February 2007 has been a strange month for me thus far, but not in a bad way. I say this with a caveat that we still have a full week to go.
Normally, the way things have worked out I usually get Wednesdays off. Not today though. I was supposed to have yesterday off and work the rest of the week, but I went to one of the team leaders (mine is off on vacation until Thursday) and pointed out that I would be glad to be here, the day after a holiday when the phones ring off the hook, and take a day off later in the week.
Yes folks, that’s called volunteering. So I worked yesterday and get Friday off this week, which means three 3-day weekends in a row. And that’s what makes this month strange to me. I took a vacation day on the 12th, and got the 19th off as a Bank Holiday. So there you go. Next week will be back to “normal”...and strange in a way.

Let’s see, I’ve gone to two Chinese restaurant joints in the last week, and here are the fortunes I got:

Both speak in the singular; I guess I have to wait and see.

Sometimes I find it hard to get up and get going after a 3-day weekend. This is one of those times. Of course, a mid-cycle wakeup at 0200 didn’t help either...but at least it wasn’t a nightmare.
At least next Tuesday, it’ll be the day after a (bank) holiday, so I’ll be too busy to stop and ponder things such as these.

Last weekend, one of my old school friends from Asmara, who remembered me but not vice versa, got ahold of me. We started chatting and exchanging memories of the place which was 7600 feet above sea level. For the record, Joetta is married, 3 kids, 2 grandchildren.
I decided to ask if a certain Amharic word was what I learned it as. The word is “tadawa” (F**k); the phrase, “tadawa he” (F**k you). Joetta confirmed these were correct, then proceeded to give me a few more Amharic words and phrases. See, I wasn’t there long enough to learn the others, and she had four brothers to help her, which I thought was hilarious! Here are the new (old) Amharic words and phrases I learned this past weekend:

• lehamke decorke devis - Kiss my a**
• shalamutah putahnah - You son of a b***hing wh*r*
• mushmush - B***h

Maybe I should teach these to my fellow Lizardoids!

There is a contest of sorts at work leading up to Valentine’s Day for the best “card box” where fellow co-workers can pass along their Valentines to. After feeling worn out by two days of that stomach flu, I finally had a great sleep last night; seven hours is long for me, and I was up and at ‘em today.
So I got out this Valentine’s Day teddy bear one of my friends back East sent me three years ago, to let me know that, even back then as I do today, that I have friends who love me and give a damn about me. I will use this teddy bear (click on the thumbnail) to carry me to Victory! No, that iPod isn’t going to work.

I was trying to get back to sleep after having awakened for some awful reason...and then I run across a thread on another board which I hang out on (no, it’s not Kos’ Kidz, so don’t worry), where a certain thread exists in regards to this article about Paramount’s smackdown of YouTube for allowing copyrighted material on their site.
Long story short: some frakkin’ little troll stomps its feet and whines, bitches and moans about Paramount’s supposed greed. It published many diatribes, but it still couldn’t get us to bow to its demands. It got pissed off and essentially stomped away:

Feh, well its clear to me that none of you are fans, just suckups to the corprate machine that would trample you without second thught…
Sell outs
I just cant wait till viacom gets more greedy and sues this place for all its got.... would show you that they have no respect for creative freedom.
I am done here, to hell with all of you if you think that destroying creativity is a good thing…

Its final tirade got me really pissed off, so I shot it a private message on the other board, which reads as follows:

Sounds to me like you’ve got an ax to grind against everyone these days, and I’m sorry that you do.
I’m also sorry that you have an anarchistic attitude toward society, when everyone on this board (on both sides of tha aisle, mind you) tries to debate you with reasons and you refuse to do so, spouting your “Corporatism is Evil” mantra.
Have you ever stopped to think that if you had your own site, bandwidth, and the like, along with all the technological goodies we have access to these days (after we pay for them, or in some cases, through the generosity of friends), you’d have all the artistic freedom you want to create whatever you want.
To paraphrase my own motto: ”If you don’t like what we have to say...MAKE YOUR OWN BLOG!” Then you’ll have the true artistic freedom you so voraciously demand. Or, you could hang out with Kos’ Kidz, where you will find like-minded people and attitudes similar to what you’re comfortable with. Your choice. See ya!

When I was going through my divorce way back in 1989 and 1990, nightmares were the order of the night. I lost count of them, and eventually they went away for the most part.
Until last night...I got up at 0210, got a drink of water, and went back to sleep. Or at least, tried to. I barely got back to sleep when the alarm clock buzzed at 0400.
Do I know what the nightmare was about? As a matter of fact, I do, but I won’t say anything about it here, and I’ll just leave it at that. Time to hit the coffee...looks like it’ll be a long day.

Well, they cut off our web mail access at work today. I thought for a couple of hours that I foobarred and sent myself an e-mail from work when I wasn’t supposed to...and they cut off my access. That’s not the case...they cut off everyone’s, due to new Federal regs which require storage of e-mail and instant messages for...get this!...TEN YEARS. Holy s**t!
Anyhoo...when it comes down to brass tacks, I really don’t need the distraction anyway. All I need to do is adjust and I’ll be fine.

This is a shout-out to a certain radio show host in Southwest Michigan, who was genuinely surprised when I sent her a “hello, how are you?” message. Hope to hear from you again real soon!

OK, yesterday morning’s procedure to put a crown on the cracked tooth went fine...it’s just that the jaw and the gum surrounding the #14 tooth (and, as it turns out, also the #15, which had a cavity and they filled that too) which was worked on is sore. So I get to consume significant (but not massive) quantities of ibuprofen to bring it back under control.
Back to work.

Good thing there’s still no pain in that cracked and sundered tooth. I wish I didn’t have to go to work today. Blah.
And normally I say F.I.I.F. Not today. T.G.I.F.

Well, this afternoon I took that 2006 Saturn VUE for a test drive. I was impressed by it to say the least, and I found out that my truck, as of today, still has negative equity in it (which means I owe the bank more than what the dealer offered). I asked them to see if they can pull some strings to bring that negative equity down....
But a half-hour ago, half a tooth fell out of my mouth after I finished dinner. Fortunately there is no pain, as it was root canalled in December 2003, just before I moved to Arizona.
Therefore, the tooth won. First thing Monday morning, it’ll be crown time. FRAK!

Thank goodness for cloudy days! Although my eyes were dilated a la anime, everything checked out OK, but the contacts had to be polished a bit, which took care of the abrasions. They will make a good backup for the next pair which I should have this time next week. It also happens to be chilly today: 54 degrees as of 1400 MST, so when I drove home with the dilated pupils, I was not in pain or making like a vampire in bright light.
Thank you, God.

I forgot to post this yesterday, since that’s when it started. Yes, I am now in the midst of a five-day weekend. Woo-hoooooo! How did I manage this, you ask?
Yesterday was my scheduled day off during the week. I took a vacation day today, and on Monday is MLK Day, and for us, that’s a Bank Holiday. There you have it!

It’s not often that this happens, so I will take a few moments to sigh, catch my breath, and relax before I go to work. This can, of course, change as the day wears on, but for now, I’ll take the peace and quiet which goes with this brief respite in the cycle.