Stupid Eric tricks, part 0003

From the "he who can laugh at himself will always have company" department.

The dumb Eric story of the week... I was kind of proud of getting my weekly stupidity out of the way on a Monday. I was leaving for dance practice, and I had my car key chain in my hand. At the last second, I decided to get a soda out of the fridge. I grabbed the soda, put it in my dance shoe bag, closed the fridge door ...and... pointed the remote for the doors on my car at the fridge and pressed ‘lock’. I was NOT rewarded with a light flash or a beep, in fact, the fridge door didn’t lock at all.

Camera Issues, Again?

Troy & Merinda had their early Mardi Gras party last night... king cake, beads, chili, cornbread, swing tunes, board games, dancing, and of course ninja fighting on the x-box 360.

The 'bead game' was you can't say the word 'dance' or you lost your beads to whoever heard you. Naturally as soon as you can't say a word, it pops into your mind and vocabulary constantly. I ended up the night with five sets of beads, although I lost mine twice.

We played Apples to Apples. It is amazing how vicious that game can be, also how funny. Troy won, he must have really wanted to win after not doing very well his first couple of times.

Anyways, I left my camera there, or you'd have pictures :-(

Appliance replacement, part 0002

My washer gave up the ghost on Thursday. The motor has frozen solid. Naturally this occurred in the middle of a load, so I had to pull all of the wet, cold, soapy clothes out of the washer, and now I have to find some way to drain the water that won't involve flooding the house.

This is my second appliance purchase in under a year... aah, the joys of owning your own home.

Thanks to T&M for letting me do my laundry there.

Announcement!

Until confusion about my new work schedule is cleared up, I am postponing my game night party. As soon as I know what weekends I have on, and which one's I have off, I will reschedule. Sorry.

Note to cat, I can eat dinner without your help...

The classic bait and switch ploy. This post has nothing to do with dinner or cats.

I am feeling pretty good about myself (contrast last weekend). Despite a bad night dancing, I could hardly get off of the floor without someone else asking me to dance (okay, we could have been short leads, but it was nice to feel popular).

At Viv's party on Saturday, I managed to (mostly) behave myself, even when things got a little silly at the end.

Made it to church on Sunday, and instead of watching football all afternoon, I went out to eat with Viv & Robin.

And today, I came home, and instead of hopping on the computer and ignoring my chores, I cleaned up, got the trash out, and cooked before heading to the computer or t.v.

New and Interesting Things

I learned a lot about about some of my friends strange habits last night before Viv & Jenny's party broke up... none of which is being told here. However it can best be summed up by something Kevin said "...nobody had better ever call ME weird again."

Note to Kristen, Rebecca, and friend. I hate that light, I never see it until too late. I have probably run it a half dozen times more than just doing so right in front you last night.

Quotable

I went in search of a specific quote from Eleanor Roosevelt yesterday, didn't find it, but I did find this beauty:

I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Micro-thoughts

My new schedule has been put on hold until the other person who will work opposite me is hired. I guess there just aren't enough people in the world who want every other week off of work. :-)

Speaking of work, it looks like one of the people I know has been caught by the work blog police. I just tried to go to her blog, and it is down, and her last entry was about how her boss had found her blog and she was in trouble for some of the unflattering things she had said about her job. A poster on her site tried to make it a free speech issue, it's really not, see this CNN article for more about work / blogs / free speech. As a person who has been fired suspiciously quickly after filing a workmans comp claim, I can tell you that if it isn't about race / age / gender, you can pretty much be fired for any or no reason whatsoever. I hope she still has her job.

I will be taking the Monday Balboa class when it starts on the 30th. Classes on any other day of the week will be harder to take once the new schedule starts, but I bet I will manage. This will be Balboa class number three for me (plus one Balswing). I feel as though I have the Bal basic down finally... I am not even a slow learner on this, I am not the only person with a long Balboa learning curve. I love Bal, it's amazing to watch (Brian, Billy, Jonathon) and quite fun to (try) dance.

The UP building only has Coke machines... yuck! It only cost me $6/day to park here. (edit: I have since been told the other break room has Pepsi). This will probably be my last time working down here, I won't get to come down here once I hit my new schedule. I really like a couple of the people down here, Dan & Danielle in particular.

Mr. Smarty Pants

This comes from Mae, it is called:

The Monday Morning Quiz!

I am here to proudly announce, I got all eleven right in just a minute or so, and only #10 stumped me for more than a couple seconds. Post your scores to my comment section... Viv & Robin, this means you, and yes Robin, make Tim take it and post his score too.

Psychic Mae

I got a phone call from Mae tonight asking me to dinner tonight with her and Troy right after I took a shower and put on my pajamas... Obviously she is psychic...

The events of the weekend (which were all GREAT) left me feeling quite unfulfilled and by myself today. I am not stupid, I have a great life, fantastic friends, I am unlikely to be unfed or unsheltered any time soon, yet I am feeling that old 'something is missing' feeling. I can even be clinical, look at myself and realize that it is just a higher order of need that I am looking to have fulfilled. Yes, I am talking about being lonely (again).

So there, not so bad was it. I'm knocked down today, but I'll be back up soon enough.

P.S. Happy 3rd Birthday Trogdor!
P.P.S. How can Mae tell?

As if... (part 0010H)

Well we all know now why I don't actually bet on football...

As If...

As if... anyone who reads my blog knows a football from a goalpost, but... Here are my picks for the weekends NFL playoff games:

Washington @ Seattle - this is the toss up game to me, Seattle has the better players on any given Sunday, but coach Joe Gibbs of Washington is the difference here. The man has one championships in two different sports, and can easily out-coach Seattle's Mike Holmgren.
Washington by 3.

New England @ Denver - every prognosticator you see on TV is going with New England, I guess I must be stupid, I don't see how Denver loses this game, too much altitude, not enough rest, may be close until late in the 3rd or early 4th, but the champions go down.
Denver by 10.

Pittsburgh @ Indianapolis - let me just say this, Mr. Jerome Bettis, thank you for a wonderful career, you have been class and grace (okay more like class and a wrecking ball) on and off the football field. You are the reason I like sports so much, a good man, working hard, and setting an example for others. Thank you.
Indianapolis by 1,472.

Carolina @ Chicago - oops, I think we are about to get a homer call... I went through the game in a work related e-mail to Misty, I admit I am nervous about this matchup more than any other in the NFC, yes we beat them once, but there were some things that just didn't go well. The more I thought about it, the less I could see the Bears getting away from who they were, they run the ball and play spectacular defense. Enough offense to win, aided by at least one defensive score.
Chicago by 3.

Let's see if I should have flown to Vegas...

Finally, New Years Eve Pictures

Here are 9 of my favorites from new years eve!

Less of me to love, part tooth

I am about sick of having teeth pulled. I am down to just 22 teeth left. Three more and I probably have to move to ________(insert your own choice of locales here). Just a crown remaining, and I will be done for a while.

Tuesday?

This week is dragging and it's only Tuesday... :-(

Kidnapped!

Last night I was kidnapped by Robin and Viv, who dragged me to the local Dairy Queen (their hideout) where they met their accomplice, Tim. These twisted individuals then made me eat ice cream, dance to 80's tunes, and then made me wear one of the counter-girls coats when they chained me to a post. Fortunately I was able to escape, and managed to get some visual evidence of the inhumane conditions of my capture...


Beware of these individuals there is no telling what they might be capable of...

"Karoke" Quality Exciting News

I am SO excited, just ask Viv how up I was talking about it on the phone. I know it's not for everyone, but the approval came through today at work for a 7 days on, 7 days off schedule, with day hours. So now I get to work my dream schedule, on days, and not miss most of my normal activities (save every other Lindy in the Park). No start date yet, they still have to hire my "opposite", but once that person is in place, woohoo, every other week is vacation time!

Tagged, I Am It...

Freaking great. Mae tags me with one of those dumb learn more about me things that are the blog equivalent of chain letters, and whereas I feel comfortable muttering under my breath at her and calling it dumb... it's still Mae, and out of respect for her, I can't exactly say no. So here it is:

"These are the rules of the game: The very first player chose a topic. In this case, the topic is FIVE WEIRD HABITS OF YOURS. You must then write a journal entry listing those weirdness you possess~as well as the rules of the game. Then, you select ONE PERSON TO TAG and link their names/blogs in your entry. Go to their journals and leave a comment informing them they have been tagged by you and to read your journal to see in what way they have been nailed!"

5. I drink a ton of soda, actually I just calculated it out (another weird habit), I drink over a ton of soda a year.
4. I don't listen to too much music made after I was born.
3. I sleep with a hat on when it is cold, in fact pretty much year round.
2. I don't watch too much TV, but I love to talk to it when I do. I yell at the commercials, give advice to the characters, and tell the writers, director, and producers what they SHOULD have done.
1. I don't like movies!

I am tagging Sarah!

God at Work

This is VERY strange. Many of you know that I HATE not getting enough sleep, like it is the one thing that will make me FREAK out... I need to know I am going to get my 8 hours or I am a crabby, stressed man.

Well all of sudden this week, I’m not freaked out. I was short sleep Monday night because my sleep schedule was screwy from the weekend, I didn’t worry about it, I just made it up Tuesday. I stayed up and watched the game on Wednesday, only about 5.5hrs sleep... no worries no stress, I just made it up yesterday. Now tonight, I have to work tomorrow morning, usually I’d plan to go home, nap, then dance AND leave early. I mean I am SO unconcerned. God working?

National Championship Game

A few (too many) words about the National Championship Game:
I didn’t think it was very well officiated. Texas won by three, and they had a touchdown that the replay showed that it wasn’t, but evidently the replay equipment wasn’t working at that time.

I also thought it was a game won (or lost) by the coaching, I thought the Texas guy (Mack Brown) had his players more ready to play, and called a better game, I thought the USC guy (Pete Carroll) tried to be a little too fancy.

The announcers talked a lot about bad tackling, but the guy with the ball is supposed to make one guy miss.

I think the Texas quarterback (Vince Young) was fairly amazing, but he didn’t make you stop and watch the way the Michael Vick, or Charlie Ward, or especially Tommie Frazier did. (not a homer call) I think Tommie Frazier was the most exciting college player I ever saw, Barry Sanders was the most exciting pro I ever saw.

Good game, but it didn’t grab me (the casual fan) the way the Ohio State / Miami championship a few years ago. That was two contrasting styles and had defense. This was two outstanding offenses against two against average defenses. Thinking back I cannot think of a single drive that was STOPPED, just drives that the offenses made mistakes or failed to execute.

How about a playoff system ;-)

New Years Eve Pictures? Not Quite

I just finished editing my pictures from new years eve, but I haven't gotten them posted yet. I am a little irritated with the computer right now, it is refusing to cooperate. I am also a little irritated with the camera... the large majority of the pictures were taken 640x480, even though I (thought I) had switched it to it's highest resolution. All but the last ten or so are kind of blurry.

A Few Things!

1. Happy 2006, may you all stay healthy this year.

2. January 1, 2006, 11:59pm, the weather here is currently thunderstorms. Poor Cherokee.

3. My personal research into the bird flu (a.k.a. drinking way too much on New Years Eve) is over. I have a plan now on how to handle having the flu because of my experience today. I hope those of you who witnessed me having too much enjoyed it... it will be a while before I drink more than a beer or two at once.

4. Picture's from the New Year's Dance, courtesy Troy (pictures from my camera & Troy's camera, taken by many people)