SER

I am supposed to be using today to write my supplementary experience report (SER) in order to register to take the PE exam in April. This is a 6 page report of all the engineering related work I have done since I was hired by the City of Austin.

As you can imagine, I am doing everything but because deep down, I am a procrastinator.

And by 'everything' I mean sitting here in front of the computer finding other things to do on the internet.

God love the internet. What did I ever do before it was invented?

what I heard

What I heard: Ihad to go for a run on the field of an orgy.

What was said: I had to go for a run on the heels of a gorging.

Lunch

The waitress comes to the table... The menu clearly states that the chicken fried chicken platter comes with a side salad + one other side.

"I'll have the chicken fried chicken please, with a side of fried okra."

"Which type of dressing would you like with that, sir?"

"None, thanks."

We all give him weird looks. and one of us finally says, "Really, you don't want any dressing?"

"Why would I want dressing? Okay, fine, what do you have?"

"Ranch, Blue Cheese, vin..."

"Wait, you're asking me if I'd like salad dressing on my chicken fried chicken?!"

"no, sir, I'm asking which type of salad dressing you want with the salad."

"oh, fine...yes, I'll have Ranch. I would also like a coke."

"it's okay sir, I understand, let's get some caffeine in you, then it'll all be okay."

one of his friends: "I wouldn't count on it, he'll still say dumb shit."

New Phone

Image from Best Buy's website

Today, Shawn and I decided to spend 3 hours at the Best Buy and get ourselves some new phones.

Normally it should not take 3 hours to get new phones--just so you know.

It all started on Friday when my coworker texted Shawn that my phone was ancient and I needed a new phone. (Okay, it didn't really start on Friday, it started on November 6 when Verizon released the Droid.) Shawn texted back saying we would likely work on it this weekend.

Today, after talking to the most affected family members (that is, Shawn's mom since she's on our family plan), we printed the Sears deal on the Droid ($149 with 2-year contract instead of the normal $199 with 2-year contract), and headed off to Best Buy as they do price matching.

We got to Best Buy and sat down with our sales guy. This is when the problems started--some of it could have been because we were transferring our current numbers and we were also switching from Shawn being primary to me being primary. So we sit there for half an hour filling out forms and then we get to the credit check which ends up requiring the copying of my social security card. After a 20 minute trip home and back, we sit down again, re-fill out the application, wait for the credit check...and wait....and wait....and let's go fax all the stuff to Verizon...okay, and wait some more...alright, let's call them to see what's taking so long...and 20 minutes later they tell us to re-fax the information because it was illegible when it was sent the first time. So there is re-faxing...more calling...more waiting...and more waiting...and after 2 hours, FINALLY they decide I must be who I say I am. After that, everything went quickly, except that Best Buy still didn't have it in the system that Droids could opt for a data plan that wasn't the executive one (yay! another call to the help desk at Verizon), AND it also hasn't been added to their "transfer all contact info from one phone to another" doohicky machine.

But, I'm very happy with the service from Best Buy (Adam in particular) and I guess, to an extent, I'm even okay with Verizon--if only because they were doing due diligence to make sure I am me--otherwise it's a very scary concept that we could have just walked into any cell phone store location and said "yes, I'd like to get my current number, which is XXX to be on this phone, with this new carrier." There's no guarantee that the person coming in would be honest and suddenly, you're phone can be hijacked by someone else. What a fun thought. Of course, we were told it was because of 9/11 that they were being so persnickety. Which...okay...but if that's the case, how do you explain the fact that you sell prepaid disposable phones which require no credit check and no contract--what to they require instead, a blood sample, semen sample, and promise of your first born child?

Critics

I can't believe people are surprised that New Moon is a blockbuster in spite of the fact that the movie actually sucks. Trust me, all those thousands of fan girls going to the movie aren't going because they expect it to be good. And the same goes for all those mothers and grandmothers.

Checking

I did something I've never ever done in my life on Monday. I overdrew my checking account. GASP!!!

Every year in October, work gives us a list of like 1000 charities that we can opt to donate to. This charity drive ends November 1. And because I like to get simple things checked off my to-do list, I always do the combined charities almost as soon as they hand it out. I took care of this like October 12. Would you like to guess what overdrew my checking account? That's right. A check I wrote donating money to charity a month ago.

I don't necessarily know if it's ironic...but it's definitely a fucked up life lesson.

Thunderdome

What is with the dancers looking like they're extras from Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome this season on So You Think You Can Dance?

Yams

Bond had a very good idea today--in order to get what we want, we have to always suggest something completely and utterly out there first. Therefore, if we want to be able to award people 1 hour of time off, we first have to ask if we can give everyone a large can of Yams that they can give to someone else. Because really, who is really going to be excited about a can of yams?

Belgium

Just so you know: Either Colorado has been annexed by Belgium, or the public school system in Texas is really, really bad. The other day, someone told me that Fat Tire is brewed in Belgium. I'm pretty sure it is not.

The Count of Monte Crisco

Seriously, it took for the movie coming out in 2002 before I realized that it's CrisTO not CrisCO. Anyhow, I just started reading it this morning on Shawn's digital reader. It's 2990 pages, people. of the digital paper, sure. But that still translates to over 1000 pages in a normal book. This. Will. Take. Forever.

Okay, not really--If I can read the 4 Twilight books in 2 weeks or the entire Harry Potter series in 3-4 weeks, then I'm sure I can handle a silly 1000 pages.

Holidays

It's happened.

We have reached the point in the year where the holiday spirit hits me. It usually (since moving to Austin) doesn't hit this early, but what are you going to do?

I can even tell you the precise moments leading to this point-- At Bond and Dave's house I flipped through a foodie magazine that was themed for Thanksgiving. It is 'cold' outside today, meaning it is in the mid 60s and is rainy. I got the Pier 1 Christmas catalog the other day. The day after, I got the LLBean Christmas catalog (this is because all the retailers are trying to get you in the Christmas mood early so you'll buy more stuff). And then finally, the Woman's Day December magazine came yesterday so I've been reading all these Thanksgiving recipes, and feel good Christmas stories, and decorating ideas and gift ideas all day. And that's when it hit me. I'm now officially looking forward to the holiday season.

I'm sure it doesn't help any that last night my dream was about finding an ornament for Ma-Belle, and since she's in a total Disney Princess phase I was trying to find a princess-esque ornament but all the ones I found were all wrong--all the Snow Whites were wearing blue Cinderella dresses, Sleeping Beauty was wearing a Jasmine outfit, etc.

Yankee Sports

God I have missed hockey. Not that I ever really was into it when I was in Colorado. Okay, you caught, me that's not quite true. I was totally into college hockey in 4th and 5th grade, and went to a bunch of the DU games with my friend Kay (Wow, just checked the DU site and Gwozdecky has been head coach for a long time--he was the head coach back when I watched them) . When Denver finally got a hockey team, albeit a farm team (the Grizzlies), my parents got me tickets for my birthday. Then the Avalanche came to town. I remember being most excited because they were previously the Nordiques. Yeah. Weird that I remember that. I helped Kay babysit Patrick Roy's kids once, it was back when none of them spoke English and the boys were, well, boys. But I never went to an Avs game. And then after that I just never really went to any more hockey games.

But tonight I remembered why I liked hockey so much: because it's a lot of action in a short span of area and time AND there are fights.

For example, tonight there were 3 fights in the first 2 minutes and 15 seconds. AWESOME. I'm honestly still a little surprised that the Dallas Stars' farm team (Texas Stars) beat the Canuck's farm team (Manitoba Moose)--the Stars' offense wasn't as good as the Moose's offense...but then the Stars' goalie was better than the Moose's...so I guess it all washes out in the end.

1981

Every year the insurance people send me a birthday card about how things were in 1981. Things like which movie won Best Picture, which song was on the top of the charts, etc.

One of things is "averages." This is the part that I am going to be sharing today:

Average Income 1981: $25, 065
Average Income 2009: $50, 986

Average New Home 1981: $68,900
Average New Home 2009: $218, 400

No wonder more people are broke today--their salaries only doubled while their house prices tripled.

Cat Rug

I realize this is about a week and a half late, but this is the cat that I had gotten back from the Emergency Vet two weekends ago