Buying Beer For The Neighborhood Kids

Every morning when I get to work I fire up the PC and wander into our “cafeteria” to fill my mug full of ice and water while the computer boots up. Donna and I start work at 7:30 and the production and assembly folks start at 7:00, so the place is usually deserted.

This morning as I approached the ice machine I hear, “Psst. Bri-yan.” Over by the water fountain, just inside the door, is one of the women who work on the assembly line motioning me over. She hands me 50¢ and asks, “Can you go buy me a large cappuccino?” So I put my mug on top of the ice machine and get her a hot cappuccino out of the coffee machine. As I bring her her cup another woman shows up and asks if I could do the same for her. I say, Sure.” So she hands me 2 quarters and I head back to the coffee machine. After they have both poured their paper cups of steaming cappuccino into their approved, covered mugs, they thank me profusely and go back out to their respective assembly lines.

I’m guessing that they are allowed into the cafeteria as far as the fountain so they can get water, but can’t go anywhere near the snack or drink machines unless it is during breaks or lunch. It felt just a little like going into the package store to buy a six-pack for some high schoolers…

Neon Diaries

The title is an homage to what I used to call this site…

My ride for the week is a Dodge Neon and up until 2001 when Plymouth disappeared from the car making map, they both sold the car which were nearly identical. At least when GM badge engineered cars that were basically the same, they got different names and they gave them a different look by changing the front end, tail lights, etc. Chrysler didn’t even try, the only difference between a Plymouth and a Dodge Neon at first was the nose badge. During the 3rd model year they broke down and at least added the car company badge on the trunk too.

A woman who works with my wife owns a Neon, hers is a Plymouth. A year or so ago she was involved in a little fender bender and off the car went to the body shop. When she got the car back it looked almost better than when it went in. But there was one small glaring mistake, it had a Dodge badges on it, not the correct Plymouth ones. I guess the body shop called their supplier up and just asked for Neon badges. She made them order the Plymouth ones…

What Kind Of Car Am I Driving?

I thought for sure that my Enterprise experience yesterday evening would be fodder for a great ‘rant’ post, but other than having to wait 45 minutes to get a car, it went pretty smoothly. Take a look at the below photo and tell me what kind of car I’ll be driving will the Miata is in the body shop:

What

MLB.com Returns

I checked my credit card bill online today and guess what? MLB.com had refunded my money. Not only that they had done it the day after I talked with the 1-800 people.

I cancelled because I absolutely hated the sound gaps between when the announcers weren’t speaking. But it turns out, I really missed the listening to the games no matter how bad the quality or how bad the FRS lost.

2-1/2 weeks and I couldn’t take it any more, so I signed back up for Gameday Audio on MLB.com. But I came in through the backdoor and for only 66% of my original cost. To sign up for a year’s worth of baseball, any team’s game with your choice of either the home or the away radio broadcasters, is normally $14.95, but if you join the Red Sox Nation for just $9.95, they toss in Gameday Audio for free.

Wouldn’t you know it, the BoSox have the night off, so tonight I’m listening to the Marlins/Cubs game on WGN.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 123

Pre-Op

The Emperor gets goes to the body shop tomorrow, so this evening I detuned it a little. Not that I don’t trust the body shop or anything, but I decided to remove a few of the add-ons I have added on, so they won’t accidentally lose or ruin something. I pulled all the junk tucked into the little cubby on the left of the trunk along with all the little tidbits under the carpet surrounding the spare tire. I pulled out the CB antenna, the cute little net thing and the CD changer. While I was at it I went into the interior and emptied out all the little storage bins, the console holes and the glove box. For good measure I removed all the pins attached to the mesh on the windblocker and swapped out the EJECT cigarette lighter for the stock one. And in case some one gets in with greasy shoes, I put the cruddy cocomats back in. I was going to wash the car to get the dead bugs off the nose, but I got sidetracked and forgot.

Cross your fingers….

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 122

Waiting For The Other Shoe To Drop

Yesterday morning’s Chemo session went pretty well. Had a great nurse which really helped. The private suite made it a little better too. We never did watch a movie on the DVD player, but just kept the Today Show running in the background as a distraction.

So far Donna has been doing OK. They pump a little anti-nausea stuff in the IV and we were given 2 prescriptions and a 5 day sample pack of something else too. She took 1 dose of Ativan yesterday afternoon and one in the evening. She then took a Compazine before bed last night and this morning she melted one of the high dollar sample tablets of Zofran. She felt a little funky mid morning, but heated up a bit of soap and felt better, but so far no real nausea, just a little unsettled feeling in the stomach. Hey, we even had pizza for lunch. We plan on repeating this process for the next few days.

Neither one of us wants to brag to loudly about how she is feeling for fear of jinxing it. Tomorrow morning we are planning on a walk in the woods or maybe another short tandem ride…

Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 120

List Mania

Last night we moved into the freshly painted bedroom. There are a couple items still on the punch list:

  1. Hang some pictures on the bare walls.
  2. Rewire the ceiling fan so that the light is controlled by the wall switch instead of the remote control.
  3. Buy some matching curtains to replace the too dark temporary ones up now.
  4. Touch up the closet door and the back of the room door to cover the patched holes.

Our new Cingular cell phone arrived via UPS yesterday. My attempt to activate it on the web failed, so I tried the 1-800 customer service number only to be told to call back during working hours, 7AM to 9PM week days. I’ve got a couple of items still on the punch list for it too:

  1. Transfer over the dozen or so phone numbers from the soon to be crushed Tracfone.
  2. Email the dozen or so folks who have our old number and give them the new one.
  3. RTFM to see how to work some of the features.
  4. Setup my account online so I can recharge the minutes when needed.

Donna’s replacement cycle-computer also arrived yesterday. It came FedEx Ground. Good thing the packages came several hours apart, I would hate to had a fight between the two competing drivers happen in my driveway. I’ve got a couple of items still on the punch list for it as well:

  1. Enter the wheel circumference.
  2. Set the date and time.
  3. Transfer over the the year’s mileage so far (32ish)

Moved my computer desk from the front room to the middle bedroom today and only one thing remains to be done there, fix the small string of white Christmas lights that I use as stage lighting for the Fab Four. But I’ve got a list for you anyway, this is how many electrical plugs I have to accommodate for the desk:

  1. CPU Tower
  2. Monitor
  3. Speakers
  4. USB Hub
  5. Flatbed Scanner
  6. Slide/Film Scanner
  7. Desk Lamp
  8. Cordless Headphones Base
  9. Printer
  10. Camera Dock
  11. Wireless Router
  12. Cable Modem
  13. Cell Phone Charger

    14. Phew!

    Started down, went up, still up.
    Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 117