From The Onion:
Preemptive Memorial Honors Future Victims Of Imminent Dam Disaster
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/preemptive_memorial_honors_future
I think I like the interview with “the first man to no doubt be killed in this tragedy” the best…
We’ve still got a lot to do, but at least now it feels like progress is being made. Of course, our biggest hold-up has been the painting, as we took on the task of changing the wall colors of three separate rooms in our new house – the living room, the master bedroom, and my office. The living room is pretty much done, however the office is just now drying as I type this and the bedroom probably has another day or two of painting to go. So in the meantime, pretty much everything we need is setup in the living room – bed, computer, etc…
But regardless of the whole “work in progress” status, I think I really like our new place. It feels like a new point in my life with Sara, which is both awesome and also just a little scary…mind you, not the point itself, but just that that’s where I am in my life right now – where does the time go? It’s weird to walk around this house and think of what the next couple of years here might hold for us. We’ve now got room to actually have guests visit without making them sleep on the couch or an air matress (at least we will once we finish unpacking, that is!), so I’m sure we’ll start having more visitors from out of town which is always fun. Next fall Sara and I will be getting married, which means that our home will host both families during the weeks around said special occasion. With any luck, Sara will be finishing nursing school and I might see something come of my writing while we’re under this roof, and who knows – we might even end up having a baby while we’re here.
*gasp*
I’m in a good place right now, though – both physically, and otherwise, and it’s kind of odd to be as truly content as I feel right now. And I certainly don’t mean that in a bad way by any stretch of the imagination – I’ve still got plenty of dreams to strive for on a variety of fronts and there’s always room for improvement in other areas as well, but I guess I just mean that for the most part things have really fallen into place quite nicely. I can’t complain, anyways, which is pretty impressive for me! I have a great home, an intriguing path in life to explore, and a wonderful partner to walk the mile with me – who could ask for more?
Seriously, what’s the point of cell phones that flash and beep and do everything except the laundry in an attempt to get you to plug them in when they need charging? My work cell is the absolute worst at this – it will beep every ten minutes when the battery gets low, until the thing is completely dead.
Here’s a thought – maybe instead of making all that noise, you could conserve energy until I get to a place where I can plug you in!
Boxes, bags, and other assorted crap moved.
Nooks, crannies, and multitude of crevices cleaned better than they were when I first moved in.
Keys returned to owners.
Happy for Taco Bell being open until 2am.
Looking very much forward to coming straight home after work tomorrow!
Summary:
Moving out of the old place now completed; will continue unpacking at the new house once aches and pains go away. Thoughts, memories, reminiscing about moving from old place to come after much-earned rest and relaxation…
So sore, so tired…
We’ve spent the last two days back and forth between the new house and the old, painting, cleaning, and generally moving crap – not leaving until 1:00am at the earliest. Two of the three rooms that are getting painted now have base coats and a few trips worth of stuff have been made, but it still feels like we have so far to go! And it doesn’t help that we’re both aching like crazy this morning – I’ve had more exercise in the last 48 hours than I have in the last 48 days! The nice side is that we both got to take bubble baths in the garden tub in our new house when we got done last night, with the only bummer being that eventually we had to get out and come back here.
So much to do today – my goal is to be sleeping at the new house tonight, albeit exactly what time is still a bit up in the air! I love the new place, but I’m going to be so happy when this move is over. Moral of the story: don’t try to condense into three days what should probably take you a week (or more!) to accomplish – you’ll just drive yourself insane…and sore.
I’ve been wanting to post this ever since this weekend when we found the place, but things have just been so crazy that blogging has sorta been at the bottom of the list of priorities! Our current residence is an utter mess and completely full of boxes – some empty, some not-so-much – and I spent way too much of yesterday running to BFE and back paying deposits and crap because finances are being stupid right now, but as of about 6:30pm the paperwork will all be signed and we’ll officially be in move-in mode.
Hopefully there will be more updates and possibly photos as the weekend progresses, but needless to say, despite the insanity things are going rather well right now!
Thanks, NBC, for finally giving us what we’ve been wanting for so long! Awesome season premiere.
That is all.
http://www.copswritingcops.com
I just came across this horrendous example of self expression and just had to share before I headed off to bed. Cops Writing Cops is a website where peeved law enforcement officials are ranting about being dealt the very same justice that they serve to the rest of us out on our highways every single day. It seems that there’s an unwritten law stating that police officers shouldn’t be held responsible for the laws of the common man, and anyone who doesn’t follow this guideline is a “dick.”
And while this is something that I guess I kind of always knew happened, seeing it written … in horrible grammar and spelling, at that … kinda leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, I had a friend through high school who’s father was fairly high up in the chain of one of the local agencies and she got away with loads of speeding violations – whether it was because of her Dad or because she was a girl, I don’t know – but in comparison to some of the posts on this site, going ten over on the highway is a bit different than expecting to be able to squeak by with a tip of the hat when going 30+ over in a 55 mph zone or getting caught DUI.
I think the most frightening part about it, though, is that point blank – these guys are really pissed, but almost in a teenage emo sort of way! Here they go into surprising detail about the offense, down to giving names and badge numbers and using copious amounts of profanity, and yet the headline for the site preaches “Professional Courtesy” and the atrocities that their fellow brothers are committing by daring to enforce the law across the board. These are times when people are finally starting to learn not to blog overtly personal details or work issues in public forums or give out names and addresses to strangers, and at the same time we’ve got our supposed heroes lambasting each other to the point that you could track them down and give them a piece of your mind, or anything else, if so inspired? The creators of the Dicks of the Month Club are a representation of the maturity that our society has chosen to protect itself by running around the city with loaded guns all day?!
I have a feeling this story is going to turn into a full-fledged Against the Grain… for me because I could just go on and on about the various levels of wrong that are exposed by reading this website. But to wrap this blog up in an attempt to get enough sleep so as to not risk a speeding ticket myself on the way to work tomorrow morning, let me say that with all of the other people who have clearly seen a similar concern about this site, I hope at least one of them has enough free time on their hands to scour some of the badge numbers and officers’ names off of that site to raise a stink and start some investigations within local police stations around the country. I’m sure it can’t be too hard for an officer to flip back through the tickets they’ve issued to find the ones that are calling them dicks and assholes in lieu of “professional courtesy.”
After you look up professional courtesy in ye old police dictionary, guys, you might also want to take a gander at the entry for libel. Or how’s about you just drop the whiney teenager act and start living up to that title of hero, eh?
And to add to an already awesome day, I came home this evening to find a package on my door, despite the fact that I wasn’t really expecting anything. Then I read the mailing label and got very excited…
You see, about two years ago when I first really started going to Disney World again since moving to Florida, I began collecting these really cool panoramic photos of the four theme parks. The guys who do them do an amazing job – they’re famous for a lot of panoramas of city skylines and landmarks that you may have seen in local stores (lots of NYC, Los Angeles, Miami, etc…). This set they did exclusively for Walt Disney World, meaning it was only sold at the resort, which I didn’t think would be that big of a deal until I found myself one print short of a complete set. I had gradually collected the prints for Epcot, MGM Studios, and the Animal Kingdom, but by the time I went to get the print for the Magic Kingdom, everyone was completely sold out. I checked back dozens of times, scoured every single Art of Disney store on property that I could find, and even checked eBay on and off, but nothing.
So long story short, last week I was up rather late and decided in vain to try sending an e-mail to the photographers themselves in hopes that they might be able to help me procure my missing print. They weren’t even offering it on their website, so I kind of figured it was a hopeless effort, but I was soon surprised when I got a reply asking for my address with the simple note, “Let me see what I can do…” Well, a week later I came home to find a copy of the missing print sitting on my doorstep and I can’t tell you how happy I am to finally have the complete set! Being both a Disney fanatic and a bit of an organizational freak (at least in some aspects), it’s always kind of bothered me to look up on the wall to see the three prints all nice and framed, but without their leader to guide them. And while I’ve come to terms that it would be stupid to make room on the wall to hang it now when we’ll hopefully be moving in less than two weeks, rest assured that this set will be one of the first things to go up in our new home!
If you’re ever finding yourself in need of something to spruce up a wall or even more, the guys of Blakeway Worldwide Panoramas offer an incredible collection of prints to cover just about any genre of interest. Aside from the Disney prints, I also really like their skyline photos and will probably look to get the Tampa one if I happen to get an office with more wall space when we move, but they’ve also got shots of race shots, national parks, lighthouses … even the shuttle taking off! You can get a nice print unframed for twenty-five bucks – I later framed all mine myself and they still look amazing. Needless to say, Walt would be proud…
I am.
This has been a good week for Sara and I financially! Well, in a manner of speaking, anyways…
First we got a letter from our insurance company stating that the Florida laws had been changed and we would no longer be required to carry PIP, which is a duplicate coverage because we already have health insurance and thus costs us about $20 / month for nothing.
Then we got an e-mail from our landlord asking if we might consider moving out a little early and taking a prorated rent for our last month to make it easier for them to re-rent the apartment. While it’s going to make the next couple of weeks insanely hectic as we scramble to find a place and move ahead of schedule, it’ll save us several hundred bucks in the process!
And finally, I went down to my local bank this morning and was able to consolidate my beast of a credit card with a 30% interest rate into a very sexy 8.25% from Wachovia instead! I won’t say exactly how much is entailed because frankly, it’s a little embarassing and scary all at the same time, but nonetheless the reduction will save a couple of thousand each year in interest alone and actually make paying the damn thing off somewhat of a reality once again! No more Chase … at least not for that card, anyways…
For even more savings, we’re also strongly looking into moving my cell phone over to Sara’s plan with Verizon Wireless, which between the reduced rates of her family plan and the company discount that I get should save yet another $40-50 per month for my phone! This one is pretty much a no brainer, as my phone will only cost $10-15 compared to what it is now, and the only thing that’s holding us back right now is having to pony up the initial cash both for a new Verizon phone and to terminate my Sprint contract early.
Good day!