 |
|
|
|
Tuesday, October 29, 2002 | <10:51 AM> So there's this really annoying thing going on in my house... Ever have a strange noise and not know what the hell it is? I do. And I'm about to pull my hair out trying to figure it out. Every 5-7 minutes (I haven't timed the intervals yet) there's a real quick bleep sound coming from somewhere around the kitchen or living room. It sounds like a smoke alarm telling me the battery is going dead, but I can't find a smoke alarm in the vicinity. I thought it could be the alarm box, but that's not the case. Is it the microwave timer? The dryer? I DON'T KNOW! Dammit! The worse part is, this little noise seems to throw it's voice everytime it beeps. One minute it sounds like it's coming from the kitchen, the next time the living room. And it's only about a quarter of a second long so there's no way I can pinpoint it. It's giving me a headache just thinking about it. My goal this week is to go noise hunting and make it stop. Monday, October 28, 2002 | <10:51 AM> Another gray weekend. Managed to fit a lot in, though. On friday I wrapped up a press check at blanks and made it home a little early beating traffic in the process. Picked jessie up around 7:00 for dinner at abuelos. Good food. The plates are big enough to hold a small child and there's more than enough food for two on a single entree. After gorging on chips and texmex we decided to visit the scaregrounds haunted house off irving blvd. I haven't been to a haunted house since high school -- it was fun. Saturday I got a few things done around the house like cleaning the room todd stayed in for two months -- so nice of him to volunteer to clean up after himself... I mean, apartments require you to at least vacuum the carpets and clean the shower, but I guess since I didn't make him pay me a deposit he didn't feel the need to do so. I eventually got the room back to normal and moved some of my art supplies back in there to start painting again. It's nice to have the room to do that again. Now if I can just convince him to come by and pick up the rest of his shit... I bought a few pumpkins last week and we made jack-o-lanterns saturday evening. Again, something I had not done in a long time. Hopefully the neighborhood kids won't smash them on my porch when I'n not there on halloween. I dusted off the fett to try and win some cash at dick's last resort saturday night. They were holding a costume contest and jeff and jonathan agreed to help out and see if I could win some cash. I didn't, but they had fun mocking me anyway and I was grateful they helped out. We headed to greenville for a few hours afterwards then I drove home in the rain. Sunday -- the usual. The texans won their second game defeating the jags and emmitt broke the rushing record at home as predicted. I was glad to see him do it -- god knows I'm not a cowboys fan, but he's a class act and deserves it. Nice job, 22. In other "who gives a shit" sports news, the angels won the world series in game 7 over barry bonds and the giants. Ha-ha. Barry, go pump some more steroids and disgrace the sport a little more next year. Tough cookies. Hope the time change doesn't kick me in butt too bad today. It's tough on the work week when it gets dark at 5:30. Looking forward to taking the day off on friday (and hopefully monday). Next sunday should find me sitting in reliant stadium with my dad watching the texans beat the bengals. I can't wait! Wednesday, October 23, 2002 | <8:36 AM> I need a vacation. Or better yet, I need to take advantage of some days off in the near future. At last count I've got 8 days left on the docket and I plan on putting in my requests before friday. Heeding the advice of others, I plan on taking my days come hell or high water. There's a strange construction phenomenon going on in north dallas. It seems on every corner they're building a bank or a dry cleaners. What gives? Jessie and I have both noticed the sudden demand for cash management and clean clothes. Maybe the entities should go into the "money laundering" business together... (rimshot). Thank you. Thank you. I've started some sketches for the next painting project I seem to have no motivation to start when I get home during the week. I guess my constant daytime focus on being creative is a little draining to start all over when you get home, but I know once I get the brushes out and have at it I won't have much trouble moving along. It's always the first steps. Also, I seem to be more artistic on cold days and we haven't had too many of those just yet. A while back we were working on a pitch to build awareness around the launch of E.T. on home DVD. Like so many other pitches that start out with a bang, it eventually vanished with a whimper once the flowchart masters and data crunchers got their heads around it and overcomplicated shit. I specifically remember how this was touted as creative's baby and the big idea was thrown around in meetings over and over and in typical (insert company name here) fashion, we couldn't see the creative forrest through the data trees and the whole project went kerplunk. It might have been cool if we actually got past the thumbnail stage, but it just wasn't meant to be. I bought the damned thing on my way to work yesterday and thought about that. Blah. E.T. is a classic and the extra features make it well worth the $17. It also made me crave some reece's pieces again. Think I'll go buy some today. Monday, October 21, 2002 | <8:22 AM> Bummer. After getting all dressed up for RENT last night, we had a little mix-up from ticketmaster. We apparently had tickets for a thursday night show when should of had sunday night tickets. Hopefully ticketmaster can rectify the situation and issue jessie a refund or at least a credit for the purchase price... we'll find out today when I call. Really sucks, too. In leiu of a night at the theater we had desert at cafe brazil and watched our sunday night HBO. Bummer. The color for the weekend was a cool gray with strokes of brown. I didn't do a whole hell of a lot. Jessie's mom came up and we had dinner with her on saturday night and I ran a few other errands in the afternoon. Sunday was just like clockwork (football season) and friday night found me having a few drinks in the rain and sleeping late on saturday. I've had my fill of rain for a while and I'm sure the dogs have, too. I keep forgetting to blog it, but my sister's expecting again. My guess is another boy... Thursday, October 17, 2002 | <9:28 AM> What a morning. After delaying the pain of getting a brake job for a few days (okay, weeks... whatever), I woke up at 6:00 this morning to be the first car on the lot at Just Brakes when they opened at 7:00. Bubba the service guy in his jeff gordon cap took my information as he rubbed the hangover from his eyes and the altima was pulled into the service bay. After inspecting the system, they invited me to take a look at the brakes and see just what the hell was making all that noise. Of course, it's not just one thing, but a combination of things that are wrong and need to fixed, replaced or re-adjusted. Great. I awaited the gouging inside to the tune of $349. Nope. Not gonna do it I told 'em. I put my foot down. Just fix what I need to get out of here and I'll take care of the rest later... $144 is still a rip considering all their ads lead you to believe that in "most cases" the $99 friction-reline will cover everything. I wonder how many cars actually come in there and get out for just a hundred bucks. Not too many, I bet. As I write this (to copy and past in the blog later), I'm sitting in the IHOP down the street waiting for bubba to get done. I never been in a more depressing breakfast joint. Part of the reason might be it's right next door to a medical center and from the looks of it lots of people come in here while they're waiting on the medical center for test results or loved ones who are sick. After bitching about my brakes for the last few minutes I guess I should shut up -- things could be a lot worse. But this breakfast sampler couldn't. Ugh. Tonight, jday and I will be attending the broadway sensation "the lion king" with jennifer and david at fair park. Everyone who's ever seen it raves about how great it is, and while I'm not a big musical buff (screw you, jim and dave), I have to admit I'm really looking forward to seeing it. My culture intake will increase again on sunday when we go see "rent" at the majestic. Cool. And if anyone thinks I'll be attending an opera or ballet in the next few weeks, think again. A man has to have his limits. And for closers, here's a list of crap I've been wanting to rant about the last few weeks, but have spared you (and myself). Enjoy: 1. Fat chicks who put "princess" or stickers on the back of their cars. Whatever. 2. Is there any reason to listen to NPR anymore? Every time it's Iraq this, Iraq that... Enough already. 3. Flip-flops. They're annoying and meant for the beach. Please stop wearing them to the mall. 4. Grown women who wear leggings and stupid hats at the first hint of cold weather. 5. First that annoying steve guy, now annoying interns. Dell commercials really suck. 6. Randy Moss, Terrell Owens and Keyshawn Johnson. Shut your piehole and play football. You can't get the ball on every single play you cocky, overpaid, greedy bastards. 7. Jamie. Just have one bad week of fantasy football... one. That's all I ask. 8. People in the office who feel the need to let everyone know via email they're going to be in 15 minutes late... and then email you again when they actually get there. We don't care. Really, we don't. 9. Civics that make more noise than a motorcycle. No explanation needed. 10. Reality television. It's over. Find another bandwagon. Thank you and please remember to tip your waitresses and bartenders. Monday, October 14, 2002 | <8:51 AM> Damn. It actually looks like my beloved packers have a shot this year. They destroyed the super bowl champs yesterday as favre passed elway for third on the all-time passing touchdown list. And while a good majority of you could care less, I thought it was pretty cool. It's my blog and I'll gloat if I want to, gloat if I want to... Aside from my usual sunday lounging around the house watching the agony of my fantasy football scores I didn't do too much else. Work should be a real hoot today considering no one was much of a mood to get much done on friday. Looks like it's time to play catch-up. Sunday, October 13, 2002 | <8:39 AM> I guess it's no big surprise texas lost the big game yesterday to a tiny running back and the entire OU football team. OU simply seems to play better in the big games and I'm sorry, but chris simms is perhaps the most overratted quarterback in the country. I'm sure the number of fights and drunken bragging rights that took place last night on greenville and other hot spots around dallas were just as ugly. Jessie and I watched the game (or at least part of it) from hooters of all places with some of her friends from college -- all of them UT alums, of course. I imagine come monday UT will drop to 6 or 7 and leave texas fans once again scratching their heads wondering what might have been if they could only beat bob stoops. Yesterday morning was gorgeous. I was invited to play golf at sherrill park with a work connection and met him and 2 of his friends for what turned out to be a really great day for golf. While my swing wasn't as great as I'd hoped, it could've been worse and everyone had a good time being outside for a change. Sherrill park is a nice course, but a bit crowded and a tad too pricey for what you get. I didn't let either ruin my fun, though. That might be the last round I play until spring depending on how the weather holds up over the next few weeks. Saw "rules of attraction" on friday night. It was OK, I guess. After sleeping on it a few nights, I appreciate what the movie was trying to do, I just don't think it was very successful at doing it. I was expecting a much better movie than I saw. Oh well. There's still lots of other stuff we want to see and luckily the crappy days at the box office (september) are no longer keeping us from the theater. NFL kicks off in a few hours. Think I'll throw on some sweats and go mow the jungle. Friday, October 11, 2002 | <2:28 PM> I'm a blogging slacker. After making things easier by transitioning my blog to blogger I'm making less of an effort than before. Is there a pattern here? No. I've just been occupied and too uninspired to write about anything. Everything is good in skainesland. This month has found me anxious as hell for the cold weather to get here and the skies are getting greyer by the day. The downpour of rain the past week has officially made my front yard a danger for small children. If the grass grows any higher it might camo the house. If you're interesting in helping out with some yard work, feel free to drop by this weekend and bring your work gloves... Last weekend figs and I made a trip to austin for the UT game and a change of scenery. Neither one of us had been out of dallas since july 4th and the 3 hour trip south was just what the doctor ordered. Austin is a fun city and can make dallas look like pretty dull in comparison. I managed to get a nice sunburn on my forhead and hangover on sunday, but it was nothing a kolache stopover in west (the town) couldn't cure. Fun trip. Other exciting/notable events over the last few weeks (in no particular order): Got a new area rug for the living room, My parents went to new england to see the trees change, The A/C drain pipe overflowed causing some water damage to my carpet that involved some genuine "do-it-yourself" half-ass repair work, I saw a really bad movie (at least I thought it was), got the new ben folds live CD, and a sniper is picking off people in virginia. Crazy shit. I promise to make more updates to the blog from now on and make a little more sense in the process. There, chuck... happy? |