Kissimmee, FL

Whew ! These weekends sure go by fast enough ! It was another hot one, but it has clouded up, thundered, and is lightly raining now.

I did not go out Friday night. Got too tired and just went to bed.

Brought one of the cast off monitors Craig offered me home Friday night. Plugged it in and fired it right up. It needed a few adjustments at first -- horizontal and vertical position, pin cushion, basically just "stretched" the display to cover the available screen. It is bigger than the one I just wore out. I am very happy with it and the price was right !

Yesterday I did my laundry first thing. Arranged to have all of my bills paid via web bill pay from the Internet. Around 1 pm I went out. First stop - Shell, to fill my tank. Next stop - Kissimmee Car Wash, to vacuum out the truck. Then onto the turnpike and up to Orlando.

Went to the Bally Total Fitness and started my membership. I almost didn't do it because the girl was setting me up for an automatic payment, which I do not care for, and she wanted my social security number. "I have never needed to give out my SSN to join a gym before." I have an appointment with Mauricio, a personal trainer, at 5:30 in the morning.

Next I got the truck washed. I was going to go home to Kissimmee at this point, but I looked down onto I-4 from the Conroy overpass and saw the snarled traffic and decided not to. I went to Pier One Imports to use the gift card Mike Foreman gave me two years ago. Turns out the $25 on it is still good. Unfortunately I did not see anything that I felt like I had to have.

Speaking of Mike Foreman, he wrote to me yesterday with the new Chief's list as a file attachment asking me if I recognized any of the names. Well, duh, yeah, I saw Bryan Carver, Victor Moya, Phil "Reactor Phil" Redden, Ernie Washington, and Sid Baxter on the list. Congratulations to our new Chief Petty Officers... I am glad you guys are doing the job and protecting me and my drunken weekends.

Went to Fairvilla Video and browsed. Did not see anything I could either afford or felt like I needed to have. Then went up to Studz for a couple of beers. Around 7 pm I went south to Full Moon Saloon for a little while. I met a guy named Omar there. He is part Arab and part Brazilian. Omar works as a cameraman and video editor.

Turns out I did not leave FMS until around midnight. I was very tired. I did not have a nap yesterday.

Found a few links for your reading pleasure:

• Have I driven across the Suicide Bridge in Akron? Have you?
• Astronomers have discovered the 10th planet in our solar system.
• Don't like the results of scientific research? Make up your own studies.
  

Today I got three shirts pressed first thing. Then I ran the vacuum, took out the trash, and went to Super Target for groceries. Spent the afternoon reading through my book The Last Man On The Moon.

I guess I will have to get to bed early since I have to be up so early. Once I see how long the session in the gym takes, I will probably adjust my alarm back to 5:00 am.

"A liberal is a man so broadminded he wouldn't take his own side in an argument" -- Robert Frost

Yippeee ! Friday !!

Another week, and another month gone.

I have read about 1/3 of The Last Man On The Moon already. I am sure I will finish it this weekend.

It was a steadily busy day today in the office. At lunch today Fay and I went over to Millenia Mall to PJ Chang's Chinese restaurant for lunch. We both had almond and cashew chicken. It was very nice. Nice to get away from the office for a while.

Lately I have started using the Outlook Tasks list. I call it a "To do" list, same thing. All I know is that it saves Post-It Notes. God knows I am using enough Post-Its. Using the Outlook Calendar to schedule school demos and other important industry events and I have about 500 contacts in the Outlook Contact List. I don't use Outlook at home, but it is a good tool for business.

In my few minutes of free time, I found a few articles worth taking a look at:

• Why isn't the mainstream media reporting that Bush flipped them off yesterday ?
• This item gives the expression "Paper or Plastic" a new meaning. This technology is the future of displays because of its advantages - flexibility and low power consumption. See the picture above for a sample.
• Interesting picture of the over 15,000 hits the shuttles have taken on the past 114 flights.

Not sure if I am going out tonight or not. I think I will and here is why. After our lunch at PJ Chang's, the waitress brought fortune cookies. Mine said, "The evening will bring romance." I am keeping the fortune in my wallet because if it happened I would pull it out and show that romantic other how funny it was!

Paycheck has not come in yet, but Fay says it will be deposited tonight or tomorrow. Need a few groceries, my truck needs to be washed and vacuumed, I have laundry to do, and I need to shop for a new computer monitor.

Orlando, FL

Yet another hot day. I did not go outside all day. Weatherman said 30% chance of afternoon showers.

I called Mom first thing this morning to wish her a Happy 31st Wedding Anniversary.

It was steadily busy today, but orders do seem to be down. No Garland orders from Darden in over a week. Craig is certain that Darden has given up on Garland and will buy another brand of oven soon. He said it will cost us $600k in orders each year. Damn.

Craig has to be in Tallahassee tomorrow, so we won't see him. He left Fay money so that we can go out for lunch tomorrow.

This afternoon it began to get dark outside - real cloudy. Around 4 pm it let loose and rained real hard for about 15 minutes. We really need it too... it hasn't rained in a week and the ozone concentration was so bad they were advising people to stay indoors.

Finished Understanding Physics lastnight. This morning I read the first chapter of The Last Man On The Moon. It begins with the Apollo 1 launchpad fire.

During lunch I surfed a little. Found these interesting links:

• 60 years ago today, an Army B-25 bomber crashed into the 78/79th floor of the Empire State Building.
• My friends at the nuclear power plant did this to a waste gas holding tank. Amazing what atmospheric pressure can do.
• Chelsea Clinton has a wedding proposal. Maybe she should take it ?
• Court says a Utah woman can keep her gay license plates.
• China admits that it is struggling to contain swine flu.
• To cut distribution costs, Hollywood is considering ditching the film reel and sending movies to theatres via Internet.
• 10 good wines for under $10.

Well, it is getting late. I guess I need to get into my truck and go back to Kissimmee. With the computer down, all I have to do is read my book. Fortunately it is an interesting one. Tomorrow will be the end of another week and hopefully payday too !

Orlando, FL

Another HOT day in Central Florida. I went out at lunch and almost burned up. Took my walk and during my walk I was noticing all of the flowering plants and I did not see any bees, none at all. I guess that varoa mite really is decimating the bees. Dang. I really like eating the crops they pollenate too.

Here is another picture of the space shuttle ascending as seen from the camera mounted on the external tank. You can see the Cape down below and you can see the solid rocket boosters (SRB's) burning. As the ship went up you could see the shadows moving along the struts, I was impressed. Engineers are scrutinizing this footage frame-by-frame for orbiter damage.

Office Depot brought our supplies today. I had to redo some of the Pendaflex folders with the colored ones we got. I had to put the new ribbon into the typewriter too. After I did that the typewriter was not typing dark. Inspection of the ribbon revealed that the takeup reel was not pulling the ribbon in. Fay took the cartridge back out and found sticky stuff on one of the posts inside. She cleaned it off with her fingernail and it began to work perfectly after that. That old typewriter is mechanically intricate... nothing electronic in it.

Craig phoned in after his meeting with Kelly Hill over at Darden. He said they cannot wait to meet me over there. Also, she told Craig, "Make sure Vince knows that I am the Number One contact on everything here. He is to copy me on every e-mail message." I was trying to avoid her. Damn.

The phones were quiet enough to surf a little bit today:

• Read this interesting story about Hawaiian lava boarding.
• Found this device that copies your television signal to any high-speed Internet connected computer.
• I don't know why I never saw this one coming. An industrial robotic arm has been modified with seats and is used as a thrill ride.
• Read about Kobe beef - the finest beef in the world. Read about the pampered cows.
• Read about Lichtenstein milk. Stoned cows are relaxed cows. Relaxed cows produce better milk.
• The Christian Paradox ? I call it hypocrisy.
• Molly Ivins writes about the changes facing organized labor.
• By measuring the intensity of anti-neutrinos streaming out of the Earth's core, these folks have approximated how much nuclear energy the Earth produces.

After I leave here I am going across the road to Super Target to get bottled water, white vinegar, fruit, and a quart of milk. I think I get paid Friday.

Orlando, FL

It was a busy morning in the office today. Fay and I took at break at 10:39 to step outside and watch Space Shuttle Discovery liftoff for orbit. First space shuttle in over two years. It was plainly visible from here. I snapped a picture, but I am not sure if it will turn out. Took a picture of all of the office workers standing in the parking lot with their hands over their eyes watching for it too. I am sure that picture will turn out.

I especially liked the new video footage they have from the camera mounted on the external fuel tank. It was awesome to watch the tank and shuttle seperate before the shuttle went into orbit. The picture here is a screenshot from TV 2 news of the view looking down from the tank.

Ate my lunch around noon and then took my walk. It was very hot outside. Hardly a breath of air too. Was pretty sweaty by the time I got back inside. Then Fay went out. She went to Office Depot and to get food. I tried to make labels and file folders while she was out. Then, the IBM Selectric III Correction ran out of ribbon. Fay said the ribbon in that machine was atleast 4 years old. She decided to buy two replacements just incase they stop making ribbon for that machine. I like that typewriter because it is the same machine I learned on in high school.

After Fay got back from lunch she showed me how to use the IBM Wheelwriter in Craig's office. I was suspicious of that machine because it is hard for me to center text for labels on it. I usually center the carriage, then count the letters and spaces in the text, divide by 2, and backspace that many spaces and then start typing. Well, on the Wheelwriter, you set your left and right margin, hit ctrl and center the carriage centers, then you just start typing. The carriage begins going backward as you type, when you are done, strike the return button, and it types the words in centered ! Big timesaver. Wheelwriter has a font wheel on that is big -- looks like pica. Selectric has a typeball on it with elite type.

Afternoon was strangely quiet in the office. Fay and I took some time to order supplies from the Office Depot catalog.

Because it was so quiet, I had a chance to discreetly surf... here are some of the items I found:

Tip of the day:
Before resealing a can of paint, blow one deep breath into the can and close it quickly. You’ll fill it with carbon dioxide, which will keep the paint from oxidizing prevent it from developing the “skin” that paint gets when it sits a while.

• A weblog dedicated to complaining about things in Florida. Critical Miami.
• Listen to the strange radio sounds coming from Saturn.
• Japan is going to build at 10 petaflop computer. That's 10x10¹⁵ Floating Point Operations per second !

That's about all. I guess I will immerse myself in a book this evening until it is time to sleep. Craig offered me one of the cast off monitors in his office - I think there are 3 or 4, he said the only thing wrong with them is that they are small. I will think about it.

Orlando, FL

Yesterday it took about 45 minutes to get to work. Stupid road construction crew had one lane of the turnpike blocked for installing guard rail. Just stupid.

It was very HOT yesterday. Supposed to be hot today too... heat index of 102° F today.

Went to Chik-Fil-A yesterday at lunch and used one of the coupons Craig gave us to get a sandwich. The deal is you have to buy a large Diet Coke and a fruit cup to get the free sandwich. I have one more coupon to use before Sunday (they expire on the end of the month).

When I got out of work I went down Vineland to Conroy, and I stepped on the gas to get through the yellow light... okay, okay, it was really red as I went through. As I was going through the intersection, out of the corner of my left eye, I saw a police car sitting in the left-turn lane on Conroy. As I headed up Conroy toward I-4, I saw him turn his lights on and make a U-turn at the light... "Oh, shit, he is going to pull me for that ?" As it turns out he was more interested in the green VW Beetle and followed it down the onramp onto I-4.

I proceeded over the bridge to go to Home Depot. I bought Sevin dust for my beleaguered pear trees, and a 25 watt frosted globe for the bathroom.

New SunPass transponder came in the mail yesterday too. Good thing because I am just about out of free cash for tolls.

When I got home I started putting things away, including my cellphone. I wiggled the mouse to get the monitor warmed up so I could sit down and blog... and then it happened. The monitor began making loud crackling noises and blew up !! I quickly turned it off. The house was filled with sharp acrid smoke from it. I turned the computer off too, so my website is going to be down for a few days.

I guess I can't bitch too much, I've had that monitor for like 7 or 8 years.

So, I am blogging from at work.

I found a few articles that might interest you yesterday:

• The Air Force has fielded a dishwasher-sized micro-satellite for inspecting other satellites in orbit.
• Has the next flu pandemic already begun ? Is China covering it up ? These articles make me wonder. If it is true, they will not contain it.
• Who has the time to document all of the fake Dr. Pepper websites ?
• How to make a child's book with adhesive paper, cardboard, and your printer.

It will be interesting to see what the next few days bring. Atleast I get paid this week. Then I will join the gym, pay more of my car insurance, and shop for a new computer monitor.

One silver lining to this is that with the computer out-of-commission, I am reading more. Only 50-some pages to go in Understanding Physics. Read a passage lastnight that made the nuclear cross-section for neutron capture make more sense. "Why do atomic nuclei make bigger targets when the neutron is moving more slowly ?" The neutron has both wave and particle properties. When it moves slower, its wavelength increases, it sorta "spreads out". The target doesn't get bigger... the neutron does, in a sense. Plus, moving slower, it spends more time in the vicinity of a nucleus, increasing chances for capture. Instructors making stupid analogies always confused me on that one.

Kissimmee, FL

Another weekend about shot. I did not do anything really. I bought groceries, did laundry, cleaned floors, scrubbed the shower and read a little bit. Very little else. I found pork ribs on sale really cheap at the grocery, but when I cooked them they shrank up and pulled away from the bones ! Some bargain.

Filled my gas tank yesterday and that took $28.00. I think it was $2.34 per gallon.

Read some more of the way through Understanding Physics. I only have a little over 100 pages to go. This section of the book is all about the atom - the electron and the nucleus.

I noticed that my baby pear trees have red spider mites eating the leaves all up. I have to buy some malathion or some sevin (sp?) powder for them. If they drop all of their leaves they might not make it ! Course, this website says you shouldn't use insecticides on the plants because the mites become resistant.

The Mad Commenter wanted more info on the circumstances regarding my adverse seperation eval. No, MC, my evaluation was not the result of me violating "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". Sorry to disappoint you. It was for something much less salacious and much more mundane -- because I failed to qualify ESWS.

A few things I found click-worthy this weekend:

• Molly Ivins has alot to say about the direction this country is going. She is not impressed. Neither am I, Molly, neither am I.
• Father of 12 admits he's gay. Said he got wife pregnant so she would have something to do !
• Are you looking for love ? Don't look at Wal-Mart.
• Almost as good as Google Maps... but I like the satellite pictures on Google Maps better.
• Don't know what algorithm they are using, but this Rubik's Cube Solver appears to work !
• In local news: New Smyrna Beach police are searching for the Naked Tickler.

Back to work in the morning. I kinda like it though, it is good to keep a routine. I get paid at the end of this week !! Yippee !!

"When you are going thru hell, keep going!" -- Winston Churchill

Finally ! Friday !

Well, there goes my seventh week at FER. So far, so good. There were four orders on the fax when I came in, processed those and got them to the factory, then I began working on order confirmations. While my back was turned, 9 more orders came in !!

Craig called this morning. He got back to Florida this morning and was on his way to Tampa to work on something. He was in a very talkative mood. Talked to me for 20 minutes, then he talked to Fay for a while. He is still very excited about his trip.

At noon Evelyn showed up to work on my computer. She sat down, checked the POP3 setting on Gmail, then went to Outlook. She clicked Send/Receive, and the damned thing began downloading my messages -- 121 of them. Damned computer is making me look like a liar. Evelyn knows that machine has had issues. She is not sure what the problem is, but I don't want to just throw money at it without knowing what is causing the problem. She thinks it's the motherboard, but I am like, if that were true, we'd see symptoms in the other programs running. So we will wait and see.

Evelyn went to lunch with us. We went over to the Olive Garden by Millenia Mall. Evelyn had salad and two meatballs, Fay had soup and salad, and I had chicken parmasian. It was good. We used the money Craig left for us.

The afternoon was spent getting the orders checked and logged, getting my e-mail squared away, finishing my quote for Disney, and creating my weekly purchase order report for the four partners.

It rained briefly this afternoon, maybe 15 minutes. It was HOT.

Craig was in the office at 3:30 and stayed in until a little after 5:00. He asked me how good I was with AutoCAD and wanted to know if I would work with him sorta like Evelyn works with him at the computer. He said he would pay me like he pays Evelyn to tutor him on AutoCAD. I dunno how I feel about that. I wouldn't mind doing it casually. Sheesh, I'm not Autodesk certified and haven't done it for cash in a long time.

Yeah, I think I like working here and I see myself working here for awhile. Fay told me yesterday that I am doing just fine. She said she is trying to make sure I get plenty of positive feedback. Sometimes I just feel so clumsy and awkward doing some of this, or dealing with some of the customers.

A few hyperlinks du jour for your reading pleasure:

• If the CIA can do this with the Irish, they can do anything with US.
• This is a new one... blogging for a liver ?
• Photocatalytic concrete breaks down pollutants in UV... rain water washes the residue away.

The Mad Commenter struck again as you can see from yesterday's entry. All I can say in response to his comment about the $150k SRB is, "In hindsight I am glad they never offered it. I think I made the right decision by moving on at that point. Also, I am glad the MPA and RO gave me the adverse final eval which makes it impossible to go back. That same fact makes it difficult for them to take me back too !"

Another weekend is here ! I need to do laundry (every weekend) and I need groceries. Poor truck needs to see a vacuum cleaner and a car wash too.

"All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." -- Voltaire

Kissimmee, FL

Okay, hang in there. The week is almost over !

There were 8 purchase orders on the fax machine when I got to the office. By the time the day was over, a few more came in, and we ended up sending out over $84k in orders today, so far almost $250k for the week.

Ate my Lifechoices™ meal today at lunch. I heard on the radio that the man who invented TV dinners died yesterday at age 83. He invented TV dinners as a way for Stouffer's or Sara Lee or somebody to deal with all of their left over turkey from Thanksgiving. They called them "TV dinners" because when they were invented in the 1950's people still got excited about television.

After eating I went out for my walk. Man, it is hot ! I came back with sweat pouring off of me. I don't like being wet with sweat -- it's uncomfortable. Next Fay went out to get something to eat while I stayed behind to answer phones and make new file folders.

The afternoon was busy and it passed by quickly. At the end of the day I caught Fay playing Solitaire on her computer, so I guess she got her quoting caught up.

Tomorrow Evelyn is going to visit us around noon. For some reason my Outlook is able to transmit email, but it isn't copying my messages from the Gmail server. She thinks it's the wireless making trouble for me. I dunno.

After that Fay and I are going to leave the office and go out for lunch. Craig left us some money to have lunch while he is gone. A package came in today from San Francisco addressed to him. Fay believes it is souvenirs they have mailed home instead of carrying along with them to Hawaii.

Picked up a few links for you in the past 24 hours:

• Seems Wal-Mart could learn a few things from Costco.
• That is kinky. Prehensile penis ? Who wouldn't want to have one of those ? But the sex with animals thing is just not right.
• Stroller saves baby in collapsing building.
• Consumer Product Safety Commission recalls the strollers that same day.
• They melted down 13 pounds of Gummi-Bears to make this monster.
• Children learn to lie at an early age. Who teaches them ?

I read the damndest things on the Internet, don't I ?

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." -- Henlon's Law

Moon Day

"That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." -- Neil Armstrong, Sea Of Tranquility, Moon. That was 36 years ago today. Today Google launched a take off of its popular Google Maps program - Google Moon.

It was another busy day at the office, but staying busy makes the day pass quickly. Too quickly infact. It went so fast I forgot to call SunPass to see if they were sending me a new transponder.

It was hot and partly cloudy today. Weatherman said 40% chance of afternoon showers, but we got lucky.

Here are a few links that I found in the few spare minutes I had today:

• Molly Ivins had something to say about all of the lying in DC.
• This site gives tips for better, faster, safer computing.
• A nine-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl becomes the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional. Some head start !
• A new urinal analyzes your urine and sends results to your cellphone.
• Scotty (James Doohan) beamed up today. He was 85.
• Here is the next generation of hybrid... the air car. Plug it in for 3 or 4 hours, or fill it up in 2 minutes at a gas station. Has a range of 124 miles and reaches 68 miles per hour. This idea could work, it's been tried before.

To help me get through the Understanding Physics, I took it in by my bed and I read until I fall asleep now. Of course, that doesn't take very long !

"False language, evil in itself, infects the soul with evil." -- Socrates

Kissimmee, FL

This morning I saw three hot air balloons going up in the west on my way to work. Those balloons must be 6 or 7 miles away.

Was at the office a little late - 7:30 am, but I still beat Fay by a longshot. As I was getting the papers in, I saw a tree frog on our door. I shooed him away and he jumped down to the sidewalk, and then he jumped up into the bushes and began to climb up the limb into the bush. Reminds me of the lizard I accidentally brought inside last week.

Overall it was a good day today. There were issues, sure, but the phones were not overwhelming, and we had periods of quiet. I finished putting all of the contacts from Didi's rolodex into the Outlook contacts list. Now I am going to put the rolodex in a drawer somewhere. Somewhere off of my desk.

It was another hot one. It rained for awhile after lunch, then it cleared up again. It made it really humid !

For your surfing enjoyment, here are a few interesting links:

• Sheesh ! I thought MY water bill was high. This lady musta been thirsty.
  
• You knew this was coming. I would call it "The Last Roundup" and I would play country-western music at the dances.
• This tool could help when you have to write feedback after an eBay auction.
• Talk about "mind over matter" ! Can minds affect machine operations ? Even a little ?
• African Name Generator. Stupid ? or Funny ? tell me.
• Tatooed fruit. Good-bye supermarket stickers.
• Yeah, if they had offered me $150,000, I would have stayed in too.

Now I am just going to relax for a couple of hours and get myself to bed. I slept pretty well lastnight. I think that is because I turned the thermostat down and it was pretty cool.

"There is no question that there is an unseen world. The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open?" -- Woody Allen

Kissimmee, FL

That was not too bad. I felt better today and it was not extremely busy today. What it was though was HOT . Everytime the front door opened it felt like a blast furnace !

The orders kinda trickled in through the day. At noon Fay and I sat in a teleconference via phone and internet about the Merrychef line of high-speed ovens. I admire their creativity in hosting the conference this way, but they were kinda clumbsy and wasted a lot of time getting it started.

Put four quotes out the door today. A refrigerated base and griddle for Disney's Saratoga Springs, a couple of kettles for Disney's Creative Costume Department to use as dye vats, a spreader cabinet and food warmer for MGM Studios Engineering Services, and tray dispenser for Florida Hospital.

My 1000kHz oscillators arrived today. I need to go to Radio Shack and get a breadboard, switch, and project box, and I will be ready to experiment with AM radio transmission. I already have the battery holder and the audio transformer.

Another thing I want to experiment with -- Perl. Since I am running my own server here, and I have a copy of Perl on the hard drive. I pulled the paperback books out about Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language) again. It will probably be the weekend again when I really get time to play with it.

Got a tube of Blistex for my lip. Had big fever blister pop up on the left side of my lower lip this weekend. It is already healing, but it is painful. Stress.

Here are some links that you may, or may not, find interesting:

• Yup, more signs of the times.... seriously, this is more than a little disgusting.
• Outsource your job yourself and either get another job, or make your boss think you are super-productive !
• I didn't even read this. The question it asks is, "Are you using the right blogging tool ?" I'd rather have my post up on Blogger.com than host it at home and risk the power going out, the computer breaking down, or BrightHouse changing the IP address on me again.
• Workers excavating for a highway project unearth a silver dining service near Pompeii.
• Viagra for babies ? Huh ?
• SMART goal setting and realization.
  

Using Sponge Bob Squarepants themed Colgate toothpaste right now. Yummy Bubble Fruit flavor - tastes like bubble gum. Honestly, the only reason I got it is because I wanted a tube with the flat flip-top on it so it would stand up on the shelf.

Funny thing is how quiet it was in the morning and during lunch, but in the afternoon it got busy. At 4:30 and 4:45 my friends in Facilities Department at Darden began to call with their little emergencies. Barbara Sewell needs to get a kettle to a store in Colorado, but because of the elevation it has to have a non-standard orifice installed - lead time = 25 working days. She needs it Wednesday of course. Next issue, Rita Hayward calls needing a Garland oven sent to Yuma, AZ as expeditiously as possible. I think I can work some magic and make both of these happen.

Lots of political controversy about that Rove character in the White House giving away CIA secrets. Course, we know the people in this administration are vengeful and lie compulsively. Never believe anything these people say.

"A thing long expected takes the form of the unexpected when at last it comes." -- Mark Twain

Kissimmee, FL

Here is a copy of the drawing I created for the Incredible Ice project in Coral Springs. When I exported the image to .jpg it became a little fuzzy because jpeg is a lossy file format. The original when printed out contained sharp, hair-thin lines.

To create this drawing I had to download 8 drawings from the Enodis website. Plan view of the fryer, warmer, range, and broiler, and then the elevation view of each one of those. I had to draw the elevation of the custom stand that the broiler rests on and that only took a few minutes. I suspect they are going to ask me to do this more and more.

Yesterday I did laundry (including my bedding) and very little else. Infact, I did not even go out yesterday. Just trying to feel better from the flu-like blah. I feel alittle better today. I think I will go up to Millenia and look at apartments near the office, go in to the office for a couple of hours to file, and then get a few groceries at the Super Target at Millenia.

Spent some time pruning and optimizing my website. It would not come up at first. Then I discovered why. BrightHouse changed my IP address for some reason. It was http://24.165.248.157/, but now it is http://24.165.250.239/. I hope they don't do that too often. When they do that I have to go to Tripod.com and update the redirect pointer, go to Blogger.com and update the links to my site, and remember a new IP when I invite people to FTP.

Wrote a working .htaccess file for my site now too. When a site visitor tries to open a page that does not exist they are directed to a nice 404 page of my own creation that gives some helpful suggestions.

Slowly slogging my way through Understanding Physics. I am into the third and final section - The Proton, Neutron, and Electron. I am looking forward to some lighter reading after this one.

The next book I want to begin is called The Last Man On The Moon. The story of Eugene Cernan. That should be a little more entertaining. Wednesday will be the 36th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing.

Back to the grindstone again in the morning. I think we are going to get a paid lunch a couple times this week. Craig left Fay some money for us to eat lunch with.

Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws. -- John Adams

Happy Friday !

Here is a picture of a chart I created in Excel to track my American Century IRA accounts. You can see that it has its ups and downs. Boy, we sure are on an upswing now.

The spreadsheet is set up to fetch the share value from Yahoo! Finance and update the total. Almost automatic.

No, I did not blog lastnight. The reason for that is because I had a special project I had to work on. Tom Dickie in the Hollywood office faxed a quote up to me and asked me to create a CAD drawing of two fryers, filter and food warmer, range with oven, and a broiler on a custom stand.

I went to the Enodis website and downloaded all of the AutoCAD drawings of the equipment that they had - plan views and elevations. They had everything except for the stand. I saved them to disk. Took the disk to Craig's computer and opened up AutoCAD LT on his desktop, but his computer could not read the floppy. So, I had to bring the disk home and hope my laptop could read that disk.

As it turns out, it did and I was able to create the drawings wanted in about an hour. I took these in this morning and sent down to Hollywood by e-mail and by fax. Meanwhile, Martha had the factory draw the same thing. They chose the same views I did, and printed onto 8.5 x 11 paper, just like I did. Only difference was that the factory put casters on the equipment like it was quoted. I will not overlook that again. The thing I did that everyone loved was that I created a title block and put the FER logo into it. Lots of ooos and ahhhs for that effort.

I felt like poop all day today. Guts gurling and churning. Then Fay was just riding my ass about quotes and even little things that I said wrong on the phone. Man, I was so tempted to just pick up my shit and go home... I felt that bad, and she would certainly think about her behavior ! I stuck it out and made it to the end of the day, but I think I have some flu.

Last night there was a past due notice from Melody in my mailbox. I guess the web bill pay got my payment to her a few days late and since they are being taken over my new management, she had to penalize me $10. Now I will have to kite an electronic check just to make sure she gets paid on time. Geez.

Here are a few things I read these past couple of days that you might find interesting:

• This man is a conservative I can respect because he is telling the TRUTH.
• The Karl Rove death watch has begun. Drop the axe !
• Who would have thought it would come to this? Shaving, waxing, implants... now anal bleaching ?
• The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. Seeing is believing.
• Managing the use of psychoactive drugs to benefit the individual, the community, and society.
• Sorta like CutePDF Writer, but nothing to install on your computer.
• Some nice MS Excel templates to download. Free !
  
• This script could be perverted into a handy telephone log or todo list.

One more thing... I had to mail the SunPass back to SunPass HQ yesterday. Went to the post office and took on the DIY mailing machine. This time I mastered it. There is screen that asks you if the label will fit on your package. If you say 'no', it prints out a tiny, postage stamp-sized label !!

I am pretty sure I am just going to stay in tonight. I feel like poop. I need to do laundry and get a few groceries in the house this weekend. Two shirts to press on Sunday. My truck needs to be vacuumed out too.

Politics is like driving. To go backward, put it in R. To go forward, put it in D.

Kissimmee, FL

Today was a nice, yet busy day (as usual). Craig is on vacation, but he called in to the office atleast three times today. He said he's answered 75 e-mail messages so far ! Good thing he got that laptop to take with him.

So many little issues that I have to keep track of and follow up on.

Went out at 11:30 to meet Betsy and Peggy for lunch in Lake Buena Vista at the Bahama Breeze. They were a little late. I wondered if they were going to stand me up ! I sat outside in a chair and waited. There was a woman sitting out there waiting for someone too. She began explaining to me that she was meeting someone she works with, but has never seen before. She told me that she works for Fairfield Resorts. I asked her if she knew Ana Velazquez. She doesn't, yet. But she believes they work on the same floor in the building. She said she is going to and look for her.

Betsy and Peggy showed up around 12:15 and we went in to take a table. So many things to talk about. They had a package for me to open. "This is from both of us to thank you for all that you have done for both of us." I unwrapped a package that Peggy had wrapped up in paper with construction trucks on it - "the only paper for boys I had in the house", and found a box from one of the Disney stores inside. I pulled the box open to find a beautiful framed sketch of Donald Duck and the text on it that read, "To Vince, We'll miss you ! Your friends Betsy and Peggy. 2005". That was really nice of them to do for me.

Betsy made a down payment on a new house. She is closing at the end of the month. She is getting a big house in a gated community in Winter Garden, right on Lake Apopka. She is very excited about it.

I got a salad and some hot Jamaican wings. Betsy and Peggy would not let me pay for it either !

Before I left the office I printed out the Bahama Breeze menu and offered to bring Fay something back. "No, this is Carribean food, it's not like Jamaican food... they put coconut into the soup and it is sweeter than Jamaicans would make it." etc etc. I am like, okay, whatever. She is one of the whitest white women you've ever seen, but she insists she is Jamaican -- because her husband is Jamaican.

I was gone for two hours. Fay had no problem with it. "No, no, you deserve it. You work long hours." Damned right. In early everyday, out late almost everyday.

The space shuttle launch scheduled for today was scrubbed due to a bad fuel tank sensor. Millions of disappointed folks.

Fay left right at 5. I stayed for awhile to finish my quotation and catch the PO for our wayward dishwasher if it came in. Well, at 5:20 a call came in from Darden with a problem oven in an Olive Garden in Indiana. Then at 5:30, the hoped for PO arrived and had to be sent to the factory. Did not get out of there until 6:20.

Traffic was not too bad coming home.

Right now my buddy, Josh, is connected to my hard drive and he is downloading some of my collosal porn collection via FTP.

Not much time to surf today, but I found a few noteworthy things:

• I am told the Pentagon is blocking this man's website. Read it. Tell me what is so dangerous about it.
• Do what you were hired to do. Don't get side-tracked.
• Too bad they do not have the death penalty in Holland. This animal deserves it. Read what little he has said since murdering Theo Van Gogh.
• XML Namespaces ? You will need to know something about this soon. Microsoft is going to make this the default save format soon.
• Beauty is in the nose of the beholder ? What's this ?

Well, that was "hump day". Just two more days to go and I am sure it will go quickly.

"Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter." -- William O. Douglas

Kissimmee, FL

Another busy day at FER. The building manager sent a man to fix the AC in the test kitchen today. Now it is cool in the test kitchen again.

Fay went out at lunch. It was 1:00 when she returned, but I took 3 service calls while she was out. Follow up on those kept me busy until almost 2:00. Then I took my lunch. Only got about 1/4 mile walk in. I took an envelope to the mail box up front and high-tailed it back to the office right before it began raining.

Craig has taken off for two weeks of vacation. Fay "leaked" the vacation destination to me. The family is going to San Francisco first so that their son can interview at Berkley. Then they are flying to Hawaii. I guess Craig and Sally got a really good deal and that is how they are spending their vacation. Pretty cool.

I am still putting all of Didi's rolodex cards into the Outlook Contacts. I am into the L's now. Probably finish it next week sometime. When I finish, I am going to export the list to a .pst file and e-mail it to Craig's account. Then I will export his contacts to a .pst for two reasons - 1. in case I mess up, I have a back up to restore from; and 2. I will e-mail his contacts to me and install them in my Contact list. If this operation is successful, Fay wants me to do the same thing to her computer. I just want the big rolodex off of my desk.

JDR Microdevices shipped my order today. They gave me a tracking number (1Z8649790301510428) that I can trace the shipment via the UPS website. It will probably be here by Friday. It will be delivered to me at the office.

Ah yes, you have read this far so that you can see what links I found. Here are a few:

• Wired website reports on these weapons that sound like sci fiction. They need to get these out of the lab and into the field.
• $230 for this one vs $600 for the real thing. Still above my budget, but atleast it is credible.
• From the picture, I don't see why BP had to tell us this rig was leaning.
• This is a bad idea. Kids don't learn their multiplication tables now because of the ubiquity of calculators. Now this ?

That is about all I have for now.

Lunch with Betsy and Peggy tomorrow at the Lake Buena Vista Bahama Breeze. Now that Craig gave Fay and me those Chik-Fil-A coupons, I should change it to Chik-Fil-A, have them meet me there, and pass out the coupons !! LOL !

"I want the Republicans to stop hiding behind our troops for their policy failures!." !

Monday, Monday....

Whew ! Hurricane Dennis blew right past us... National Hurricane Center says it is up in Tennessee somewhere now. Next up - Tropical Depression 5, soon to be known as "Emily". NHC predicts it strengthening to hurricane by Thursday.

I downloaded, installed, configured, and set up an FTP server for my website this weekend. I tested it from work this morning and it is actually working - both ways ! It is letting me download from this computer at home to my work computer, and it is letting me create directories on this computer and upload to it. If you can give me a good reason why YOU need to nose around in my My Documents folder, I might share the login name and password with you.

Processed 12 orders today. Nine of them were from Darden right off the bat. Today was a good day. Did some filing, created a quote, helped with some trouble calls. I took my walk at lunch today too. The weatherman said 50% chance of rain, but it did not rain at FER. Course, right now I hear thunder booming outside and the sky is dark with clouds.

Starting tomorrow, Craig will be on vacation for two weeks. He got a laptop computer just so he can go on vacation and still check his e-mail. It would be an impossible amount of mail if he did not keep checking it.

Stopped on the way home to pick up some padded 6x9 envelopes so I can mail my SunPass transponder back to Boca Raton. Wonder how long it will take them to fix it.

Got e-mail from JDR Microdevices today. They have received my order for four (4) 1000kHz oscillators and they expect it to ship today. I know you wonder what in the world I will do with electronic oscillators, right ? Well, I need them to create a high frequency alternating current for my devious science experiments.

Well, we are almost half way through the month now. Just getting a little bit worried because I only have about $100 left in checking. That's just one more grocery store trip !

Here they are, the best things I clicked on today:

• This man found a resourceful way to heat his swimming pool using his gas grill and some copper pipe.
• Put on yer tin hat... these are some strange times we're living in... strange indeed. I am just surprised how bold the criminals are these days.
• I don't think employers know the half of it. If they do, they look the other way.
• This story almost made me get up and cancel my subscription to Wired. This was a very dumb idea for them.
• I would like to see this as the future of broadband. No more cable to hang, no fiber to bury... the lines are already in place.
• For those of you who have been waiting... at long last... a picture of my Wang.

Depending on what the weather does, it promises to be an interesting week. I am not where I want to be yet, but I feel like my job is going well, and I am on the right path.

Dear Lord, please save me from your followers

TGIF !! Go Away Dennis !!

Well... there goes another week.

As I was driving out this morning I noticed that the apartment is pulling up all of the hurricane damaged street signs and stop signs. They are replacing them with nice new ones that match the big sign they have out at the road.

The SunPass failed to work again this morning. I pulled into the cashier's lane and paid her with quarters. At work I called SunPass and spoke with some foreign-sounding woman named Mirian. She told me to move the transponder around on the windshield and try again. If that does not work, mail it back to Boca Raton for them to check it out. Damn... the fucker is only two weeks old ! I bought this for the convenience, not for a hassle.

Craig was in for about two hours this morning. Evelyn came in at 8:30 and worked with Craig for awhile. The phones were strangely quiet this morning.

Craig said that the compliments about me were rolling in... Kelly Hill and Patti Pedigo were happy with me, and that asshole who complained about me last week, Bruce Peck, apologized to Craig too. Valerie Masterson wrote a thank-you to me too.

Phones were quiet, but after Craig left the phone calls would come in in surges. I would be on the line and next thing I know, all four lines are lit up !! The answering machine picks up, but they do not leave a message.

At noon I went out for lunch. I went to the Corner Cafe right in the office complex. Then I finished my walk around the complex.

After lunch I was filing and Debbie called in. She was steamed because she called earlier and kept getting the answering machine. I'm like saying to myself, "Well dumb bitch, why didn't you leave a message? I would call your sorry ass back!"

During the afternoon Craig called in from Pasco County. He is touring nursing home kitchens. Hey ! People gotta eat !

I was able to get enough done this afternoon that I will not have to go to the office this weekend.

Am having lunch with Betsy and Peggy next Wednesday at the Bahama Breeze restaurant in Lake Buena Vista. It is nice to visit with them.

The rain bands are already moving in. It did not rain at the office in Orlando, but I can see that it rained here in Kissimmee, and it looks like it is going to rain more. Here comes Dennis.

Among the links I clicked today and lastnight:

• The Saudis have finally confessed that their oil fields are about tapped out. Stand by for the Peak Oil crisis now.
• A Letter to the Terrorists from London.
• Language Is A Virus... interesting writing tools, aids, and games.
• Scientists attempt to grow McNuggets without a chicken.
• A drunk Massachusettes man sues for the right to drink. What would our Founding Fathers think of this ?
• The Official Website of the International Center for Bathroom Etiquette.

Because of the worsening weather, my precarious financial situation, and the problem with SunPass, I do not think I am going out tonite. I will stay here with my 12-pack of Diet Coke.

"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." — Thomas Jefferson

Kissimmee, FL

Overslept a little this morning. I set the alarm and it went off, but I accidently tuned the radio into a space with no station. I was up by 5:30 anyway.

Was at the office by 7:10, but I stayed in the truck for a few minutes to listen to the morning news on the radio. Radio said there was a series of explosions in the London Underground this morning. Atleast 37 people were killed and over 400 injured. This coincides with London being awarded the 2012 Olympics and the opening of the G-8 Summit in Scotland.

Today was a very very busy day. Numerous Darden restaurant trouble calls. One order that had to be redirected from the Ashtabula, OH Red Lobster to the Lakeland, FL Red Lobster. Routine order processing. Order confirmations. I promise so many people so many things in one day. Before I knew it, lunchtime was already here.

The power went out for a few minutes this morning. All of the computers went down, the copier went down, the fax stopped in the middle of a transmission. Atleast I could still use the stapler and rubber stamps !! I told Craid that I use a UPS here at home to protect against that and as excellent surge suppression.

Fay went out at lunch because her husband came to pick her up. I stayed and kept working. I heated up my frozen dinner and ate it at my desk. I have little blue Post-It Notes™ all over my desk and attached to all of the orders that are still pending for one reason or another. I have to do it or I will forget.

The afternoon was just about as busy at the morning. I just kept working steadily, even when the papers and books etc were piling up on my desk. The AC is broken in the Test Kitchen. We pulled the door shut to keep the front part of the office cool.

Tomorrow Fay will be taking a vacation day. I am sure it will be stressful, but it will be just like the last time she took a day... if I cannot answer their question, I will take a message and have someone return the call; if an emergency quote has to be done, I will ask Barbara in Hollywood to do it; if an unforeseen crisis arises, Fay said I can call her cellphone - after all, she is only going to be shopping with the female family members.

I want to get in early in the morning to work on a quote for Disney. I need quiet when I am working on a quotation. If I get too distracted I will mess it up. I have a short list of things that have to be done because it is Friday -- make the UPS label for our weekly parcel to Hollywood for Monday, make the weekly PO Report and email it to the four partners, print the PO Log out and put it into the 3-ring binder, gather up the trash and get it out.

Did not have time to find any cool links today. One interesting one that I saw was this:

• Wolfgang Puck's self-heating cans of coffee... I think Dinty Moore should license this technology !

It turns out Dennis is a hurricane now. We will know by the end of this weekend what our fate will be in Central Florida.

Stopped at Joseph And The Hair Razors on my way home. Got my bi-weekly trim. Now I am ready for the weekend. Tomorrow is Friday !

"Too many policemen, no liberty; Too many soldiers, no peace; Too many lawyers, no justice." -- Lin Yutang (1895-1976)

Kissimmee, FL

Another HOT day !! Fay went out at lunch today and the thermometer in her car said the outside air temperature was 95° F. I would have guessed it was hotter. The hot water heater in the test kitchen only feeds the deep sinks in the kitchen. We only have cold water piped to the bathroom, but if you wash your hands, hot water is coming out of the cold water tap !

We had a man from United Fire Extinguisher (or something like that) come in today to service the extinguisher on the hood. Fay said we have it done every six months to a year. This guy was kinda thin, had some tatooes, shaved head, and he knew "Miss Fay". I could be wrong, but he struck me as being gay. (Not that there is anything wrong with that !! LOL !!). He has to come back on Friday to fill the extinguisher. Great. I will be there by myself on Friday.

That's right, alone again. Fay is taking a day off because her family is intown. I don't blame her. It's just that I know how hectic it can get, and it can be bad because I don't know all of the answers. But I am sure I will cope. I think I want to leave early tomorrow evening so that I can get to the barber shop before he closes up. Then I will be sheared for the weekend.

I took my lunch at my desk while Fay was out. When Fay returned I took my walk around the building. I was going to take the umbrella because of the strong sun, but Fay got me a Blendtec™ hat to wear. Anything to keep my scalp covered.

When Craig came in today he was kinda quiet. He had bandages on his nose and on his neck. Those are the spots where he had the lesions excises. When I heard them say "spots" yesterday, I assumed lung cancer. But no, it is skin cancer. Atleast skin cancer is not lethal, as long as you stay on top of it. Craig is kinda self-conscious about it, and I did not know. First thing I say is, "Craig, what is that on your nose?" Well, I told him it looked like zinc oxide from where I was sitting. "I wish I'd used zinc oxide, then I wouldn't be going through this now." He is a good boss.

Craig goes on vacation for two weeks starting next week. July 12 to the 25th. He will be intouch with us, but we will do our best to keep any work issues in the office.

Even though the Bally's is so expensive, I can't say it's a rip-off, and I will probably join as soon as I can afford it. There is a weight gym downtown that is only $25 a month and open 24 hours, but it has less equipment, little parking, and is way out of my way. The Bally's is only a little out of my way and very close to the office.

Everything was going fine this morning. Shortly after lunch, around 1, I guess, it began to get really busy. The phones began ringing with problems... seemed like one after another. Then Craig wanted something mailed overnight, I was trying to get a UPS label made and Fay was saying something about Airborne Overnight. I did not know we had Airborne envelopes and labels to use. Then I didn't know how to use them... ... I do now. I stress when too many things happen at once.

Between lastnight and this evening I found a few links that I thought were blogworthy:

• How to protect yourself if your wallet is stolen.
• How to mow the lawn.
• Gmaps pedometer estimates walking distance in miles.
• This one was kinda cool - sorta like a Segway with one wheel - a self-balancing electric unicycle.

Everyone is watching Tropical Storm Dennis in the Carribean (or is it a hurricane already?). You just know it is going to smack right into us - the storm magnet. When I drove into the Heron Lakes Apartment driveway this evening I noticed that they had a new sign made and installed. It looks heavy and substantial, but so did the old one. The storms revealed it to be aluminum with stucco smeared on. Oh well, a new sign just in-time for the hurricanes... my rent dollars at work !

"I'm not big on propaganda. I leave that to the Republicans."-- Howard Dean

Kissimmee, FL

Was up early this morning. Went ahead and showered at 5:30 and was out the door by 6:00. When I got to the office at 6:30, Craig's car was parked in front, and when I tried the door, I found it unlocked ! I told Craig that someone was going to get inside and get him !

The traffic was kinda light. I thought that was because I was so early, but Fay and Craig said it was light too. Maybe some people are taking vacation or an extra day on the long weekend.

There was only one order on the fax machine when I got in this morning, but as the day progressed, more orders came in. I think we sent out 9 orders today.

At lunch I went out to find a nearby post office. I had the book I bought for Mom wrapped up and wanted to get it sent. I had to go clear up on Kirkman Road, way out past Valencia Community College to find the post office.

In the post office there was a long long line for the counter. So I decided to give the DIY machine a try. You make selections from a touch screen and you lay your package on a scale. It prints a label for the parcel. My problem was, this parcel is only a little bigger than a paperback book (which is what it is), but the label it prints out is HUGE ! I basically wrapped the label around the top of the parcel, slapped a couple of Priority Mail stickers on it, and dropped it into the box.

Worked my way through the afternoon. Man, it was a HOT day today ! Weatherman said high of 95-98° F with a 20% chance of showers. It did not rain.

Craig told Fay that he has an appointment with the doctor tomorrow. I guess they have found spots on his lungs. Uh oh.

I left work right around 5 pm. I went to the Bally's Total Fitness on Kirkman to talk to someone about the hours, the program, and the cost. They are open from 5:30 am to 11 pm Monday to Friday and some reduced hours on the weekends. They have alot of stuff in there - cardio equipment, pool, jacuzzi, steam, sauna, free weights, Hammer Strength machines, various nutrition programs and metrics, but it is kinda pricey. There are two programs - a month-to-month program that costs $41 per month, and a 3-year membership which costs $36 per month. For the month-to-month program there is a one-time $149 enrollment fee which is waived on the three-year plan. Kinda expensive.

Got out of there around 6 pm, and traffic coming back home was surprisingly light. Fried a couple of hamburgers up for dinner. Found the electric bill in the mail, so I went online and scheduled the payment for next week. That is the last bill I expect to get until the end of the month.

Bright House is up to their old tricks again. The Internet is coming and going... I wonder if the modem is messed up ? Anyway, they are getting close to getting another call from me.

You can't always tell the truth because you don't always know the truth - but you can ALWAYS be honest.

Independence Day 2005

Decided not to go out lastnight. I guess the fact that Saturday night was so boring, coupled with the fact that I would have to park across, or down, the street, discouraged me from it.

Up at 6 this morning. Went to to Super Target, but found it closed, so I went to Wal Mart for groceries. I bought a new wristwatch too -- the old one is over two years old, and while it is still running, the wrist band is broken. I got another Timex.

Spent $106 on groceries. Came home and put those away. Hardboiled a dozen eggs for breakfast this week. Then I got my smoker out and smoked pork ribs. While the ribs were cooking Dad called. He is at the campground this weekend. Bored me with his stories of wheeling and dealing cars etc etc.

This evening I called Becky. She has a full house. Edie and Patty are there with all of Patty's kids -- AJ, Samantha, Emma, and Kathrine. On Wednesday Kim and Joe and Pea will be there too. Of course they are going to take everyone up to Hampstead to see the new house.

Tomorrow will likely be busy. But atleast this week will be short.

"A people that values its priveleges above its principles soon loses both." -- Dwight D Eisenhower

Finally ! Friday !

I checked Navy Federal Credit Union's website this morning, and lo and behold, there was money deposited ! I was holding my breath and expecting to be disappointed at the amount, but it looks fair, and it looks like enough to make it each month.

I was about 10 minutes late getting out the door this morning. I arrived at the office around 7:10 again. I was the first one there. There were two orders on the fax machine. I processed those orders, did follow up on the orders from yesterday. Craig came in around 8 and asked where Fay was. I told him that she was calling on a customer (Fairway Restaurant Supply) and would be in around 9:00.

At 8:30 Evelyn, our IT expert, arrived. She spent the whole time working with Craig. Craig got a new laptop computer and she was helping him get it fixed so that it would be synchronized with his desktop. Poor Craig, he expresses exasperation with all of the technology, but he embraces it too. He pretty much has Evelyn coming in every Friday.

She was trying to explain html to Craig. I rolled my chair back and gave my recommendation for Elizabeth Castro's book.

From viewing my report on MyBlogLog.com, I can see that atleast a couple of you are viewing the links that I put up. That breeder reactor story yesterday seemed to be popular.

Craig left money for lunch for Fay and me. I really did not care what we ate, and Fay said she likes salads, so I went to the Orlando Ale House on Kirkman and brought back a seafood and crab salad for her and a chef salad for me. That Ale House is right across the road from Universal.

While Fay and I were eating, Craig called and spoke to Fay. He told her that if we got everything done, we could leave at 3:00 pm. Well, as luck would have it, Fay still had quoting to do, and Greg called and told us to get a PRO number from Delfield and pass it to a customer in Tampa. Problem was, the factory did not have the number and doubted they would have it before 5.

Today I successfully imported Betsy's contact list into my Outlook. After that I began to copy all of the cards in Didi's rolodex into Outlook contacts too. When I get them all in, I am going to put the rolodex away. One less thing on my desk.

It rained hard this afternoon, just like every afternoon.

At 3:50 pm, Michelle at Delfield called with the PRO number we needed. I passed that to the customer and copied Greg by e-mail so he would be aware of it too. Then we began to shut down. Even Fay was ready to go.

Left around 4 pm, and tried to beat the rush home. It was almost futile. It still took about an hour to get home. Lots and lots of traffic.

First thing I did, after pulling my uncomfortable clothes off, was write the check for the rent. Then I sat down at NFCU's web bill pay and filled in amounts for the rest of the bills and the release dates. I am still expecting a phone bill and an electric bill, and I need a little money to buy groceries, but I will have enough. Next month will be easier because my gasoline bill will not be huge like this months. Once the car insurance bill is paid, it will have money left over to start putting back into savings.

Okay okay, enough of that, I know you are just waiting for the links I clicked:

• This interesting service tracks your e-mail messages. Tracks how long the recipient spent reading it, and will even delete the message from their system after it has been read !
• Just in time for Independence Day, I found these links that explain how to photograph fireworks with a digital camera, with film, and even in your backyard.
• This service will post your bite-sized spreadsheets for your blog or webpage. If I can think of some info you guys might like to see, I will give it a try, right here.
• For $10,000, a woman tatooed an ad on her forehead. Dumb.
• A possible, though unlikely, solution to global warming.
• Curious locals flock to the hospital after hearing that a boy gave birth to a baby. Strange yet true.
• We can now view what cats see by imaging their firing neurons. Check out the pictures. Mind-reading devices and advanced computer interfaces will develope from this research.
• Take a look at this catfish. I don't want to hear about the one that got away !

Now I have a nice three-day weekend ahead of me. I will have to go to the Full Moon Saloon this weekend. I have to do laundry and buy a few groceries too. Otherwise, I am just going to veg here at home, read the Asimov's Physics Series, and waste time.

On Tuesday, Craig and Fay are supposed to sit down with me and do a formal 30-day review. Fay says that I don't have anything to worry about, infact she already has my pizza cutter !