Month: January 2011

Popcorn

Donna always had to have popcorn when we went to the movies, even if it was normally crappy and way over priced, and most times on weekends when we watched a DVD too. Unfortunately she can’t eat popcorn anymore because of the UC, so we don’t keep it in the house anymore. Every once in a while she would offer to buy some just for me because she felt I was being deprived. But I’m not a real popcorn lover. I don’t have to have any to enjoy a movie. I don’t dislike it and would never turn it down when offered at the movies or at home, but haven’t missed it all.

Until this morning. I was up front of the plant to go with Donna for our morning break walk and I could smell that someone in the cafeteria had just popped some. The lure of the Siren’s song was too great. After the walk, on my way back to my cube, I broke down and bought some microwave popcorn. I ate about a third of the bag before I couldn’t eat anymore, so I placed the bag on the conference room table as the 10:30 NCMR meeting was just starting.

Next time you pop up a bag of Pop Secret Movie Butter microwave popcorn take a peek at the “Nutritional Facts.” They are broken down into two separate type of servings, 1 Cup Popped and 2 Tbsp Unpopped. Raise your hand if you eat unpopped popcorn.

Started up, still up.
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Another Day

With lots of things happening, but must of them mundane.
The big news is coming soon:

Started down, went up, still up.
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Ice Ice Baby


I assume this is a statue of a little girl, but it could be a boy because it was so cold out here this morning that my junk had sought refuge internally too and I wasn’t even standing thigh deep in ice.

It was 24 degrees out when we left the house headed to Augusta for an MMC breakfast, but first we wanted to do some geocaching. Close to the breakfast joint was a huge baptist church that had 6 caches scattered around its very large grounds. It was Saturday morning at 7 AM, so we figured we’d have the place to ourselves…wrong. They must have had a Christian Men’s Breakfast because not long after we pulled into the parking lot several cars came zipping in after us. We ended up only getting 3 of the more far flung caches before leaving because we were getting eyeballed by the new arrivals.

The church also happened to be right next door to the Hyundai dealer, so we wandered over and eyeballed some vehicles. It was confirmed that the Genesis Coupe has too big a butt for our liking.The good news is Donna approves of the Sonata in Pacific Blue which is my first pick. We both like the looks of the Accent as well. Now it comes down to some test driving, waiting until the slush fund has enough money for a decent down payment and doing the bullshit car dealer price dicker dance. Their web site listed a blue SE at $23,450, but the two they had on the lot had stickers of 26 and change and then the dealer added paint protection scam for $800, so the price for the car ended up in the high twenty seven thousand range!

After breakfast we did a bit more geocaching at a park in Augusta and then a couple more in North Augusta along the Greenway. Ended up with an even dozen finds and no DNFs, although we were close to not finding the one entitled The Secret Garden where the above photo was taken.

Started up, went down, still down.
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Usually Happens To Me Around 8:00 AM

This morning there came the sound of laughter from the cubical next door. A pause. More laughter. Then #9 read out loud. Laughter. Number 11 out loud. Now laughter in two cubicles.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

Started up, still up.
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What’s Your Sign?

I’m glad you asked that question. I used to be a Libra, but now I’m a Virgo thanks to 2,000 years and wobble in the earth axis. link

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Another Hyundai Post

The North American Autoshow just finished up in Detroit and my new favorite car company debuted a new production car there, the Veloster. I have praised their recent designs, the Tucson, the Elantra and my love for the Sonata’s looks knows no bounds, but what were they thinking with this:

That is a face only a mother could live… Every picture I see of this thing does not make me like it any more, it just reaffirms the ugliness of it. Then I saw it in action:

Doesn’t look too bad in motion. Some folks have called it the CRX that Honda should have built, so maybe I should put it on the possible new car list, after all I was considering a CRX before I got sidetracked with this whole Miata thing. I’ll need a different color choice or two, then I will have to figure how to make it look like it is moving while parked…

Started up, still up.
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Ice Day

After yesterday’s failed attempt at driving to work in the Miata, Donna decided to ensure we would make it to work on Tuesday. She called friend & coworker Mark (Hi Mark!), who has a 4 wheel drive pickup truck and passes near Casa de Bogardus on his commute, to ask for a ride in. Because Mark goes to work about an hour before us, we set our mental clocks back an hour and physically set our alarm clock back by the like amount.

Mark called around six this morning and said he checked his road, it was solid ice and with discretion being the better part of valor, he was not going to attempt the trip right now. Mark is south and rural from us in a very hilly part of the county and I told him don’t risk it on our account. I said I’d go outside and see what my road looked like, if it didn’t look too bad, we might try it in the Miata. We left it at that, you call me or I’ll call you.

I walked outside and our driveway was still very icy, but the road in front of the house was spotty; dry, then icy, then dry, and so on. I told Donna, “Let’s give it a shot. If we only get as far as we did yesterday, so be it.” Today was the exact opposite of yesterday’s drive, our street was the tricky part, but manageable. When we got to the main artery, Whiskey Road, it was almost entirely clean. So were the rest of the roads, until we made it to work. The 5 lanes in front of the plant had two clean lanes on either side of a very crunchy center turn lane. Fortunately traffic was nearly non-existent so I could slow to 10 MPH in the 55 zone and get into the plant’s driveway without being rear ended. The driveway and the parking were very slippery and did require some extra care navigating, but we made it to work safe and sound.

When I got to my desk I called Mark, to call him a wimp and let him know if he did make the trip in, not to stop at our place, we weren’t there. Mark did make it into work several hours later. He took it slowly for a couple miles until he got to Petticoat Junction (see, I told you rural and yes, that is the actual name of that crossroads area) and then the roads were pretty much clear the rest of the way in.

Started up, still up.
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