November 2007 Archives

Martins is a full-service Toronto florist that is celebrating 110 years of being open on December 1st with an open house. It's not often anymore to find great businesses that are family operated any more, particularly one that has been operating for five generations as Martins, The Flower People have.

The current owner is Lynn Martin and is helped by her son Ryan Martin. Having been in business so long they know exactly what they are doing and how to give folks the products that they want, when they want them.

The open house will take place from 12pm - 6pm and you will be able to view Martin's exclusive flower designs and enjoy special discounts for attending as well as homemade treats while you are there. If you are interested in going, here's the map:

With a proven history of delivering on-time quality arrangements using innovative products they are able to offer world-wide delivery with same day service to Canada as well as the United States.

Here is a centerpiece from Martins'...

I love plants and flowers and anyone that hangs out here every once in awhile gets to see photos I have taken. I am not particularly knowledgeable about any kind of flora but I know what I like and that's a beautiful centerpiece.

The Martins Exclusives that you can have delivered for any occasion are just as wonderful if not more so, and with delivery available across North America there is no reason not to get the best.

One of the things that keeps the floral designs from Martins so fresh and up to date is the fact that they follow decorating trends and keep up with the latest and greatest. In addition to being able to order them online you can also visit their web site to obtain decorating tips and great information. With the month of December being so imminent everyone is looking for Christmas floral designs and Martins is the place to look.

I guess today is just the day to catch up on all of the shit I have been meaning to do for quite some time. Twice a year I have to get my blood drawn and then visit my doctor so that she can tell me to eat right an quit smoking and then renew my prescriptions for Vytorin (Cholesterol) and Protonix (either an ulcer or some other gastric nastiness). I ran out of medicine about two weeks ago and have not had the free time to go get it done. The only morning I have been off up until now I was so damned tired from the previous 10 days of work that I slept in.

I would have loved to sleep in today but the wife and girls made sure that I got up and took care of business. I arrived a couple of minutes after eight and the nurse tried to get it out of one arm and then the other, sticking me four or five times in the process. No go. I guess I must be dehydrated or something. Possibly my diet of garbage and coffee combined with 18 hour days has something to do with it.

After sitting for an hour and drinking so much water I wanted to puke, the other nurse tried to get it out of my arm with no success. She finally got a bit of blood drawn from my hand. I breathed a sigh of relief when it finally started flowing, although a bit slow) because I thought I had woke up dead and somebody forgot to tell me. Now I will have to wait a few more days for the doctor to call and set up an appointment for after the first of the year. I am going to have to deal with heartburn and this crappy prevacid until that point.

Prior to coming home I stopped at one of our stores (the one in my little town) for a much needed cup of coffee and breakfast. I actually had a point in stopping there. The manager is fairly new and she is a pretty nice lady, a single mom. It is hard enough to run our restaurants but being a single mom is pretty damned tough. She gave her two week notice a couple of days ago, and I know that several of the big cheese dudes have been down to talk with her, but they won't do anything but lie and promise her the moon anyway, so I thought it might do a bit of good to go give her a bit of honesty and try to keep her from leaving in the process. As a store manager it can be hard at times, but certainly not impossible, and she would be making a mistake leaving. Hell, I bitch about holidays and weekends, but for the most part I worked a 40 hour week as a store manager and was home by 3PM most days. Not a bad fucking job to have. That's one of the reasons it took me so long to decide that I wanted to take this promotion. I knew that I would literally be doubling my money but only taking about a $20-30k pay increase.

I think that maybe she is going to stay but hopefully my bosses will continue to visit and reassure her daily for awhile.

Once I got home a little while ago I did what you always do on Friday afternoon four days before your birthday, renewed my car tags and driver's license. Nothing like waiting until the last fucking minute! I did renew my license for ten years though, which is cool because it means that the picture that's on my license from 2000 will still be on there when I turn 52. Sweet. Hell, I even have a moustache and goatee in the picture. Sooner or later someone is going to say 'that's not you' and call the law on my ass.

I had originally planned on doing a bit of Christmas and grocery shopping today but my damn head is pounding from lack of caffeine and I am pretty beat. Maybe tomorrow after the Christmas parade I can get it done. I have managed to get a bunch of Christmas lights and stuff like lighted deer and trees on clearance recently so I will most likely decorate the yard as well tomorrow afternoon and then post photos. We did get the tree set up and the girls and I decorated it Wednesday evening, so it's starting to feel a bit like Christmas even if I do live with the Grinch.

Authorities in North Georgia arrested a woman and her boyfriend on child cruelty charges after the woman's 9-year-old son was found bound and gagged with duct tape in a closet.

I figured she must have seen my video for Duck Buddies :) Her mistake was in putting the child in the closet. Just put the little shit out on the back porch where he can get some fresh air, or lock him somewhere he can breathe but can't be heard by inspectors, like the basement...

Thank goodness. I am physically exhausted. I feel like it anyway. My last day off was the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving and this has just been one long-assed week. I wish I could say it was going to be a short day but with my weekly meetings and the fact that I have an interview and orientation session with a new girl this afternoon it looks to be about a fifteen hour day.

I am taking off tomorrow as well as at least half a day Saturday. I would have taken the entire day off but both of the other District Managers are off this weekend and we are not supposed to overlap. I am not sure if my boss just doesn't look at the itineraries that we turn in or if he just doesn't want to antagonize the ladies. Either way I will show up for work on Saturday and make sure everyone is staffed. I will most likely get out of there by nine or ten.

We are also participating in the Temple Christmas Parade and I think I will take the girls down to ride with me. I know they will have a pretty good time. The wife doesn't seem to have an interest in going, so it will give her a break away from the girls anyway. She doesn't get into the Christmas spirit very much anyway. It's funny because I do and love it, yet I'm the one that has to work his ass off through the holidays while she's on vacation.

Got my new idiot, er...manager yesterday. The guy just ain't too bright but as long as he can cook and treats his employees better than the last two we will do just fine. I can be patient and teach him the rest over time. If they would just let me pick my own managers we would be so much better off but I would be hiring them out of the ranks of our hourly employees which seems to be something they are frowning on. They prefer folks with at least a four year degree and if they went to Tech, that much the better. Most of them are a bunch of damn pansies that are scared of hard work.

Johnny Depp just about has to be the most eccentric actor in Hollywood that you can find and it shows in the roles that he chooses to play. Several of the movies that he has been in number among my favorites, including the animated stuff that he has done as well. I would guess that my two favorite roles that he has done would have to be Edward Scissorhands and Ichabod Crane and Sleepy Hollow. The Pirates of the Caribbean are pretty good but I think that those are more about him having fun rather than any serious acting, although I could be wrong.

I can't decided if I like Edward Scissorhands because Winona Ryder is just plain hot or because of Edward (Depp). Although the movie was release 17 years ago I still laugh when I think about it. My favorite line of the movie has got to be when the police officer is talking to the psychologist:

Officer Allen: Will he be OK, Doc?
Psychologist: The years spent in isolation have not equipped him with the tools necessary to judge right from wrong. He's had no context. He's been completely without guidance. Furthermore, his work - the garden sculptures, hairstyles and so forth - indicate that he's a highly imaginative... uh... character. It seems clear that his awareness of what we call reality is radically underdeveloped.
Officer Allen: But will he be all right out there?
Psychologist: Oh yeah, he'll be fine.

Just like a shrink

In Sleepy Hollow Depp plays young policeman Ichabod Crane who has been sent to Sleepy Hollow back in 1799 to investigate the decapitations of three locals.

He falls in love with the character of Katrina Van Tassel, played by Christina Ricci and has to brave the perils of the nearby woods as well as the Ghost of the Hessian killed during the revolutionary war.

"Reverend Steenwyck: Their heads weren't found severed. Their heads were not found at all.
Ichabod Crane: The heads are... gone?
Notary James Hardenbrook: Taken. Taken by the Headless Horseman. Taken back to hell."

While I have seen Edward Scissorhands several times I have only had the opportunity to watch Sleep Hollow, which was released in 1999, once. Between the two I think I like it the most out of all his movies so far. The scene toward the end where the headless horseman goes back to hell through the tree has to be one of my favorite parts of the movie.

Johnny Depp is in a movie that's due to be released this Christmas, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. While I will be working about 20 hours on Christmas and it's not very likely that I will get to see it anytime during the month of December, I will see it even if I have to wait for the DVD. That's one of the downfalls of what I do for a living, no time off at all or at least very little.

Anyway, Sweeney Todd is a bit different. It's the screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical thriller by the same name. Sweet. That pretty much means I will be watching it by myself since the wife doesn't seem to like musicals very much. That's OK, I love them. Everything from the Disney musicals in the sixties and seventies to Oklahoma and all of the other big name musicals from the forties through the sixties. I don't know what it is, but they are all just great fun. Growing up my father enjoyed watching them on television and I suppose that's where I get it from. Visit the official Sweeney Todd movie site for wallpapers and you can check out the gallery as well as a synopsis of the movie. You can also join in the fun and visit Sweeney Todd on MySpace.

Johnny Depp plays Sweeney Todd, a man who has been unjustly sent to prison and vows revenge for that as well as for what happens to his wife and daughter. Sweeney Todd, a.k.a. Benjamin Barker teams up with Mrs Lovett and her sinister meat pie shop to rid himself of the people that did him wrong. The setting is in Victorian England it looks to be a pretty cool movie.

My ten year old loves the Bratz dolls. She wants to see the DVD that was just released but I just don't see that happening any time soon. I did come across this video a few minutes ago and knew I needed to post it. I'm sure that the wife will see it when she wakes up in the morning. She pretty much agrees with me on the Bratz and thinks that they are certainly not the kind of message we need to be sending to our kids. Trailer Trash Barbie would be a better play toy than the darned Bratz (says the guy that bought a Bratz play set for Christmas last year. Not happening this year though).

Completely off the subject of the post at hand, I checked a new manager in to my problem store today. Thank goodness. The last couple of weeks have been pretty darn rough and although I would have preferred it to the last manager I had, I was not looking forward to running the place through the rest of the holiday season.

Here's to hoping that this guy lasts longer than the last two. He's my third manager since I took the district back at the beginning of May.

Elisson wrote this entry about Human Hairballs, or Trichobezoars and even had a catchy looking spokesman to keep people from eating their own hair and developing their very own hairballs. I don't know, maybe it's just the space I'm in, but I got to wondering (and even asked) if you could develop a Bezoar from cunnilingus. Talk about a fur burger. Damn.

Since the Internet is a great and loving animal I decided to see if I could find out a bit more information on Bezoars.

"Human Hairball" get's quite a few hits, but not exactly what I am looking for. Sure, there is a bit of information at the World Almanac and some more links, but it's still not there.

Damn, I have searched Google and Yahoo and still haven't found anything yet? I want to see a picture of THAT bad boy...

So I'm reading this post at CNN blogs about Dave Lieberman, the youngest host on the Food Network. Don't get me wrong, I am most certainly not the grammar or spelling police. If it weren't for spell check I would be screwed and grammar? I'm a damned cook, what do I know about grammar anyway?

Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this sentence? "Now, two cookbooks in and the youngest host ever on the Food Network, Dave is helping college guys actually whip up something eatable in that first kitchen." Now perhaps eatable is OK, like I said I'm not the grammar police, but shouldn't it be edible in this instance?

Queen is one of the quintessential rock bands of the latter part of the twentieth century. News of the World is probably my favorite album and the one that introduced me to Freddie Mercury and the rest of the group. One of my favorite songs, and according to many the band's Magnum Opus, is Bohemian Rhapsody. How about a bit of music trivia. After the song of course.

The car scene from Wayne's World? Dead on freaking target. This song has everything! Metal Riffs and a fast pace, rocking guitars, slow melodic tones, it's a true rockers anthem. Except for one thing. It IS missing one thing that seems to be present in most popular music then and now. Can you guess what it is? The answer is below the fold.

Remember Quiet Riot? These guys got my attention in the early eighties mainly because Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads played with them. They were one of the pretty cheesy early eighties hair metal bands. The actually put on a pretty good show and had some catchy tunes to headbang to.

At 52, Kevin Dubrow was found dead earlier this week at his Las Vegas home. The cause of death hasn't been announced yet if it has even been determined.

Just sitting here sipping on some egg nog (no alcohol tonight, I have to work tomorrow) and thinking about the last few days. Running the restaurant without a manager over the holiday weekend ended up being a breeze. My other managers all worked because it was a holiday so it was no problem for me to be there all weekend. Today however was an entirely different story. Both of the hourly employees that are capable of running the stores for me if I am indisposed were off and I had to cover two restaurants. That's enough of a challenge when I have managers there but it's even more difficult without them. I am looking forward to Wednesday, I am getting a new manager, and while I have heard some stories from his current upline I think I may be able to work with him. Either way it means I won't have to run as much as I have the last 11 days. I think that all of the running around and not having the opportunity to eat has led me to lose some weight. Don't need a diet patch here, that's for sure. I could use a bit more exercise though.

Getting out of bed this morning was not very high on my list of things to do this morning but unfortunately it has to be. Man, what a long week. The next four days are going to be pretty rough. My two managers are off two days each and I am running the stores along with the one with no manager. Normally when I have two stores open on the same day I try not to cook as I still have all of the paperwork and banking to do but I just don't have enough extra help to do that this week. I could barely get one of the stores covered today as it is so I am going to have to get in to work a bit early and get one of the shops ready, then get to the other one and cook 1st shift.

As it stands now I am probably working until at least ten tonight, and that's if I am lucky. I suppose it could be worse. One of my friends and former bosses ended up having to work the graveyard shift last night and is most likely going to have to work this morning as well. I just spoke with her and I may be able to send one of my cooks to help her out this morning. I won't know until I actually get there in a couple of hours.

Needless to say, by the time I head into my days off on Friday I will be pretty damned tired.

While reading about Hunter S. Thompson last night and doing a little research I ran across a web site promoting a book by Simone Corday entitled 9 1/2 Years Behind the Green Door. As part of the research for a book he was writing Hunter Thompson spent quite a bit of time at the O'Farrell Theater strip club in San Francisco and worked as the night manager for a period of time. The book never actually materialized but some of the experiences there were widely talked about and it was one of the bigger strip clubs to have several different stars come out of.

For some of the big wigs in entertainment and politics, the O'Farrell Theater was a serious hang out back in the '80s. It was run by the Mitchell brothers, Artie and Jim. They are the guys that directed Behind the Green Door with Marylin Chambers. Corday's book details the time that she worked at the O'Farrell as well as the fact that she dated Artie Mitchell for almost a decade. She also took part in three of the films that the Mitchell brothers were involved in including the documentary about Hunter S. Thompson, The Crazy Never Die.

"Party Artie' Mitchell was aptly named and had serious issues with cocaine and alcohol abuse and in 1991 Jim Mitchell had had enough and drove to his house where he shot his brother to death.. He was eventually found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison for the deed.

The book details some of the things that led up to the murder of Arty Mitchell and what life was like for the Mitchell's and Corday back in the eighties in the midst of the sex industry. If you are interested in the book you can go over to Simone Corday's web site where you can purchase it as well as read free chapters to see if it's something you might be interested in.

Had a girl come in for an interview yesterday and it was like a flashback. In the eighties I worked briefly for a pretty good guy that finally ended up taking over some of our franchise operations in St. Louis and apparently this girls was originally from Branson Missouri but had worked for him for a couple of years. That's one of the things about my job, I know folks all over the country now and it makes it easier to get references from folks that have worked for us before.

Looks like they really are going to be giving me another manager for the store where I have gone through two of them over the last few months. The main problem is that this guy has been with us for a few months now and this will be his second store. According to his current DM he spends the day relaxing in the office while his waitresses do all of the cooking and running of the store. Why is it that my store seems to be a landing ground for all of the losers? Either they think I can fix them or run them off. I'm not sure about that but since the latter has happened twice I am starting to think that's what they want. Actually I think I may be able to work with this guy and get him to do what I want. As long as he treats the employees better than the last two managers I can deal with the rest of the garbage.

It wasn't nearly as busy at work as I thought it would be. One of my restaurants sites at the edge of the Wal-Mart parking lot and we are generally pretty busy on Black Friday so I was expecting to be extremely busy. It started at around 5am and we were busy until around 7:30, then it died for a couple of hours and got busy again, but nothing like I thought it would. Even the Wal-Mart parking lot wasn't as full as I had seen it in years past. As far as I am concerned that's a darn good thing.

We did around the same amount of business as last year but I was actually hoping for a bit more since I am a better operator than the last guy that was there. I ended up leaving around noon and going back down to the store where I have no manager so that I could get some work caught up there and shoot out early.

Some of the malls and stores around the country opened at midnight and one to catch the early shoppers. Check out these fools as they rush the mall in Mesquite, Texas at one this morning.

The police look like they are thinking 'fuck this noise'. I don't blame them a bit. That stuff is what the Internet is for.

I did manage to get out at a decent time and have already gotten home and set up the Christmas tree. I will leave it to the kids to decorate tonight as I think I am going to lie down and take a nap soon. Unfortunately I have to be back tonight at 9pm and am pretty darned tired.

With today being 'Black Friday' I have been up for about thirty minutes. Certainly not because I am going shopping but as a result of other folks going out to do the same. I have to go into work about an hour early as today will be one of the busiest of the year. One of my stores sits in a Wal-Mart parking lot and thus will stay packed most of the day.

I was looking online for some deals last night though and once I am finished writing for the morning will go back out to a couple of web sites. There are still a few presents that I need to get. I was looking at a couple of Raymond Weil watches for someone and I need to pick up a couple more toys as well. We have already purchased most of the stuff for the girls as well as my nephew but I still need to find something for my niece.

I got this via email from my brother last night and it made me laugh so I thought I would share. I certainly needed a laugh when I received it...

This Year's First Christmas Joke
Three men died on Christmas Eve and were met by Saint Peter at the pearly
gates.

"In honor of this holy season" Saint Peter said,"You must each possess
something that symbolizes Christmas to get into heaven."

The first man fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a lighter. He
flicked it on. "It represents a candle", he said.

"You may pass through the pearly gates" Saint Peter said.

The second man reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of Keys He shook
them and said, "They're bells."

Saint Peter said "You may pass through the pearly gates".

The third man started searching desperately through his pockets and finally
pulled out a pair of women's panties.

St. Peter looked at the man with a raised eyebrow and asked, "And just what
do those symbolize??

The man replied, "These are Carols."

And So The Christmas Season Begins......

1. The first is of course, Roast Turkey
2. Cornbread Dressing
3. Mashed Potatoes
4. Deviled Eggs
5. Cranberry Sauce, the kind that comes in a can.
6. Gravy
7. Sweet Potatoes
8. Corn on the cob, which I can't eat anymore :(
9. Chocolate Pecan Pie
10. Pumpkin Pie
11. Spiral Ham
12. Baked Beans
13. Banana Pudding

I slept like crap last night. I hate when the wife is away. I was up at 12:30, 2:30, 3:30 and then finally got out of bed for good around a quarter till 5 this morning. Today is going to be a long one as well, so I was really hoping for a good night's sleep. I seem to have a bit of the creeping death so looked for Nyquil in the closet last night and since there was none had a big shot of whiskey in the hopes that it would knock me out long enough to sleep a full seven hours. No such luck.

I can always tell when I haven't had anything to drink in a while. I'm such a lightweight. I have been so busy I don't think I've even had a beer since the Blogtoberfest get-together back in October. The whiskey went right to my head in the course of about ten minutes. It did knock me out but obviously only for a couple of hours. The stupid cat was out on the front porch fighting. She's been in heat for a few days and managed to slip out when I was letting the dog out last night. Sneaky beast must have been hiding under the bed waiting to get out. I am going to be pissed if she's pregnant. I think maybe next week, if I can get a few minutes off of work, I will go ahead and take her to the vet and get her fixed. Wednesday they have a deal so that would be the day.

I just realized that I am out of my medicines completely. I just took the last Protonix and my cholesteral medicine has been empty for several days now. Before I can get them refilled I have to go get some bloodwork done and then make an appointment with the doctor. That's all fine and dandy except for the fact that I have no free time in the mornings and if it's on a work day I have been up for several hours before the lab opens and there is no way that I am going to go three or four hours in the morning without anything to eat or drink. That just sucks. I will have to figure out a way to make time for it somehow though.

Today is going to be a long'un. Once first shift is over I have a meeting at three, orientation for some new employees at four and then all of the multi-unit managers (that would be me) have to work supper supervision from six until ten. That pretty much sucks but it's part and parcel with what I do on a daily basis, not to mention that I no longer have a manager at one of my stores and have to run it as well.

My local HR/recruiter had a meeting with the ex-manager in order to try and save her the other day. It's still possible that they are going to be able to keep her but she will most likely never be back in my store, which is a good thing. It's not worth trading 50% of my staff in order to keep someone who thinks they are smarter and more worthy than her employees. She says that she needs to be in a position where she gives orders and people automatically do what she says and that she doesn't need to be at the level she was at. What a load of horse shit. You have to earn the respect of your employees in any business and acting like an asshat just doesn't do it.

He (the recruiter) pissed me off a bit though. He said 'no offense to you or (your boss) but I could have made her succesful'. He went on to let me know that I would most likely not be getting the available manager trainee since I have managed to run off two managers in two months and that I would either continue to have it as an open unit through the holidays or they would demote me and check me in. Fuck them. Assholes. I'm not the fuckwit that made the hiring descision to put people in the fucking restaurant that had no people skills whatsoever. The last bitch couldn't even fucking add. It would take her 30 fucking minutes to count the till, something that could take five. She would literally come out on the floor screaming at the employees in front of god and everyone and even just about hit one of the girls with a fucking plate throwing one of her fits. Perhaps if they would start leaving some of the hiring desicions to the people that actually have to work with other people they might not have these issues.

Obviously I am slightly miffed about this, thus the fact that I am hating my job lately. Not that I am looking for a new one. It's just been a hard month and things will start brightening up once I get the train wreck fixed.

I have been on too long and need to start getting ready for work I suppose. Lot's to do today. I could probably go on and on but the longer I sit here the madder I get.

When I was helping to load the truck yesterday so that the girls could go pick up the Marine I was truly amazed. No luggage. All they had packed between the three of them was a little bitty bag to take since they aren't going to be gone long. That was pretty cool. Heck, even if I was going by myself for two days I most likely would have packed at least as much as the three of them did, of course half of it would have been gadgets :)

The hardest part of them being gone for two days is the fact that I have to sleep by myself for one night. I hate it when one of us has to go out of town without the other.

Completely off the subject but I am really starting to love that Roomba I 'won' last month. I had not really noticed until today because I normally let it vaccuum and then turn it off to take it back to the charger but when the battery starts getting low it navigates itself back and hooks up. Sweet. I ran it twice today and it managed to get back to the docking station on it's own both times. Amazon is doing their 'Customer Votes' thing again this year and one of the possibilities is a Roomba for $69. Very nice. It doesn't look as if it's going to win but that's only because these fools don't know what they are missing.

Christmas 1990. The little one is my U.S. Marine and I am the idiot with the long hair and all black. I spent about a year and a half only working part time and going to school full time to get a history degree. Eventually I will go back and actually finish it.

Want to win a $150 gift certificate? It won't be in time to buy a Christmas gift but it would be right on the money to get yourself something for being a good little boy or girl...

I would probably enter the contest myself but since it's my brother AND I already have a copy of the darned book there might be issues there :(

All you have to do to enter the contest is to buy a copy of Republic:

Buy yourself a copy of the book by December 23rd and email the receipt to Charles Sheehan-Miles (you can get his email address from the blog entry) and then go write a review of the book at Amazon. Simple, no? It's a damn good book and just the thing to stoke your big brother fears!

When you purchase the book and write a review that's worth one entry and when you buy a copy for someone else as a gift that's worth TWO!

He will do a video drawing on Christmas Eve and have it posted with the winner by midnight that night. If you are going to enter you had better buy the book early because most likely he will be at my house for the holidays and I don't want to be up filming at dark-thirty and then have to get back up...

The link?

Oh yeah, the link to his blog entry is here and the gift certificate is for either Amazon.com or iTunes, your choice.

I don't really hate them but this is the hardest time of the year for me in my job. It used to be that after every single vacation, weekend off or major holiday in which my family got together I would refresh my resume on Monster.com and start looking for a new job. Yeah, sometimes it's that difficult. I'm not quite that bad now. I don't know if I am used to it or if it's just resignation to what I do but it doesn't bother me quite as much after vacations anyway.

The period from Halloween through New Years is rough though. Take this week for instance. Tomorrow I will go to work at 6am and get home around 10pm if I am lucky. Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, I have to leave the house at 6 and if (big iff this year) everyone shows up for work I will shoot out of there shortly after 2pm and go have Thanksgiving Dinner with my family. If someone hangs me I am pretty much fucked and they have supper without me.

Friday because of all of the fucking idiots that are out shopping before the crack of dawn I will be at work at 5-5:30am and will most likely cook the busiest shift of the year. Of course Christmas Day will be busier overall and I will end up working 20+ hours but Friday I will stay slammed from 6am until about 3pm.

Saturday will be a normal weekend day of work (aside from the fact that I have no manager at one of my stores) but the wife will be driving my son back to NC and my brother and his family will also head home so by the time I get home again I will be by myself for the night.

What a pisser.

Anyone ready to start paying me for this shit yet?

I had the post about Valour-IT up for about a week or more here sitting on the top of my blog. Through the period leading up to Veteran's Day Soldiers' Angels held their third annual fundraiser and with the help of web sites and blogs all over the world were able to raise over $200,000. That is great! Thanks to everyone that donated to help out during the fundraiser. It even got my buddy Zonker out of the closet to post for a few days. Amazing...BTW dude, I added your link back in, I had inadvertently deleted it and didn't realize it until I went looking. Sorry about that.

Anyway, The Gallery Collection is the leading supplier of business holiday cards and just recently it was announced at Soldiers' Angels that they have made a fairly sizeable donation. Anyone that runs a business knows that giving away your product for free might be one way to create awareness about your products but it can be an extremely expensive proposition because it cuts into your profits. I know because we do things on a smaller scale in the community, mainly for schools and every dime I give away is basically a dime out of my paycheck but the feeling you get being able to help out is unmatchable. Kudos to The Gallery Collection for their donation.

It might not seem like a lot but they are donating a greeting card to every soldier that wishes them Happy Holidays and Happy New Year and tells them thanks for their service. They are also putting in blank cards and envelopes for the troops to write home as well. The cards are being included in care packages that are being sent out by Soldiers' Angels.

Even though the Veteran's Day fundraiser might be over, you can still donate year round to Soldiers' Angels, just go to their web site.

I know one thing and that is that I support the companies that support our soldiers, so here is a plug for The Gallery Collection.

They have a pretty nice selection of different holiday cards for businesses and not just Christmas cards either. I found some Thanksgiving cards over there as well as many different Christmas cards for all manner of gifts. They even have calendar cards and die-cut cards to choose from.

I am lousy about sending out Christmas cards and every year I say that I am going to send them out and never do. I think that this year I will start on a smaller scale and just physically hand them out to all of my employees and managers. Next years I can deal with the whole mailing thing.

Whilst at CNN looking for stuff about Bangladesh I did come across this breaking news.

Couldn't have happened to a better man. I use that term 'man' very loosely as he is more of a scumbag. Here's a report from CBC

I don't particularly have anything against alternative lifestyles. Even homos don't bother me but damn brother, forcing kids to get married and condoning rape of a minor is just not cool. Not at all.

He was accused of using his religious influence over his followers to force a 14 year old girl to marry her 19 year old cousin. Now I know in ages past people got married and had kids at a much younger age than they do now, but that just isn't an argument for this type of behavior. Maybe in jail he can live out his polygamist's dream and get ass-fucked daily by several different husbands...

Just the fact that this guy has so many followers shows me how utterly stupid the American Public can be. NoGodBlog.com concurs with this, calling them 'stupid, stupid followers'. Save the salvation for the mindless and I will keep whatever the hell is coming for me, most likely worms in dirt and not the edible kind either.

ThinkGirl says that he was also fined $18,500 for each count. What happens with the money? Does it pay for the trial or does it go to the victim?

Hey, but guess what? They have already leaked images from his first night in the cross-bar motel...

Don't Pick Up The Soap!

Have fun in the cross-bar motel dickweed!!

Feeding myself...

No, really. I don't cook if I'm at home alone, hell I barely cook now when they are here as it is. I used to cook all the time but over the years the wife has assumed most of those duties, mainly due to the fact that I work so damn much.

Luckily for me the wife went to the grocery store yesterday to get a ham for Thanksgiving. While there she got some other stuff as well including lunch meats. Normally I just eat at work or fast food when they are out of town but I don't want to spend any money and I am off today which leaves me sitting here wondering what to eat...

The turkey she bought is the Oscar Meyer kind that comes in a plastic container rather than one of those bags. I guess they needed to bump the price up so they increased the packaging and decreases the amount of meat. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to get the fucking thing open and almost sliced my hand off trying. I finally just stabbed the bitch and ripped the top off so that I could make a couple of little tasty sandwiches.

The shit was like the packaging that they put electronics and stuff in now. What's up with that shit? When you buy them the cashier takes the electronic locks off of them but leaves the packaging so that you can impale yourself or worse, break whatever it is you bought just trying to get the damned thing open. I got this headset thing free with my last phone and although I knew I wouldn't use it I figured I would take it and give it to the Marine when I shipped him his. I almost broke it tearing the package open.

Can't they create a special 'retard aisle' with open packages so that people like me won't injure themselves with their purchases?

hmmm...I smell a lawsuit coming. Sooner or later someone somewhere is going to stab themselves and then just like the stupid woman that burned herself with coffee at McDonalds, sue the company for not putting a disclaimer on the packaging. 'Warning, this packaging is not for the mentally handicapped!'

I will occasionally hit adult blogs when I get surfing around (say it isn't so!) and even have a couple of them linked in my sidebar down there. The Perverted Republican aka Evilicious Blonde aka again the Perverted Republican is one of my favorites. The link's down there, just look for it. I am far from being a prude and it doesn't take too long hanging out here to figure that one out. Anyway, I was over at vibrator.com reading their blog earlier. If you aren't aware, vibrator.com sells sex toys. Don't get distracted yet. Did I tell you they have a blog?

Anyway, apparently the owner of vibrator.com attended the Blogworld Expo in Vegas recently (wish I could have gone) and was handing stickers out to everyone, a number of whom loved them and stuck them on their clothing. There was such a plethora of different web sites and companies represented at the Expo that he fit right in and had people asking for the stickers. Apparently the co-founder of Blogworld Expo, Libby Durfee, didn't like the fact that he was there handing out stickers and had him thrown out of the party. Not nice at all. Sounds like she had a silver bullet stuck in her butt to me. I can see if something is invite only or a private party but when everyone is having a good time and most people are not offended it's almost censorship. There's a post up about it at the blog, you can read more about it there and read the comments from other attendees as well.

What's up with people that they can't loosen up a bit. It's OK to watch people get blown away in the most graphic manner on television and in the movies, but let two people even consider doing the so-called 'dirty deed' and the darned bibles come out and prudes start talking about being offended and protecting the children. It's all about the children. Shouldn't we educate them and let them know that sexuality can be a beautiful thing rather than letting them know it's OK to kill and maim but by god don't be caught talking about or even thinking about sex?

There I go off on a tangent. I had originally meant to post about some of the cool products that they sell like the Rabbit Vibrators. I picked up a couple of years ago and boy is that about the coolest thing I have ever bought. If it could make coffee I would be in love again.

What is it about people that as soon as they see (don't even have to read) a post about sex toys or sex itself that you are immediately labeled as an 'adult' or 'sex' blog? I just don't see that there should be such stigma attached to it. Even people that probably have two or three sex toys and all sorts of stuff I might consider as 'perverted' at home in their dresser or under their bed will get out in public and and try to ban the stuff.

Guess I'm just weird like that.

whoozat?

I didn't know until a little while earlier when I came across a couple of stories earlier as well as a video from CBS news where Julie Chen did an interview with him.

From what I gather the dude is trying to get a date at match.com and some chick dissed him, at which point in time he send an ugly email back. So what? People send ugly emails to each other all of the time and in a semi-anonymous online dating environment it's probably worse. The lady, who he terms a 'fat chick' turned around and released the email, it was posted to Gawker.com and they have coined him the worst person in the world because of the email. Damn. One would think Osama Bin Laden or Pesident nonamamembawhateva from North Korea would top this list, but no, it's a guy who doesn't like fat chicks. I guess it makes sense when your world revolves around gawker.com and Perez Hilton for your daily dose of inane.

Not that I have anything against fat people myself. At 41 (not quite but almost) I am not quite as lithe as I used to be, but he can have his own opinions no matter how overinflated his ego may be. Personally I think the guy is a bit stuck on himself, and the fact that he has to resort to flirting with unseen fat chicks on the Internet should be the first fucking clue that maybe Mr. Personality ISN'T.

Gawker even has an entire page of news stories devoted to the douchebag. Here's the original email he sent to the lady:

At this point she sent him a polite 'no thanks' and had decided they weren't a match. No harm no foul right? Move on to the next fish in the Internet sea. John sent this email in return.

I guess it's obvious why he's looking for love online now, the stuck up metrosexual, but worst person in the world? Fucking hardly. He's the jock in high school that was so stuck on himself that it was obvious to everyone but him how idiotic he was, except that John never grew out of it.

Dude's got some hair issues too. Even has a web page. Check out the commercial. I hate to keep making fun of this guy but jesus, there is so much to make fun of here. Even his About Me page (the url is aboutus.aspx, us as in the plural). Here are the contents.

I think it's time I go find something more productive to talk about now

In theory I would love to see a Libertarian elected. With exception to the last couple of elections in which I voted mostly Republican I have always voted Libertarian straight down the board (with one guilty exception, I voted for Clinton the 1st time around). Ron Paul, no matter that he is running as a Republican is and always will be a Libertarian. Some of his ideas are pretty far-fetched but in general they are good.

Facts are facts. He won't get nominated, nor will he get elected, but like Ross Perot many of his ideas will find fruition later on. Although it seems like our politicians don't listen, they do, it just takes a while and the losers in the 2008 election (most likely the Republicans) will be listening and scratching their heads wondering what the fuck happened. THAT is the point at which they might start listening and asking questions.

The below are some of Dr. Paul's responses from one of the republican debates that aired. I agree with him 100% that we need to cut spending on the Federal Government level but I also believe that some of the stuff we fund should remain. Completely doing away with the Federal Income Tax is a great idea in principle, but we cannot cut spending enough to completely get rid of it without some other way to bring in income, which is one of the reasons I am behind the Fairtax.

There is a pretty interesting discussion going on at the Fact Checker blog at the Washington Post blogs, which is where I found the link to the above video.

I was very interested in listening to what Mike Huckabee had to say about scrapping the tax cod. I can't imbed it but you can find a link to the video here.

One of the other big issues of the election will be immigration reform. Here's what Dr. Paul has to say about Immigration:

• Physically secure our borders and coastlines. We must do whatever it takes to control entry into our country before we undertake complicated immigration reform proposals.
• Enforce visa rules.  Immigration officials must track visa holders and deport anyone who overstays their visa or otherwise violates U.S. law.  This is especially important when we recall that a number of 9/11 terrorists had expired visas.
• No amnesty.  Estimates suggest that 10 to 20 million people are in our country illegally. That’s a lot of people to reward for breaking our laws.
• No welfare for illegal aliens.  Americans have welcomed immigrants who seek opportunity, work hard, and play by the rules.  But taxpayers should not pay for illegal immigrants who use hospitals, clinics, schools, roads, and social services.
• End birthright citizenship.  As long as illegal immigrants know their children born here will be citizens, the incentive to enter the U.S. illegally will remain strong. 
• Pass true immigration reform.  The current system is incoherent and unfair.  But current reform proposals would allow up to 60 million more immigrants into our country, according to the Heritage Foundation.  This is insanity.  Legal immigrants from all countries should face the same rules and waiting periods.

This certainly isn't meant to be an ad for Dr. Paul and I am still undecided as to whom I will vote for but both taxes and immigration are two of the important topics that are going to have to be addressed sooner or later.

I don't guess I have a huge point to make here, I have been up far too long and am not even making much sense to myself.

Although most of the equipment in the house uses a wired connection I do have a wireless router. My phone and the wife's iPaq are both WiFi and when the Marine is at home his laptop uses it, as well as my brother's. I usually just leave it open and don't worry about security. As long as my neighbors aren't on much and don't use too much of my bandwidth I haven't really worried about it but lately my connection has been pretty laggy.

I logged into my router tonight and discovered seven fucking devices connected. There are only two computers hooked up in the house getting an IP address, as well as our two handhelds. I set it back to using WEP and rebooted the damn thing. Guess they are going to have to find their own Internet connection now. What a PITA.

It wasn't terribly busy today but I have come home particularly stressed out. Just got here a few minutes ago and I have to go back out to pick up one of my employees in about an hour and a half.

Apparently my Area People Director (recruiter/human resources) is meeting my manager in the morning to speak with her and try to talk her into staying. Hopefully he won't succeed as I have already lost several employees and there are several more who are going to give their notice if they bring her back tomorrow. She's already lost most of their respect as it is and has at least one or two legal investigations that are supposed to take place between now and Christmas, not to mention the fact that she needs to sign a shortage from about three weeks ago in her food as I'm not going to pay it.

Just the thought of them not letting her quit has me pissed off and my blood pressure is going up. Right now I'm listening to the girls arguing in the kitchen and it's not helping much.

Each shift we change out the cash till for the new shift. The drawer is supposed to be taken back to the office in the company of at least one of the waitresses, that way we have a witness if the drawer is short. It only takes about ten minutes. It used to be a shorter deal but with the addition of credit cards a couple of years ago it stretched it out a bit. Still, all you do is add everything up, subtract the shift sales and that should leave you with what the till went out at. Simple, no? The only problem with it is that she won't do that. She counts it down herself right out there on the floor without changing the drawer, leaving them short rolled change and ones, and then runs cash register shortages on the girls that might or might not have happened. They are all pretty upset about it since most of them do not normally have shortages. I found at least one in the bookwork that she had double booked, claiming that she had mistakenly taken the 1st one out, which she hadn't, which means that somehow I have to get my boss to sign off on another shortage on her because of that. Since she double booked it that should have left her cash over by the same amount, but the money's not there.

I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be a shitty day that I just want to skip out on.

Yesterday was a fairly long day. There is so much that I need to do in the store where my manager just quit and I have only so much time to get it done. I finally ended up shooting out of there around 4:30 yesterday afternoon and came home to veg for awhile, then went back in around 8.

The big thing about most of these folks is that I've only been there one or two days a week over the last few months so they pretty much do whatever the heck they want and think they can get away with it. I am having to seriously crack down on them in order to get things right. We are going into the busy time of the year and I have to get these people right in a very short time. I have one girl that I can already see I need to let go very quickly. I am doing inventories of the floor at the beginning and end of every shift in order to see what their food usage has been and last night they were pretty slow so the usage should have been low. When I did the count last night I noticed that seven pieces of pie had been used. No huge deal when you think about it, but if the stuff weren't rung up I might as well take thirteen bucks out of my checking account and burn it. I told my waitresses that when they turned their tickets in at the end of the shift I need the pie tickets separated from the rest. Shortly after that the biggest thief up there comes back with seven dollars and says 'I need you to ring me up, my daughter bought a pie and I wanted to make sure it get's verified'. Yeah right.

So she paid for the pie, which was most likely just given away to whomever and not sold as a whole pie but at least we've set the ground rules and she is going to have to come up with a new way to steal from me in order to make her money. I imagine she will be quitting before the month is out anyway since now that I know for sure I am going to stay on her ass daily. I already have her replacement starting training Wednesday anyhow.

The wife is driving up to the Carolinas on Tuesday to pick our son up and bring him home for Thanksgiving. I think I've gotten her to break the trip up and go see our friend in Hilton Head. I means a total of a couple of extra hours but it's better than trying to drive eight or nine hours straight. We still aren't sure where the girls are going to be yet. She might take them with her but we may also have them with a friend of ours. The only problem with that is that I will have to pick them up at certain times and there just isn't any guarantee that I will be able to leave at those times. Unfortunately for me as a district manager, we (and the guys above me) actually work MORE hours during holidays and make sure the store managers get the heck out of Dodge to be with their families.

* Sponsored by Mexican Vacation Villas.

A few years back the wife and a friend of her's took their mothers to Mexico on vacation. They spent about a week in Cancun. I guess it was a bit more than a few years ago since she was a couple of months pregnant with our son. That would have been in 1988 I think. Had to be since he was born in '89. Anyway, Cancun is located on the 'Mexican Riviera', right on the eastern portion of the country on the Caribbean. It's a pretty beautiful area even if I have only seen it in photographs. The area stretches down the Yucatan peninsula for about 60 miles or so. It's definitely not Cancun though. Cancun is full of high-rises and with it comes a 'party attitude'.

The Mayan Riviera as it is known is more serene, with smaller restaurants, shops, and less of an American influence. It's also much more laid back than Cancun is. When the wife and her mom and friend went I do know they went to Tulum, which is a really nice area, almost hidden away from the hustle and bustle of everything else.

Mexico Vacation Villas has luxury vacation villas about 15 minutes from the Cancun Airport, pretty centrally located right between Cancun and Playa del Carmen and within a short driving distance of just about anything you might want to do, that is if you want to do anything at all aside from hanging out at the beach with a drink, relaxing.

Go check out Mexican Vacation Villas where you can get a list of all the direct flights into the Cancun airport along with information on all of the activities in the area, maps of the golf courses, directions to Wal-Mart of course, recipes and useful phrases (downloadable) for things you might be looking for such as food, bathroom, etc. You will also find contact information from folks that have stayed in the Villas in the past so that you can really get a good idea of what they are like.

I woke up this morning not wanting to get out of bed. I am not sure if it's because I feel sick, which I do, or just didn't get enough sleep last night. I had a hard time getting a bit of shuteye. The darned cat is in heat and just would not shut the fuck up. I finally locked the cats in our bathroom with their food and litter box and had to put something in front of the door so that they couldn't get it open. Our bathroom has double doors that you just push/pull to get open rather than having a door knob that you turn and the first time I put her in there last night she rammed the door hard enough to get it open. The second time I put them both in there I made sure to put something in front of it. I really need to get the stupid cat fixed. Over the long run she'll be safer that way and won't be quite as interested in getting outside as she is now.

Looks like the Marine will be coming home for Thanksgiving. He's got four or five days of leave, so I reserved a car yesterday. The wife is going to drive up on Tuesday afternoon after Pete's dentist appointment to pick him up and then she will be taking him back on Sunday I guess. I wish I could be a bit more help. Originally I was going to take Tuesday off at least, and that was going to be my last day off until the 1st of December. Now I just don't know if I will be able to take it off since I don't have a manager in one of the stores (but that's a good thing in it's own way). At least I know I can stop the attrition with the employees quitting.

Anyway, I am really looking forward to seeing him. The family is doing Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt's house in Smyrna and I should have just enough time to get there by 4PM on Thursday if I hump it. The biggest challenge will be to make sure that everyone shows up for work.

I guess it's time to get ready and head my happy ass in to work now.

Since I picked up the new cell phone I can't just use the GetItNow apps bundled with most of the Verizon phones to pick up my games and ringtones anymore. Even when I was using them I would still download quite a few off of the Internet and transfer using Bitpim or a program like that.

Now I just use Windows Explorer and copy them over to my ringtones folder. The i760 uses true polyphonic ringtones that I can either record myself in mp3 format or that I have purchased off of the Internet at places like MSN Emotions Ringtones. I prefer the free ringtones myself. They have all kinds of different sounds for phones including Hip Hop Ringtones that don't really interest me, Dance ringtones, Country, Rock and quite a few funny ones as well as theme Ringtones from movies and television.

They also have the option to listen to them on the site so that you know exactly what you are getting before you download. Like most of the Ringtone places on the Internet it is subscription based and will get charged to your monthly cellphone bill so that you have the option to cancel it by sending a text message.

Well, I had planned on posting a bunch more anyway. I did manage to get tomorrow's Photo Hunt up anyway but that's about it. I watched about half of 28 Weeks Later and then it was time to pick up the girls. Friday is normally pizza night for them so I ordered and then Pete hung out with me watching the rest of the movie. She loves scary movies. It was a bit more gory than scary and certainly not even close to as good as the first but that's the way it is with sequels most of the time.

We decided through mutual consent to make it movie night and everyone sat down to watch Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer after that. Not too bad, but very cheesy, like the comics. I enjoyed it (not to mention Jessica Alba, although she looks better as a brunette). The only problem with watching her is that it makes me feel like a damned pedophile. Yuck.

Anyway, I got a couple of calls this afternoon and apparently my manager in the shithole store is gone now. The store could be better if I could only run it with a couple of folks that care for awhile. Looks like I may get that chance since I may be running it without a manager at all through the holidays. Good thing she was already going to be off this weekend anyway. I means I won't have to make any major changes to the schedule until Monday.

The only issue is that she is my second manager there in seven months and that doesn't look good at all.

Tomorrow's another day and hopefully it's going to be a good one. Back tomorrow...

One of the things I have noticed about my new phone is that when I leave for work I have to make sure and turn WiFi off as well as Bluetooth if I'm not using GPS. I don't use a Bluetooth headset so that becomes unnecessary  unless I am going somewhere I haven't been before. Samsung supplies a normal battery as well as an extended lithium battery for the i760 and it's a good darn thing but even with the extended battery, as I discovered last week, if WiFi and Bluetooth are both left on all day it can seriously drain the thing. I finally started carrying the extra normal battery with me just in case.

When I rebuild my HTPC after the first of the year (I've had to put it off until then) I think I am going to try and run everything so that most of it is in the basement. My network router is down there anyway so all I really need to do is to run a bit of fiber cable from the living room into the basement and then pick up a couple of wireless doodads as well. Either that or I will try and get the smallest case I can find and then start using more USB TV tuners than I have in the past. There are some pretty nice ones out there. Mainly I just don't want all of the wiring and a big old PC case sitting next to the entertainment center. We have doors on it that close so that it just looks like a big cabinet and having a PC sit beside it is somewhat counterproductive.

Why is it that the big thing nowadays for celebrities is to go through drug rehabs? I guess this is nothing new but just this year we've seen Mike Tyson, Lindsay Lohan and Pete Doherty go through. The big problem is that they are going to skip out on jail time and then they check out early only to go on to the same old junk they were doing before.

Perhaps if the judges that are letting them go would clamp down and give them a bit of good old time in the crossbar motel they might actually learn a lesson or two.

Just got a call from the guy that works as my relief manager. I asked him to work today at my problem store since I have had so many problems there on Fridays. Apparently the manager who has been there for a little under four weeks has decided to throw in the towel and quit.

With it being so close to the Thanksgiving holiday I am sure that they will try and get down there and save her but I just can't bring myself to care. Personally it's a blow to me every time someone quits or I can't develop them successfully, but on the other hand if she does leave it will certainly stop some of the problems I have been having there.

I think maybe I will stop answering the phone today and enjoy the first full day off I have had in two weeks.

Updated - Just got home from several hours of meetings this evening. What an enjoyable day off :)

All of my sites except for this one have been dropped to PR0 now, but it's the same for some of the bigger guys such as Techcrunch as well, so whatever Google is doing has broken some serious shit. Hopefully whatever it is will get fixed soon.

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It's interesting to see what's happened with some of my visits since Google decided I am an asshole.

This is a screenshot from one of the counters I use. Historically, compared to Sitemeter, Google Analytics and AWStats ZExtreme only seems to record about half of my actual visits, so the numbers themselves should be doubled but it should give you an idea of what I am talking about. I suppose since I have paid links links and don't use the nofollow tag like they think I should, I have been bumped like 50 places on any and all searches that might bring people here. Joke 'em if they can't take a fuck. The only searches they seem to let through are from images.Google.com and I am getting ready to block that shit.

I am torn about the whole thing anyway. Has the content gotten worse? No, not necessarily. I still post the same old crap except that I think maybe it's improved slightly. I post more often and write longer. I am getting like ten times the amount of comments than I was prior to that, and THAT's what blogging is all about for me anyway. The participation and communication between people.

The only part of the whole thing that sucks is that it DOES effect my income and I don't like the fact that Google is basically telling us that the only relevant paid links or searches are those which IT performs and if all your base don't belong to Google, then you are dogshit. So am I taking down my Google AdSense advertisements on the sidebar? Nope, they are still performing, although slowly. I am considering giving in though and adding nofollow back into all of the links that I can.

It's funny how you can get sidetracked so easily.

By 'YOU' I mean 'ME' of course.

I was researching a keyword on Benjamin Stanford so that I could find more news stories and maybe write a bit more about him when I came across this video from the Reverb Syndicate over at Youtube. The name is 'I Am The New Number Two'. The first thing that came to my mind was 'The Prisoner' with Patrick McGoohan from 1967. No, I am not that old. Actually I am, but I was still in diapers at that point in time, but back in the early seventies thanks to my mom and dad I fell in love with several different television shows. The Prisoner, The Saint, The Avengers, stuff like that. I still love them and if one is on TV I have to watch.

What's all that got to do with the Reverb Syndicate? Not a god damned thing except that their music evokes that time period for me like certain smells bring back specific memories and times. Here's the video I found at YouTube.

Damn good stuff.

So what do you do when you find something like this? You, I mean I, head your happy ass over to iTunes and see what their other stuff is like and buy the album that is there, The Jet Set!

Even the 'album' cover elicits memories of the '60s and early '70s, Ian Fleming, Roger Moore as the Saint and all of the other Spy movies and TV shows that were out at the time. The Reverb Syndicate has a web page (who doesn't?) that you can visit here. Apparently Operation:Jet Set is their only album that's out now but they have another coming soon. These guys are out of Canada and are sort of a mixture of blues/surf music. All instrumental from the couple of tunes I have heard so far.

1. Last Christmas one of my cooks and his wife, a waitress, called in on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Apparently he had gotten drunk and in a fight with his neighbors, so the police came and locked him up. Needless to say he was unemployed the next day. Christmas is by far one of the busiest days of the year for us and unless you are in the hospital or someone has died, EVERYONE works Christmas. I know, it sucks, but it's just the nature of the business and I always make sure to tell people BEFORE they take the job that they will be expected to work ALL holidays and weekends.
2. A couple of years ago I posted about this one. A waitress called in on me because her dog had died. Perhaps I am just an insensitive bastard but I feel like when you make a commitment to something like a job you take that commitment seriously.
3. 'My Chicken Died' The same lady that hung me because her dog died, a few months later a chicken died and she called in as well. NOW you see why I was so pissed off about her missing work when the dog died.
4. 'I ran over a snake'. Guess who called in because of this. Yep, the SAME damn crazy lady.
5. 'I have a dentist's appointment and I have to go to probation'. Now these are both darn good reasons to not go to work but since my managers hang their schedules up at least a week in advance one would think that the person referred to would have let their manager know well ahead of time what was going on. Nope, he waited until 30 minutes prior to his shift starting. Got this one yesterday!
6. 'I fell down the steps and broke two toes and have to keep my foot elevated for a week'. This was just a couple of months ago and was one of my managers.
7. Ran out of gas. I hear this at least once a month. They don't call and say they are going to be LATE, they run out of gas and I suppose it's so traumatic that they have to miss an entire day of work.
8. 'I'm on my period'. No offense to all of the lovely ladies out there but I've been married for almost twenty years and when my wife is on her period she still goes to work. As a manager I kept a supply of multiple sizes of tampons in the office and you just didn't call in with this excuse unless you wanted to be unemployed. My managers are a bit too nice and will believe anything.
9. 'My Clothes are Still Wet'. This happens when you are too damned stupid to do your laundry in a timely manner. My stock answer is generally that once you get to work if you walk real fast your clothes will dry faster.
10. Too drunk to work. At least he was honest with me. I let him keep his job because he had the guts to at least tell me the truth unlike others that just show up drunk and have to be sent home. Been there, done that (on both accounts). I even slept under my cubicle at the office with the phone next to my head after one particularly drunk episode a few years back.
11. 'My husband stole my car and got arrested and they impounded my car'. Oh yeah, this was recently. Now that I have three times the number of employees I did as a manager I get three times the garbage.
12. 'I have to clean my house before Family and Children Services get here'. WTF? Apparently there are some other issues aside from your house being f'ing nasty.
13. 'I have a pimple'. ??? Not even an excuse like 'My herpes sores are oozing' but 'I have a PIMPLE!' You need to find a job where you do nothing but talk on a phone or speaker apparently.
    
    
    
    The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

I have to sit down this evening an write out a vacation plan for 2008. I have the requests from two of my managers and that should be fun to deal with. Two of their vacation requests overlap each other. I asked one of them yesterday which none was more important to her since they are both going to have to adjust the dates on one each. She has reservations for Disney for the first one so the second one will have to be moved and the other lady is going to have to adjust hers.

Still don't know when I am going to be taking mine. All six of their vacation dates are right smack in the middle of when I normally take mine, so I am going to have to take mine at some other time. I thought about taking the first one in February. If the wife's friend in Hilton Head still has not moved by then we may go visit her. That would be pretty cool. She lives in a really nice area of Bluffton, SC. The neighborhood she lives in is huge. There is a pool, and horse stables and some really beautiful luxury homes right around there I enjoy driving around just to look at.

I am still considering taking my ten day vacation at the beginning of June. That would work out very well and if we can ditch the girls for a few days, maybe go down to the keys. It will be the off season and a bit cheaper at that time. I can deal with a bit of heat in order to save some money..

One of my employees asked me today what we were going to do about Christmas decorations this year. My response was that we would put up limited decorations just as always. She started talking about how people have been acting the last couple of years about Christmas and how it's not PC. I don't particularly give a shit myself. I am not a Christian yet I still enjoy Christmas. It is on of my favorite times of year and you don't have to be a Christian to enjoy the season and decorate. It really pisses me off that people cave in to that bullshit.

Back in the day my nickname was 'the drug'. I'm not necessarily proud of it, but things are what they are. I got the nickname because I was the guinea pig. The dude that would try everything and anything to see if you could get wasted. Many brain cells were wasted, that's for darn sure. One thing I never tried was Toad-Licking but I have heard of it. Apparently a Kansas City dude has as well because he caught one and started licking it. And got high. And got busted. hehe.

It's illegal to lick toads? What's up with that?

Here's the news report from Newscom...

So did I ever tell you that my penis was hallucinogenic? No? Come on over and give it a lick...

Although I have several (quite a few actually) old cell phones stashed in my desk drawer, some of them broken, I can't seem to bring myself to throw them out (how's THAT for a run on sentence by golly?!). My local Verizon dealer has a bin where I can take them and dump them but that's 20 miles away and I just never seem to find the free time to just go get rid of them. Apparently I'm not the only one because something like 100 million cell phones are retired each year according to CellForCash, who offers us a way to recycle cell phones and actually pays cash for them. Very sweet. There is quite a bit of useful information over at their site. Here is the latest press release from CellForCash.

This Post was Sponsored by CellForCash.com

Took this while the youngest was still singing last night prior to recording both of them.

RePete does this much better by herself but Pete (the eldest) wanted to be part of. This was the third time she had sung it and some of the enthusiasm had died by the time I actually recorded it. They had a good time though, obviously.

Queensryche has long been one of my Favorite bands. With exception to some of the stuff on DVD I have most of the stuff that they have released since the band was formed in the early eighties including some of the LPs still sealed.

Their newest endeavor is a covers album entitled accordingly 'Take Cover'. It is currently available online through their web site at Queensryche.com as well as on iTunes and most likely Amazon.

Queensryche is not known for being a cover band. They don't normally play many live so this was definitely something new for them.

I am about halfway through listening to the album right now and I like it, but this is NOT an album for the casual heavy metal or rock listener. If you are not a 'ryche fan then this album may or may not be to your taste.

The track list is pretty eclectic. Below is the list of tracks, original artist, as well as why they chose to include each song.

'Welcome To The Machine' – PINK FLOYD
“Pink Floyd is one of the biggest influences on us as a band, and we all wanted to play one of their songs. This track meant a lot to all of us growing up. It really captures that feeling of shock at lost innocence when the curtain is pulled back and you realize what the world is really like. We didn’t want to mess with the original, so we gave the song a totally different arrangement.”

'Heaven On Their Minds' – Jesus Christ Superstar
“Stone had been playing this to me since he joined the band and, coincidently and so had his predecessor Kelly Gray. I liked the song, but this was one of the rare cases where I thought we could improve on the original recording. Stone put together a really cool arrangement. I think people will be surprised by this song.”

'Almost Cut My Hair' – CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG
“I thought this would be a great song for us to do. Musically, the guitar and vocal harmonies are amazing, and lyrically, it’s right on the money. It was a lot of fun arranging this song.”

'For What It’s Worth' – BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD
“When we’re touring, a lot of radio morning shows invite us to the studio to talk about the tour and have us play a couple of songs on acoustic guitars. This is one of the songs we like to throw in every once in a while.”

'For The Love Of Money' – THE O'JAYS
“This was one of the most challenging and enjoyable songs to record and another track that will probably catch people off guard. The vocal phrasing is impeccable and the whole song has such an irresistible groove.”

'Innuendo' – QUEEN
“Michael brought this song in and the idea about how we should approach it. I love Queen, but I didn’t know much about this song. I found out later that this was one of the last songs Freddie Mercury recorded before he died. He sang it from a wheelchair like his life depended on it. It’s such an impassioned performance. When I was in the studio recording, I pictured Freddie and tried to imagine what it must have been like for him to sing this song facing his own mortality. I could never hope to top it; I just wanted to pay tribute to his performance.”

'Neon Knights' – BLACK SABBATH
“Ronnie [James Dio] took us out on our first European tour and he’s always been good to us. He’s singing with Black Sabbath right now and we’re going out on the road together again. With the tour coming up, this seemed like a nice way to pay tribute to him. I hope he likes it, or I’m sure I’ll hear about it every night of the tour.”

'Synchronicity II' – THE POLICE
“This is another song I didn’t know much about. Not sure how I missed it, because that album was everywhere. Our version has a great dark vibe that I really like.”

'Red Rain' – PETER GABRIEL
“This is another song I overlooked when it came out. One of the guys played it, and I knew immediately that we had to do it. The melody of this song is flawless. It could go on and on and never get old.”

'Odissea' – CARLO MARRALE & CHEOPE
“I really like this song because there is a lot for a singer to sink their teeth into, plus I got a chance to sing in Italian, which was interesting considering I don’t speak a word of it.

'Bullet The Blue Sky' – U2 (Live)
“This is one of the rare times that we played a cover live. I don’t remember exactly when or where we played this, but I do remember that we were locked in. Everything came together just right musically, and I evidently had a lot on my mind that night because I wasn’t shy with my social commentary.”

I still haven't completely finished listening to the album in it's entirety but once I get home from work I will get it finished. Unfortunately the songs are not among those on iTunes that are 'iTunes plus' or unprotected mp3 format, so I cannot listen to them on my PDA while I am in the car. Knowing how much Queensryche have embraced technology and the Internet during their career I must say that I am surprised at this.

Thus far, having listened to about half of the stuff, I must say that Neon Knights, the Black Sabbath/Dio cover is my favorite, as well as Bullet the Blue Sky. U2 is OK and while not one of my favorites I enjoyed this cover as well.

What Is It About People...

That makes them gluttons for the punishment that I am gleefully going to distribute to the assholes tomorrow?

I should be abed currently. In bed. Whatever. Fucking asleep.

I asked one of my managers to get my sales and staffing this evening and to call them in to my boss at shift change tonight, about twenty minutes ago. When I stopped at the store I am running this evening after my Monday meeting I explained this to the employees there and told them I was going to attempt to get something called sleep. You know, the cheap caffeine substitute. I think I am coming down with something and either because of that or maybe because I've had about nine hours of sleep since Saturday evening I feel pretty damn wasted. Not good wasted either. Shitty wasted like I want to bite the heads off of small furry animals and spit them on people kind of wasted. That's bad.

I told them the place had better be burning down for them to call me.

An aside before I go on...Since we started taking credit cards about a year and a half ago it has been a nice change. My bank deposits are smaller, which makes security issues easier, the people who pay via credit card normally tip higher averages than those who don't, and everyone is happy. The waitresses get their tips at the end of the shift from the manager on duty unless they are just counting down the till with the next shift (about three or four nights a week) and then they have to leave them. I or one of my managers count up the credit card tips and stick them in envelopes the next day when we come in, for the waitresses to pick up at their convenience.

Convenience is a funny fucking word in this context.

So why is it that I am still awake sitting here eating chocolate bars and thinking about ripping Shrek's guts out?

Because she fucking called me. Five minutes ago.

Was one of my restaurants burning to the ground?

Nope.

Perhaps I had been robbed?

Not this fine evening.

Had my manager not called and gotten sales?

No, he called, everyone is at work.

Perhaps the police came in and arrested one of my crack-whores?

Nope, all of the third shift is at work.

Shrek wanted her money.

Her credit card tips to be exact. She asked the guy playing my part if she could have them so he lied and told her he would call me and then call her back in five minutes. Twenty minutes later she called me to ask if she could get her five dollars before she left.

Five. Fucking. Dollars.

I get up at 4:30 every morning. I wonder what it would be like for the people on the other end if I just up and decided to call at 4:30 in the morning each and every one of the stupid fuckers that has ever decided that it was OK to call me and wake me up to ask some stupid fucking question that could have waited another eight hours for me to actually arrive at work...

Hasta mañana bitches.

Some days just feel like they were made to stay in bed. Today is one of those. Add to that the fact that I was up until around midnight and you can see why I just didn't want to get up today. It should be an interesting day to say the least. I am already dropping stuff. Naturally clumsy and tired as hell to boot.

Today is our 20th 'date' anniversary. 20 years. Damn, that's a long time. Happy anniversary baby.

It's Velociman's fault that I even bothered going to check this stupid thing out in the first place. I can certainly see the teenage level of humor that is brought out when I post, therefore I won't argue with it.

Get a Cash Advance

...but who's buying?

Time to go to work now...

The last Villa Rica home game was tonight, and we presented the sole kicker a $1,000 check. There was actually some confusion on her part (yes, her) because during the second game one guy did make the kick, but it came out later that he wasn't a senior and might not even be going to college, so he was disqualified. She came prepared to try and kick another field goal, but was very nervous about it. When we got her up to take pictures and present it to her, she was pleasantly surprised to find out that she was the winner.

The game was pretty cool as well although I didn't get to see as much of it as I would have liked since I was carrying around a five gallon backpack full of coffee to give out. The first one I had was hot chocolate and it went very quickly, then I got one with coffee and hauled that around until we presented the kicker with a check after the band played during half-time.

Since I had taken Pete with me and needed to get home I managed to avoid the traffic and get out of there during the 3rd Quarter. At that point we were losing 14-7. The Carrollton-Villa Rica rivalry is very long standing and there are always quite a few people at the game, enough to fill all of the parking lots as well as the sides of the road for about a mile in either direction.

There may be some pictures in the paper tomorrow. If so then I will post a couple here. I did manage to find one that I'm NOT in (hehe). I don't remember what was going on but I didn't attend the first home game of the season. These are the guys that I directly report to.

The girl pictured is the one who ended up receiving the $1k tonight. It was a pretty cool thing to do, with no strings attached other than she is supposed to use it for school, but either way she will be receiving the actual check later next week. It's pretty cool to be able to do something like that in the community where I have been working for the better part of the last 28 years.

I was going to post this in the Thursday Thirteen yesterday but unfortunately got called in to work prior to getting anything put up so here is some of the stuff that is being searched for. Most of the searches I am getting now are coming from Yahoo, and a few from Google. Google hates me now I do believe. The amount of traffic I am receiving from their search engine is miniscule compared to Yahoo. The thing about Google is that most of the referrals I get from them stay longer and look at more pages, which means that folks are actually reading the stuff. They stay here something like ten times longer than visitors from Yahoo. Whatever.

The keywords that Google Analytics shows me pretty much matches MT Visitor Stats, so here is the list.

1. Republican Presidential Debate and 2007 Republican Debates. The great majority of the searches are finding this. How utterly boring.

2. Cleveland Shooting and Cleveland School Shooting. I had a couple of posts up about the Cleveland school shooting shortly after it happened.

3. Chester Styles. No need to say more. I posted about this scumbag a couple of times.

4. Pornotube. I mentioned Pornotube in a couple of posts what seems like a REAL LONG time ago, but am still getting hits for it.

5. Beef Curtains. You know, until Ms. Kat mentioned beef curtains awhile back I had never heard that expression in my life. I guess I was just too sheltered or something. 40 searches for this brought people to my site over the last 30 days.

6. Photo Hunt. I participate in the Saturday Photo hunt most weeks, so it's only natural that I would turn up in a search for that.

7. Cheap Disney Tickets. I have posted about our Disney trip on several occasions, and also done context links and reviews for sites that sell Disney tickets. I suppose that's doing exactly what it's supposed to.

8. Picture of Giant Spider Web in Texas. I do have this picture posted as well as some stuff about it, but not really a hell of a lot of content.

That's it for searches, at least for this morning. I know it's not 13, but this ain't the Thursday Thirteen either.

Happy Friday...

Other than the fact that I picked up a new phone when the Marine wanted an upgrade for his that had been stolen, I have pretty much been using the money I have been earning online for gifts (Christmas, Birthdays, etc..) and bills.

I found this little Freedom Keychain GPS unit online earlier today and ordered it. I have been toying with the idea of getting GPS to go with my phone for quite some time now and it was one of the things that I was looking for in a cell phone but is not included. I will be better off with an external unit anyway that I know will work with Google Maps and I may even look at some of the other free GPS software out there as well.

My birthday is in just a few weeks so that will have to be my excuse and will be my gift from me, to me, unless of course I make a shitload of money between now and then and find something else even cooler :)

I should get this tomorrow or maybe Saturday if I am lucky. Not that I ever get lost but it will certainly be nice to have just in case I follow the wife's directions going somewhere (he said as he ducked the blows...)

I still need to write a review of the new phone on my tech site, so if I ever get time for that I will post one on the GPS unit as well.

I worked until early yesterday afternoon which makes today my one and only day off this week, at least until next Thursday. My boss called me earlier and I ignored it but then he sent me a text message shortly after since my voice mail was hosed. I unfortunately have to go to our weekly meeting this evening at five PM. I am extremely unhappy with that but there is nothing to be done. Luckily they changed it and I don't have to drive to Oxford Alabama as originally planned. The meeting is in Tallapoosa, which is about 15 minutes west of me, just on the border.

So much for enjoying my day off with no work...

I am off today and tomorrow, at least half of today. Since my manager at the top of the hill is on vacation I went in this morning to take care of the end of the week paperwork and closing out my weekly payroll and sending it to the corporate office. I managed to get home early this afternoon and took a much needed nap.

I have pretty much bummed around the rest of the evening, hanging with the girls and playing with my new cell phone. Did I tell you I upgraded my phone that I just bought a couple of weeks ago? The Marine had his stolen and wanted an upgrade to the exact phone that I had been using, the Motorola Q9m, and I wanted a real Pocket PC phone rather than an MS Smartphone. I picked up the Samsung i760 last Friday, the day it was released in the stores. Here is the i760 browsing the web full screen with Opera Mini, a very cool browser.

* Sponsored by On The Beach

One of the places I haven't written about yet is Turkey. I love to take virtual vacations (since I work so darn much that long vacations are out of the picture) and I also love history, which makes countries like Turkey with it's varied history and vibrant culture so cool to learn about.

Turkey is situated right between the Middle East/Asia and Europe, surrounded on three sides by ocean with 5,000 miles of coastline. It borders eight different countries, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. That's a lot of countries considering the massive coastline it has. With so many different cultural influences and the fact that it borders two different continents it's a pretty unique mixture of traditions.

Although when you read history and think about Troy (some of the walls of Troy are pictured to the left) and the Trojan War you think about Greece and their culture, the Trojan War took place on the Anatolian Peninsula which is also referred to as Asia Minor. The Trojan War is an extremely important event in the history of ancient Greece. If you aren't familiar with it, according to Greek mythology, the was was waged after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The Iliad and Odyssey along with a couple of cycles of epic poems describe the latter part of the war as well as Odysseus' (one of the Achaeans) journey home after the war.

With the huge population (over 70 million) and culture, not to mention the great summertime weather, Turkey holidays have become very popular tourist destinations, particularly for the British. Resorts in places such as Kusadasi are very nice and steeped in the history of the ages. Placed right next to a wonderfully preserved ancient town where the ruins are abundant, it's a great place to sightsee and when you are done there is always to beach to hang out at.

Another really nice resort location is Bodrum. Bodrum is located in South Western Turkey, right on the coast and is a perfect summer destination. With a pretty thriving nightlife and plenty of daytime activities to keep busy with, it is a vacation destination not to be missed.

One of my darned waitresses gave out my home phone number again. Apparently there was an issue at a different store tonight with the price a customer was charged on a sandwich and he got mad and asked for the manager. Rather than telling him the manager would be in tomorrow morning, having the cook take care of the problem, or giving them the 800 complaint number that's next to the front door this girls decided in her infinite wisdom to give my phone number to the dude.

I couldn't bring myself to call and cuss her out since that's not very conducive to keeping my job, not to mention that she's a meek quiet thing that I have already made cry once so I just explained that unless they wanted me to start handing out their phone numbers to any customer that asks, they need to not give mine out.

We have always had our phone numbers posted for the associates. Everyone from the store manager to the area vice president has their number posted in the back room in case of emergency. When I first took over the district back at the beginning of May there were no numbers listed, so I fixed that. Now I see why they weren't listed. As a store manager my folks knew that the better not call me unless it was truly important but apparently these brain surgeons that are working for me are too stupid to know what's important and what's not. Some dude getting overcharged for his sandwich at 9:40PM is NOT IMPORTANT enough to call me. It's not as if I am going to jump in my car and go give him his fifty cents back right this red hot second anyway. He can just wait until tomorrow morning when I wake up. Maybe I should call him when I get up at 4:30 and offer to give him his money back, the inconsiderate asshole. I have his name and phone number now...

I have been a long time fan of Stephen King's stories but not so much his movies. The main reason is that compared to his writing, the movies generally suck.

I read my first King novel when I was ten (1976 if you really want to know). That's when I fell in love with horror/mysteries in general. I stayed up all night Christmas eve that year reading Salem's Lot as well as The Amityville Horror by George Lutz. I was hooked and the bar has been set by the feeling I got when I read Salem's Lot. While certainly not his scariest book, for a ten-year-old it was pretty darn terrifying. I watched the TV miniseries when it aired in '79 and of course I was still pretty young then, so as far as I was concerned it was a terrific movie.

In general the movies that came out from '79 until the late 80's seemed to me to be low-budget, and just didn't capture what I got out of the books, but the last few years, since the Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption were released, they have been getting better and better. The most recent flick to come out is The Mist, which is to be released in theaters on November 21st. Directed and adapted from Stephen King's short story by Frank Darabont, not surprisingly the director of the aforementioned Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile, this looks to be a serious thriller and chiller. I checked out the trailer over at themist-movie.com and the wife decided then and there that she wasn't going to see it with me but Pete, my ten-year-old wants to go see it with me and I may just take her.

The Mist by Stephen King is also one of my favorite short stories, really a novella in itself. There are several that I really like and consider favorites though, most of them in Skeleton Crew as is The Mist. The Reach, while not a horror story, really shows how Stephen King can grab your attention and keep hold until he lets go.

If you aren't familiar with the Mist it details a mist that rolls in to a Maine town and traps the townspeople inside a grocery store. As they realize that there are some sort of creatures out there, things start to get ugly, both inside and outside the store. You are better off going to check out the two trailers at http://www.themist-movie.com/, as well as the webisodes that are up to get a general idea of what the movie is about and look for me at Arbor Place Mall Theater a few days after it's out. I would love to go see it on opening day but it's too crowded for my tastes and with the hours I work I won't have a day off work until about the 27th anyhow.

Something Rosemary said in a recent email struck a chord with me this morning. I wasn't going to rant & rave about work last night but as I had nothing else to say I just cleaned up the area around my desk  (ugly) and then went to bed around 11:30 or so.

We don't give our associates phone numbers or personal information out. Hell, I won't even tell you when someone is coming in to work next unless I know you and I know it's alright. The same is supposed to go for the associates. They are not allowed to give out employee information or our phone numbers either unless you work there.

Although I was going to try and get home at a decent time yesterday it didn't work out as I had planned. I was busy yesterday morning and then had a ton of paperwork to finish as well. I had to get back on the floor a couple of times during second shift as they got fairly busy and it was a good thing I was there. I finally finished up with my schedules and whatnot and hit the door around six, and proceeded to the bank. On my way out to the parking lot one of the regulars stopped me and told me about some issues they were having in my store at the bottom of the hill. Issues is right. They had called the law on him because he asked for them to make fresh coffee and wouldn't drink or pay for the old stuff. He was somewhat drunk, so I am sure that didn't help matters much.

I bought his coffee and got him quieted down and then went to the bank, planning on hitting the other store on my way home just to see what was going on. When I arrived at the store they, along with one of the other customers let me know what had happened. It pretty much sounds like the dude was just drunk and in the wrong but they carried it too far. While I am standing there my phone rings. It's a number I don't recognize but I answer it anyway.

This woman tells me that she and her family were just in my restaurant to eat and they ended up walking out because the waitress got into an altercation with a customer, chased him into the parking lot and then came in to wait on them without a hat and without washing her hands.

Wait a minute.

You just ate in my restaurant.

I don't know you.

How the fuck did you get my phone number?

I was very polite and lied, telling her I was on the way and would get the problem fixed. I was actually already there but I needed to make sure she was satisfied and get her off the phone.

Since things were under control there I got back on the phone to find out who had given my number out.

The waitress that had given them my number told me it was an accident.

An accident?

What happened, you tripped and instead of saying 'fuck!' you said, 'oh, 770xxxxxxx!' How is giving my phone number out an accident?

Fucking retards...

I will be a bit more careful about letting stuff roll to voice mail from here on out...

After having lost 43 straight times to Notre Dame, Navy finally beat them in triple overtime. The last time that Navy beat them was in 1963.

Apparently I was one of the few house, at least on my side of the neighborhood, that actually decorated for Halloween. There are quite a few people in my area of podunk Georgia that do the trunk or treat thing at the churches. Thanks but no thanks. Even our division (work) set up down there and gave out candy. That's why I scheduled myself off . More power to them but I enjoy the traditional scary Halloween.