building that once housed West is now a k-12 Lutheran school. So I guess it’s good that there is still that presence in, from what I remember, is a pretty undesirable neighborhood.
The people that run this school have been soliciting help from the area churches to do basic maintenance things, like painting walls and doors. A few of us from my small group decided that this is something that we can do. Plus it will give us the opportunity to mingle with other similar groups from around the area. It will be a lot of physical labor, but it should be a good day.

This coming weekend also holds another celebration of my nephews birthday, and bolwing. I'm sure I'll feel the need to fill you all in on the results of those games.

Appeasing the Peanut Gallery

I’m taking some slack for not posting in more than a week so this is to appease the peanut gallery….you know who you are.

There is an old expression about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb, or something like that. Yesterday was certainly the lion tearing the door of the hinges of the new month. With the storm that rolled in, and continued a good part of the day yesterday it made things pretty hairy.
I got up early to look outside and watch the news to determine whether or not it was worthwhile making my ridiculous drive to work. I kind of made my decision to work from home, but was second guessing myself even before I made ‘the call’. As I was crafting the email to my boss, and backup person, I heard a report that there was an overturned semi on my commute, and that the backup it caused was already 6 miles long and growing. That made my decision so much easier.
I was reminded yesterday that I don’t really enjoy working from home. That is kind of contrary to what a lot of people feel. For me there are far too many distractions and temptations, and things that can divert my attention from the job I should be doing. Maybe this has something to do with the infrequent nature of my working from home, I don’t know. But it was just as much a task to keep on task as it was just doing my work for the day.
Yesterday evening I was channel surfing and come across Fox Sports Detroit showing their Detroit Tigers Spring Preview show. I looked out the window at all the newly fallen snow then looked at the images of the Florida sunshine; I can’t wait for spring and summer.
I really thought we done with this for the season. Meaning, the big snow falls. I know we almost always get snow around Opening Day, heck this is Michigan after all. But, in my mind we shouldn’t be getting 6 inches of snow on a day where the average temperature is around 40. Since there hasn’t been any hockey to watch this year I’m that much more excited about the baseball season, and spring, getting under way.
I just got out of my annual review with my boss. It went well. Nothing was brought up that I didn’t expect, which I guess is what you want from those types of meetings. There were a few peer comments that I found interesting. Mostly about my focus on advancing my career and taking on more responsibilities. I’m not getting the push back that I thought I might for trying to transfer to a new group. I’m actually getting help and encouragement, which admittedly freaked me out a bit.
That’s it for today folks. I’ll fill you in on my plans for this weekend later in the week. I will provide a sneak preview though; it involves returning to the sight of one of my more memorable high school baseball experiences. Oh, one more thing. I googled myself the other day and found someone had put a link on their blog to mine. I don’t have the first clue who this person is. I guess it kind of surprised me. Anyway…

All Tied Up…Twice

Saturday night I had the guys over for cards. It was the first time we’ve played since New Year’s Day after watching Michigan get embarrassed by Texas in the Rose Bowl.
I jumped out to nice lead. In the first hour and half I forced one guy out three times (we allow players to buy back in until a set time). That was rather fun. I was clearly the chips leader, by a healthy margin. Then ‘ole mo got up and walked to the other side of the table. I didn’t win one hand from 9:30 to 11:30 when I finally went out.
With only two players left we decided to call it a night. There was fifty bucks on the table. The first guy finished counting his chips and he had just over $25, the other guy, obviously, was just under $25. A near tie in poker? That’s unusual.

My bowling team had a rough night on Sunday. Going into last night we were tied for seventh. A marked improvement from the previous night of bowling. We were facing the team that we shared that seventh place spot with. We were short a player, due to illness. Our opponents were short two players. The league as a whole had a pretty light turn out because of the snow storm that was rolling through.
We struggled through the first game. It was a competitive, albeit very low scoring, into the tenth frame. Our opponents squeaked out a 9 pin victory. The second game was more of the same. Thanks to two strikes in the tenth by their second bowler they pulled off a 19 pin victory. The third game was just as close. In the tenth, with our anchor up, we’re down by 5 pins. He’s able to get those 5 on his first throw. So we’re tied. All he needs to do is hit anything, one pin would be fine. The ball is rolling down the alley headed toward the group of pins. It looks pretty good as the ball makes its way toward winning at least two points for us. Then an amazing thing happened. The ball made a hard curve to the left coming to the full embrace of the gutter.
All the remaining pins were standing there laughing at us. We tied the third game.
‘You tied?’ asked our league president when I asked him how it gets scored. ‘How’d you tie?’ asked the alley manager when I asked her the same question. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.’ said several other people standing around.

Two ties in the same weekend? What are the chances?

Better Days Ahead

Thanks to my friends in the pharmaceutical industry I'm feeling better today. I'm still not 100%, but I'm definitely better than the past few days.
So, I had a meeting with my boss on Wednesday about my future with 'the firm' and my possible options of places to move too. It was a productive discussion. She told me of two other groups, besides the one I've been looking pretty hard at, that will likely be looking for people in the very near future. One of those is called the FLC (Finance Leveraged Center). This would be a completely different environment and job than I have now. It would be much more focused on the financial analyst side rather than splitting my time between analyst, data entry, and general administrative type duties. So that has some potential.
She, my boss, has a meeting today to discuss, with her peers, personel movement. She told me that she will be talking about me and trying to find out what the best fit for me may be. Right now, I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that she will truley look for what is in my best interest. She has a track record of disregarding this infavor of others interests. But over the past few months she has surprised me with several positive things she's done for me and the team. So I'll cut her some slack and see where this goes. I'll fill you in as I learn more.

I Feel Like I’ve Been Hit By A Truck

Monday night was the Valentine Party. We had a pretty good turn out. There was about a dozen people there. The gift exchange was fun. The gift I brought was a small stuffed animal, a purple fuzzy gorilla holding a heart that said “I Flip For You”. In case you are wondering I went with option 2 for the card; ”Why be alone when we can be together, baby. You can make my life worthwhile. I can make you start to smile.” Which, if you remember your cheesy 80’s hair bands this a line from, the band, Mr. Big and their song “The Next To Be With You”.

The gift that was voted the cheesiest was actually the gift that I ended up with. It was a Joe Boxer underwear set. It was a pair of boxers and a g-string both designed in a tuxedo-esque style. No I have not tried them on. Yeah,.. anyway.

After heading home I tried to go to bed but was starting to feel not so good. I was up much of that night wearing out a path between my bed and the bathroom. Because of this I called in sick on Tuesday, and spent nearly the entire day asleep.

Today, against my wishes, I got out of bed and came into work. I’m feeling better in that I’m able to keep myself upright. Although I’ve found myself dozing off a couple times. My whole body is just screaming out to crawl back into bed. That is where I likely will spend the rest of the evening.

What's In It For Me? Hopefully Nothing.

Today is Valentine’s Day, which you all know. Depending on your point of view this is either the most romantic of days, when you have the opportunity to show your love to your significant other, or the biggest of all “Hallmark Holidays”, created to guilt people into showing their love to significant others through buying cards, flowers, etc.
I have begun this day by reading several monologues covering such topics as; learning the art of manipulation (klryan75.blogspot.com), what’s the point in dating/marriage (warmincarolina.blogspot.com), what is the meaning of life (randomnight.blogspot.com). Each of these postings deal with how we relate to each other and what we can get out of it for ourselves. If you haven’t already I encourage you to visit each of these blogs. As we can all benefit from each other’s insight. Not to be left out, please also visit our friend in the world of forensics at theforensicdaily.blogspot.com if you haven’t recently.
I read about one persons theory that the meaning of life is tied in with how we effect others lives (hopefully for the positive). Not only those in our daily lives but also those around our country, and world for that matter, that are in need. Let me start by saying I don’t disagree with this theory. Showing love to those around us and those in need (even those we are unaware of) is, no question, part of the meaning for each of our lives.
I was amused by niece’s discovery of yet another way to manipulate her brother. It always amazes me how early kids learn this kind of stuff, just through interacting with their siblings and other kids they come in contact with. I think that is how the flu spreads also, but that’s an entirely different rant.
I also read a confirmed bachelor’s theories on the uselessness of dating, and ultimately marriage, in his life. I have to admit that I don’t have much ground to stand on when defending these things that most people see as a natural part of life. I also have to agree that there are people in this world who aren’t meant to travel down that road, or who simply choose not to. To liberally borrow a line from Bob’s reply on this, it’s not a good or bad choice, just simply a choice. In some people’s live there are things that are more important to them.
One thought that I had while reading all three of these is during our interactions with each other, on no matter what level or age, there seems to be a sense of ‘what’s in it for me’. Whether it’s the innocence of a four year old, or young adult trying to understand how they fit into the world, or some one trying to explain, justify, or simply rant about choices that require none of those actions. We all seem to be asking where’s my benefit, what can I get out of this, what’s in it for me?
I should stop here and say that I am no different than anyone one else. I am not getting on my soapbox to preach. View this rant as somewhere between ‘thinking out loud’ and convincing myself that I need to be more aware of my own motives.
Valentine’s Day is, regardless of your point of view, a means of putting ‘love’ in the faces of all of us. To add my two cents, (maybe 2 cents Canadian), for what it’s worth; the meaning of life is showing love to others. The love that I speak of is not the kind that every one of us shows from time to time. The ‘I’m doing this because at some point I’m going to need something from you’ kind of love. The ‘alright, I’ll do this because you’re my friend, but be aware what an inconvenience this is to me’ kind of love.
I fell into the grips of this very thing this morning. I volunteered to give a ride to work to a friend. All I could think on the way to her house this morning was ‘I hope she knows how inconvenient this is’. But then I had to remind myself that she didn’t plan for her car to be incapacitated this morning.
We shouldn’t look to showing love as way to feel better about ourselves or to give meaning to our lives. Although showing love to others without regard to our personal sacrifice, or personal gain, almost always leads to giving our lives more meaning and feeling better about ourselves.
We shouldn’t look at our relationships and interactions with people in the context of how will I benefit from this person being part of my life. Although letting people into lives, regardless of what the context is, almost always leads to some ultimate benefit, even if it remains hidden for a very long time.
When I find myself asking the question ‘what’s in it for me?’ Hopefuly I can answer ‘nothing, but that’s ok.’ I think an appropriate way for me to wrap up this rant is to remind myself, and anyone reading this how St. Paul defined love in I Corinthians 13 (NIV).

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Underwear & Holy Crap

Tonight my family is celebrating my little brother’s birthday. It’s hard to believe, but Michael is 13 now. It really freaks me out that all the kids my mom used to baby sit for when I was in high school are now in high school, or college. I know that if I look at the calendar I’ll see that I’ve been out of high school for soon-to-be 16 years. But it sure doesn’t feel like it’s been that long… Has it really been 16 years? My twenty year reunion will be here before I know it. Holy Crap!

Michael wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me what he wanted for his birthday. I told him he better give me some idea or I’d get him socks and underwear. He never did give me any ideas, guess what he’s getting. I’m getting him something else, but I can’t wait to see his face when he opens the bag from me. I just wish some of his friends were going to be there. I take great pleasure in embarrasing him.

As I was shopping for his gift I stopped at a Bible bookstore. One of the ideas that was passed on to me was an item I would find there. I decided to look at Bibles. The one I’ve got is kind of cheaply bound and is falling apart already. I found one that I really liked. But I noticed there was no price tag on it, or on any of the Bibles. I was suddenly hit with the question, 'what is a fair price for something that is the divinely inspired, infallible, word of God'?

I decided to go ahead and buy the one that I liked even though I wasn’t completely sure the price. After the guy rang up Michaels gift, my new Bible, and couple other small things, the total was $109. ‘What?! How much was that Bible?’ I asked. The clerk said, rather smugly ‘$69.99’, with a tone in his voice that echoed the question I had asked myself. Holy Crap!

Love Stinks

I have adjusted the settings on this site to allow people to leave comments without signing up for their own blog space. I’ve gotten wind of several people visiting and not leaving comments for that reason. You’ll probably still need to register for an ID, but that should be it; plus it’s free. So come on. Let me know you were here and what you think.

My small group has decided to have a Valentine’s Party, since the holiday falls on the same night we’d normally be meeting for Bible study. We are giving it a twist though. Since nearly all of us are single we have decided to do ‘mystery gifts’. Meaning everyone brings a small gift and card that will be given, at random, to someone else at the party. No distinction will be made between guys and girl. So, the gift I bring has a real possibility of ending up in the hands of another guy. The only guidelines seem to be under $10 and the cheesier the better. Gift ideas would be appreciated also.
Right now my thoughts have been focused on the card. I am the type of person who can’t give a card to someone without at least trying to write something thoughtful, or witty, or heartfelt, or sarcastic in the card. So I’m trying to decide what to right. I’ve ‘borrowed’ three short passages from different sources. I thought I’d ask you all to vote and give me your opinions. I know there are lots of those running around on these blogs, so let’s hear them.
1) You love her, but she loves him, and he loves somebody else, you just can’t win. And so it goes until the day you die. This thing called love will make you cry.
2) Why be alone when we can be together baby. You can make my life worthwhile. I can make you start to smile.
3) In our next lives I promise to look for you harder, find you sooner, and not waste so much time on all the others.

Now, I never claimed these were original thoughts. If you can guess where all three are from you get 50 bonus points.

Return To Respectibility?

Let’s start off today’s rant with a positive note about my bowling team. Somebody taught us to bowl! We pre-bowled on Sunday so that we wouldn’t miss the ‘Big Game’. Our first and third games were above 800 (804 and 825). Getting that kind of score, in this league, puts you in a good position to win most games. Our middle game was our off game. We came in with a 724. We needed to hope our opponent was struggling. We currently sit in a tie for ninth. With the seventh and eighth place teams tied and two points ahead (and playing each other).
Our scheduled opponent was my parents team, they are currently in fourth place. Mom called me during my Super Bowl party to let me know that they didn’t break 750 in any of their games. The one game they had a chance to beat us they finished with just under a 720. Look at that. We were able to follow up the surprise of last time with a solid 8 point victory and maybe two places in the standing. Our return to respectability may have taken another step forward.

As a former marketing major I always feel obligated to judge and rank my favorite commercials from the game. This years lot seemed to be much ‘safer’ than in years past. That is probably understandable after last years halftime show. Even still the commercials were generally creative, some a little weird, some a complete waste of money. Here are my favorites in no particular order:

FedEx: Burt Reynolds and the dancing bear (funny. I loved the last line. The bear says ‘I loved you in Smokey and Bandit’)

Ford: Frozen Mustang (a little morbid, but creative)

Bud Light: sky diving pilot (kind of changes the outlook of throwing yourself out of plane that will probably land safely)

Pepsi: P-Diddy’s truck (always nice to see Carson Daly being mocked, even if it’s by himself)

Career Builder: I work with monkey’s (got my attention)

Pepsi: free music ad’s (I thought those were creative and fun)

24 : ‘buy another pair you’re going to need it’

Ameriquest: convenience store hold up. (I saw it coming a mile away but it was funny watching those Asian people beating up that idiot on the phone – I hate those phones)

Tabasco: the hot swimsuit (If I had had TiVo I likely would have missed the rest of the game)

GoDaddy.com: Senate hearing malfunction (paying $8 a month to them for my domain name now seems TOTALLY worth it)

Finally, the Tigers land a free agent position player. Yes, we over spent giving Magglio Ordonez $15 mill a year. Yes there are questions about the stability of his knee. Much like last year with Ivan Rodriguez, Dave Dombrowski was able to structure the deal to offer us at least some protection against recurring injury. I am excited about the potential upside of this deal. I don’t really expect him to have the same level of impact that Pudge did last year. But, if he remains healthy, he could have a big impact on this coming season. With him in the clean up position we’ve got a nice middle of the line up.
I am going to jump head first into a trap that Derek loves to lay out for me every year. I’ll go ahead and make a prediction, with a qualifying statement. Assuming Pudge and Mag’s stay healthy for much of the season, and they both have respectable performances. I will say that the Tigers will finish with a .500 record for the first time in many years. Playoffs in 2006? It's not out of the question.
Our return to respectability HAS taken another step forward.

With my comment about my nephew in my previous rant I was able to suck my sister into the world of blogging. Welcome Kim. We look forward to hearing from you. klryan75.blogspot.com

Well, Duh!

I got a desk calendar for Christmas that has each day a ‘stupid fact of the day’. The calendar is called "Well, Duh!" There have been a few amusing ones. One that stood out for me was as follows:
Two guys, presumably inebriated from some chemical crutch, and presumably from some hick town in Arkansas, thought it would be a good idea to recreate the William Tell scene of shooting an apple off another persons head. The guy that volunteered to put that apple on his head discovered that if your buddy is going miss you REALLY want him to miss high. Oh well, he apparently hadn’t been using that part of his body except as a place to put his John Deere hat.

As a follow up to my last post, we had a pretty good time at the basketball game. The suite we were in was at the top of the arena, so we were a pretty fair distance from the court. Mark, my nephew, didn’t understand this. He asked both me and his dad when we were going to go down stairs to watch the game. I was surprised at just how little leg room there was in the suite. Although the suite we were in would have been an ideal place to watch the now infamous fight night at the Palace.

My nephew did manage to remind me (somehow I let it slip my mind) about the power cute kids have to act as chick magnets. We had to stand in the atrium area waiting for our tickets. While we stood there a steady stream of very attractive women smiled, waved, and talked to him. This included several members of the Pistons dance team. I need to learn how to take advantage of that, and use it for my personal gain. Kim or Chris, if you’re reading this, I may have to borrow your kids occasionally.

I'll be safe when the punches start flying

I went to my local haircutting place last night to, obviously, get a haircut. I found myself in a chair with an attractive Russian woman cutting my hair. Ok, actually she was Ukranian, but it's all the same to us cold-war capitalists. Even though the thought crossed my mind I decided not to ask if she could recommend any house cleaners.
After leaving there I headed over to my local video store. I needed an evening of sitting on the couch doing little to nothing. Looking around I found lots of movies that I’ve already seen and even more that I had no desire to see. I came across one that looked intriguing. It was called ‘Employee of the Month’. What caught my eye was a picture of a scantily clad Christina Applegate. Those of us that grew up in the 80’s will see this as a very good thing. I decided to give it a try even though it had the appearance of a low-budget indi-film.
After stopping at my favorite sandwich place (Quizno’s), I went home and popped it in. Oh, I forgot to mention Matt Dillon was in the male lead role. It started out rather promising. Then the movie goes through more ups and downs of good-to-bad acting, good-to-bad dialogue, good-to-bad plot twists. Basically the movie follows Dillon’s character as he experiences an unbelievably bad day. He starts hi day by getting fired from his bank job, then his new fiancé (Applegate) dumps him, in front of her parents, for his infidelity, with her best friend.
A recurring theme throughout the movie is that nothing is at it appears. Following that theme the story takes an interesting twist when his bank is robbed. Dillon is shot, then kidnapped, after trying to defend his, now former, co-workers. We then realize he was part of the hold up.
This movie reminded me a lot of another Matt Dillon classic “Wild Things”. The end goes through twist after twist after twist. To the point where I was thinking ‘ok, enough already’.
Over all not a bad movie, but not great. I’d probably give it a B-/C+. If there is nothing else at the video story it might be worth looking at the box.
On another note, I am going to the Piston’s game tonight. My brother-in-law got free tickets from one of this companies suppliers to use their suite. So I can be safely behind glass when the punches start flying. We are taking my soon-to-be three year old nephew. He already seems to be intrigued by sports. I’m going to have to start teaching him the basics; throwing, catching, etc. probably starting this spring. I have to take on that responsibility, as uncle and God-father, because his parents while very smart people, just don’t know much about sports.

So What Are You Saying?

I just had an interesting thing happen to me on the way back from lunch. I went down to the food court after running a couple of errands. I stopped at Arby’s and got thier new chicken wrap thing. As I'm going back to my desk an older lady gets on the elevator behind me. She had just gone to the deli just outside of our elevator bay.
After looking at what I was carrying she said “That deli has a really good salad bar. You should try it sometime.” My first thought was ‘that’s a random thing to say’. Then I thought ‘HEY! WAIT A MINUTE!’ I know I could stand to loose a few pounds, and yes eating at the salad bar would probably be a wiser choice than Arby’s, but give me a break. Of course, as she got off the elevator a floor before me she said "and their chocolate chip cookies are really good too.”
Unfortunately I wasn’t blessed with a quick enough tongue or I would have said ‘Let me tell you what happened when one of my co-workers ate at that salad bar. She got violently ill. I had to drive her home while she sat on the backseat in the fetal position. Enjoy your salad, you old #$%.!’

Time To Panic In The Blinding Sunshine?

I have come to a strange realization. It’s one I knew would hit me eventually. My job is in a strange state of flux. I never thought I would say these words while working on this team, but I actually have room on ‘my plate’ for additional work.
I have spent the last two years with the feeling that I was managing to keep my head above water as the sharks were circling nibbling on my toes (obvious reference to Bob’s movie review theforensicdaily.blogspot.com go check it out if you don’t know what I’m talking about).
In case you don’t know, I do invoice for EDS on the GM account. Over the past two years I have done all the IT invoicing for OnStar, GMAC, MIC Insurance, Allison Transmission, and Product Development. For those of you unfamiliar with General Motors, these are all divisions of their business. In any given month my team invoices in the ball park of $100 million for various IT related services. My areas, during my tenure, have peaked out at one-fourth of that total, on average I have been invoicing give or take about $20M monthly. So, I’ve been pretty busy.
Recently though things are changing. My team is growing in personnel, and my invoicing responsibilities are shrinking rapidly. In January I gave up GMAC, MIC, and OnStar to another team member. This month I am giving up Allison. So all I have now is Product Development, and apparently quite a bit of time on my hands. Now, I am still having to train the people taking these invoice from me. I’ll still have to do some hand-holding through some of the stuff, probably through March. So it’s not like I’ll be sitting around doing nothing.
Yesterday was our due date for all the billing requests and packages. I’m used to four or five stacks, no less than six inches tall, of paper that needs to be processed in four or five days. This month, I’m looking at one stack.
I have begun exploring other opportunities within EDS. I’m looking at the possibility of joining a newly formed group back in Troy. I’ve turned in my resume and had a couple conversations with the manager. But it looks like nothing will be happening there at least until 2nd quarter. I also applied for job on our Navy account that would have me traveling a significant amount to the Washington DC area. My manager is aware of the former application, but not that later. She told me that she wants to shift my responsibilities slightly away from actual invoicing and more toward analysis, training, and misc. projects. That conversation is really the only thing keeping me from panicking about the greatly reduced work load.
As I’m sitting here typing this I am blinded by this strange orange colored orb in the sky. I can look out over the Detroit River looking from Casino Windsor to Belle Isle. It’s really a pretty nice view. There are huge chunks of ice floating down the river acting as barges for flocks of small birds. These ice barges are releasing steam into air (yes it’s that cold today). I sit with my back to window and my monitor facing the window. I’m struggling to read what I’m typing as the glare is blinding. Pull the shades you say? No Way! The sun is so rare this time of year I have to enjoy it while it’s actually visible.

Cute Young Russian Woman

The 'small group' bible study gathering went pretty well last night. Of the potential 20 people eleven showed up, but I know of at least four that couldn't come yesterday but will be there next week (which I am also hosting). My livingroom was pretty tight, I'm not sure I can fit up to 15 in there. I guess I'll have to move everyone downstairs next week. We'll see how it goes.
This looks like a pretty good group of people. It is certainly an interesting mix of culture, religous and career backgrounds. Lots of different points of view can be a very good thing in this type of gathering.

This got me thinking over the weekend. As you may, or may not know, there are two things that I really hate about living by myself. Those are grocery shopping and cleaning. I avoid them as much as possible, but eventually you have to do them. I started joking with a friend that I wish I could pay someone to do those things for me. Then the more I cleaned the more I thought I 'should be' paying someone to do this. So the questions come to mind; how much does it cost? how do I get intouch with people that do this kind of stuff? can I find a cute young Russian woman to do this for me cheap? Hmmm, lots of potential here but where to start? Any thoughts out there?

Twenty People?

I was a shut in for much of the weekend. Saturday morning I woke up to at least 8-10 inches of snow, possibly even a foot (I didn’t actually measure it). The snow was deep enough that I had difficulty opening my side door, which is about 6-8 inches above the driveway. I had planned to go to the Auto Show, but that wasn't happening.
After waiting until the snow stopped I made my way out to the garage at about 1:00 to fire up the snow blower. This would be the snow blower that I got for free from my neighbor, that he got used from someone else. This thing looks as old as me. The last time I used it I fought with it for about a half hour trying to start it and keep it running. So I had an idea what I might be in for. I pulled the starter cord over and over and over with no luck. I fought with it. I swore at it. I kicked it. I tried talking nice to it. Nothing worked. It would not start. In desperation I called my Dad to see if he could suggest something. He said ‘I’m not doing anything I will be right over to help.’ He gets there and plays around with it for a few minutes. Pulls the cord three or four times, and nothing happened. Finally it started, and then ran just fine while I cleared the drive. Of course it was about 4:30 by the time I finished. So most of my day was shot.
Today, I am hosting the first meeting of my new small group Bible study. I use the words small group rather loosely. When I volunteered I thought I was looking at 8 to 10, maybe 12 people. I found out yesterday that the list has swelled to about 18 to 20. Yikes! I’m not sure my house is big enough for that many people all at once. Fortunately this first night is just a social thing rather than actual bible study. So I can send a group of people down stairs to use the pool table or whatever. Should be interesting.
Another interesting thing happened yesterday. My bowling team was, yet again, facing one of the best teams in the league, and yet again heading toward a disappointing loss. The first game we started with an 80+ pin cushion (due to out ever growing handicap). The other team beat us by about 15 pins. I won’t say what my score was. Let’s just say I was more than 15 pins under my average.
The second game we watched as our lead evaporated yet again. Like the first time we were in a close game heading into the 10th frame. I had recovered with a 141 game, but I left an open in the final frame. It came down to our last bowler. We had to get a good count on the first throw and a spare on the second. Our last bowler is, well, let’s say he’s not Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series. But wouldn’t you know it, that’s precisely what he did. He finished the frame with a strike, followed by a spare. We ended up winning by about 20 pins. Suddenly my team, and me, believed we could walk away with more than just two points for the fifth straight night of bowling.
In the third game none of bowled great, but we all bowled around our averages, or maybe a tad bit over. Our opponents were getting noticeably frustrated that they weren’t whipping out that handicap deficit as easily as the first two games. This time heading into the tenth we had maintained about 65 of our 80+ pin cushion. I had forgotten what it was like to win 6 of 8. Since my team has plummeted from fourth to tenth (out of ten teams), since early November, these 6 points won’t do much for us in terms of quickly climbing the ladder. However, I’m hoping that we have turned a corner and can build on this, *insert any cliche' you like here*.

A weekend that started out with me reduced to a shut-in ended on a high note. Hopefully I’ll be able to hold myself together with 20 people running around my house tonight.

Maybe I’ll give up pop for Lent

Ok, I think I can officially say that I am hooked on ‘Committed’. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a new show on NBC. It is really hard to explain what it’s about. Basically you’ve got two people that are both nuts, but very likeable. They fall in love, and…let the hilarity begin.

I’ve been thinking all day about Derek’s comments basically about wondering why he refers to himself as Lutheran rather than just a Christian. To me it’s more of clarification rather than trying to be exclusionary or implying that you’re better than the other denominations. Although that leads me to my next thought that the denomination you choose should be better than the rest, for you.

Each denomination has basically the same core beliefs. But they each have their own take on many different elements of the rest of the Bibles teachings. I think that each person, if they question if they are in the right denomination, needs to do their homework to find the right church for themselves. This doesn’t make one denomination right and another wrong. But it does make some denominations more right than others.

I’ve also started thinking about the whole giving up something for Lent thing. I don’t usually do that. But, I had the idea planted in my head by a friend over the weekend. It was perfect timing. I just opened my latest issue of National Geographic, which has a cover story about caffeine and our nations dependence on it. There is a great quote in this article that says “the principal reason the caffeine is used around the world is to promote wakefulness. But the principal reason that people need that crutch is inadequate sleep.” In other words “We use caffeine to make up for a sleep deficit that is largely the result of using caffeine.”
There are photos of what the caffeine element actually looks like. It’s pretty disgusting. One picture looks like sugar, or what I might imagine cocaine to look like. Another picture shows caffeine being shoveled out of a vat of liquid. It looks like a shovel full of sludge, or maybe snow/slush that is dirtied from road grime. And I drink this stuff every single day.
Maybe I’ll give up pop for Lent.

Old Lady Smell

Have you ever had one seemingly insignificant event snowball to effect, and even ruin, your whole day? I had that kind of day today. I woke up, on a Saturday, at about 7:30. I had decided last night to use a movie pass I got at work (read previous post). Well the theater I had to go to is in Novi, which is a fair distance from my house. In fact it’s about a 40 minute drive with virtually no traffic. I didn’t fully realize this when I headed out.

I got to the theater and quickly realized that the majority of the people gathering were old enough to be my grandparents. I was listening to rants about their grandkids not being able to find work after graduating from law school. I heard one lady complaining that she is being denied her pension benefits because she can’t technically retire because her ‘disability’ won’t let her serve out the mandated time-served-formula.

Then it hit me. Ok, more like it hit my nostrils… the smell of old woman. I know you’ve smelled it. It’s difficult to describe, but very recognizable. It started out very faint, almost indiscernible. But it grew. But, by that time the crowd and grown and I was trapped in my row of seats. I was still in a descent mood then, so I figured I’d deal with it, and everything would be fine.

About ten minutes or so into the movie I realized this wasn’t worth the price I paid for the free pass. It was ridiculously awful. Which meant my mind was wandering and then I started thinking about the smell. By the end of the movie I had to get out of there. I felt myself getting grouchier by the minute. The fresh air outside didn’t help because my coat had been sitting next to smelly old lady. The fumes invaded my nostrils all the way home.

My mood for the day was set and there was little I could do to get back on track. Now, I did get a few productive things done around the house. I even ventured out into public again. But quickly decided that I wanted no more direct human contact for today.

All this because of old lady smell.

Has The Ice Cube Melted?

Tomorrow morning I am going to see a sneak preview of the new movie “Are We There Yet”, starring Ice Cube. It’s supposed to be a family comedy about a guy that takes his girlfriends kids on a road trip to win them over. Come on? Ice Cube one of the innovators of gangsta rap is doing this kind of movie? Has he gone soft? Has the Ice Cube Melted?
I got this pass from a woman who works in my building. She runs some kind of movie club, and is always handing out free passes like this. I had nothing better to do at 10am on a Saturday. Why not? I’m not so sure about how this movie is going to turn out. I’ll have to check back in with you to give it a review.

A noteworthy change seems to be taking place at my job. As you may, or may not, know I’m not a fan of my boss. Over the past two years she’s done some completely unreasonable and unbelievable things to my co-workers and me. I won’t get into any real details. Let’s just say she has a reputation among her peers; and it’s not a good rep. She recently had a kid and returned from maternity leave. Since then she’s been oddly nice, and dare I say…human. We’ve just gone through a very stressful and busy system change in which we are switching to a totally new way of collecting, reviewing, and reporting on the financial data. This has resulted in working a serious amount of overtime. The old version of my boss would have given us a very hollow ‘thanks for hard work’ followed by an implied ‘now get back to work’. This new incarnation of my boss offered us a heartfelt thanks and a comp day off. This may not sound like much, but for my company, for my organization, and for my boss, this is nearly groundbreaking. I have to ask the question again. Has the Ice Cube melted?

It’s the end of the world and I’m going to hell.

So, what are you going to find on this blog? Like any other site of this kind I’ll be offering my thoughts and opinions on everything from current events to things in my life. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it somewhat interesting to anyone who has taken the time to actually read this stuff. In the grand scheme of things I know that my opinion doesn’t matter anymore than anyone else’s. But I’ve got the mike now and I get to say pretty much anything I want to! Enjoy.

I’m finding it pretty interesting watching the national media recently with all the devastating events taking place around the world; the unbelievable tragedy from south Asia to east Africa, the mudslides, floods, and destruction in California, and now the weird up and down weather in the Midwest. Could these all be signs that the world is finally coming to an end? Possibly. Depending on the person you ask all sorts of prophecy could be used to make the argument that we’ll soon be meeting our maker.

I say the biggest clue of our impending doom is the story that is just starting to show it’s measure out of the tiny California hamlet of Hollywood. That story is the split of Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt. Hollywood’s ‘perfect’ couple is no more. What message does this send to people around the country, nay, the world? If the two most perfect humans can't live together with all that wealth and privilege what hope does the average American trying to find Mr. or Miss Right have. What chance do I have out there in the dating scene if these two can’t keep it together?

I’m probably doing a very bad job of hiding my sarcasm. But I’ve come to a conclusion that I can’t be sarcastic about. I am likely going to hell for a couple of things I’ve caught myself doing recently. A couple months ago I’m sitting on the couch channel surfing. I come across the Catholic channel and get sucked in by the monotone drone of a group of nuns reciting the ‘Hail Mary’. I found myself entranced and unable to change the channel. I watched as the camera showed the faces of the individual nuns participating in this solemn event. All the sudden the camera focused in a young nun, and I found myself thinking ‘Hey, she’s kind of cute.’

If that wasn’t enough to get into the express lane, this may be. Last week I was having a discussion with a friend who is in my small group bible study. We were discussing the books of the New Testament. I was convinced that there were two books of James (James I and James II), he said ‘no you’re probably thinking of the three John books. I ended up betting him five bucks that I was right. I placed a bet on the books of the Bible. Yeah, I’m going to hell. Oh, and just for the record, there’s only one James. There are two Peters, and three Johns (ok four really), but only one James.