What a week this has been! Let me recap for those that don't know...

As I mentioned in a previous post, my cable company was bought by Comcast, so they were coming around a couple weeks ago to talk to all the residents about the switch over, trying to get new or additional services signed up. I had already tentatively planned on just keeping what I had, standard cable. When a Comcast rep showed up at my door one evening, I thought about it some more, and realized the "Triple Play" option would save me about $30 a month for the next year, and after that, I would be back to paying about what I'm paying now. Only difference is I would have more cable channels, cable internet (instead of dsl), cable phone, and only one bill instead of three.

So a couple days later this same gentleman calls me on the phone to schedule an appointment. I explain that I work during the day, and with the internet being installed, I'd like to be here to make sure everything works ok. He tells me that he has set me up with an appointment the next evening between 6pm and 8pm. I get all excited cause I'm getting new stuff! I come home from work the next evening, and I wait...and I wait...and I wait. At 10 minutes to 8pm, I call the guy who sold me this deal and gave me the appt. No answer, so I leave him a message! I wait 20 minutes. At 8:10, I call Comcast direct and speak to a representative there. He tells me I never had an appointment for 6-8pm that night, I had one from 2-4 that afternoon. News to me! But then things started making sense. At work that afternoon, I received a call from the leasing office, saying they had a technician there and could he go into my apt to install the cable. I said, "Hold on, they're installing both tv and internet, and I had an appt for 6-8 tonight."

She said she'd explain it all to them, so I "assumed" that I'd still get a technician here between 6 and 8pm. The second thing I realized is that when I got home about 5pm, there was a message on my answering machine that had been cut off. It was from a Comcast technician, there to install my cable. The time? 1:59pm!

So I arranged it with the representative on the phone to have someone come the next morning between 8am and 12pm, and I took a half a vacation day. He showed up at 8:40, and was very polite, and knew what he was doing. But there's a kicker! Something NO ONE told me during all of this signing up for new services...they aren't allowed (yet) to wire into rooms that aren't already wired for cable. So, my second bedroom, where the computer is, that isn't wired for cable, AIN'T GONNA GET DIRECT CABLE HOOKUP. I either have to move my computer into the living room right by the tv (NO WAY IN HELL) or I go wireless! And then! My phone was originally going to be installed on October 4, but he set it up while he was there. BUT! I can only have a portable phone hooked up to the converter box thingy, and it'll be the ONLY phone I have. Regular wall phones won't work no more. Ok, that ain't no big deal, I can handle taking the headset around my apartment with me, it's not like I'm in some huge ass house and have a phone in every room, lmao. But still, it would have been nice to know all this beforehand, cause I might have made a different decision!

So the technician leaves about 11:30am, I put on my work clothes and I head to work. Thank goodness traffic is light then, I made it to work at 12:00pm, and I didn't really need to be there until 12:30pm. After work, I head straight to Best Buy, because I've been told I now have to buy a wireless router, an adapter card, and because I'm not moving my computer, a 50 foot network cable to hook up the router and computer while it's being set up. Once that's done, I don't need the cable again. Someone suggested I then return the network cable, but what if my computer crashes, and I have to re-install the router? I'll need the network cable again, and it will be much easier to have it here, then to run out and spend another $36 for one.

All told I spent $140+ dollars at Best Buy getting all this shit. Fortunately, I brought it home, and it was very easy to set up. I haven't had a problem since I did. I've set up my new email addy, now I just need to tell everyone...OH YEAH! Forgot one other thing! I was originally going to keep my same phone number. HA HA, NOPE! Found that out at the last minute too, they can't do that, only way they could do it is if for a couple weeks until the router was updated or some shit like that, I could receive calls, but I couldn't make any. Now, I don't make a lot of phone calls, but just the thought of not being able to made me say Ok, give me a new number! So now I have not only a new email addy, but a new phone number to give to all my friends, family members, acquaintences, cute strangers on the street, just kidding on that last one.

Tonight I was planning on sitting here at the computer, logged into my old email account, sending emails to everyone advising them of my new addy. Well, that didn't get done, lol. Maybe tomorrow while Kerry's at school I can do it.

Time to start getting ready for bed. Hope you enjoyed my adventure in the world of Comcast Cable! LMAO

I've been sitting here since Kerry went to finish making dinner, by myself, in the quiet (except for the kids yelling outside and the dryer running). I'm caught up on the blogs, I watched the Bears beat Minnesota today, I called the cable company about my continuing cable problems. Right now, I don't get CBS. It's stuck on a frozen frame from last night sometime. I have sound, whatever is currently airing, I hear it. But all I see is a frame from last nights football game. I even unplugged the cable for a few minutes and plugged it back in, that didn't work. Not that I thought it would.

I'm not sure if I'm bored, or just undecisive of what I should do. I have things that are on tape that I probably should watch. I have a book I'm in the middle of that I want to finish. I also have a stack of cd's behind me that I should rip to my computer. But I'm not really in the mood to do any of that. So here I sit. I suppose I should probably start another load of laundry, but I just don't feel like it. Maybe I'll rip one cd then go read for a bit.

Ah, the joy of television! A few days ago, I got an envelope in the mail from a cable company in the area (Comcast). I don't have their cable, because the apartment complex I'm in only allows cable tv from one company, TVMax. Thinking I didn't need it, I tossed the envelope in the dumpster. In addition to the envelope, there was an oversized postcard from Comcast too, which said something about them buying out TVMax. So I realized right away I might want that envelope I just tossed in the dumpster. Fortunately, there was a lot of stuff piled up in the dumpster, and the envelope was sitting right on top. I reached in delicately, and pulled out the Comcast envelope.

Turns out, Comcast bought TVMax, so my cable is switching over to Comcast, and inside the envelope was a letter explaining some of the changes, and a form to fill out for approval to allow a Comcast technician into my apartment for the switchover. Now, keep in mind, I have basic cable. Not digital cable. Basic analog cable. I can't afford, nor do I need, all the additional channels I'd get with digital. I have no converter box, since I have no premium channels, and almost all newer tv's are cable ready. There should be no reason for a Comcast technician to come into my apartment, but what do I know?

Today I go to the Comcast website to see what channels I would get, what packages they offer, just in case I want to sign up for something different. My cable bill from TVMax was $37.15 per month, with Comcast it will be $44.04. There was an expanded digital package for only $2 more per month, that would require the converter box, and I would get a bunch more channels. I was undecided about whether to do it or not, after all, it's only two dollars a month, right?

After comparing the list of channels offered with the $44.04 Comcast package to what I currently have with TVMax, I'm gaining a few channels and losing one. I lose Sci-Fi Channel, but I gain TV Land, Hallmark Channel, Turner Classic Movies, Disney Channel (for all the rugrats I have running around here all day, lmao), CLTV (Chicagoland TV), Fox News, MSNBC, and Oxygen. What a tradeoff! I don't watch Sci-Fi that often; sometimes I'll catch an episode of Stargate, or a Star Trek marathon, or a Farscape marathon. Other than that, I don't watch it much, it's not a big loss for me. However, gaining Hallmark, Oxygen, TCM, and TV Land, is awesome!!!

The other thing I am considering, is the fact that if I upgrade to the enhanced cable option, I don't really get that much more in channel selection. I'd get the music channels, but what do I need them for? I have 11,000 songs on my computer! I would get some pay-per-view channels, because I'd have the converter box for them, but I don't buy pay-per-view movies. So in reality, I don't really need to go with the enhanced cable option. I think I'll be just fine with the standard cable options, and I highly doubt comcast will need to enter my apartment. Even if they did, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

So now I have this form giving them permission to enter, and this letter explaining everything. In the letter, it says, "Your building will be converted to Comcast services between Tuesday, September 26, and Thursday, September 28." That's all fine and good, but when I talked to one of the leasing agents tonight, that's when they will be here signing us up with the appointments to come and switch our cable over. Who KNOWS when the appointment will be! The letter also states that billing with Comcast will begin on September 29. What if I go there on September 28, wherever they are on the property, and they can't give me an appointment until September 30? Or October 1? Will I lose cable for two days? Interesting questions I can't wait to have answered!

It's Sunday morning, I'm listening to Kerry's stream, and felt the need to blog. Nothing real exciting to talk about, but I had to do it anyway.

It's been a busy weekend for me. Yesterday morning I got up about 8am, because I had a funeral mass to go to at 10am for my friend's mother-in-law. I know many people in her family from going to so many birthday parties, so felt I needed to be there for my friend and her husband. Afterward, there was lunch at a nearby banquet facility, so by the time I got home it was 2pm. I didn't get all the sleep I normally get on Saturday mornings, so I undressed, climbed in bed, and promptly went to sleep for an afternoon nap. By the time I woke up again it was 5:15pm.

I still hadn't watched Thursday and Friday's episodes of DooL, so I started watching them. I was almost done with the second one, and the phone rings. It's Kerry, telling me she won't be home in time for NTT. She suggests she could do it at 11pm instead of 9pm, but I insist that the people who play NTT won't be up that late to start the game then. I talked to the stream leader, decided I would throw a list together quick, he would keep score for me, and we'd do it as scheduled from 9-11pm EST.

We had a pretty good group there, Kerry ended showing up with two songs left, lol. Was a successful night, I believe. After that was done, I hung around to listen to another streamer for about an hour, then I went to relax in front of the tv again to watch a couple shows I taped Friday night while streaming. It was actually two episodes of the same show, Men In Trees. It's a new show this season starring Anne Heche. The series premiere was actually on Tuesday I think, but for some reason my ABC that night was having a sound problem, and I couldn't tolerate it. So when they re-aired it Friday night, followed by the second episode, I taped both and watched them last night. Very cute show!

After Kerry is done streaming in about 30 minutes, I'm off to go visit my aunt. We're going to go see The Black Dahlia, she'll fix me some yummy lunch, and I'll vacuum her floors for her. I have a load of towels in the washing machine, will have to do a couple loads when I get home later, so I have clothes to wear to work this week.

Have a great week, everyone!

Today was not my day, but tomorrow is already looking better. I think it's the weather. I don't remember the last time I saw the sun, and it seems everyone gets grumpy when there's no sun for an extended period of time. For the umpteenth day in a row it rained (surprise, surprise). We woke up this morning with this story. Fortunately, there hasn't been any flooding out by me, but the lake/pond by my apartment is pretty full. We certainly don't need any more rain, so I hope it stays away for a couple weeks at least, lol.

So today started out bad, before the rain even came. I have two alarms set to get me up in the morning...yes I said TWO alarms. The first one goes off at 5:00 AM, the second is set for 5:30 AM. I don't need to get up at 5:00 AM, it's just to start the process of making me conscious enough to get up by 6:00 AM, LOL. When the 5:30 AM alarm goes off, instead of turning it off, I (usually) hit snooze every 9 minutes until about 6:00. I distinctly remember checking my alarm clock before I went to bed last night. Either I was not awake enough to remember, or it decided to be obstinate and not go off. Either way, I didn't wake up until 7:42 AM. The big problem with that? That's about the time when I need to be leaving for work, not just waking up.

So I scramble out of bed, see the time, cuss a couple times, grab the phone, leave a message for my boss telling him I'm running late, and I should be there by 9:00. HA! The god's were against me today! I get showered, dressed, made my sandwich, and left my apartment by 8:30, which is pretty damn good for me, cause it normally takes almost an hour for me to do all that, lol. I get in my car, head out to the highway, and there's a huge traffic jam. It's all because of a new section of construction they started a couple exits up from me. They shifted lanes over, because they are going to start reconfiguring the off-ramp there. So of course, everyone has to come to a complete stop there instead of just moving over as the lines indicate. That section then sort of blends into the next section that's been shifted over about a half mile up the road for some bridge work being done prior to starting the road widening that is to start up again next year. Usually once we get past all that it opens up more and we can actually go above the posted speed limit instead of 30 mph under.

When I got to the toll booth to pay my $.40 right before I exit off and get on a different tollway, traffic came to a dead stop. All I saw in front of me was break lights. As late as I was, and not knowing what was causing the backup, I changed lanes and exited there to take my back way to another road I use as an alternate. Right after I got on that alternate road, it started pouring rain. Cats and dogs pouring rain. Buckets and buckets of water. So of course, everyone slowed down, cause you couldn't see where you were going. Back to 30mph...grrrr! By that time it was 9:05, and I was still at least 15 minutes away from work. Of course, once the rain started, there was NO WAY I was going to be able to get my cell phone out of my purse, dial my boss' number to tell him that I was going to be later than I thought. The time I finally show up to work? 9:30 AM. Now I have an hour and a half to make up for. Sigh! I figure I'll make up 30 minutes at lunch, stay 30 minutes late, and come in tomorrow (hopefully) 30 minutes early. No way on God's green earth I'm staying at work till 5:30 PM. I leave at 4:30 PM, the tollway I avoided in the morning was moving smoothly, I get just past the toll booth after getting back on the one that caused problems in the morning and traffic comes to a complete stop. WTF? About 10 miles up the road, there apparently was an accident. So we creep and crawl, and we creep and crawl, and we sit and we inch forward, and an hour later I finally get home. All in all, it took me 90 minutes to make a drive that usually takes an hour.

By that time, I was so frustrated and grumpy, the slightest little thing would set me off. I slammed the phone down after a possible collection agency called for the third time in two days, wanting someone who I have never heard of and obviously does not live here. I was starving, so I tried to make a fried egg sandwich. Since I was really really hungry, I wanted to use three eggs. So I plopped them in the same greased pan. Well, apparently, I didn't put enough butter in there, because they stuck like glue, and I mangled them trying to get them out of the pan. So I ate a scrambled egg sandwich instead. I tried to get on the computer when I got home, to surprise Kerry with some exciting news. I logged into msn, clicked it to try to send her a message, nothing happened. I clicked again, nothing. I clicked 30 more times in rapid succession, finally the msn window opened. I saw Kerry was on away, I sent her a message, filled with aggravation and grumblings about how I hate everything, no response. She was on away after all, lol. So after no response in about two minutes, I say "f**k it" and reboot my computer.

Rebooting solves all problems, right Kerry? LMAO While the computer was rebooting, I made my scrambled egg sandwich, fought with the eggs, the pan, the bread, the butter, some spice containers on top of my stove, I was rarin' for a fight with anything in front of me, lmao. After watching DooL, sort of (I ffw through all Hope/Patrick scenes and some Billie/Steve scenes), I was feeling much calmer, so I got back on my newly rebooted computer. It worked like a charm. Of course, by that time, it was 7:45 PM EST, and Bones was going to start at 8. So Kerry and I had about 15 minutes to talk before I went to go watch tv, and she was going to zone out and probably go to bed early. No Chris Young music tonight, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Now it's 9:30 PM CST, about time for me to start getting ready for bed, instead of midnight, and I haven't ripped a cd tonight. I have the hugest stack behind me on the bed, just waiting to be ripped to my computer. I hit the motherload last night at Target. Lionel Richie new cd, John Mayer new cd, Everclear new cd, Barenaked Ladies new cd, Papa Roach new cd, Bob Seger new cd, and Black Sabbath Greatest Hits 1970-1978. That makes 19 cd's I have to rip to my computer, lmao. OMG! I need to stop, I think I'm addicted! I wonder if there's a CA...Cd Anonymous?

Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment.~ Robert Benchley


This was the closest I could find to a quote that summed up my evening. I'm going to go all somber on everyone and talk about today and the great sadness on this fifth anniversary of the attacks in NY, Washington and PA. I did my best, as I'm sure many people did, to not dwell on it all day, and to do our best to go about our daily lives.

The day started out awful, pouring rain, heavy traffic, I was exhausted because I stayed up too late last night watching some stupid Chinese movie on The Sundance Channel. It finally stopped raining, oh some time today, not sure when, and it's supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow, and tomorrow night, no end in sight. If I don't post for a while, I've floated away, lol.

Traffic coming home was very light, which suprised me. It normally takes me about an hour to get home, tonight it only took 45 minutes, and I left 20 minutes later than I normally do (because I was so late this morning).

So I come home (thankfully it wasn't raining), I start a load of laundry, I watch Days of our Lives, I send some songs to Kerry, she sends me some songs, I fixed some pasta for dinner...I feel like I got so much done tonight, although I know in reality I didn't do much, lmao.

The football game is boring, so I guess I'll go watch something else for an hour or so. Until next time...

Well! What can I say that Kerry hasn't already said? It was a WONDERFUL weekend! It was so nice to spend some time with Kerry, and Mike too, of course! LOL

We did go shopping on Saturday. She wanted to see Chicago, so what better way to do that than to walk up State Street. We were working our way up to Marshall Fields, when we passed by an Avenue store. They sell plus sizes, and it's where I buy a lot of my clothes. I pointed it out to Kerry, she didn't believe me that they sold plus sizes. I said uh huh they do, I buy my clothes from there. She needed no more convincing to go inside. She would have bought the store out if she could have, lol. Instead she proudly purchased a few nice tops that will remind her of Chicago every time she wears them.

On we walked, eventually reaching Marshall Fields, where Kerry would find a new purse. She actually saw three, but the first one had a clasp that went over the top, which she wasn't crazy about. Then she saw a tan one, similar to the one she had with her, and she was about to get it, when I suggested she look over in one other spot she hadn't looked yet. Wouldn't you know it, she ended up finding a purse that was quite different from the one she had been thinking of buying. It's one of those purses with such a unique design on it, people will ask where she got that purse, and she can proudly say she got it in Chicago at Marshall Fields.

We decided to start working our way back to the car, and decided to visit Tower Records on the way back. That was the other major purchase Kerry had to make while here. She ended up getting 11 cd's. They were having a sale, buy 4, get the 5th one free. Can't beat that! A bunch of stuff she was wanting to get, except she didn't see John Denver Unplugged (wasn't he always unplugged?) $142 later, we trudged back to the car, headed to my place to relax a bit before the concert.

Kenny! What can I say other than fantastic? I was singing so much, I almost lost my voice. It's been a long time since I've been to a country music concert, and it honestly wasn't much different than any rock concert I've been to recently. There were drunks there, there were potheads, there were a couple arguments, the usual stuff for any concert, lol. Our seats were about as far away from the stage as you could get without actually leaving the stadium, lol. Opposite end of the stadium, very last row. But the sound was great, and there were enough big screens so we could see most of what was going on. I was really surprised to hear on the radio that morning that there were still tickets available. For Kenny Chesney, I thought it would have been sold out instantly, but I guess not. There were a few empty seats around us, which was nice, we weren't squished between people where we couldn't move. And the seats were bleachers, with backs; I thought they'd be stadium seats. Oh well, at least the backs helped. The concert was over about 10:30pm, we probably got home about midnight.

The next day, I had wanted to take them up to Wisconsin to see The House On The Rock. But with the Brazilian restaurant being in downtown Chicago, and the fact that we were also supposed to go see another friend about 3-1/2 hours from Chicago, there was no way we'd be able to drive up to Wisconsin, back into the city, and then out StygianMuse's house. As it was, we still didn't get to her house until at least 9pm, lol. Kerry just LOVED the double-decker bus tour. We went all over the downtown area, the guide talked about a lot of the buildings, the history behind them, which ones survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, where street names came from, why certain buildings were built the way they were. I learned a lot too. I've taken a tour of the city, but this one was the best I've been on. It put us behind schedule, but it was well worth it!

What an absolutely wonderful visit! I can't wait for my turn to go back to Toronto and have Kerry show me more of Canada (Hopefully PK can go with me again!)

Hump day is almost over. And what a quick day it was! I got to work about 8am, left at 9:45 to go to lunch with a customer, got back to the office about 1:45, and was heading home at 4pm. And I was able to get pretty much most everything done that I needed to!

My plan this morning was to leave between 9:15 and 9:30. The customer is just over an hour away, and I wanted to allow for enough time just in case. We have two company vehicles. One, the van, was being used today by a salesman in town. The other one, a Mitsubishi Galant, has been in use by a new employee from Japan. He couldn't purchase a car until he was able to get a US drivers license, so for the last two months, he's been driving the company car. Anyway, I found out from other people that he was getting his own car last night, and would be turning in the company car this morning. So I waited this morning, patiently, for him to come in to the office. At about 9:10, I go down where the logbook is kept for scheduling the car, and where the keys are kept, and no keys. I go ask him if he is using the car. He says he is turning it in today, and asks if I need it. I say yes. He asks when, I say now! lol. One of the requirements of using the car, is you can't return it without gas. It apparently was at half a tank, and he thought he'd be nice and go fill it up for me. It's now 9:20. He says, "I'll be back in 10 minutes." I say ok, I will wait. Patiently I wait at my desk. 10 minutes pass...15 minutes pass...20 minutes pass...I'm starting to think I should just take my own damn car and worry about reimbursement for the miles later. Keep in mind, the gas station is less than a block away! Another five minutes pass, and finally he walks in with the keys. I stand up, expecting him to walk towards me to hand me the keys. No, he wants to go talk to our HR person, I guess to let her know he was turning the car in and that I was using it. After another minute that seems like five, he finally brings me the keys, and I'm out the door like I'm being chased by bees. Oh yeah, he also had to explain to me, in detail, where the car was located in the parking garage.

I go out to the car, climb in, adjust the seat, adjust the mirrors, pull out, and get on my way. I needed an hour 15 minutes to get there. And I turned on the wrong street. I couldn't remember if it was the first light or the second light. So as I'm sitting at the light waiting to turn left, I'm calling a co-worker to get the salesman's cell phone number so I can call him and find out where to turn. As I tell her where I am, she says, "Doug said to turn at the Culver's." Hooray, I was only a block away. The light changes and I head to the correct street where the customer is located. We talk in his office for a few minutes, then head to lunch. I had the most delicious pulled-pork sandwich. We were there about an hour or so, we go back to the customer's office, and off I head back to work, while the saleman goes to another customer for the afternoon. 4pm never came so fast, lol.

So I got home this evening, I finished cleaning the bathroom floor, cleaned the toilet, and discovered I need to have maintenance come fix it. I'll talk to them tomorrow when I drop off my rent, they should come on Friday when I'm home from work doing other stuff. I noticed that most of the seal around the base of the toilet is gone, and will ask them to caulk that, hopefully that will help curb my ant problem next spring. I will also, hopefully, have them fix or replace the blinds in my bedroom. The pole that you twist to open and close them broke, and I've just kept them closed all summer, no need to open them when the room will stay cooler with them closed. Now that I will want to start having sunlight in to warm the room, I need them to open, lol. Oh yeah, will also ask if they can pull the dryer out so the air vent going outside can be re-attached. It's on the floor behind the dryer, and it's letting the warm air out and lint is collecting on the wall and the shelf above it, lol. Once they fix all that, I'll talk to them about renewing my lease. I got a note from them today, asking me to stop by before September 15th, to sign a new lease, since my current one will expire on November 30. And I have no problem signing it this early, unless I get let go from my job right afterwards, lol. That happened to me in 2003.

Ok, enough of this rambling, I still have to go watch DooL, and get to bed, I've been staying up WAY too late all week, and it's getting hard to get up in the mornings, lol.

Oh, Lainie? You were in one of my dreams last night. I can't remember now what it was about, but you were in it, that much I remember, lmao.

Wow, where to start! It seems like forever since I posted last. Oh wait! It HAS been forever, lol.

As some of you know, I am having visitors this weekend. My bestest friend (and her husband) is coming to visit me! I am SO excited!!! We have Saturday and Sunday to go...go...go! Saturday morning, bright and early, I'm going to pick up her up and we are headed downtown for some SHOPPING! I'm taking her to Marshall Fields (it's SO Chicago), and Tower Records (she insists on buying a TON of music while she's here), and for lunch I'm thinking Ed Debevick's. While we do that, her husband is going to go see a Chicago Cubs baseball game. Even if they lose, I still think it's a great opportunity for him to visit Wrigley Field. There's no other baseball field like it, with the Ivy, and the bricks, and the bleachers, and the rooftop fans.

After all that exhausting shopping, we're coming back out here to rest for a bit, and hopefully meet up with her husband in the late afternoon, but unless he leaves the game early, we'll probably miss him. And he might just go from the game straight downtown to do some sightseeing...Sears Tower, Buckingham Fountain, Navy Pier, etc. After our rest, my friend and I are going to see Kenny Chesney in concert! *jumps up and down* What are the odds that he's in town for a concert the SAME weekend she's coming into town, and there were actually tickets available????? It's fate I tell ya! His opening acts are Carrie Underwood and Dierks Bentley. I've heard Dierks does a really great job, as does Kenny.

By the time we get back to her hotel after that, we should be REALLY exhausted, and I'm going to drag them out of bed early the next morning so we can go up to Wisconsin, about 2 hours away, and go to The House On The Rock. It's like a museum, but it's in this HUGE house, and it's this amazing collection of things you wouldn't believe were collected, including the worlds largest carousel. It's truly a once in a lifetime experience. We should be done early afternoon, will head back down to the Chicago area to eat at Fogo de Chao. It's a Brazilian Steakhouse, and my friend's husband says the food is to die for! I'll have to bust open my piggy bank to eat dinner, lmao.

After all that, after dinner, we're going to drive a few hours to go visit another friend who lives in the general sort of vicinity of me, lol. It's been a few years since they've seen each other, so it will be a nice visit. We're all going to collapse in bed that night, and whenever my friend drags her ass out of bed the next morning (will probably be 4am, lmao) they'll start their trek home.

In the meantime, I've started some cleaning, want the place to look nice when they see my apartment. It certainly won't be perfect, but I'm trying to get a few things done that needed to be done before. Like my bathroom floor. No matter how much I mopped it, vacuumed it, mopped it, scrubbed it, it just wouldn't look clean. It will be now! I realized that the only thing that would get it clean would be a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser! Boy howdy is it clean now! The only hard part is being down on my hands and knees to scrub, lol...even with a cushion to kneel on. I did a third last night, a third tonight, and the other third tomorrow night. And when I was at Target tonight, I wanted to get some heavy duty Magic Erasers, and I FORGOT! I knew there was something not on my list that I wanted but I couldn't remember. Once I got home, I remembered, of course!

Speaking of Target...I bought more cd's (said in a sing song voice, lmao). I got the one last Kenny Chesney cd that we (Kerry and I) were missing for our collection. Now we have every cd he's released, lmao! I got the new cd by Crossfade, and alternative rock band. And, I got a cd of the soundtrack to a movie called Broken Bridges. It's a CMT Films and Paramount Home Entertainment Picture. I'm assuming it will be coming to theatres soon. Anyway, Toby Keith is on the cover, and he does almost half the songs on the soundtrack! He's in the movie too! I don't know what the movie is about, but with Toby singing the songs, the music at least should be good.

Tomorrow at work, I'm going to lunch with one of our salesman and a customer. So I get to leave the office about 9:30, and I won't be back till about 2pm, lol. Makes a nice short day in the office. Good thing I'm not swamped with work right now. And I took Friday off so I can be all set when my friend and her husband arrive after dinner, barring any unforeseen delays at the Canada border, lmao. Since it's only going to be 73F tomorrow, I don't want to wear a summer outfit and freeze all day, so I have to go decide what to wear tomorrow! It's hump day!

Yesterday I went to see the movie World Trade Center. I cried through at least half of it, and I forgot tissues. It wasn't a movie so much about the buildings and what happened on September 11, 2001; it was more about two Port Authority Police Officers that were trapped when the buildings collapsed. A very emotional movie! Since I knew I was going to see it on Sunday, Saturday night I watched United Flight 93 on A&E. I would like to think that I would have shown just some of the bravery those men and women had in trying to take the plane back before it hit another building.

On a lighter note, I've been having some strange things going on at work that I wish I could attribute to a full moon. Alas, that is not to be; the moon was full about two weeks ago. First, let me give a brief explanation about what I do and where I work.

I work at a steel trading company. We buy steel coils. Think about a roll of toilet paper, and we buy those in steel, about 4-6 feet (1-2 meters) wide. They weigh anywhere from 10,000 lbs to 45,000 lbs each. We have customers located all over the east coast, south and midwest of the U.S., and my department purchases steel from mills located in the midwest, west coast, and east coast of the U.S. My particular story has to do with a steel mill located in West Virginia (in the tiny narrow point that is smushed between Ohio and Pennsylvania) and a customer located in Alabama. There are three ways for us to ship these steel coils from WV to AL. We can load them on trucks, we can put them on railcars, or we can put them on barges and they would go down the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers to a barge terminal in AL where it would be unloaded. As for cost, trucking the material is currently the most expensive method, then rail, then barge. So to save the customer some money due to high steel costs, we agreed to barge several of his orders down there. Now, the other thing you have to understand is that these orders total several hundred thousand pounds.

We had some of the material ready for a barge that left the mill the end of July. On that barge we loaded about 827,000 pounds of steel coils (I'm not even going to TRY to convert for ya Kerry, lmao). While on the Tennessee River, after entering Alabama, the barge has to go through a series of locks. I'm sure this is due to different water levels in that area of the river. Apparently, sometime before our barge was to enter the locks, another barge hit one of the doors to the locks, and jammed it. Because of this, the door couldn't open and close normally, so they had to bring the barges in to the locks one at a time instead of several at once. They may have also wanted to get them fixed. All I really know for sure is that our barge would be delayed by at least another 4-7 days, on top of the approximately 2 weeks it had already been on the water.

Another mill, which had originally contracted for the barge, and who also had material on the barge, needed their material delivered or a customer would be shut down. So, unbeknownst to us, they diverted the barge over to the Yellow Creek Port Authority in Iuka, Mississippi, about 65 miles further away than the original destination. We did not find out about this until after the barge was completely unloaded, not that we would have had any say in the matter, but we could have started discussions about costs with the necessary parties. So now, we've been scrambling to figure out who will pay the extra costs for our customer to truck freight the coils 65 miles instead of 20 miles, plus storage costs since the coils were unloaded without telling us. Storage costs are $.90 per ton for a minimum of 30 days, so for 413.6 tons that $372 or so. Not a lot, but it's extra cost our customer shouldn't have to pay. Then there's the freight costs. That's a difference of about $12.60 per ton, or just over $5000. That's a chunk of change!

Here's a picture of a barge being unloaded, that's what our coils sorta look like, except ours are not rusty, they are wrapped in paper, and the barge is covered. But it at least gives you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Fast-forward to today. I get an email from the same mill that produced the material that was on the barge. They had 40 more coils, totaling about a million pounds, that were supposed to go on another barge down to THE SAME CUSTOMER. Any guesses on what happened? You'll never get it, lol. The mill loads the coils into rail cars to go up to the other mill that contracted the barge (and where they buy the bare coils that they coat), but instead of the coils being unloaded off the rail cars and loaded onto the barge, they continue on their merry way down to Alabama! That million pounds of steel, would have cost about $15,700 total in freight to go down by barge. By rail it's almost double that, $26,000. I'm told that to bring the railcars back to the mill and wait to go on another barge would be difficult, because they don't know for sure if or when the next barge will be going down to Alabama. My first question was, what freight are we being charged? The answer: the barge rate. Whew! So our only solution is to let the rail cars continue on their merry way down to Alabama, we'll alert the customer that he'll be receiving A LOT of railcars in a week or two, but that he's paying the cheaper barge rate, lol.

All this while we're trying to renegotiate the new contract with that customer, lmao.

Ok, I tried posting a picture here at the end of my long-winded tale. I wanted it at the end, not the beginning. Well, I didn't think it worked the first time, so I did it a second time. Then I had two pictures at the top of the same thing. I tried to cut and paste, but it didn't work. So I deleted the two pictures, saved my post, went to help to see what it said about placement of pictures within your text (first vs last...not just centered, left or right). It didn't help, so I figured I'd come back, put the picture in again, and try moving the text around instead. Well I tried that three times, now I can't get the darn picture to post at all, lmao! Ok, while I still had this open, I went and deleted all my cookies and temp internet files, and now the picture shows up! *rolls eyes* Let me try this. I think it worked!

Ok, here's my story about my car and tires. It's not much of a story, might leave you kind of flat when it's done, but here goes:

Monday morning I was driving to work. I sort of sensed that something was not quite right, as most drivers do when they are in their cars a lot. You just know when it's not handling right. So I was thinking to myself, I should really check my tires when I get home tonight to make sure one isn't low on pressure. (Can ya see where I'm headed with this?)

After work, I walk out to my car, climb in, and begin my drive home. Once again, I notice that something just isn't right with the car, it feels weird when I go over a bump. Still thinking I have a low tire pressure somewhere, I figure I'll look when I get home and if I need air in the tires, I'll run over to the gas station and fill it.

I'm about two blocks from my apartment, and as I'm slowing down to stop at an intersection, I hear "thump thump thump." Uh oh, that don't sound good! It was coming from the back of my car, but my car wasn't handling badly, so I still wasn't sure what was going on. But I figured it just HAD to be a tire problem. So with the noise continuing, "thump thump thump" I nursed my car at 5mph for the two blocks to my parking lot.

I pulled in very very slowly, got out, sure enough my right rear tire was flat as a pancake. I mean, there was NO air left in it at all. Who knows how long I was driving on it like that! So dejected and disgusted, I get my mail and go inside. Obviously, I needed to do something about it that night, since I had to go to work the next day, and I had very few options without my car. I called my aunt to moan to her about my bad luck, she offered to call her son who works sort of nearby and drives almost right by my place to go home. He could stop and put the spare on so I could go either fix the tire or get a new one.

While I waited for Michael to come, I went outside, got the spare out, got the jack out, got the directions out (women are good with directions). I jacked the car up, it's actually quite easy, and had it all ready for Michael to change tires when he got there. At 6pm, he finally shows up. Traffic was lousy, and I certainly understand what he was saying. He's there no more than 15 minutes, he has the tire off, the spare on, the lugnuts tightened, car unjacked (is that a word?) and tightens the lugnuts once more.

He goes on his merry way, and I head to the tire store. Since my car is only a year old, and I bought it new, I called them right away too, after getting off the phone with my aunt. The referred me to a place called Just Tires. Now, I was there once before a few years ago, when I had a previous flat, and I wasn't too impressed with the place. All they do is tires, but they didn't have any good tire brands for my car (when I was there before). I ended up going to NTB (National Tire & Battery). But the dealer said they refer all their customers to Just Tires, so I figure they'll have a matching tire for my other three in stock. I arrive, go inside tell the guy what happened, he goes outside, looks at the flat tire, gets the specifics on my tires, comes back in, and proceeds to tell me the sidewall is damaged, the chords are showing, so I have to buy a new tire.

I'm cool with that. New tire is better than a plugged tire anyday. He checks his inventory, no tire to match mine. He could offer me a tire by a different mfr. but then I'd have a mismatched tire. Ain't no way in hell I'm gonna do that! He then offers to check other Just Tires locations to see if another local store has that tire. He tries one, he tries two, he tries one that's not local...nope, nothing, nada, zip, no one has this tire! It's a freaking Goodyear Eagle! How hard can it be to stock a Goodyear tire? He says it will be Thursday before he can get one in. Like I can wait that long? My only other choice is to see if another tire place has my tire in stock. So he writes down the info on my tire, and away I go, once again disappointed with my experience at Just Tires.

Now, this location of Just Tires, is on the outside of a mall. Not even half way around the mall is the NTB I mentioned above. So I drive my car over to NTB, go in ask about my tire, he looks and says, "Yes, I have one in stock." Be still my heart! It will be 45 minutes, they're busy with some other orders at the time (it's now 7pm), and they close at 8. Boy did I get there just in time! Instead of sitting there for 45 minutes bored to tears, I wander over to the mall and walk around half of the main floor, window shopping. And btw Kerry, what I didn't tell you was that I went into The Build-A-Bear Workshop! It's right next to the Disney Store. They have a lot of cute bears and other animals that you can build. I bet kids LOVE that place! Anyway, about 7:35 or so I start heading back over to NTB. There are a couple people being helped, so I wait for them to finish, then the man behind the counter says they're just starting to work on my car (it's now 7:50).

My car finally is finished about 8:10pm, and $219 later (Ugh) I head home with one new tire, and three one year old tires, that all match! I put everything back where it belongs in my trunk, come inside, sit down at the computer and tell Kerry what happened. My credit card bill did NOT like the new addition, but what can you do? I kind of needed four tires on my car, right? I still hadn't even eaten any dinner, and fortunately I had enough for lunch to tide me over. I think I ended up eating a slice of canteloupe before I went to bed.

Anyway, that was my tire story. Glad you waited? Glad I told you? LMAO

Awww heck, it's too late to post what I wanted to post. Don't let me forget I have to tell you all about my adventure on Monday with my car and one of it's tires.

This is my great-nephew Sam. The picture was taken last summer when I was visiting over the Independence Day holiday. He was just over a year old then. I really miss him, and his big sister, and his mommy and daddy. Maybe I'll get back out to Colorado this fall.

This is, I believe, a young Cooper's Hawk, that was being treated in the veterinary care area at The Raptor Center. Since I can't see the legs, I had to guess based on the other markings and coloring. Either way, it's beautiful!

Here is a beautiful female bald eagle I saw when I visited The Raptor Center the day before the wedding. I never knew it, but female bald eagles are larger than the males! My tour guide, Sharon, gave me the best tour ever! She even opened up LOCKED cage doors so I could get clear pictures of the magnificent raptors.

This is the bride, Jacki, and her new husband, Zack, dancing the first dance at the reception. They were flying to Mexico two days later for their honeymoon. I hope they got back before the terror alert.

This is my first picture ever posted in my blog! It's my 2nd cousin and her dad dancing at the reception. I chose this pictures first, because it gives you the best view of her dress. It was hard to get good pictures at the reception, because there were about 200 people all crammed into this little room. There was barely room to move between tables. I'll slowly post other pictures from my weekend in Minnesota. There are some pictures still in my camera, and I need to use up the film so I can get them developed. I just haven't figured out what to take pictures of, lol.

I'm not competing with Ladystyx for who writes a longer blog, I'm not I'm not I'm not! LMAO

I don't normally post on the weekends, mostly because my weekends are so boring. But tonight I had the most interesting experience. And those of you that read this will all understand (AK you heard this yourself, so you already know what I'm talking about.)

After NTT was done at the chat site I stream at, another streamer volunteered to take over (and no it wasn't me.) Without naming names, this is a relatively new streamer to this site, and I'm not sure how much streaming he's done at other sites. I had never heard him stream before, but had heard good things about him, so thought I'd tune in and hear for myself. To back up a minute, during NTT, the host was getting some encouragement from the room to sing. After singing along with a couple songs, basically soft enough that we couldn't hear him very well anyway, I determined that I still didn't know whether he was a good singer or not. So now it's after NTT, and we have this other streamer going, and he decides that he too will share his singing abilities with the listeners. After all, he boasts, he did karaoke for 8 yrs. Correct me if I'm wrong AK, but he was flat out awful. I actually tortured myself by listening to him sing 4 songs. Then before my brain completely oozed out through my ears, I turned the stream off.

He was also singing along to the songs, but he was either very, very off key, or he was trying to harmonize and failing. I'm not one to normally make fun of streamers, I know how hard and nerve-wracking it can be, and it's not polite, but this was really bad. Most people that I've heard sing along, like Kerry, sing in tune, and you enjoying hearing them. Not this guy. Even the site owner agreed with me that he was bad. Of course neither of us said a WORD to him. And to top it all off, when he was singing, he was not enunciating very well, so the words were slurred and very hard to understand. It sort of ruined the rest of my evening in chat, when I didn't listen to the current streamer. So after listening to my own music for awhile, and reading some emails and blogs, I'm here posting this before heading off to read for a bit before sleeping.

Has anyone else had a situation like this? If so, what, if anything, was done about it?

I'm finally home from my vacation! I got home Tuesday night about 7pm. It took me an hour to delete all my spam emails, and sort through all the valid ones and read some of them. Yesterday I was busier than heck at work. I only had one day to get all my July stuff done. Fortunately, my boss was helping me out, and I was able to get everything done, but just barely. Today was more normal, not as busy, and I easily got everything done. I even had time around lunch to talk to Kerry, who needed a good ear, and I got caught up on making file folders for orders that I entered right before my vacation.

The wedding was beautiful! I didn't have the best seat in the house. I was in the third row, waaaaayyyyyy over on the left side, so some of my view was blocked by her five bridesmaids/maid-of-honor. But it was a beautiful ceremony, and thankfully only about 30 minutes long. Minnesota was just as hot and humid, if not more so, than here in Chicago. I think Sunday it got up to 99.5F, before the heat index.

I'm really glad I went, I got to visit with my cousins for a bit, and I now have a new and happy memory for July 29. You see, it's the date my mother died, and I was feeling a little melancholy about it all day. I didn't want to mention it to anyone, especially my aunt, since it was a special day to them. But at the reception, my persistant cousin and mother of the bride, got me to tell her why I wasn't up dancing and having a good time. She is the one that pointed out that now I have a new, happy memory for that day, gave me a big hug, and moved onto another table, lol.

One reason I love visiting my aunt and uncle is that my aunt loves to talk, and she loves to tell stories about family history. She took courses on geneaology, and did a complete family history, discovering that we are related to William the Conqueror. She put together a whole three-ring binder, which I have somewhere in my apartment. She also has been working on typing up family history, regarding more informal references regarding who was married to whom, and who raised other people's kids, which parents died in car crashes, etc. Stories that if aren't put in writing will be lost forever. I will get a copy of it once she's done typing it all up. And she still types on her electric typewriter. My aunt will be 79 in December, and still gets around quite well.

My uncle suffers from alzheimers, as I mentioned in a previous post. I was able to notice the progression while I was there. He is very quiet, even more so than he was before. He doesn't do much, he reads the paper each morning, and then he basically sits in his chair or on the couch much of the day doing not much. He sort of follows my aunt around like a lost puppy. One day while I was there, he and I were sitting in the living room quietly, my aunt was downstairs taking laundry out of the dryer, and after being gone only a few minutes, my uncle got up and went downstairs to see what she was doing; as if he knew she was downstairs, but didn't remember why.

They have their three meals each day at pretty regular times. My aunt makes quilts in the winter, she has a book club at church that she participates in monthly, and she works to keep the garden watered and weeded (sort of). She's not the best housekeeper, but who would be at 78? She had someone coming every other week to clean, but I think there were problems with her reliability, so that arrangement ended. My second oldest cousin, Don, is the most attentive of the four children. He stops by a couple times a week, and calls her almost every day (and he lives the furthest away.) He was the one that convinced my aunt to get a new stove top when one of them wasn't working anymore, and since they don't make stovetops that size anymore, she needed new countertops, and since they'd have to pull out the sink to put the countertops in, they might as well replace the sink she never liked in the first place. Don was also able to finally convince my aunt to replace her old worn out couch and loveseat, and the new ones are very nice. They are a dark green with these flower sort of patterns on them. Now if he could just convince her to get rid of the shag carpeting, lmao.

I was able to take pictures at the reception, which I'll post once I receive them back from Target next week. I also took pictures at The Raptor Center, on Friday July 28. My tour was guided by Sharon, who is an avid birdwatcher. (Scroll down at her blog, there's a picture of me holding a dried bird head.) I am a faithful reader of her blog, and was anxious to see some of the birds up close that she mentions frequently. I received the special treatment while there. I received a tour unlike most other tours. Sharon took my down to the veterinary area, where they were working on a rough-necked hawk, and a couple of cooper's hawks. I was able to take pictures which I'll post next week also. Then I went outside to the cages where the education birds are kept. I saw bald eagles, golden eagles, hawks, owls...plus a couple others I can't remember. I should have taken notes of what I was seeing, or taken pictures of the little signs on the outside of the cages identifying the birds. Of course, that was all hindsight! And since The Raptor Center, which is part of the University of Minnesota relies on donations from visitors, and the volunteers who work so hard, they request a donation. I was happy to oblige, and after the tour I received, I willingly doubled my intended donation! Sharon was a great guide, and is SO knowledgeable about all the birds of prey at the raptor center.

Wow, I don't blog in a week, and look how I've gone on and on! And now it's past my bedtime! I better hurry to bed or I might turn into a pumpkin.