Resolution # 1 update

I’ve managed to toss six t-shirts. Better than nothing, I guess.

FYI – I hope you all remember that it costs 45 cents to mail a letter now.

Here piggy, piggy, piggy!

As I’ve said in my previous post, it’s time to make things happen.

Yesterday, J drove me to Angeles Shooting Range, up in the Angeles National Forest, to sign up for a hunter safety course. For $10, I got my name on the class list, some class materials and some instructions on how to report for class (report with class materials completed, No. 2 pencils, clipboard and one item of blaze orange clothing. Oh, and don’t be late).

The class isn’t until February, but I’ll be ready. J is also lending me the item of blaze orange clothing so I don’t have to buy one right away.

Cellphones: A huge pain – in – the – ass

T-Mobile sold us 2 HTC Amaze 4G phones. We’ve had them 9 days and 2 days ago, J noticed that both of our screens had some kind of high tech adhesive drips on them. J tried repeatedly to remove these drips and finally took his phone back to the store. The T-Mobile employee kindly told us to f*ck off. Apparently paying $230 for a new phone doesn’t mean that you get something that was manufactured properly. J is driving me up the flipping wall on this one, but T-Mobile is in the wrong on this.

The book site that I belong to, Goodreads, sent out an e-mail regarding their 2012 reading challenge. I signed up and challenged myself to 250 books this year. Right after I hit “Okay” it proceeded to tell me that I was 4 books behind already. *sigh*

I also told myself that I was going to go to the doctor more often for regular appointments. Yesterday, I got a letter from Blue Cross/Blue Shield telling me that my primary care physician is no longer in the preferred provider network. Nice.

Tonight’s dinner: Spaghetti and meat sauce

Hit the road 2011!

It seems a little strange to be at New Year’s Eve already.

I haven’t posted since J’s birthday and while it’s only been 2 months, it feels like it’s been a century.

Briefly, November came up roses nearly every single day and December had a new aggravation or worry nearly every single day. I guess they canceled each other out, but it was a little different to wake up every morning with a smile on my face.

I’m not sure that it was because of the holidays, but I think I’ve been more grateful for my life than I have ever been before. A lot of people, whether I know them personally or not, have had a miserable year. My year wasn’t exactly stellar, but at least I kept my job and I’m making about the same money in the short term (assuming that Congress finally agreed on our 2012 budget). Furthermore, I have been reasonably healthy this year despite some sinus issues.

I hope that I don’t have to say goodbye to so many people in 2012. First Aunt Helen, then my good friend Mark, a CBPAS and one of my bosses. I got a text two days ago to add another CBPO to the list. I’ve known him since I came back from academy and he was a pretty OK guy. He was in USCS/CBP for probably going on 35 years. He had served as a LRP in Vietnam.

I have already begun preparing for the new year, mostly by getting a jump start on my resolutions:

1. Clear out the clutter and organize – I’ve already tossed 10 t-shirts, including my track shirt from 10th grade and an old 1/4 zip sweater with a broken zipper. Next up: shorts.
2. Exercise – I’m overweight and out of shape. Part of clearing out the clutter is freeing my treadmill from the forest of junk around it. The box of MRE’s can go into one of the closets after more clutter is tossed and then said treadmill can be used.
3. Go to the doctor more often – For crying out loud, I’m spending all this money on health insurance and I’m not using it when I should. I am resolving to go to my general practitioner every other month and get all my booster immunizations, my yearly health screenings, etc. I don’t want to be someone who dies early or miserably because they never bothered to go to the doctor.
4. Eat healthier – I’m a little limited here because of IBD, but there’s still a lot that I can eat that isn’t unhealthy. Since J and I started cooking most of our meals, we both feel a lot better. Plus, I’m going to start making more vegetables for J with dinner.
5. More fiscal responsibility – Impulse purchases end tonight. I can’t honestly complain about not having my own place to live in if I waste my money on stuff that I don’t need.
6. Change my wardrobe – I’m still trying to decide what direction I want to go in, but at least I’m looking.
7. Get things done – Everything that I’ve labeled “Someday” from getting my jacket tailored to taking surfing lessons.

I look forward to 2012. I hope that this upcoming year is good to all of you.

Happy Birthday J!

Today’s J’s 53rd birthday.

The chocolate cake is cooling and the meatloaf is in the oven. I’m getting ready to peel the potatoes and carrots.

In between loads of laundry, I’m being super proactive and getting my stuff ready for work tomorrow. This was my last four day weekend before the new bid rotation goes into effect on 06 Nov 2011.

Halloween costume this year: Occupy Wall Street

Hmm, does this make a whole lot of sense?

I think this is a totally bad idea.

Sure, it could help the economy, but since when should we create a visa class and sell said visas? Also, shouldn’t the property market be allowed to correct? Right now, I can only see one segment of the population benefiting from this idea.

 

 

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-visas-home-buyers-20111021,0,6715779.story

 

Ringo’s in AA and Paul’s a prat

I’m half in the bag and watching the new documentary on George Harrison, “George Harrison: Living in the Material World”.

What would have happen if John hadn’t been assassinated? Would they have have ever gotten back together?

We only have Ringo and Paul left and quite frankly, what I’ve heard of Ringo is lacking.

But…to tell you the truth…if I had been born 20 years earlier (which sometimes I claim to have been born 20 years too late), or at least born 30 years earlier I could have totally imagined myself going apesh*t over The Beatles, or John, or Paul, or George, or Ringo. It’s not a matter of cuteness, but the music.

A good song can make you create or break sh*t.

I don’t have a lot of sympathy for any of them, but I’m not sure I could have dealt with any of what they went through. But wow…

 

Rock ‘n roll is here to stay,
it will never die
It was meant to be that way,
though I don’t know why
I don’t care what people say,
rock ‘n roll is here to stay

 

Torn between confusion and doubt

What a frustrating and stressful work week.

I shot my mouth off a couple of times this week regarding the leadership that we have been provided with at work. I might have taken a higher ranking member of management by surprise with my comments, but it needed to be said. I was promised a chance to elaborate on the situations before the end of the day, but that certainly didn’t happen.

The new hiring policy that would give me a chance to get the hell out of California is actually taking effect on Saturday as opposed to sometime in the next calendar year. It certainly caught me unawares as I thought I’d have a little longer to prepare my wishlist of cities that I would like to transfer to. I have no idea to when they’re going to start moving people around but if I do apply for a transfer, I know that I have to be ready to move when it’s time.

I’ve discussed some of this with J, not really in depth, but I will not be putting in for a transfer to Phoenix. When we were both there a few years ago we were not impressed with the area one bit. The only possibility that we’ve come up with so far is Reno, NV. We’re taking a look at Portland, OR and maybe Salt Lake City, UT. Las Vegas, NV is out of the question.

The original plan that we had built together was that we would move after J’s parents passed away. When I put in my wishlist, I may get a call right away or I may not get a call for a year or maybe no call at all. I have to admit that I’ve got a little bit of anxiety thinking about how I may have to move by myself and get things started on my own in a strange place. Factor in that it may take J a couple of years to join me. Or never.

The alternative is to not take the opportunity and just hope that somewhere down the road I can get the hell out of here, whenever that will be.

Update: J is running crime statistics and property values for all the ports that we’ve considered so far. I just told him, “You know what? We’ll just stay here and rent for the rest of our lives.” FTW.

Hungover with a shaved ass

No, my ass isn’t shaved, but I am hungover. Like a mofo.

I’m not proud of being hungover. I usually don’t drink so much that I am physically ill the next day and it’s really not something that I like to advertise.

Yesterday J and I took Barney to the “cheap” veterinarian clinic to have a growth on his butt checked out. He’s had it for a while and it had been just hanging out like a very large skin tag, but within the past four or five days we noticed that it had gotten very large and very angry looking. Plus he was rubbing that portion of his butt over everything so obviously it was bothering him. Plus Louie was sniffing at it every chance he got.

Off to the clinic we went and to our dismay we found out that the practice had changed hands. J did not like the vet and as we took Barney into the hallway leading to the examination rooms we were hit by a wave of fecal odor. I know vet offices stink a little, but this was foul and I’m embarrassed to say that I let that vet work on Barney. But ten minutes and $490 later we walked out holding Barney, Lord of the Shaved Ass.

We will not be returning to that clinic. Ever.

After making sure that Barney was resting comfortably at home (he certainly was considering that his ass was not only numb but air-conditioned) we decided to end our 10 day seclusion and go have a drink.

Maybe it was the result of cabin fever or the semi-unawareness of the stress that was coming up the next day, but I certainly tied one on. I don’t think I’ll be doing that again anytime soon.

J and I will return again later today for a toast and maybe a bite to eat as our local pub is and has been donating a percentage of the day’s take to the family of a policeman who died ten years ago today.

Joxer Daly’s

11168 West Washington Blvd

Culver City, CA 90232-3922

Burning man fever

I was off for the holiday weekend plus a few days due to illness.

During that time, J caught my bug and during his recuperation, he became transfixed by the streaming video coming out of Burning Man 2011.

I have to admit that I did get a little more than vaguely interested in the images coming out of the Nevada desert, three hours outside of Reno. It looks like a lot of fun, but I’ve never really been camping before and the thought of camping out for 10+ days in the middle of the desert seems a little insane.

No dogs allowed, no outside communication, no commerce (ice and rv servicing fees only), and no trash cans.

I’ll keep you posted on that.

Upcoming developments: I’m looking for a blog widget to do a monetary countdown. If you have any info, let me know.

Toasted tail gunner

After 13 hours, the fly wheel and starter have been replaced and everything put back together.

The most aggravating part of the process was the last minute failure of my transmission dipstick and reservoir. I was certainly not amused by that, but 79 bucks later, I have a good replacement that will probably outlast the rest of the vehicle.

Not counting my time or J’s, we figure that I’ve saved at least $500. One garage told J that he was lying, that Jeep never put a TH-400 in a ’76-’79 CJ. Another garage said that he couldn’t find the appropriate descriptions in his estimate software so he guessed that the job would cost $500, maybe.

2 day transmission jack rental: $58

1 starter incl core charge: $65

1 fly wheel: $143

1 high performance transmission dip and reservoir: $79 (cash)

1 replacement windshield: $270 (includes rubber gaskets and hinges, but not paint or glass)

 

We basically ran out of time to do the things that we wanted to, but now we’ve got some parts that we can prep until we both have days off again. Worse comes to worse, I’ll be taking care of the windshield and the paint job on my Christmas holiday.

I managed to get the back of my neck scorched pretty good, too. I sort of remembered to put sunblock on the next day so right now I’m moisturizing like a m*therf*cker.

There’s a very good chance that the Jeep won’t blow up or die.