fun quiz for the day
Mood:  lazy
Topic: Miscellaneous goings-on


What's Your Animal IQ?
Way to Go!
You got 14/15 correct.

to test your animal IQ: Click here!

these are for you, Zach
Mood:  rushed
Topic: Jokes & Funny stuff

I'll post more tomorrow... I have to get out of here now....

This day ranks around 9.5 out of 10 on the weird-shit-o-meter
Mood:  accident prone
Now Playing: breaking benjamin
Topic: Weird shit

I'll be honest; I wasn't in the greatest mood when I came in to work anyway. I'm not entirely sure when you could say my day started... perhaps at 5 a.m. when I opened my eyes and thought that it was snowing outside? I don't know if it really was snowing, but I swore that it was, and one of the times Kurtis got up, I told him that it was snowing, too. Maybe I was dreaming that it was snowing. If anyone else lives in the 21122 zip code and was up at 5 a.m., please tell me that I'm not crazy. At any rate, there were ice crystals on my car that looked like frozen snowflakes, so I still think that it must have snowed last night. The strange part of it though is that it looked like my windshield wipers had been used, because there was a streak across the windshield as if they'd been turned on and then the moisture had frozen. That's the best way that I can describe it. Maybe I was still asleep when I started my car? Who knows?

So I get to work and there are about 8 cars in the parking lot... fewer than yesterday, but that's not really all that weird. Turn on my computer and Christmas lights... the lights in my area were still off, and they were glowing rather nicely, so I decided to leave the lights off and just enjoy my pretty colored lights. An hour or so later, one of our wonderful Dallas Cowboys fans (who also thinks that he's God's gift to women) comes over and turns on my lights! I was quite enjoying my morning with the lights off! There is a plotter behind me where he gets his drawings, but there was plenty of surrounding light for him to be able to see which drawings were his when they came out of the plotter. I'm sure that he did it just to irritate me. Fortunately he didn't say anything nasty about the game, because I might have gotten a tad homicidal.

Kurtis emails me at around 10:30 saying that Kari had called The Body Garden (the spa that he got me, Kari & Brenda gift certificates to) was giving Kari the runaround about getting an appointment and he was thinking of just asking for his money back (he spent a nice chunk of change there and had had a bad experience with them to begin with) and getting GC's from somewhere else. I emailed him saying that Emilio Vincenzo (sp?) escape was comparable (if not cheaper) in price to The Body Garden and maybe they should contact them to see if they had anything open. He calls back saying that they don't have much open, etc... at any rate, the whole thing was turning into a fiasco and at this point I'm just hoping that Kari gets to go to the spa before they have to go back to Ohio. To further complicate matters, their car is acting up and they took it into the shop this morning.

So all of that is mostly run-of-the-mill stuff, I know. At around noon, Kurtis calls me (while I'm on phones) and asks what I'm doing for lunch. I responded that I had no plans... and he said that our friend Nick (who lives in WV now) was going to be in the area and wanted to have lunch with us. He also says that Nick is driving his tractor-trailer and the only place he can think to park it is in the Harms parking lot. Okay, whatever - there aren't that many people here today. This is all fine and good, and I agree to lunch. Shortly thereafter, one of our inspectors comes in with his arm all bandaged up, and blood seeping through the top of the bandage... whatever it was, it looked pretty bad. I made some comment about it looking bad and he tells me that I should have seen it before - this is how it looks *after* it's been all cleaned up & taken care of! So I didn't ask how it happened, figuring that he would be asked enough times and I would eventually find out anyway. Shortly thereafter, I get a phone call from the Learning Years (remember, I'm at the front desk) which is the day care center in our little "Harms Square" area. "Hi, this is Stacey over at Learning Years... is Dan around? There's a weird-looking guy out here who parked his tractor-trailer in front of our building. My boss asked me to go out there and ask him why he's here, but I'm kind of afraid to do it. I'm a little freaked out, do you think you could send him over? The guy is out of the truck and is under it doing something that I can't quite see." Oh boy. Now am I going to admit that I actually know who this person is??? Of course. At least, kind of. "OH. I think that's Nick, an ex-employee... he's supposed to be meeting one of my co-workers for lunch and he must have just parked his truck there. He's harmless, but a bit eccentric. You can just walk out there and ask him to move it, he's not going to hurt you!" "It's just that you know, we're a day care center, he can't just park out here!" "I'm sorry, but Dan's at lunch, we don't really have anyone that can walk out there and tell him to move." I finally got her off the phone, feeling slightly guilty... at the end I really thought that she would just go out there and ask Nick to move his trailer. Right after I hang up the phone with her, a black Dodge Durango with dark tinted windows and DC tags pulls up in front of the building. Two guys get out, one in an officer's uniform and another in a semi-officer looking uniform. At any rate, he didn't look like a civilian. The inspector with the bandaged arm is outside talking to them, and they all walk in together. I jokingly said, "I didn't do it." They laughed and then walked into the conference room. I'm thinking "What the hell???" Two minutes later, Kurtis walks in and tells me that Nick has disconnected his trailer and wants the three of us to ride to lunch in the cab of his truck?!!? I proceed to tell him what the woman from TLY told me and that they don't want him to park there. Then I told Kurt there was no way in hell that I was going to ride to lunch in that thing. He said, "Fine, you just meet us at Garry's Grill." At that point I was thinking it would probably be better if I didn't go at all after that fiasco! *sigh* I decide that I should go anyway, how much weirder can it get, right? As I'm about to leave, the company gossip woman is hovering around the front desk and says "Did you hear what happened to so-and-so?" I said that I knew he'd injured his hand somehow, but I didn't know why the cops were there, etc. She told me that he had been at an inspection site somewhere and had been bitten by a secret service officer's dog! So the policeman that I saw was actually a secret service agent!! How weird is that??

At any rate, I get in my car and am about to go to lunch. I pull up to Ritchie Highway and am just about to pull out since there is a break in traffic... then I see an asshole in a minivan about 20 feet away going about 30 mph in reverse up the shoulder - headed straight for me, of course! Scared the shit out of me!! Fortunately I have cat-like reflexes and slammed Roxie into reverse before the bastard plowed into me. Oh, I was PISSED. So I threw up my hands, resisting to give him the "You're #1" sign and instead opting for the "What the hell are you doing???!" gesture. He responded by waving!!!! Oh, I was not happy. The funny thing about this (if there is anything funny) is that the exact thing happened to another guy at work last year... or maybe it was even this summer. Someone ran into him backing up Ritchie Highway and took off the front bumper of his car. We're in a really horrible location for accidents, I swear.

I get to Severna Park without any further incidents, but then when I'm getting ready to pull into the parking space, this #%)()*@#_)(* pulls FORWARD into it, so I almost run into her! Or should I say that she almost ran into me??? Ugh. Not happy.

So that's been my day! I haven't heard from my friend Chris yet... I'm hoping that I'll be able to see him while he's home for Xmas. If you remember, Kurt & I ran into him at the Rainforest caf? a few months ago while he was home for a friend's wedding. Well, I have stuff to do, so I guess that I'd better do it. Hope that everyone else had a far less interesting day than me!

somebody shoot me
Mood:  down
Topic: Football
We always find a way to lose, don't we? Other teams find ways to win, we find ways to lose. And the asshole Cowboy fan at work is back at it again. I did have one victory yesterday - I took first place in our Fantasy League - won the super bowl. But I could care less. Here's the lovely message that I found on the message board:

Great Job Pummelers!! Coach Grande needs to give Coach Gibbs a few pointers!

What a dick.

Just wait until next year when the Skins get their shit together.

My post back:
Humility
by: Puta's Pummelers (love_shoe) Dec 27 6:04am
Arrogance suits you well, Bryan. You may have won the battle, but not the war.


If the Skins had won, I wouldn't have gloated. Inwardly, yes. But I wouldn't be quite as smug and idiotic as a Cowboys fan. Cowboys fans are a special breed. Speaking of which, here's an old joke:

A first grade teacher explains to her class that she is a Cowboys fan. She asks her students to raise their hands if they were Cowboys fans too.

Not really sure what a Cowboy fan was, but wanting to be just like their beloved teacher, their hands exploded into the air.

There was however, one exception. A little girl named Susie did not go along with the crowd. The teacher asked her why she decided to be different.

"Cause I'm not a Cowboys fan."

"Then what are you," asked the teacher.

"I'm a proud Redskins fan," boasts the little girl.

A little perturbed now, her teacher asks why she is a Redskins fan.

"Well, my Mom and Dad are Redskins fans, and so I am a Redskins fan too."

A little more aggravated the teacher exclaims, "That's no reason. What if your Mom was a moron, and your Dad was a moron? What would you be then?"

Susie paused and smiled, "Then I guess I'd be a Cowboys fan!"

all I want for Christmas
Mood:  rushed
Topic: Football
Is a win against the Cowboys. That's all I want, really.

Col Mustard has been making some incredible posts lately, so make sure that you check him out. My links are on the left side of the page. One of the posts that he made had a link to a blog from a Mosul hospital doc... I'll put it up later.

Hope that everyone had a safe & happy Christmas. I love you all!

really merry christmas, now
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Weekend happenings
Since it's past midnight, Merry Christmas! Now I don't have to post today. :-P~

yet another silly quiz
Mood:  smelly
Topic: Introspection

You Are the Girl Next Door! You're caring, warm, and the girl that nice guys want to marry. Uncomplicated and simple, you've got an easy going attitude guys love. But this doesn't mean you're dull - far from it! You're a great conversationalist, and you're an expert at living the good life. What Kind of Girl Are You? Take This Quiz :-) Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.

leaving work for the day
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: xmas music
Topic: Miscellaneous goings-on
fuzz is letting us go at 3....... so i'm a leavin'. expect less frequent updates over the weekend..... i'll have to go down into the x-box battleroom to post, but i'll do it!

pray for our troops
Mood:  down
Now Playing: breaking benjamin
Topic: Friends and Family
One of my buddies in the blogging community, Colonel Mustard is stationed in Iraq. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past day and a half, you've heard about the horrific attack in Mosul. Col was a regular here on Tripod until a few weeks ago when he went over to Mindsay... anyway, here are some excerpts from an entry that he made today:

I don't know who I am anymore. I don't know why I am here anymore and I have no idea what I am doing. I woke up this morning devoid of all emotion, I feel neither anger nor pain, joy or sorrow. My desires, hopes and ambitions now appear meaningless. I lack even the remotest sense of self and everything is now numb. The ringing in my ears the only knowledge I have that I am still alive, nothing else even really bothers to register. Except for perhaps the images tattooed right on to my psyche of the finality of yesterday afternoon.

If I am not making any sense, or rather just rambling, you will forgive me, if you don't I doubt I would care either way. Will I ever care about anything ever again? We lost 6 people yesterday. 6 faces I will never see again. I can't even see them now...People you saw every day, worked with, lived with, laughed with, argued with in some cases, especially this head case...but not anymore.

My heart just flew kamakazie into the abyss and now I am just an empty shell where a soul used to be, however tattered and tarnished it was, it was mine, and now it is gone.

If I were able to I'd be crying right now, but I suppose that requires emotion and feeling, something with which I am now lacking.


This is the second time in the past month that the war has seemed too close for comfort. If that makes sense. I'm not sure how to really describe it. Yes, I knew that there were people over there that I knew -- some mere acquaintances, others being friends, either old or new. I worried about them, but never thought that anything bad would happen. I read the latest casualty reports in Iraq... I see how old they were. There is another site with more information, sometimes photographs and backgrounds.

At any rate, with all that being said, it still seemed like it was far away from me... no one that I knew had been injured or killed. Then Kyle comes home and kills himself, and now I find from Col Mustard's firsthand experience how awful it is over there. I knew it was bad, but.......? I don't really know that to think about all of this anymore. It seems that none of our soldiers are getting the help that they need, whether that means some kind of psychological preparation for war, or even having the right supplies and equipment. What is the right solution? We can't just pull out, can we? There will probably be civil war either way, so what should we do? Is there anything that we can do? Saddam might have been a threat, yes, but he's out now, so what now?

what is this world coming to?

gluttony, site, Isaak
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: breaking benjamin
Topic: Miscellaneous goings-on
I updated my site, so CHECK IT OUT. I decorated it for Christmas. ;-)

I was an absolute glutton yesterday and I loved every minute of it. I mentioned that we were going to Ruth's Chris steakhouse for our Christmas luncheon... well, we went to the one in Eastport and it was absolutely delicious... I was a big piggy. Anyway, little did I know that Kurtis had made reservations at the Ruth's Chris in Baltimore at the Power Plant (next to the Ram's Head). We're walking towards Power Plant live and he says. "Well, Marilee said that Babalu was good, so we can eat there..... or....... I made us reservations at Ruths Chris at 6." "You're kidding." He wasn't. So I must have consumed about 5,000 calories yesterday, and I loved every minute of it! Unfortunately, we rushed through dinner a bit since we were worried about getting to the Isaak show on time. We walked in to Ram's Head around 7:15 -- Isaak didn't go on until 9!!!! We weren't very happy, obviously, but we waited. The show was fantastic, although he *did* have one joke/comedy segment that we had heard at every show we'd been to before. It's funny, and people who had obviously never seen him before were hysterical, so I'm willing to overlook that. :)

Can I add that the new Ram's Head venue is AWESOME!?! Supposedly it holds about 1,000 people, but I doubt it. There are 3 levels, the very top one being reserved for media or special people (not schmucks like us), the main floor and balcony is open to everyone... there are probably 7 bars or so throughout the venue, 3 or so food stations, plus a restaurant. The balcony curves around to make use of every possible area, so that there is more space to see the band. There really isn't a bad seat in the place... I'll definitely be going back! Hopefully some other acts that I want to see will play there, it is just an incredible venue!

I guess that's it for now.... I probably won't be making quite as many posts (at least from home) in the next few weeks, since Kurtis's family is now in town and my laptop/work area has been temporarily commandeered. :-/ If I show up knocking on your door with a crazed look in my eyes, perhaps you'll understand.