December 2004 Entries

Times sure have changed. The kids are out partying and the parents are home in bed.

Happy New Year!!!

I really can't say that I've been busy lately although I have been doing a lot on the computer for the stock club and my sister. I created her a nice little home page with some links that she uses all the time so she can have easy access. I've also been doing some other work on the stock club application, but nothing that's really useful to the club as of yet. I've been trying to balance my computer time with getting things done around the house so I don't “waste” my whole vacation by sitting in front of the computer! You know how that goes...you wake up on Monday, sit down and start browsing, next thing you know it's Sunday night!!!

Yesterday I took down the Christmas decorations in the house. I just can't leave them up for very long after Christmas day, I've gotta get the house back to normal! I'll take the lights down outside in the next few days. I think it's supposed to warm up a bit around here.

This morning I put my first item up for auction on Ebay! Woohoo! I'm gonna be rich! I have to say, it's pretty cool to be able to do that and Ebay has a nice little web app. to make things easier. So, are you in the market for a nice pair of Levi 505 jeans? I got em for ya! Right here. The waist is 33 and the inseam is 32. I used to be able to wear that size. I don't know what happened. For some reason, the waist doesn't fit any more. Must be some kind of flaw in the material. ;) Wish me luck on this one. Hopefully I don't get screwed!

I'm in the market for some more memory for my computer. Right now I have a measly 256 megabytes and I'd like to add another 512. You know, that's amazing. When I got my first IBM computer back in, I don't know, '93 or '94, it had 2 megabytes of RAM and I asked Gayla to get me some more RAM for Christmas that year. She bought me 2 more megs and paid $120 for it!!! Unbelievable. So anyway, where's the cheapest place to buy computer memory these days?

A little free association...

1. holiday :: time off
2. fault :: find
3. beep :: annoying
4. bubble :: gum
5. needle :: haystack
6. fare :: cost
7. treat :: trick
8. express :: lane
9. webcam :: no thanks
10. capital :: idea

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With all the pressure TV stations have to get you watch their news casts, it seems like the weather forecasts are getting the most attention. Every single storm that just might drop a flake or two gets the "Death Storm" logo around here. We can go to five different TV stations and get five different forecasts. It's actually kind of amusing to try and figure out which one is going to get it right. Last night we got the first big storm of the winter and I'm actually surprised that they all were right. Of course, if you consider that saying we could get anywhere from 4 to 12 inches of snow correct! I think I could look at the data and forecast between those numbers!

Anyway, we did get around 7 or 8 inches of snow and this is a picture of Gayla out there first thing this morning shoveling the walk to our porch. Before you start yelling at me, I did go out and finish the sidewalk and our driveway as well as went over to Gayla's parent's house and her sister's house to do their driveways. So, see, I am a good guy and I don't make my wife shovel snow. I even drove my daughter to work this morning because I didn't want her driving on the lousy roads that they take so long to clear around here. So there.

It always seems that after a big snow around here, the sky clears up and we have some rare sunshine for awhile. This is a picture I took from my deck this morning after I finished shoveling. Now it's supposed to get real cold around here. How cold? Here's the forecast this weekend...

Friday: High of 15, Low of 0
Saturday: High of 11, Low of 7
Sunday: High of 23, Low of 20

Brrr.

 

The Krunchers' season came to an end Monday night with the conclusion of the game between the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins. The Krunchers trailed the Gamblers by a mere 6 points going into the game with only the Krunchers having an active player. The Gamblers had to sit back and hope that the Dolphins could hold the Krunchers' Deion Branch to under 60 yards. Well the Gamblers are breathing easy this morning as the Dolphins did just that holding Branch to only 44 yards receiving and a mere 4.4 points. This allowed the Gamblers to defeat the Krunchers by a score of 118.58 to 117.06, and knocking them out of the playoffs by a slim 1.52 point difference.

The Krunchers owner, Big K said that “he was very happy to have made the playoffs in this, the Krunchers first year in the league. We'll get em' next year!“, after which, he was seen downing several Bud Lights.

A little free association...

1. Perfect Gift :: anything for my computer!!
2. Santa :: Uncle Don
3. Lucy :: Charlie Brown
4. Buckets :: washing the car
5. Recital :: crowded gym
6. Stamp :: postage
7. Teacher :: authority figure
8. Matchbox :: 20
9. Spit :: loogy (sorry, you're supposed to say the first thing!)
10. Feeling :: nothing more than, feelings

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Detroit, Michigan - Last week Big K's Krunchers crushed the American Rhinos in a decisive 128.60 to 58.80 victory to clinch a spot in the playoffs in their inaugural season. The Kruncher's Drew Bennet scored an impressive 41.30 points and nearly beat the lowly Rhinos on his own. Deuce McAllister and Daunte Culpepper added 24.00 and 18.00 points respectively to finish off the Rhinos who finished in last place in the league.

This weekend, the Krunchers (8-6-0) butt heads with the Gamblers (8-6-0) in the first round of the NWFL league playoffs. The Krunchers are looking toward Daunte Culpepper to have a huge game today against the lowly Detroit Lions to add to Tiki Barber's 17.40 effort against the Steelers yesterday.

With the Gamblers having the likes of Brett Favre and Marvin Harrison, the Krunchers have their work cut out for them.

 

I started out in the IT field as a software tester and testing software is still very near and dear to my heart. Hell, I may even go back into it one day. It really is a great profession! That said, I found this link to an article at Sticky Minds on Sara Ford's blog. Sara is a tester at Microsoft. It's a collection of slogans about testing software that would be suitable for bumper stickers. It's written by Harry Robinson who I believe, also works for Microsoft. Pretty clever if you ask me.

Some of my favorites are...

• A good tester has the heart of a developer...in a jar on the desk.
• Friends don't let friends do capture-replay.
• Software Testers don't break software; it's broken when we get it. 
  

There are some reality shows that I actually like. Survivor, Extreme Makeover, The Biggest Loser, Trading Spouses, and even the original, MTV's Real World. Although sometime, the kids on that show? really scare me since I have two daughters that age!

So tonight we were watching Trading Spouses, which by the way, the family with the guy who looks like Santa Claus?, too weird, and at the end of the show Fox shows a commercial about this new reality series. The show will “star“ a young women and I think there were 6 or so older men. In the commercial, they show a close up of each one of the men and each one says that he is the girl's biological father. Now, this girl was adopted when she was a baby so apparently she doesn't know who her real father is. In the show, she has to figure out WHICH ONE OF THESE MEN IS HER REAL FATHER!!!

Now, I think, the show, in and of itself, has crossed a line here. But what really puts it over the edge for me is the name of the show. Are you ready? You sure you want to hear this? Ok, I warned you. The name of the show is...

“Who's Your Daddy?”

Uh huh. That's right. You heard me correctly. “Who's Your Daddy?”. “Who's”.  “Your”.  “Daddy?”. (shaking my head)

I'll say it again. Shame on you Fox!

...do people really buy cars as Christmas presents? I mean, enough to justify the TV ads that are being shown EVERY 10 MINUTES! ON EVERY STATION? And when I say “cars”?, I'm talking about a Lexus. C'mon. A Lexus for Christmas? I bet the people who do buy these as gifts? Are not software developers. ;)

Well, I got the tree up this weekend. I'm about two weeks ahead of where I normally am this time of year! I don't know what's gotten into me. Heck, I even put lights on the house this year. Had those up last week!! Must be my old age settin' in.

I've set up a photo album for Christmas this year as well as other holidays. I'll be posting more pictures as I take them.

Meet Kody. The, most spoiled dog, in the world. Please excuse his, um, bad manners.

Holy smokes, I looked up and I had a total of 13 posts! So. I'm posting this. I'm not superstitious though. Really. Oh come on. It doesn't hurt anything.

I got some new Michigan stuff for Big K's Pub on my birthday which, by the way, was this last Monday. You'd think I have enough Michigan stuff. But you'd be wrong. ;)

Check it out!

Awesome flag huh?! This is from my daughter Jamie. I've got the picture turned 90 degrees. It's actually hanging on a door next to the bar.

And my in-laws got me this awesome rug. I have it layin' right in front of the TV. Let's see, what else. Kari gave me a very cool “weathered” sweat shirt. And my sister in-law Staci gave me a Michigan pull-over jacket similar to this. Guess I was a good boy this year! Can't wait 'til Christmas!!!

The play by play...

Me into the menu: “What sizes do the 'Crispy Strips' come in?”
Big Fat Greasy KFC Girl (BFGKG): "3, 6, 9, and 12 pieces."
Me into the menu: "I'd like a 12 piece meal please."
BFGKG: "Is that it?"
Me into the menu: "Better give me another order of mashed and gravy."
BFGKG: silence
Me thinking: "Where'd she go?"
BFGKG: nothing
Me starting to stew: "What the @#$%?"
BFGKG: still nothing
BFGKG: STILL !@#$in NOTHING!!!
BFGKG: finally returns "Can I take your order?"
Me: "Um, I had the 12 piece 'Crispy Strip' meal?"
BFGKG: "With the extra order of mashed? That'll be $23.37."
Me thinking: "Hmm, she remembered, but $23.37? Damn, that's expensive."

So I pull up and pay her and the last thing I asked was...
Me: "Does this come with biscuits?"
BFGKG: Nods.
Me: "Can I get some honey then?"
BFGKG: Nods as she walks away.

I get my bag and leave. I should've known. I get home, and instead of 'Crispy Strips' I have this greasy, nasty, slimy, 'Original Recipe' chicken!!! I HATE 'ORIGINAL RECIPE' CHICKEN!!! It's greasy. It's nasty. And it's slimy.

But by this time, I'm just too exhausted and too fed up to go back, so we suffered through it. At least I have some honey to put on the. What!!! The bitch even forgot my honey?!!! Are you kidding me?!!! It was the last friggin' thing I said to her!

Ok. I ask you. Is it really that hard? Is it really THAT !@#$ING HARD????? I mean, we tell them what we want. They enter it in a computer. And then they read it back to us SO FRIGGIN FAST THAT WE DON'T KNOW IF THAT'S WHAT WE ORDERED OR NOT!!!

Now if I'm not mistaken, the computer prints our orders out for them on a TV screen. All they have to do is look at the list and put the stuff in the bag!!! Look at the list. Put it in the bag. Look at the list. Put it in the bag. Look at the list. Put it in the bag. Everything there? No? Start again. Yes? Give to customer.

I can't stand it. Every. Single. Time. I go through a drive thru, this happens. It doesn't matter where, they always !#$% it up!!!

Whew, I feel better. Thanks for listening.