I'm Just Bitchin'

That's Gigi's (a woman I work with) favorite saying when we bitch about not having time off on holidays. It sucks. This weekend is the 4th of July and we don't even get an extra day off since it falls on Saturday. I'll say it again. It sucks. They could at least give us a half day on Friday. We'll see. Maybe they will but I doubt it.

I went to McDonald's this morning on the way to work to get breakfast for my daughter and me. I went through the drive-thru and ordered two value meals that were exactly the same. Same sandwich, same drink. Since my daughter and I don't work in the same area I asked if they could put the meals in separate bags. I was told that in the drive-thru, they are not allowed to do separate bagging but they could give me an empty bag so I could separate them myself. Nice. This makes no sense to me whatsoever. It can't take any longer...

We already have eight to twelve inches of snow on the ground. We're getting another two to four inches today. Another inch or so tomorrow. We haven't been above freezing in weeks. Brutal winter. I hate Michigan. Horrible weather. The highest unemployment in the country. Downright crooks running Detroit costing everyone who lives here. Crime is insane. I want out. Badly. But I can't. Not right now. Sigh.

I think Classmates.com would be a great site if they weren't so damn greedy. They tease you with emails that say you have messages and that people have visited your profile. Of course you want to find out who's looking for you! But then when you go there you can't do anything without paying for a membership! I mean, there are ads ALL OVER THE SITE! They're everywhere! And they want you to pay to use the site too? Greedy. Greedy. Greedy. Get with the program Classmates.com. Social networking sites should be free. Look at Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace. Sure,...

WARNING! Rant ahead! I mentioned how I, um, dislike, going to the Secretary of State. I went back today to get my motorcycle endorsement. It's a very simple process. Go there, take a 20 question idiot test, give them a check, and get your picture taken. Simple right? Twenty minutes tops right? An hour and a half!!!! Ninety minutes of my life that I will never get back! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Un-freakin-believable. I have never seen more lazy and inept workers. The person I ended up with couldn't even find the answer sheet to correct the test I took! Oh my God! The drawer...

Not the person. The office. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Yesterday I flew out of work and raced over to the Secretary of State to get my motorcycle endorsement. I walked in the door at 4:35 PM. They close at 5:00 PM. They have a little information desk and the woman behind it asked me what I was there for. I told her I was there for the endorsement. She looked at me like I was crazy. "We're not allowed to give the test out after 4:30." she said. What?! Are you kidding me??? Give me a break. There are at least 100...

It's been a crazy week/month/year! Besides buying a new house and trying to get it the way we like it, I've been job hunting, found a new job, will start my new job next Monday, been working on a web site for my daughter's company, and starting to work on a web site for my daughter's volleyball team. Oh and, not to mention working every damn day! Whew. Speaking of my new job, I'll be working for Belle Tire at the corporate headquarters as a developer in the IT department. I'm really looking forward to the change. It's been needed for a...

I'm color blind. I hate it. I couldn't even see the hyperlinks in my posts even though they are a different color than the rest of the text. So I decided to underline the links inside the post text. Are you color blind? Wanna find out? I'm also a little obsessive/compulsive. I've edited this little post about 5 times now!

Gayla and I when to Beaver Creek for dinner tonight. A commercial for Energizer batteries came on the TV. I told her I don't buy Energizer batteries because of that stupid bunny. I hate those commercials! I hate that freakin' bunny even more! God they're annoying. Seriously. I won't buy them because of that. She thinks I'm stupid. Hmph! Damn. I wish I was knew how to put one of those circles with the slash through it on another image. I suck at Photoshop. Oh well, you get the point. What the hell is that thing called anyway?

My brother in law bought a new camera so I bought his old one. A very nice Canon EOS Rebel. I think it was made in 2003 and I got a great deal on it. I just got back from a week in Fort Lauderdale Florida yesterday. I took the camera with me and took a whopping 6 pictures. Six. Pictures. In a week. I must do better.

When I was a kid, I don't ever remember snow on the ground for Easter. It was always warm. Now it seems that it's always cold and nasty. Even when the kids were little we always had to cover up their new Easter dresses with a big heavy coat when they were hunting Easter eggs. This is what we see out of our front door this morning. Snow. Snow and gray skies. And it's cold! The wind chill, yes, a wind chill in April, is 12 degrees. The high today is 31 degrees. Below freezing. We're starting the second week of...

Tonight I updated my computer. Specifically, I installed Internet Explorer 7 Service Pack 1, then a couple security updates for that, then SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2. While we're waiting for them to finish, let's recap some world events that have taken place during the installs. My daughter graduated college, got married, had kids, and sent them to college. A baby that was born yesterday has grown up and become President. I have gotten old and died. We've found an alternative fuel to oil....

1. I pay for cable service.2. I pay extra for the digital cable channels.3. I pay extra for high definition service.4. I pay extra for the "premium" high definition channels.5. The NFL network, which is a part of the digital cable channel package and the "premium" high definition channel package, shows a third game on Thanksgiving, and my cable company chooses not to show the game?Nice. Update:  Apparently very few cable networks are carrying the 8 games on the NFL Network due to the high cost the NFL Network is charging for the games. I still have mixed feelings about this,...

It's going to rain tomorrow. And Wednesday. And Thursday. And Friday. And on Saturday it's going to be mixed with rain and snow! God, I hate Michigan weather. And did I mention I hate Michigan too? Can you say "S.A.D"? But it's really more than that. Really.

After putting the summer furniture away yesterday I spent about an hour blowing the leaves that fell from the tree in the backyard out to the street. I thought I'd get a head start since the tree was still pretty full. I woke up this morning and looked out the kitchen window to see this! When I was done yesterday, there wasn't a single leaf in the backyard! It's really windy here today and we're supposed to have gusts up to 50 mph. So much for getting a head start!            

I absolutely hate web sites that don't allow you to use your browser's “Back” button. You know the ones. You hit your “Back” button and the page just reloads? Hate em! Hate em! Hate em! There, I feel a little better now.

  Hope everyone had a nice summer last Tuesday. Sigh.

Ok. Two days ago? I think it was two days ago, it was over 80 degrees here in beautiful, wonderful Michigan. As of right now, we're supposed to get 6 to 10 inches of snow this weekend. Six. To. Ten. Inches. God I hope I hit the Mega Millions tonight. Two hundred five millions dollars?! Palm Springs here I come! I don't even know that I'd tell the girls. My daughters that is. Gayla? I would definitely take her with me!

Does anyone else think it's degrading to make an employee stand by the road holding a sign? Or is it just me?

Adult life is extremely stressful. I don't have to tell anyone that. When you have kids? It's even more stressful. Then there's work, marriage, the weather, money. The list goes on. So, it seems that there's always something heavy weighing on your mind. Have you ever had a moment when all that stress seems to just disappear? Even if it's just for a half minute or so? Well, for about 30 seconds today, while driving in my truck, the sun was shining, it was half way warm out, there was good music on the radio and for some reason or another, I...

writing 700 line xml files by hand? Sucks. That is all.

I've been procrastinating getting VoIP phone service for about 2 or 3 months now and I finally ordered Vonage service last Saturday. Now this little article surfaces. Well, I guess if the cable company offers VoIP I can just use their service. Hell, why not? Between the digital cable, the high speed Internet, the DVR, the extra boxes, the remotes, the cable modem, and in the future maybe the VoIP service, I just send one of my paychecks to them anyway!

I've been trying to change my eating habits lately. I say lately but it's really only been in the last few days. Well, that is, if you don't count all the other times I've tried. :) I've actually done ok considering we haven't gone shopping yet this week so there really isn't much healthful food in the house. One of my really bad habits is eating popcorn at night while watching TV. I know, popcorn, in and of itself, is not that bad for you. But, how good is popcorn with nothing on it? I think you get my drift. Can you say butter?...

These are pictures of...a: The moon's surface shortly after it was formed and bombarded by meteors.b: The surface of Jupiter's moon Europa after being bombarded by meteors.c: The street that I live on after being bombarded by meteors.d: The street that I live on as seen in the early 1800's.e: The street that I live on as seen in present day. Sadly, the correct answer is e. I spent some time on the phone last Monday with the director of Public Services for our “fine” city and he told me that “he was doing a good job keeping this street...

I can't believe that it's already 10 PM on Sunday night. It seems like Friday was just a couple of hours ago. Saturday absolutely flew by because we got hit with about 8 to 10 inches of snow and I spent the day digging myself, my in-laws, and my sister in-law out. After that, because the roads were still so bad, I drove Kari to work so she wouldn't have to drive herself on the nasty roads, and by the time I got back from dropping her off, I had just enough time to jump in the shower and get ready to...

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...

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: silenceMe thinking: "Where'd she go?"BFGKG: nothingMe starting to stew: "What the @#$%?"BFGKG: still nothingBFGKG: STILL !@#$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?...