Journal Entries for February 2006 February 4, 2006 - 5:55 AM After doing some research for a web site I'm developing, I happened across a flash script that solves one of my age old dilemma's in terms of presenting my favorite form of media on my web site - music. Consequently, now that I have found this free script I intend to make much use of it and to allow you, the visitor, access to A LOT of my musical creations and works in progress. The song you (should be) hearing play right now is my latest full length mix as it stands on February 4th, 2006. As significant developments in it's progress are made, they will also be available through this little media playing script thingie. Eventually it will end up on the Music (Digital Audio) page and there is also a way you can Add my player to your Firefox Sidebar - so that you can listen to music from my site while you browse my web site (or any other web site for that matter.) You'll notice in the playlist there are other versions of the mix with different dates. These represent the progress of the mix on those days. Often I'll work on the mix for a while but later decide that I didn't like the direction it was heading in, back it up a few songs and start in a whole new direction. For an example of this, listen to the mix from January 20th and scroll in to about 14:10. Listen to that transition (and from there on out) and compare it to the mix from February 4th from the same point and you'll see they are very different. I'd love to hear from you which version you like better. One other thing, I've purposely encoded the mixes at 64kbps so that they don't take forever to load. (Even on a high speed connection these mp3's are already over 35 minutes in length which makes them 13-17 Megs even at 64kbps!) When the mix is completed you can get a CD from me or download the completed mix at full quality from the web site somewhere. Backing up just a little, this latest mix was concieved after listening to my new Sirius radio for a couple of weeks, hearing a lot of cool new songs on it and deciding to put together a CD of songs as a tribute to the new radio. Hence the title, SiriuSongs. There are lots of good songs I know just aren't going to make it on this CD but it'll be a start. So far, it's working out quite well and I'm pretty happy with the sound and feel of it. Ok, it's definitely time for bed. Have you ever had one of those nights where you just can't sleep and suddenly you're wide awake so you figure Why fight it? You end up staying up all night only to realize the sun is starting to rise and you're starting to fall. Do you go to bed and sleep all day or try to stay up for 36 hours straight? *sigh* I've gotta stop doing this. Snowboarding today! Whu Hoo! (And again on Sunday with Kerri if I can get done my work at a decent hour. Last Sunday I ended up working till 11:30 at night... Here's hoping that doesn't happen again! February 4, 2006 - 4:57 PM Sandals in February I was riding my bike in January, in February I'm outside with Sandals on, what's next? Seadooing in March? The way things have beeng going I wouldn't be surprised... Whatever happened to the days of old where we'd get multiple feet of snow at a time? I was reading a book on outhouses this afternoon which was a rediscovered birthday present for me and they showed this outhouse that had the bottom 3/4 submerged in snow! In Alberta! Here we are in February and there's barely a patch of snow to be found! Anywhere! I was telling someone a while ago about my theory of changing weather trends and year after year my theory seems to be validated. Just watch, one day Canada will be a tropical country and places like Mexico, Florida, and Hawaii will be frozen wastelands! (Ok, perhaps not quite, but weather patterns are definitely changing!) Thursday morning Kerri finally had enough of Bibi. She'd been yelled at, complained at, told she was stupid and smacked one too many times, so when Bibi gave her the ultimatum, either you get back there and fold towels or you leave, she left. It really came as no surprise... Bibi has been under more and more stress lately as orders stack up, supplies run out and mistakes were being multiplied - but despite your frustrations no manager should hit their employees or tell them they are stupid. And certainly not in an environment where the company can't keep employees as it is! When even McDonalds is offering more money, better working conditions and more flexibility - the least you should be doing is treating your employees with dignity and respect. It's kind of funny, Bibi walks around her sewing bay like the queen bee, but every time she leaves - whether for the day or just for a few minutes - the moral in that bay jumps several notches until her return. Kerri and I went to the Olive Garden for lunch and it was immediately afterwards she realized that she had forgotten her toque at Custom Linen. (snowboard hat as she explained it to me one day) So after lunch, she ducked down in the van and I walked in, grabbed the toque and walked out. Bibi didn't even look up from her sewing machine. It will be interesting to see how many other sewing bay staff follow Kerri's lead and walk off the job. This is Calgary. There's no excuse for being unemployed here... Yesterday Bo and I took Maddy swimming and for the first time in at least 20 invites, Tanya FINALLY brought her two wee ones as well! The kids had a wonderful time and I do believe that's the longest we've ever gone swimming as well. Maddy has been SO full of energy these days, literally bouncing off everything! She came downstairs last night and watched the birds fly around my room. The silly birdies! Then we had a jam session where her and I traded off on the drums and keyboard before she ended up dancing around the living while the keyboard played it's rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. On another note, I spotted this van sitting at a set of red lights the other day whose owner had written a political message across the back of it. The van reads, Keep your cheq Ralph. Give me free Aberta Health Care! Most provinces do not charge extra for health care. Health care is free under the Canadian Health Care Act. If you make under 40k / year vote against Ralph's PC's and save thousands Now first of all, the Ralph Bucks rebate program has sparked a lot of debate within the province as to what should be done with the surplus instead of giving it back to Albertans. I've heard arguments for everything from eliminating provincial income tax to putting it back into Canada (with the reasoning being, what's good for Canada is good for Alberta) But there's no guarantee had the Liberals or any other political party gained the majority of votes in Alberta that they would have done away with health care premiums. Paying health care premiums is like paying insurance premiums. Most of the time, you won't actually need it, but that one time you do - it will be there for you. The bottom line is that it costs big bucks to run our health care system, and that money has to come from somewhere. We live in the wealthiest province in the country with all but one other province drawing on our financial revenues. I have to wonder if this guy really believes the quality of health care in Alberta would improve if we stopped paying our health care premiums. And the fact that he mispelled both Alberta and Cheque on the back of his van really didn't help his argument... Thought for the day: Love can mend your life But Love can break your heart - REM February 8, 2006 - 12:08 AM Is it just me or have the sunsets and sunrises in this city been getting more and more beautiful? I know that's kind of a gay thing to say, but I've been seriously enjoying that period of the day when the sun is just creeping over the horizon in the morning and setting the sky ablaze in the most vibrant arrangement of purples, oranges, yellows and blues. And it's funny too, because the colors are only there for 15 - 20 minutes before the clouds resume their usual hues. But during that brief period of time, everything north of the horizon looks simply spectacular. February 10, 2006 - 12:57 AM I wonder if you know How it really feels To be left outside alone When it's cold out here Well maybe you should know just how it feels to be left outside alone .. to be left outside alone Doing a lot of work outside, I've been watching the weather with a little more interest lately than normal for winter. In the summer I keep an eye on it all the time because of the bike and the Seadoo, but usually in the winter it doesn't matter so much. As of tonight, The Weather Network is calling for 18 degrees on Sunday! That's awesome, but one of the biggest cop-outs I've ever seen has been the use of the term 'partly' when it comes to weather. If this isn't the biggest catch-all, we're too lazy to tack an exact figure on it phrase - I don't know what is. It is currently Partly cloudy outside. Which would inversely imply that it is also partly clear. Could you not invoke this terminology at just about any time of day, season or weather? I mean, unless it is entirely clear and there are no clouds everywhere - or you've got a massive cloud bank hovering overhead - these would be the only scenarios where this term would not apply. Otherwise, it's a useless statement. It's like that box of Christmas lights that indicates on the warning label: For indoor or outdoor use only. As opposed to what?! I am amused to note that a lot of stray visitors arrive at my site on a page in the photo album. This page to be specific. Why does this page generate so much random traffic? It's quite simple actually. This page contains several words that are highly sought after in image search engines like Google and Yahoo. The term "Skinny Dippers" mentioned on the page (I think the image itself is also called skinny_dippers.jpg) gets several unique hits almost every day. It's kind of amusing. Since starting at Shaw I've been pleasantly surprised to find that I've lost over 10 pounds! I'm really starting to get used to the long days and sometimes pressure of making the next call on time. It's often hard because I meet a lot of very interesting people throughout my days and sometimes you just want to hear their stories. A lot of people just like to have someone listen to them. Whether they're telling their life's story or just explaining their perspective on a matter - people like to be heard. And often they will reiterate the information they want to get across several different times throughout the course of the conversation. But quite often I get caught up talking to customers when I should really be moving on to the next call. Something to work on, but the people I meet during the day definitely make the job more interesting. Every house is different, every customer is different, sometimes you run into people you know, sometimes you run into houses friends have lived in and find their mail sitting atop the mailbox, sometimes you meet people you hope you run into again some day. There's the odd time I've met people who have made my number one priority getting out of their house, but they are few and far between. Overall, I love people. And what a great job for someone who loves people! Hehehe Speaking of people, I haven't heard from Kerri in a few days. I've decided I'm not going to call her or text her. She knows my schedule, she knows how I feel about her, and she's got her own life to sort out. If she wants my help or would like to get out of the house for lunch, supper, breakfast or a midnight snack, she knows how to get a hold of me but I'm not going to chase her anymore. I stand to lose too much from being burned in that situation and to be frank - I'm tired of playing that game. I've been there before, time and time again, going all out to impress someone only to have them reject me in the end. Years later I look back on it and shake my head with a glimmer of shame and embarassment for letting it go on for so long, but growing up means learning from the mistakes of your past and avoiding them wherever possible. She's a wonderful girl and I would love to be with her, but so was Telle and look where that got me. Speaking of Telle, tomorrow would have been our anniversary. Ironically, I was working in Lakeview this past week which brought back a few memories time had nearly burried. It's funny how the memory works. Ask me what I did yesterday and I'd really have to think. Drive past that house and I can remember events that took place 3 years ago like they had happened earlier in the day. (I was going to say like it was yesterday but I just finished saying I can't remember what I did yesterday so that would not have been a compelling argument.) I need a new distraction. I think I'm beginning to understand something about the psychology of rejection though. Watching Kerri go through her very disfunctional relationship with Chad, numerous other relationships between people I've been aquainted with and my own experiences in the matter, I think I'm starting to understand why rejection holds so much power over people. When person A opens up to person B and B turns around and rejects A, it doesn't matter how many other people accept person A, they will always feel an element of insecurity because that one person they allowed into their life, trusted, and opened up to - rejected them. It seems that some part of person A will always long for acceptance from person B - no matter how unlikely that might be. The fact that they could have anyone else becomes irrelivant because the one person they want, the one person who hurt them, does not. And as humans, we always want what we don't have, how much moreso the things (or people) we can't have. The more person B rejects person A, the more they long for that acceptance and ultimately it becomes a vicious circle. I have two friends who are very much alike in their persuit of this acceptance, and they astonish me at the lengths to which they go in order to try to attain that acceptance. One night in a voice of pure frustration and agony, one of them exclaimed Why doesn't he love me?!?! What's wrong with me? Unless they can have that acceptance from the one person who witholds it, all the acceptance in the world from everyone else means nothing. February 11, 2006 - 10:57 PM SHMILY And in other news, I got a call from the bank this morning stating that my bank card may have been copied so they cancelled it on me. A good precaution I guess, but a nuissance none the less. I had to go into the bank this morning and get a new temp card which won't even work at point-of-sale locations for 24 hours. Still, it's better than having thousands of dollars stolen out of my account... Bo and I took Maddy swimming today, for the first time without her lifejacket too! I can't believe how well she's learning how to swim, and she's SOOOO brave! Too brave sometimes. I think even she thinks she can swim better than she can at times. She is a lot of fun. Went to Jolene's birthday party tonight. Got crap for never emailling her. She says with all the time I spend writing in my journal I'm obviously on the computer enough that I could email her from time to time... I suppose there is some truth to that, but for that matter, if she's taking the time to read my journal then obviously she's on the computer enough that she could email ME from time to time too... She has a nice house though. Just had it built and moved into it over the past couple of weeks. It's funny how we all grow up. Man we're all mid-twenties already! Where does the time go? February 12, 2006 - 10:00 PM Today was a pretty good day. First of all, thirteen degrees in February - you just can't go wrong. I had to crawl under this one guy's deck because some satellite installer cut the cable line coming into the house so he could hook up the satellite. The jerk. But as I was crawling in on my belly, pulling myself forward with my forearms and pushing from behind with my tippie-toes, I thought to myself, At least there's no snow... Come to think of it, I actually had a really good day today. But there were a couple of moments, even some firsts, that stood out. It seems that for some reason, everyone I went to do an install for wanted to give me food and/or drink. And they were persistant! After politely refusing a couple of times, the first customer brought me a can of cold Pepsi as I was working away in his basement. Well. It's one thing to turn it down in theory, but when it's right there in front of you and you can see condensation forming on the outside of the can because it's so cold - all you can think about is the sound it's going to make as you crack the lid and catch that first whiff of cool, refreshing, exhillerating Pepsi. So I drank it. And I thanked the guy. So that was fine, but then at the next house I was offered something I've never EVER had in my life before. The man's wife brought a tray into the living room where we were were sitting as I was installing the Internet on their computer. Again I politely refused but she had already poured two cups and he was practically pushing the cup into my hands. What's one little cup? I thought. I took a sip. It was tea! But there was a very distinct taste to this particular tea. So I asked. What kind of tea is this? It's very rich. I didn't catch the name of the tea, it tasted pretty normal - probably your standard Orange Peoke or Irish Breakfast - but the man explained the richness of the taste. "The milk is whole milk - it's entirely natural" he said. Let's see, what else. As I was driving down one alley, I interrupted two cats doing the dance of love - though they were so preoccupied with their horizontal tango that I nearly drove over them before, at the last minute and obviously very reluctantly - they scurried off into someone's yard to finish. I've never seen cats go at it before, but man - they really get into it! Then again, don't we all? hehe I rebuilt my parents' computer the other day on a new hard drive I bought them. Can you believe a 250 gig SATA hard drive goes for $133.70, taxes included! That blew me away. But now that their computer has space to kill, Blair has been doing a lot of video editing, putting together all sorts of clips from his various road trips and adventures, making titles, taking still frames, overdubbing music and actually doing a very good job of putting some very professional-looking video segments together. Tonight my dad was trying to gross me out by showing me how he does his insulin injections. After making sure I was watching, he jabbed the needle a good half-inch into his leg but then somehow the needle slipped out of his hand and bounced back out a quarter inch before falling over with the last quarter inch of needle still stuck in his leg! (This was not supposed to be part of the demonstration but it did actually make me squirm a bit.) He let out a houl as he grabbed the needle, now at a 45 degree angle, and tried it again. The obvious pain aside, it was pretty funny. I gave my birds a bath yesterday and I think they actually enjoyed it, although it took some convincing to get them to go in the water initially. But once they were in they started splashing around, running up and down my bath tub and 'playing' until eventually flying up to the bathroom window where they sat and preened themselves in the afternoon sun. Silly birdies. Well, I'm off to bed. You never know what tomorrow will bring, so best be prepared. February 14, 2006 - 10:03 PM The phone rang. There was a knock at the door. Morning had snuck into her bedroom and rousted her from her sleep. There was some commotion outside. Her sister was now at her door. "Kerri wake up! Kerri you've got to see this!" Go away, she said. It's too early! "Just look" Through the haze of sleepy eyes she could see a familiar figure wearing a huge red heart, holding a vase of red roses and grinning from ear to ear. Happy Valentine's Day, Sleepy-Head! February 17, 2006 - 5:56 AM A bed never felt so comfortable as it does at 5:56 in the morning! I couldn't sleep last night and after adding an AWESOME segment to my latest mix, I felt more perky than ever! In such a mood as I was, I decided to go to where my heart longed to be - so at about 1:30 I went to Kerri's work. Long story short, I stayed there till closing and then her mom, herself and I went to Denny's for breakfast (or perhaps a late night snack.) For whatever reason, possibly this sickness that has currently landed upon me or perhaps the simple fact that my stomach was very much asleep at 4:30 in the morning - I barely touched my meal and most of it ended up going back from whence it came. But I still got to hang out with Kerri for several hours, she beat me twice in the racing game and we picked a bunch of old school songs on the juke box. At the end of the night, with both heaters a'blaring, Rusty drove them both home before returning me to my place of slumber, where now my body is but a few keystrokes away from laying it's weary self upon the much-desired couch that is my bed. Before I go however, take a look at the picture above. It was cropped from the original image I shot a few days ago, but otherwise it has been unedited or altered in any way from it's original form. Notice the moon??! Does it not appear to be in FRONT of the telephone wire? I looked at it on the screen immediately after I took the shot and scratched my head as I tried to ascertain how such an image came to be formed upon the CCD chip of my digital camera - particularly when I was quite sure that the moon was in fact BEHIND the telephone wires. Actually, I know how it happened, but truth is less interesting than mystery in this case so I will leave that one unanswered instead. Goodnight February 18, 2006 - 1:33 AM Thought for the day: Contentment is the counter-catalyst of change One thirty in the morning and I'm wide awake again, though this time there is no joy waiting for me at a pool hall. And tonight, even if there was, I'm feeling so sick I would be hard pressed to go out. Maddy sounds so funny with a cold but it's very cute. We had a bit of a jam session tonight and even had a little audience. By little of course, I'm referring to the physical size of the audience' participants. I love the sound of them flying around. It's so cute. They love the Christmas Light string I have (still) strung up around the roof of my bedroom. They'll sit up there all night and day if I let them and fly around from bulb to bulb, trying to nibble bits off the ceiling and scratching their heads on the lights. They seem to play a little game of tag once in a while too, the green one will fly to a spot - then the blue one will follow but the green one will usually flutter immediately away to a new location with the blue on hot on it's tail. (I can say that literally since it does in fact have a tail.) February 18, 2006 - 11:38 PM It's a night for Vicks Vapour Rub and Hot Chocolate, that's for sure. Since becomming sick a few days ago, I feel worse today of all the sick days so far, and I have to go to work in the morning! I'm hoping against hope that I have an easy day, but if Murphy has anything to do with it, the exact opposite will befall me. After much pleading and message-leaving, I finally gave in and went to Custom Linen tonight to fix two of their towel folders. One of them had a faulty sensor (that appeared to work - but in fact, did not.) The other machine had a brand new sequencer (the computer part of the machine) put in 4 days ago which was also toast. They're changing those sequencers at an astonishing rate but the manufacturer can't give any indication as to why they're failing so frequently. They've changed two in the past week and I believe they're around the $2,000 mark apiece! My guess is bad power. That's the only thing left untested. And it's always the same machines that are killing the sequencers, although they have quite a few other machines that all use the exact same hardware. I'm going to suggest they install a UPS system for the electronic components and see what that does to the longevity of the sequencers. It couldn't hurt and might actually solve this ongoing problem that's bleeding them dry. I popped into Safeway on my way home to see if I could buy a vaporizer but unfortunately, they don't sell them. So I bought some Vicks vapour rub instead and I've got it smeared all over my rugged and manly chest. It's tingling. I hope it helps. My throat is killing me and if precident holds, it will be even worse in the morning. I don't want to be going into peoples' houses and coughing like a pot addict. At least the weather is supposed to warm up a bit. Being stuck in my house (and for a good part of the day, in my bed) - gives one a lot of time to think. And what do you think about except your life? I think if I had to sum up the whole of my general emotional status right now, it would be discontented. I am not content with who I am at the present time. I hope that this current stage is a temporary transitional phase and that out of it comes a person much more like the person I was created to be. Lately my birds have been getting very good at flying. Their control and accuracy has improved a LOT and they spend more and more of their day outside their cage, playing tag and other bird-games throughout the house. This afternoon I changed their cage and filled it with fresh water, new seed and a full stock of millet seed, their favorite treat. But the birds did not notice the newly cleaned cage and I knew they'd been out of it all day and were undoubtably hungry so I thought I'd collect them and bring them to their cage so they could eat. Well, do you think they would come to me? Not a chance! Every time I held out my finger, trying to get them to hop on so I could carry them to their food and water, they'd fly away. They even got quite elusive to the point where I'd have to run and catch them mid-air so that I could bring them to their food. Once inside the cage, they immediately began to chow down on the seeds, quite obviously hungry after such a workout. Eventually this afternoon I decided that it would be best to clip their wings again so that they might not get lost in the house, break their necks running into a window or escaping to the outdoors where they would be sure to perrish. I'm sure to the birds, this action must have seemed cruel and heartless. Even the chase that lead up to their feeding - they probably didn't understand that I had good intentions. In a lot of ways I feel like maybe God has clipped my wings lately, to keep me from running from him. I sure do that a lot, and it's usually so I can chase worthless things. Even things I know are bad for me, will probably harm me and that I don't need. But we are a subborn creature, are we not? Thick-headed and stiff-necked. I think it was Paul who said, "I do the things I ought not to and I don't do the things I ought to!" If there's one thing the Bible shows us clearly it's that human nature hasn't changed over time. We are still the same people at heart, corrupt, greedy, selfish, and stubborn. But how do you change? Surely we aren't condemned to live our lives stubborn and selfish forever? What satisfaction is there in that? How can anyone find true happiness thinking only of themselves? I must be getting tired. Perhaps tomorrow will hold some answers. Goodnight dear reader. February 20, 2006 - 9:40 PM Horray for Hot Water Bottles There's nothing like the warmth offered by a hot water bottle tucked underneath the southern end of one's bed. Whether for practical or nostalgic reasons, the hot water bottle, for me, has always symbolized comfort, coziness, contentment, and peace. When I was little, it was considered a treat to get a hot water bottle before going to bed. I'd hear the cupoard doors being opened under the bathroom sink, perhaps a bit of russling as a bottle was found. Then the hot tap would be turned on and let run for a minute or so until the cold water had bled out of the pipes. The bottle would burble and buckle as it began to be filled with steaming hot water until it's brim had been breached and the tap would be shut off. The plastic screw-cap would often squeak with the last quarter turn until snug, and I could hear my mom drying it off with a towel before walking down the hall to my bedroom. Like a mouth watering in anticipation of food, so my body would get shivers in anticipation of warmth. Then she'd place it under the covers at the foot of the bed while my feet raced to find it and draw it up closer to the middle of the bed. Pretty soon my cold feet would be warm again as my mind drifted to and fro from places of conscious thought to the random realms of relaxing retenas. February 22, 2006 - 12:00 AM I didn't mean to. I was in an unfamiliar neighbourhood looking for a place to grab a bite to eat when the sign caught my eye. I had arrived the back way. Why did the sign look familiar? They don't sell food there... What am I in the mood for? Fries Supreme! I know there's a Taco Bell around here somewhere, but I think it's on the far side. Oh. Now I remember. I can't believe I had forgotten. I didn't think I would have ever forgotten. Should I stop in? Would I be up all night thinking about it if I didn't? I'll drive through the parking lot once, glance through the windows and if I see her, great, if not - oh well. I don't even know if she still works there. What if she is there? Ok, pulling into the parking lot now, must be pretty busy, there's a lot of cars. I guess it's not the only store around though. Some faces. Customers browsing. Check for traffic. Make sure nobody is backing out in front of me. I looked back. There was no mistaking that face. She was at the till. The hair was different, highlights, looks good. She was always changing her hair. The wall. Back to reality. Next time I'll say hi. No time to stop tonight. Too nervous. Too scared. Too many butterflies. February 24, 2006 - 12:07 AM Top ten signs your furnace is not on: Your chimney is covered in snow. So winter finally caught up with us. I actually had to shovel the sidewalk this morning - only the second time ever at this house. Life is funny sometimes. Just when you think you've escaped, you're caught. Just when the situation seems hopeless, the solution presents itself. Just when you've given up on finding something, behold - it appears. February 25, 2006 - 9:28 AM Just as we were starting to wonder when we might put the snow boots away and start thinking thoughts of summer, *whump* we got a dump, now we're in a slump. Pictured above are the barrels for our raft which has yet to make a maiden voyage. It's almost depressing seeing them covered in snow like this, but at the same time - I'd rather get the snow now than later. I was talking with an old friend of mine last night who expressed great dissatisfaction with the fact that while she likes to plan things right down to the detail, such planning leads to inevitable disappointment as the plans change, get cancelled, or otherwise don't work out quite the way she'd expected. If you plan too much, you get disappointed - but failing to plan is planning to fail. Where's the happy medium? February 26, 2006 - 11:11 PM 11:11 - Make a wish So there I was, standing in line at the Riverbend McDonalds, the one Al's Tina works at (though I did not see her today.) There was a decent lunch lineup and I had picked up a copy of the Sunday Sun as I prepared to wait my turn. While in line, I began to read the comic section and when I came to Frank and Ernest, I burst out laughing so hard I could not contain myself. People all around me started staring intently, trying to figure out what it was I was looking at that was so funny and the more I tried to stop laughing, the more I doubled over. By the time I made it to the front of the line, I had subdued my amusement to a quiet smirk, but all throughout the ordering process I was a few giggles away from breaking out again. I've always enjoyed Frank and Ernest's puns - partly because the author can set them up perfectly - but another side of me knows that only I would find such things as funny as I do and that sometimes makes me laugh all the more at them. Are you ready for the punch-line? When you are, click here to see the punch line that knocked me over in McDonalds this afternoon. I loved it. Ohhh, I still chuckle while reading it! Hahaha Mr. Boffo was pretty funny today too. Since Bill Waterson stopped writing Calvin and Hobbes, Mr. Boffo has been my long-standing favorite cartoon. Something about his sense of humor just tweaks my tiberous humorous, much more consistantly than many other strips. It was a good day. I had some pretty easy calls today, only a few times did I have to climb up telephone poles (although forgetting my gloves made that part of my job lean towards the side of quite unpleasant) Still, I only had one evening call and it was pretty easy. Barb invited me to their house for Lasagna which was delicious and Bo and I laughed uncontrollably at The War at Home and Family Guy this evening. The strange thing is that for the life of me, I cannot even remember what it was on Family Guy that was so funny, but I was in tears. I was laughing almost as much as Rob and Lee last night when I said Teacup. Lee actually fell over! I didn't think it was that funny... It was just a little teacup! February 28, 2006 - 6:19 AM Should I fix the muffler or just put in a bigger stereo? A couple of quick points... Yesterday in Safeway I ran into a guy who's new at Shaw. Vaguely looked familiar and I'm such a friendly sort I went over and said hi. Upon doing so, he told me I looked familiar and it turns out we both went to NCCA several years ago. He was a few years younger than I am, and his sister was a year older than I. (Though with the split classes, her and I actually spent a few years in the same class.) Small world. Today is my dad's birthday. Yesterday was my brother's. They are the best dad and brother a person could ask for. Reliable, supportive, inventive, ingenious, honest, you name any positive adjective and could tack it next to either of their names. We had our first problem in our house last night - found some faulty wiring in Madisson's room (of all places!) Go figure that there would be a journeyman electrician living in the house... I'm not sure if it was through this or perhaps with Clayton moving some stuff out of the house but it seems that the thermostat got shut off too because when I woke up this morning it was a chilly 16 degrees downstairs - which is usually in the 22 degree range. Furnace was cold, chimney was cold, and I haven't heard it start up all morning. Hopefully it's not another electrical problem... I've got a 7:00 meeting at Shaw this morning which is qhy I'm up a bit earlier than normal. Off to that! Have a good day. BACK to Journal Index