Day 13, ready for a break

Yeah today was my 13th day in a row where I had to poke my head into work.  Some of the days have been regular shifts, others have been days where I have stayed late and still others like today were days I wasn't originally scheduled, but had to show up because I had some ordering to get done for Monday.  Plus I told Ed that I would go down to our other store and try organizing their stock room a little bit.  The thing is that stockroom hasn't been used in ages.  Originally when I started with the company, back in Jan of 09, the room was used somewhat because the only stores we had downtown were the current stores, Smithfield and Universal.  When Weissmart opened the stockroom was all but forgotten, since Weissmart was just a few doors down the street from Universal and Weissmart had more space (plus no steps to climb to get to the stockroom) all of the backstock for Universal was just kept at Weissmart.  When Universal was shut down, albeit briefly, obviously there was no need to keep anything there so we cleaned out the entire store.  When the decision was made to instead close Weissmart, everything had to be brought back to Universal that could fit in the store and was likely to sell and the rest was either sent to Smithfield or in the case of most of the beverages, taken to the stockroom for Universal.  The problem arose when I happened to head down to Universal during one of my many trips down there recently in trying to get that store up to Ed's approval.  I went into the stockroom and the product that was brought in from the other store was basically just thrown in there with little rhyme or reason.  Of course this was a project that was supposed to have been done right the first time by Wayne, which just makes me even happier that he is gone.  So I spent about 4 hours on my day off sweating my ass off, rearranging the stockroom so there was some semblance of order to it.  As an added plus, because the entrance to the stockroom is actually a door down from the actual store and up a flight of steps, the entrance smelled like a giant vat of bum piss.  people have a bad habit around here of using just about anything as a toilet.  It is one of the reasons why I quit going to the South Side Spectacular, it was less a community event with games and booths to frequent and more just another reason for people to get liquored up and engage in that famous Pittsburgh pastime of public urination.  The first thing I did when I got there was dump about half a gallon of bleach just to help kill the smell.   As an added bonus, there are no windows in the stockroom, so it is a second floor room with little to no air circulation and on a day like today, 89 F and humid, it was pretty much a sweat factory, despite me having turned a fan on the day before.  It has been three hours since I left and my shirt is still soaked. 

Sorry I took a break while the Steelers game was on.  Just preseason action, nothing to glog about, though the Steelers did win 23-7 over the Detroit Lions.  The most interesting part of the game occurred with about a minute and a half left in the first half when a batch of thunderstorms moved through the area, forcing the field to be cleared and the game delayed for over an hour.  When the teams took the field they played the last minute and change than rather than break for halftime, just went ahead and started the third quarter.  The best part of the rain is it did provide a brief respite for all of the mugginess that has made being outside (or at work) rather painful to the uninitiated.  In Dungeons and Dragons terms, one is left with what I would call;  Sweat Armor (+1 AC for every three rounds, -1 Constitution for every three rounds, -1 Dexterity for every three rounds) - Sweat Armor is a moist like glean that covers the wearer and feels very much like perspiration.  For every three rounds the wearer has the Sweat Armor on they gain a +1 to their armor class, as weapons now have a chance of sliding right off of them, but the wearer also suffers a -1 to their Constitution and Dexterity as the constant perspiring makes them lose speed and stamina.  How fucking geek was that?

I should note that I had my first fantasy football draft of the year, though I really wasn't into it all that much.  Later on this month I have the draft for the bar league, where I am defending champion for the last two years now (can you say threepeat?) and that is the only league I will probably pay that much attention to,  Still I was cruising through the swagbucks offers the other day and they said if I signed up for a fantasy football team with Sports Illustrated I would receive 11 swagbucks.  Far be it from me to pass up free swagbucks, after all I just cashed in for $5 Amazon gift card #25 today, and $145 in free spending cash on Amazon is a very good thing.  It is nice to go on Amazon and just get shit for free, especially shit I like.  Anyway, so I sign up for this football league and it is the worst kind of league, an auto draft where you have to rank players ahead of time and then the computer just makes selections based on either your rankings or the pre draft rankings the site has.  Now in the first couple of rounds that isn't bad, by and large everyone knows who the good players will be or not be, but in a 12 team league, come the 7th round if you have the last pick, all of a sudden you better either trust the system or have accurately predicted how the draft would go and made wise rankings 84 players in.  I would rather just have a live draft where I can see all of the players and names in front of me, rather than rely on a computer to do my picking for me.  By and large I almost never pick a kicker or a defense until late in those leagues, the point values just aren't there, yet here I am getting stuck with the New England Patriots defense in round 8 of a 16 round draft.  The only thing you can do is go in after the fact and either start making trade offers with other teams in your league or be the first on the waiver wire and hope that some players fell through the cracks.  As for how my team turned out compliments of the computer, here you go.

Turns out I was selected to pick second overall in a snake type format, meaning every odd round I pick second, every even round 11th.

1)  Chris Johnson RB Tennessee

2)  Larry Fitzgerald WR Arizona

3)  Calvin Johnson WR  Detroit

4)  Jay Cutler QB Chicago - The first pick of the draft that truly upsets me, I wouldn't have picked this bum at all, let alone in the fourth freaking round.  The guy is a proven loser and led the league in interceptions last year. 

5)  Tim Hightower RB  Arizona - Another not so helpful pick, not terrible but I would never have went this high for him.

6)  Braylon Edwards WR NY Jets - This guy just sucks.  How he is in the league is beyond me, a wide receiver that drops as many passes as he catches, if not more.  I immediately saw this and dropped him for the best quarterback that remained available, which sadly was the drama queen known as Brett Favre, who once again may or may not retire for the millionth season in a row.

7)  Jermichael Finley TE Green Bay

8)  New England Patriots DEF - I will say it again, picking a defense or kicker too early is a wasted pick.  In most leagues the point differentials on a week to week basis just aren't great enough to merit wasting early picks in either category.

9)  David Akers K Philadelphia - See #8

10)  Carnell Williams RB Tampa Bay - On the plus side he is the Buccaneers starter at running back, on the minus side he spends to much time in the hot tub, and not of the time machine variety.

11)  Willis McGahee RB Baltimore

12)  Josh Morgan WR San Francisco - Not the #1 option in SF and certainly I could do better here if I am poking around #2 WRs so I released him in favor of Terrell Owens, the highest rated WR left in the free agent pool.

13)  Donnie Avery WR St Louis - Let's be honest the Rams suck, but if I have to have one of them then I at least want a #1 option at their position, which Avery is so I can live with this.

14)  John Carlson TE Seattle

15)  Dustin Keller TE NY Jets - I really don't need three tight ends, hell I probabl;y don't even need two, the waiver wire will have a one week grab on Finley's bye week that will be serviceable enough, so off to the scrap heap of history for Keller and in his place I picked up Kevin Smith RB Detroit for some depth in that position.

16)  Jason Campbell QB Oakland - Lets see, my QBs are Cutler, Favre and Campbell.  I think we have located the weakest position on my team and it is quarterback.

Okay, well I am going to scoot, thinking of an early morning breakfast of food, food and more food, but first I must don the Sweat Armor again.