Stuff and New Year's

Blog 123107


3 days off from work. Nice! Sunday wasn’t much of a day off. I came home at 7am, played a little CoD 4, read part of one of my books and went to sleep. I got up 4 hours later, showered, went to the parents house for a couple of hours, came home, watched some TV and went to bed.

Shoveling this morning left me pretty wiped out. I haven’t done anything else other than a load of laundry.

I’m suppose to go to a friends party tonight but I’m not really looking forward to it. They usually get drunk and they can’t really understand that I get real bored around drunk people. I don’t drink. Last time I went to their New Year’s Eve party one of the drunk friends wanted to go driving after an old friend invited him out to drink. There was nearly a fist fight and more than forty minutes of trying to convince this guy not to go. What finally stopped him was me leaving. And the fact that I told him if I see him get in his car I’m calling the cops because he might get ME killed by his drunk driving. Even then he still wanted to go out but had calmed enough not to. So, yeah, drunk people do not equal fun for me.

I paid off my big screen. Well, paid back the money to my checking account. Not bad refilling $1400 in one month.

I was nearly peeing in my pants because my last paycheck had no money taken out for health care. The previous week was when the ‘new year’ of coverage had started or was the last week we could sign up. I was extremely fearful that my coverage had somehow run out. After a hurried check with HR the next morning I had reached the limit of deductions for my coverage for the year. So I was paid up and still covered. Phew!

Later that morning I traveled to my insurance agent. After a check on-line of my escrow account I saw a listing for the payment of my house insurance. I had written two separate checks to my local insurance to cover it the previous month. A check found that there was a credit on my account for the amount I paid personally. So they cut me a check on the spot. So now I have another $432 going on to the principal of my mortgage. Last year I put upwards of $2000 extra on my principal. Not bad if I do say so myself. I could use the $400 to rebuild my savings account after the cost of my roof but why bother? My house rate is something like 5.8% while my savings rate is like 2%. It’s better to put it on my loan.

I got three more books from my sister after she heard I was getting the Harry Potter books. So now I have 6 books from Christmas, plus these 3 Potter books and I still have a novel waiting for me at the comic store. I’m about 110 pages into the first of 4 new Anita Blake novels that I got.

Still stuck with mandatory 6 days a week with Sundays optional. I’ll still do a Sunday here and there but working so much is getting sickening. The 4 days off for Christmas and the three days off for New Year’s were a huge help to keep the burn out away.

After stat corrections my friend beat my by .23 in fantasy football for the championship. Just more insult to injury. A total disasterous week for fantasy football. Like I said, my worst week for the whole year points wise. I still would’ve won had I switched out an injured guy that got ZERO points but completely forgot because I was sick on Saturday and booked solid all day Sunday so that I never turned on my computer. I also missed making all my picks in the pick ‘em league and missed making substitutions in the second fantasy league. That’s gonna gnaw at my for a long time because I had the victory except for that I blew the only thing I could control in fantasy football.

I think I have a decent new layout for my living room. There are two tv’s in my living room. One is my 40 inch HD tv and the other is the 25 inch tube. The way the couches are set up my brother’s couch is nothing more than a shelf for crap. It’s actually fairly clean as I write but still has a hat, game controllers and about a full cushion of toys stocked on it. I really can’t remember the last time it was used for its intended purpose. I think the cat is the only one that sits on it. So that means my HD tv is the only tv used for viewing. My couch is set up perpendicular to it and at best holds three people. And because the couch is close to the tv the guy on the couch closest to the tv gets a real crappy angular view. So I want to take my brother’s couch which is originally my sister’s couch and place it like an L facing the HD tv. His couch as a corner connector so it’s designed to fit into a corner. I would then move the coffee table out and put my old couch in the spot of his couch. I would also have to get rid of the two large speaker cabinets in the living room. They should be out anyways since they aren’t even hooked up and just have crap placed on them like tall end tables.

The speakers are part of an annoyance problem for me. My brother still owns more furniture and stuff than I do. There’s no reason for me to buy anything new of my own because there’s no place to put it. So it rather sucks that the unused speakers sit in my living room. There’s an exercise machine by the washer and dryer. His and his nephews clothes take up half of my bedroom closet. And a giant tub of his VCR tapes takes up 90% of the space under my bed in my bedroom. Then there’s all the stuff in the garage like kitchen chairs and other portions of the couch mentioned above. And there’s all his stuff in his room which is the loft. I’m not in a hurry to get rid of my brother but it does suck that more of his stuff fills my house than my own. At least when the dumpster was here for the roof I was able to throw a bunch of crap out of the garage that belonged to my other brother. He didn’t/doesn’t even know or care about the stuff. It was all packrat garbage stuff anyways. I’m vaguely looking at maybe trying to set up an N-scale train set in the garage this summer. I think I now have enough space to do it. Thankfully N-Scale is pretty much the smallest scale for model trains.

I saw I Am Legend. It was okay. The new movie made him more of a caring person than the book or The Omega Man movie did. But the ending kind of left me shaking my head going ‘all that was pretty much for nothing’. I prefer the ending of The Omega Man which was pretty much the same but with one minor, but huge difference for impact. I grew up with The Omega Man so I Am Legend couldn’t really compete with it.

The New England Patriots finished the regular season 16-0. It’ll all be for nothing if they don’t win the Super Bowl. Still, it’s the first time since 1972 that a football team went undefeated in the regular season.

It’s a great time to be a football or baseball home fan in New England. The Boston Red Sox have won the World Series twice in the past few years after 86 years of no championships. The Patriots have won 3 Super Bowls in roughly the same span. New England is dominating the two biggest sports in America. Even the Boston Celtics are getting into the act slightly. After years of disaster they have a good team and I think are leading the NBA with the best record.

Okay, sick of writing now.

Christmas - yet another good one

Blog 122507

Christmas is just about over and it was another swell day. It started off a little rocky. My sleep’s been a little messed up since I called out from work Saturday night. I awoke at 5am Christmas morning. The previous night I turned my lights out just after 11pm so I got around 6 hours of sleep. But I couldn’t get back to sleep. Eventually I pulled out one of four new acquired Anita Blake novels given to me by my oldest brother on Christmas Eve. After reading the first 4 chapters I rolled out of bed around 8:30am.

After a shower I checked the final score for my fantasy football score with hope in my heart. I had lost. This drove me insane and I was really angry because I had blown it. My Sunday schedule was really packed and I never turned on my computer because I knew I would be really late doing my planned things if I did. So I missed doing anything for any of my three football leagues. The Pick ‘em league I lost out. In the league I didn’t care if I won I crushed my opponent. In the league I really wanted to win I missed switching out a playing that wasn’t going to play. By the time I realized my error it was too late and I got zero points from my player. Ugh. In the end, I lost by less than one point. Had I gotten 1 single tackle from the player I didn’t switch out I would’ve won. Instead, I had my worst week of the entire year. While my team usually crushed everyone most of my players flopped. Two were injured in game with one of them being injured on the very first play of the game so I got negative points for him.

So I was really incensed over the situation because in fantasy football you can only control who you put in and pull out. And I shanked that. And I lost because of it. Fuck. I really wanted to win my third championship in four years. And the guy I had chosen to replace the player that didn’t play had an awesome night and scored 10 points which would have easily won me the championship. I guess it was just meant to be that I was not to win.

So Sunday I blazed around doing some Christmas shopping and then headed to the comic shop to play games with friends from out of town. We played Axis & Allies. D was my partner because we each randomly chose Japan and Germany respectively. D had terrible rolls while his opponents had terrific rolls. So D got slaughtered. He was really frustrated and was getting really angry. He was swearing and punching walls. I was doing well trashing my opponent’s forces but not capturing territories. So in his frustration and anger D partially blamed me for his problems. I was like WTF?! So then he gave up and quit despite me having quite a bit of power and in no threat of being stopped. So I was kind of pissed by the whole deal. But I quit because to play longer would have only caused more problems.

In our second game my partner threw caution to the wind and we lost really quick. I was Japan again. I was getting clobbered to I didn’t really care.

Then I hustled up to the parentals to have a really good meal and dessert that I paid for because I’m making decent money with all my O.T.

I was fairly exhausted by then because I had woken up early Sunday also.

So back to Christmas. The initial part of it somewhat sucked. I’ve cooled down from my rant and sulking over losing my football league. Now I’m only a little mad and more disappointed.

Reaching the parentals place and exchanging gifts with he family cure most of my ills. While I was bored here and there and took a nap from fatigue I had a good time. I got some needed things and some fun things. I got 6 books! I had them on my list and was surprised to get so many. I got the first two Harry Potter books. I’ve only seen the movies. I also got 4 novels from the Anita Blake vampire hunter series. I got two games for the Wii. My brother also bought a Wii game for his son because his son likes it so much. I got some cooking stuff like pots and pans that I needed. And I really like my flashlight. It’s one that doesn’t use batteries. Instead you shake it and it generates its own power.

The chow was awesome and the turkey was incredibly moist. Dessert was fine too. I made sure to have to Jello with homemade whipped cream. My mom makes terrific homemade whipped cream. So after about 12 hours at their place I finally came home. Christmas was another solid Christmas in a long line of enjoyable holidays this time of year.

Damn it, I might be sick.

Other than headaches I rarely get sick. But in the last hour I noticed the top of my throat is feeling itchy funky, my nose seems to be starting to a drip a little down the back of my throat and I just sneezed 4 times in a row. I can't recall encountering anyone sick.

God damn it.

Hopefully it's nothing more than the house being dry. Ever since I fired up both humidifiers in my bed room nose bleeds and headaches seem to be a thing of the pass.

Crap. I'll be pissed if I'm sick. I still have half of my Christmas shopping and half of my wrapping to do. And Sunday it looks like I'll be up 24 hours straight in order to see everyone.

Sigh.

I love Christmas but I am happy when it's over.

22 Days of Work

Blog 121507


Ugh. Really tired. I woke up at 6pm but after having stayed up until almost noon I closed my eyes and woke up around 7:45pm and finally feel out of bed around 8:05pm.

The roof is done! I think I picked the worst week of the year to have it done. The guys worked Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday we got about 5 to 7 inches of snow. Friday they came back and finished the job. This is good because of a potential nasty storm tomorrow. Friday was tough sleeping. Pretty hard to sleep with two guys finishing up the roof.

The dumpster is still in the driveway. It’s a low one that is about three feet high. I was able to fill it with some stuff from the garage. Many that stuff is junk that I’ve been looking to get rid of. Most of it wasn’t even mine. The garage is a holding tank of two of my brother’s stuff.

I got Call of Duty 4 for my birthday. It’s pretty awesome so far. It’s set in today’s warfare where CoD 2 is WW II. The only thing I don’t like it about is that you get special props if you kill several people in multi-player without being killed yourself. This promotes picking a spot and staying put slaughtering everything that comes your way. This is known as ‘camping’ in every other game. So far my kill to death ratio is about the same or 40/60. I’ve been getting killed more as I learn the game and boards.

I’m finally having a day off this Sunday – tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it. It might screw up my schedule pretty badly though. I’m going to get home Sunday morning around 7:30am. After some internet football stuff I’ll be needing to get at least an hour’s nap but not more than 2 and ½. 3 hours of sleeping really screws me up. Then it’s shower and shave to head off to my mom’s Christmas party. It starts at noon but I probably won’t get there until 1 or so. It might be off to my buddy’s for WWE’s Armegeddon pay-per-view. But I’ll probably be too dead. There’s also suppose to be a nasty snow or ice storm hitting us.

So lately, it’s all been work, sleep, some Call of Duty 4. I did sleep at my parents’ two days this week. The roofing days were long. I’d gt home around 7:30am. The roofing guys would show up around 9:30am and I would hang around until 10am. Then it would be off to my parents and visit before heading off to bed at 11am. Get up around 6pm and grab some chow. Visit a little more and then head off to be home for 8pm. Do some minor house stuff and sneak in about 90 minutes of free time before heading off to work.

Work’s been okay. I got back to my favorite team of people. But the other night two of our people complained to another crew. This other crew makes very loud sudden noises. They drop skids on the concrete floor. They also throw balls into the gleebar hopper which sounds like a car wreck. You can do both making half the amount of noise. There have been a couple of times where I’ve gone to check on people – the other crew – for injury because of the ball hopper dumping. It’s a very violent and sudden sound. The other crew got all pissed off and countered the radios where too loud. Then swearing started and I was like – Jesus Chrsit, what a stupid reason for there to be a fight. And this was between people that seemed like a couple of them were close friends. It seemed like such a petty thing. It’ll blow over, I hope, but glares and blown off ‘hello’s’ ruled the roost yesterday. Oh, well. So much for adults being adults.

I haven’t done any Christmas shopping since I got about half of it done in one day. Some of it will be easy but for others it will be hard. Gift cards are always an option but I do consider those somewhat a lazy gift to gift.

It’s just about time to make dinner before heading off to work. 22 days off working straight. Ugh. I am tired.

Suckless birthday, better next day

Blog 121107


My actually birthday, December 8th, sucked. I got home from work and about 5 minutes before bedtime the cat knocked over a surround sound speaker. The two speakers are on their sides around my fireplace area. The cat somehow managed to disrupt one enough so that it slid off and crashed into the Christmas tree nearly knocking over the Christmas tree had my brother not wired it in place – just for such an occasion. But limbs were mashed and ornaments smashed into tiny pieces. And another heirloom piece was smashed. This one was from my parents as yet another Christmas smashed by the cat. I lost it. I chased the cat down, beat it and then tossed it into the kitchen. I was still fuming. I was still out of control at seeing yet another sentimental piece of parental love smashed on the floor. I chased the cat down again and carried it through the house by its leg before tossing it outside on to the crusty snow covered ground. The only reason I eventually let it back in was because I didn’t want to hear my family’s shit about letting the cat freeze to death. I ignored the fucking thing for the next two days. My only interaction was to feed the damn thing. My brother asked my niece if she could take the cat since I said I was serious about giving the animal away. My niece can’t at this time. That damn cat brings out the worst in me.

Somehow I got to sleep and eventually went to work later that night. Because some co-workers couldn’t stop arguing and verbally fighting the previous night I got switched to work with the guy blamed for everything. This was after getting booted from my favorite team to just an okay team of workers.

Later our machine burst an oil line and made a pretty big mess. The guy accused of making all the trouble the night before was sent to work in a different area. This was because only myself and another worker were needed to keep part of our area running.

At least Sunday was a lot better. I tried to get to sleep early so I could get up early and still be rested. That didn’t work but my job keeps me so busy I didn’t notice my tiredness. Or maybe I just had trouble waking up because I was yawning the whole time at my parents before work. One of my brothers bought pizza for supper as part of a birthday gift to me. My parents got my Call of Duty 4 for PC and it looks awesome so far and is quite cool. They also got me another heirloom Christmas ornament. They had purchased this one before they knew the cat had destroyed the one from last year.

Later Sunday night I was also back on my old, original team. I’ve dubbed myself the Crackerican. I’m the only white guy with three Portaricans. I don’t think I’m spelling that correctly. But things were quickly back to normal and we over-produced as always. In a way that’s not a good thing as management will up the rates and we already really bust our asses teamwise. The girl is probably the hardest worker I’ve ever seen. She never stops! Someone else was being a jerk and telling them I was happy to be on a different team. Fucking people starting shit.

Weird dreams lately. I had some about WW II. One was about flying and crashing! In a B-17 bomber. We were flying just above tree level and crashed into a barn! Yesterday I dreamt about a redone version of the Halloween movie. Michael Myers, the villain, was a big pudgy kid with frizzy hair. Someone threw a rock and hit him in the head and you could hear sort of a metal sound like a ‘pong’ or something. The maniac only turned and smiled. He was a teenaged maybe a junior in high school.

Roofing guys are here now and it’s bedtime. So I still have to drive to the parentals so I can sack out in peace there.

Work. More work. And more work.

Working 7 days a week, 8 hours a day. I expect my next day off to be Dec 16. I'm even working on my birthday. I need to pay for a new roof. I'd still be working 6 days a week mandatory regardless.

Snuck in some Christmas shopping at 8am. Wal-Mart was nice and dead. Bought some Peanuts (Charlie Brown) Christmas music. I like it a lot.