Month: January 2007

Electronic Mail Bag

My spam count at work has been consistently over the century mark now for months. I haven’t even been reading the titles of the ones that our company’s spam filters catch anymore. I just check the total and hit delete. The other day I was in work early, so I thought I’d start the day with a couple of laughs.

Seems the new trend in spam titles is to grab a recent headline in the hopes you might open it to get some other insight.
U.S. gunships target al Qaeda suspects in Somalia
Hilary Swank: ‘Yes, I am in a relationship’
Gwynn, Ripken in Hall, McGwire misses
House Dems start ‘100-hour’ agenda
Neuwirth gets to ‘wiggle again’

Long winded subjects are all the rage too:
“or dentist has directed you to do so and is following your progress alone”
“of water to lessen stomach irritation Do not take this medicine torn”
“most medicines pass into breast milk in small amounts, many mentor”

Here is my favorite for today though:
You can send us the model of a replica watch that you desire and we will try to provide you with it.
What?

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 12

Fire Mountain Grill

Think steakhouse chain without a lot of steak, not our favorite place to eat, but we were there for the MMC annual planning meeting and there have a nice private room in the back we can use.

Two Large Megga Dinners, Sprite for her and water for him.

That’s what the receipt said, Large Mega Dinners. Kind of redundant isn’t it? Unless they have a Small Mega Dinner…

Meal Cost: $20.40
Forced Tip: $3.06
Spent Today: $23.46
Year to Date: $54.45

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 11

Old Old Joke

A couple in their nineties are both having problems remembering things. They decide to go to the doctor for a checkup. The doctor tells them that they’re physically okay, but they might want to start writing things down to help them remember.

Later that night, while watching TV, the old man gets up from his chair.

His wife asks, “Where are you going?”

“To the kitchen” he replies.

“Will you get me a bowl of ice cream?”

“Sure.”

“Don’t you think you should write it down so you can remember it?” she asks.

“No, I can remember it.”

“Well, I’d like some strawberries on top, too. You’d better write it down because you know you’ll forget it.”

He says, “I can remember that! You want a bowl of ice cream with strawberries.”

“I’d also like whipped cream. I’m certain you’ll forget that, so you’d better write it down!” she retorts.

Irritated, he says, “I don’t need to write it down, I can remember it! Leave me alone! Ice cream with strawberries and whipped cream – I got it, for goodness sake!” Then he shuffled into the kitchen, grumbling all the way.

After about 20 minutes the old man returns from the kitchen and hands his wife a plate of bacon and eggs.

She stares at the plate for a moment and says – “Where’s my toast?

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 11

More Screen Saver Madness

Help me, I just can’t stop.

For your downloading pleasure, a screensaver comprising the 35 or so photos from the Post Office Gallery:

The Emperor Goes Postal (2.3 Meg)

Donna and I are actually thinking of resurrecting the whole, drive somewhere in South Carolina and take pictures of the Miata in front of Post Offices, idea again for a few weekend trips this spring. Check back in about 5 or 6 months because there might be a Volume 2 of this screensaver.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 11

Evergreen Buffet

At lunch today Donna showed up at my desk and announced, “I don’t want my Veggie Pasta.” When I asked what she wanted she told me Chinese. The veggie pasta was leftover from Sunday dinner and she had some for lunch yesterday and just couldn’t face it again. I had six dollars in my wallet and there was forty cents laying around on my desk, so we were good to go, figuring that would be plenty to get a take-out plate from the Evergreen Buffet just down the street.

At first the plan was to get her a plate and then return to work where I would heat up my frozen dinner, but the take out thing was big enough to fill with enough food for the two of us. I guess I’ll be having my Lean Cuisine Salmon with Basil for the evening meal.

The price for a take-out plate was listed as $6.25, so I figured with tax I’d have to use the debit card. When the lady rung us up the total was six and a quarter, tax was included in the price, so I’ve still got 15¢ to my name.

Meal Cost: $6.25
Tip: None
Spent Today: $6.25
Year to Date: $30.99

Wiped My Rear End Clean

When the Emperor got tapped last March the whole back end of the car had to be repainted to make sure the metallic paint blended and matched. This meant that the 5″ high vinyl sticker of Calvin & Hobbes that had been on the car since September of ’05 had to come off. I ordered a replacement and when it came in it was 6″ instead of the previous five, but I put it on rather try and deal anymore with the fellow who made it for me (let’s just say he was not the most reliable type.)

Almost ever since the day I put it on I felt it was a little too big and today I couldn’t stand it no more, so I removed it. As a consequence I updated my mod list to show it gone and added the cost of my recent dash statuette purchase. The back bumper of the car is naked again.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 11

Clean Sweep

No not the TLC show, but C:\. Haven’t done a good purging in about a year, so I backed up the important stuff, moved copies of files to another partition and formatted C: Loaded XP back on and then put back the essentials: web browsers, email and Ultimate MahJong.

I then checked the MS Update site to make sure my operating system is up to date. Yikes, I needed 66 updates totaling 57Meg. I did reinstall my OEM version of XP that was only service pack 1, maybe I’ll go get SP2 and that’ll put a big dent in the required updates. Download 266Meg (good thing I have cable access to the net) and a reboot later I had SP2 loaded. Rechecked the windows update site again and guess what? Right, still needed everyone of those updates…

Still have a bunch of software to reload, but I’ll do that on a as required basis.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 11