I hate Earthlink.

I have been without DSL service now for a week. They blame my wiring, which I haven’t changed in years…. I blame their network, the network says everything is fine. It’s a pissing match I’m determined to win. Currently, I’m in a hotel room using their free WiFi. Thank god for small favors.

I did finally select a costume and went to the Halloween party, details on that to come soon… but for now, I must head on over to Auburn for the Auburn/Ole Miss game… WAR EAGLE!

Ugh. Despite my confidence in my team, never would I have thought we’d lose the first game of the season… to Georgia TECH of all teams. It makes me sick. Since when did Georgia Tech begin offering Underwater Basket Weaving as a major so that they could have real football players?

Auburn showed sparks of life, occasionally. but they never put anything together for an extended length of time to keep the scoring drive alive. Hell, the new QB isn’t much of a prize either, throwing four interceptions. And then of course, the ACC refs obviously had their hand in Tech’s pocket… how else could they blow so many calls (late hits, pass interference, etc)?

It’s going to be a looong season, Auburn fans, if this keeps up.

While I was there, I snapped a couple of pics with my cell phone… want to see what $1000 a season buys you? Two tickets with a view like this….

But the best part is, we usually get to be near the kids (I’m not sure if they’re overflow Freshmen from the Student section, or if they’re local area high school kids)… anyway, they’re sometimes annoying, they rarely watch the game, and for this game, I took a friend of mine and my dad. My dad made a new friend. We’ll call her Drunk Girl.. because we didn’t get her name… and well, she was quite drunk. I could smell the alcohol, and I was about five feet away from her. Drunk Girl kept asking my dad important questions like “Are they going to score a touchdown?” and when Tech was finally flagged for a penalty, she wondered “Is that good for us?”. Best of all, she kept up our hopes that Auburn might win, reminding us “But, they won all the games last year!”

Meanwhile, she had two drunk boys (not us) hanging all over her too… but I think she wasn’t too impressed, since they kept teasing her. I’ll admit, she was kind of stupid, but I’m not sure if that was reality, or just the alcohol talking. Anyway… I snapped a picture of Drunk Girl too..

I wonder if her parents will see this.

Next week Auburn plays Pississippi State. Hopefully, the Tigers learn how to play football before then.

Ever have one of those days where your morning just starts out awful? Check this out…

I wake up early, with plans on getting to the office a little early this morning to get some stuff done before I have to head out to Columbus, GA in the early afternoon.

Yeah right

On my way to the office, one of my tires goes soft… almost flat. I limped into a gas station to use their air pump, dropped three (THREE!) quarters in the slot for air and nothing happens… the damn things dead. I march inside, get my money back and check the pressure in my tires… sure enough, the passenger front tire is about 15 pounds low.

Carefully rolled across the street to the *OTHER* gas station… pull up to it’s air hose and find it only needs two quarters.. too bad someone’s jammed a penny and a nickel together in the slot and you can’t get them out. Finally, I roll down the street to where we take all the company vehicles for their regular service… and I ask the manager if he can fill my tire with air, which he gladly does.

Then I get to the office, an hour late, with the intention of getting a few things done, then leaving for Columbus. Just before I get ready to leave, I’m told someone in our prep department lost his hard drive, and the entire configuration for one of our biggest customers. It’s up to me to redo the entire configuration and so our prep department can back it up again. That takes me the rest of the day, so instead of leaving around 1:30 or so, I left the office at almost 7 pm.

It’s a two hour drive to Columbus. So, instead of getting here in the mid-afternoon, I get here at 9 pm… with not much time left for much of anything, except to watch news about Katrina’s aftermath.

What a fun day it was today. Don’t you wish you had my life?

I was reading my usual list of blogs this morning and Mango has decided to shut his blog down. I am a bit saddened by the news, but Mango wouldn’t want us to be sad. And I suppose he’s right… I’ll move on and find another blog to read in it’s place. But very few blogs match the humor and the wit of Mango.

I’m not sure who discovered who first… but we both started blogging about the same time (not that you can tell by his archives - yet another fun story in Mango’s life). We were almost blog brothers of a sort. I even took this picture last time I went to Hawaii and emailed it to him. Mango even once bought me a Barenaked Ladies CD from my Amazon Wish List… and for that, I’m still thankful. It goes everywhere with me in the car.

I’m going to miss his special brand of humor and quick wit. I’ll miss MangoRadio (even though I couldn’t always tune in)… Whenever they rotate into my playlist, I will forever consider Hootie and Blowfish and Barenaked Ladies as MangoRadio tunes. Most of all, I’ll miss Mango’s blog.

I imagine we’ll stay in touch occasionally… maybe I can get him to stop by here occasionally and comment on things here on my blog. But it won’t be the same… Goodbye Mango!

Genuine just reminded me that it’s almost time to move the clocks ahead an hour if you celebrate Daylight Savings Time. I still have clocks that I haven’t reset from the last fall-back…. heck, I’ve got one clock I don’t think I’ve even wound since the last fall-back.

This is one habit I hate. All this springing and falling and stuff really messes with my sleep schedule. Especially the springing forward. It makes me late for work. God, I hate that.

Not that my sleep schedule isn’t always constantly messed up anyway. As it stands now, I’m usually up until 1 or 2 am because I can’t sleep any earlier. Just imagine what it’s going to do to me this weekend.

Don’t forget boys and girls - set your clocks ahead an hour Saturday before you go to bed, or Sunday after you wake up…. and don’t forget to check your smoke detector batteries too.

Oh my gawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwddddddddddddddd…. make it stop.

We don’t have White Castle in the south…. and Hank* (name changed to protect the guilty) and I had a craving for White Castle when we discovered/remembered that they’re located in Ohio, where we’re currently working.

So today, we made the trek to the local White Castle and picked up the 50 count special… we walk out with a crate of those little pieces of dream on a bun. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm…..

Only, since it’s been years since I’ve eaten at White Castle… I forgot why they called them “Slyders”….. because they “slyde” right down through your intestines and out yer ass…. Oh yeah, don’t forget the explosive, smelly gas too….

Wow… remind me not to eat at White Castle again…. the bathroom will thank you.

Wow… I’m 29.

Another year has passed and I’m getting close to that 30 mark…. remember when you were a kid and you always wanted to be another year older? Yeah, me too…. Now, I don’t want to get any older. I think I want to stay 29 forever. Did you ever see that Friends episode where Rachel turns 30 and they reminisce about everyone else’s 30th birthday? I’m with Rachel, I don’t want to be 30.

Something about 30 just scares me. Maybe it’s because I haven’t really done anything exciting with my life… I’m working a job that barely challenges me and is more frustrating than rewarding… I’m still single…. I’ve yet to acheive any of the other major goals in my life either…. I’ve graduated from college (but not my first choice college), and I managed to buy a house instead of rent an apartment for all these years.

God, it’s depressing getting older. Ever wish you were a kid again and only had to worry about when the next test was and where to play after school? Oh to be a kid again…

But hey… maybe 29 is my breakout year. I think I’m going to call it the year of me. It’s all about me me me this year. At least I can say I’ve been to Hawaii before I turned 30. How will I deal with 30? Tune in this time next year to see…

I just finished reading about Snakey’s Decision, and I feel horrible for her. I’ve never had to put an animal down, or watch one suffer… but I have had to give one away…. It’s hard to lose a beloved pet and I feel for ya and I’m keeping Peej in my thoughts and well-wishes.

As for my pet, my cat Buddy is the one I had to give away almost two years ago. I had to give him away due to the Job. It just wasn’t fair to Buddy to leave him to his own devices for the long trips I initially had to make with this job (often two, three weeks at a time).

Buddy (on left) was the friendliest cat. He never met a human he didn’t like. In fact, he loved everyone. Buddy was content to purr away in your lap for hours on end. In fact, he wasn’t happy when there wasn’t a lap to sleep in. He would follow me around the house begging me to pick him up and hold him, or to sit back down so he could sleep in my lap again. Of course, when others visited, he had to get love from them as well. Everyone had to at least pet Buddy and get their ankles rubbed by Buddy. That was his rule.

Of course, he also loved to play. He’s shown in this picture with his favorite toys…. the scratching post with the pink fluffy ball (which got destroyed the first day I left him alone with it - notice the remnants of the pink fluffy ball on the post). His Budweiser box was also a source of entertainment (and for me too… but only when the box was full… Buddy preferred the box empty). I’d throw a ball or something in the box and watch Buddy run from across the room headlong into the box and watch the box slide across the floor with the ass-end of a cat hanging out. Of course the favorite toy was the goldfish on a string. We’d twirl that toy around the scratching post and watch Buddy kick the everliving shit out of the post while trying to catch the goldfish. Again, hours of entertainment.

I regret having to give my Buddy away… he was the sweetest cat I’ve ever had in my life… but at least I know he went to a good home. I met the new family before giving him away…and they seemed to be such good people. I only hope Buddy is as happy with them as he was here.

I’ll never forget the last day he was with me… we loaded up all his favorite toys ahead of time… and spent the last hour saying goodbye… holding Buddy in my lap… petting him… he was happy… blissfully unaware and purring away. Then he had to get in his carrier…. and we got in the car…. Buddy always hated his carrier… so shortly after I got on the road, I let him out… first place he went was for my lap… of course, he couldn’t sit down, I was driving… but looking out the window seemed to be interesting to him… then when we got to where we were going…. we got out… I could tell Buddy was scared… he clung to me with those claws…poor guy…. I remember Buddy looking out the window at me as I got back in the car…. that pleading look… “Where are you going? Come back!”…

I miss my Buddy.