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3D Stress ball

Last night, as I was finishing up my last of 6 spicy garlic wings a group of young adults ran up to the table.

“Excuse me, Sir,” they said, “Could we have the bones from your finished wings?”

I gave them a perplexed look, “Sure you can. Do you need all six?” I was in the middle of my last one.

“Yes, we need 12. We got six from another table already.”

“Okay, but why do you want the wings?”

“We’re on a scavenger hunt and we need 12 chicken bones.”

Fair enough, I thought. So I gladly handed over the remains of my dinner and apologized for slobbering all over them.

I was quite excited last Thursday when I learned Apple had ported iTunes to Windows. I downloaded it both at work and at home. Regardless of the interface or system resource suckage, I was bound and determined to support Apple somehow. Because in my heart of hearts I will always be an Apple fanatic. Sure their things are overpriced and feature-lacking (Where the heck is a second mouse button?!) but they’re suave and sexy. Heck, both my grandparents are more hip-looking with their iMacs than I will ever be. So I was bound and determined to leap back into tech-suaveness with my use, and abuse, of a legal online music service.

I went hunting for The Whos Happy Jack, the song from the Hummer commercial. I could spare 99 cents for the rock-classic-turned-catchy-jingle song. I found the version I wanted, clicked “Buy Song” and waited for bliss to set in. I was prompted with an error message. Apple wasn’t going to take my credit card. I know I had at least a buck on there, I know it! It should be fine. I spent the next half hour trying to weasel my way through their checkout, each time running into an “Invalid Address” error. That’s right, Apple told me that my address was wrong on my credit card. Or, at least that’s the bank reported to them. I became quite disgruntled by this. So much that I promptly removed the software from my computer. Thanks, Apple, but no thanks. I’ll go somewhere else for my music.

I have never claimed to be a great cook, but I must say that *I* think I’m the best cook around. Courtney may have a different opinion. I can make a pan full of Manwich like no one else. As long as I have my garlic powder, chili powder, and red onion, I can turn any dinner into a 4-course stink fest that will stay with you for days. The dogs seem to like my cooking as well.

UPDATE: Just like I suspected, Courtney came home and warmed up some of my infamous Manwich. As she cracked the lid to the meaty goodness she hooted, “Jeez! Did you use a little garlic?”

The wife and I saw Kill Bill this weekend. I enjoyed it. I can’t say the same thing for Courtney. Every time I looked over Courtney had a look of horror on her face. The movie did take some getting used to. It took me about a half hour into it to get the joke, or to appreciate it’s kung-fu heritage. I will definately know what to expect from the next two volumes.

Hmmm. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked forward to getting up in the morning. It may be the changing weather, it may be the stress of life right now. I find myself counting the hours during the day until I can finally let go of the stress and just “be.” I just want to exist. I don’t want to have to make decisions. I don’t want to be an ass to people. I don’t want people to think I’m an ass. I just want to “be.” I want to sit and not have a thought in the world. I want to sit and stare at a knot in my wall without feeling like I’m wasting time. *sigh*


Have no pity for me. I make my own bed. I will lay in it.

If you haven’t heard, or I haven’t told you, Courtney and I traded in our Celica for a Chevrolet Silverado 2500. For those that don’t know it’s a 3/4 ton pickup with a V8 6.0 litre engine. It’s a gigantic vehicle. It’s so big that we can’t fit it in our garage. That’s why I like to call it my monster truck. I’ve gotten a lot of “You need a gun rack” and “When are you growing a mullet?” comments. I typically just back into those people when I see them in the parking lot. I’m having a hard time understanding why my insurance went up though. If I get in an accident I won’t be the one hurt. It does need some bigger tires (and maybe a lift-kit, brushguard, and winch). Right now it looks like it’s riding on Geo Metro tires. It’s an extended cab so the cab has a bit of space between the seats and the back. We discovered that our dogs fit nicely right there. I finally got a truck for Sid, my truck dog. She’s happier than pig in shit riding with us. I have had to adjust my budget to accomodate a $35 tank fill.

Saturday Courtney and I stopped in at Applebee’s for lunch. We walked in the door at 11:03 am and were patrons in the door. I order by typical chicken fingers basket and Courtney had the steak salad. As I was finishing my meal I noticed that one of my french fries had been overcooked. But as I looked at the burnt piece of potato I slowly realized that it had a head and legs on it. There was a catapillar in my food. I promptly stopped eating and informed our server that I wasn’t angry but very disgusted by the critter. Applebee’s paid for our insect-infested lunch and gave us a $10 gift certificate. I realized they were probably trying to usher us out as quickly as possible so we wouldn’t start hootin’ and hollerin’ about the situation.

I can’t get enough of Hey Ya by Outkast.

The past two days have been a tad rough at the homestead. Wednesday morning we woke up to our house temperature at 65 degrees even though the thermostat was set to 72. When I went to investigate the furnance a foul smell came from the general area. My initial concern was a gas leak. We called up the gas company and they came out to inspect. They found no gas leak but told us the water heater next to the furnance was giving off so much carbon monoxide that they had to turn it off and give us a red flag violation. I spent all yesterday calling around trying to find anyone who could make heads or tails of a carbon monoxide leak from a water heater. I even called the gas company. Everyone said the heater needed to be replaced. So I made the arrangements to replace the water heater on Thursday. As Wednesday night rolled around our furnance fired correctly 90% of the time. While during the other 10% the pilot lights wouldn’t light. I swiftly ran to the hardware store and picked up a carbon monoxide and flammable gas detector just to be on the safe side.

So, to take inventory of my condition: I have one car in the shop for a squeaky main belt, the heat works sometimes in the house, and I haven’t had hot water for two days. There’s a new funk going on in the house and this time I don’t think it’s the furnace.