Blogger 365 Day 151 - Almost dinner time

     Yes I know it is late, but I just threw my dinner in the crock pot.  Nothing too fancy, just hot dogs, sausage, sauerkraut and pierogis.  I am not even sure I am all that hungry, but I should probably eat something tonight.

     Work wasn't bad today, I did about half of what I need to get done this weekend.  In part because I was taking it easy on myself, I have to go in on Sunday anyway since the weekend paperwork needs to be split up with Sunday being the 1st of the month, we can't file a combination of May and June at the same time so i am going in Sunday to do the paperwork for Friday and Saturday and on Monday we will deal with the Sunday stuff. Since I have to be there anyway, I didn't go all crazy with what needed done today, instead I found some other tasks that I could tackle and saved some stuff for tomorrow.  I don't want to go in and just do one or two things, it seems like a waste of my time so I left myself a few things to get done instead.

     I started reading another book today.  I haven't finished my book on the beginning of World War I yet, but I reached a point where I was burning out on information overload.  Between all of the dukes and bishops and kings and ministers that are in play, it almost felt like the more boring parts of the Bible, where you sit around reading whom begat whom.  I needed to step back from it, thankfully I still had a Robert Parker laying around the house that I hadn't read yet, so I started that on the bus today. I will probably take it to breakfast with me tomorrow as well, I am thinking an early breakfast, then tackle work and then hopefully get home to enjoy some pleasant weather.

     It was beautiful outside today, lots of sun and warm without being hot.  Damn near perfect, so of course I was indoors for most of it.  Oh well, que sera, sera. 

     I am probably going to place the order for my cell phone on Monday, and I feel like I am being drug kicking and screaming into the 21 century.  I am still unsure of my need for one, after all, Buck Rogers was around in the 25th century and he didn't have one and he got along okay.  Plus he did have the hot Wilma Dearring to look at (Erin Gray) in those skin tight body suits.  Yes, my mind was poisoned as a child and has only gotten worse since.

     Oh well, better go check on dinner.  Eating is fundamental.

Blogger 365 Day 150 - One week left

     Just 7 more days, and really only 5 work days, until Dee's last day with us on Friday and I am handed the keys to the empire.  I will only be working with her for 4 of those days since I am heading off for the GFS show in Monroeville on Tuesday.   The time is fast approaching yet I am strangely calm about the whole thing. 

     Don't get me wrong, I like Dee a lot, and going into this process I was unsure come June whether or not I would be able to handle everything that would be thrown my way, but between us selling the one store, cutting down on my need to be in two different locations, and some changes that have come at the other store, I am thinking I might be growing into this job just a little bit.

     I had the opportunity towards the end of the day today to ask Ed what all he wanted from me once Dee does leave and he mentioned that he wants me to do he same things I do now as well as what she does.  I tend to be a little more hands on on the floor than Dee is, I can hop on a register if need be or run the lottery.  I am also not afraid to get my hands dirty, whether that be climbing under coolers, or catching trucks or what not, pretty much whatever needs done I can, and if needed to, do.  He doesn't want me to get away from that aspect of the job. 

     But he also did say that I would be doing her work as well, which is more time consuming than hard for me.  I can do the numbers, and I have no problem starting earlier in order to get a jump on them.  Recently I have been starting at 8:30, I can easily move that to 7am and get myself an extra hour and a half to do nothing but numbers.  There will also be some things that will have to change, for starters, next week I am going to have to break with my years long struggle of being a Luddite and spring for a cell phone.  It is one of the concessions I am making, though Brian offered to pay for the phone, I think it is better if I do that.  Ed also said we would talk about my salary, with out me bringing up the topic.  I have a number in mind that I think is fair, I have no intention of turning this into a get rich quick scheme, which I will bring up when we have that conversation, but rather it is an investment for both parties.    By the same token, I am taking on the responsibility of a store that does a significant volume in business, kids stitching soccer balls in Third World countries should not be making a wage competitive with my own. 

      So next week should be a fun one, let's see what happens.

Blogger 365 Day 149 - Celebrating almost post 150, it's a quiz

I usually do not do a lot of sharing on here, especially with my own personal project, but I found this one rather fun so what the heck. 

 http://wapo.st/spelling

Each sentence you will focus on one letter of the alphabet, starting with the letter A.  Your task, should you wish to accept it, is to find all of the misspelled words in those sentences.  You are scored in three categories, corrected spellings (words you noticed were missspelled), missed misspellings (words you thought were correct but were not) and incorrect guesses (words you thought were incorrect but were spelled properly).

To be fair, here is how I did

Corrected missspellings - 38
Missed misspellings - 4
Incorrect guesses - 2

Have fun, feel free to post yours scores if you wish

Blogger 365 Day 148 - Deliveries

     Yes this will be short.  I just got season 2 of The League in the mail today from Amazon and I am in the midst of watching it.  I ended up getting it on an impulse buy when I was on the site last time, looking for a new digital convertor box for my TV.  I found one that was around $35, which is a little pricy but it has the ability to record over the air programs as well and store them on a flash drive.  Simply by taking the flash drive out afterward you can plug it into any computer and watch the program(s) that were taped.  Pretty cool actually.  

     That being said, the $35 left me $5 short of the free shipping Amazon offers for orders over $40, so I could just get the box and with shipping it would be over $40 anyway, or I could get something else and have the shipping charge knocked off.  I chose the latter option and now have season 2.  I already had season 1 (a free gift from my Coke points) and thought it was hilarious, so #2 was a no brainer purchase for me.

Anyway, back to the show.  Up to episode 3 so far.  Let the binging begin!!!

Blogger 365 Day 147 - At least the power stayed on

     Just got through what could be called a decent sized thunderstorm here.  I was worried about starting a blog entry only to have the power go out in mid sentence, but it would seem that we managed to avoid that potential outcome here, the electricity stayed on and all is well with the world.  No, I did not go over to the Weather Channel to see what sort of stupid name they came up with for the weather. 

     I like thunderstorms actually, and while the weather here the last 4 days or so has been pretty freaking magnificent, there is something about a good storm that for me just washes away any bad mojo in the air, and the moments immediately afterward are almost like some one took nature's Etch A Sketch, gave it a good shake or three and now we get a brand new start.

    So far it has been an easy week for me, I was relatively productive at work (though it is only Tuesday, things can change on that front), I enjoyed getting into the kitchen yesterday and cooking my chili (which once again passed the Sammy taste test) and the lac of college students in Oakland has the area someone peaceful at night.  I even snuck out last night and just sat in my driveway soaking in the quietness. 

     Tomorrow I have to show Bobby how I do a grocery order at work because I have been picked by Ed to go to a trade show next Tuesday for GFS, one of our vendors.  By not being in the office on a Tuesday, that means someone else will have to pick up the slack on the ordering front and since Bobby has worked with the COSMOS system we use (he did the ordering for Gus Millers), it should just be a matter of getting him used to the actual volume of stuff we order more than the showing him how the entire process works.

    As for me, I think I am going to call it an early night.  I already took a nap and I think closing my eyes again will not be that hard of a thing to do.

Blogger 365 Day 146 - Cooking classes and asses

     I really shouldn't be doing this.  By doing this I mean making chili.  For one it is late enough that when it gets to the crock pot stage (I am still browning the ground beef at this point), I am still going to have a few hours before it gets done so I might not even get to enjoy the fruits of my labor before I go to bed.  The other reason being that people will not like me in the morning.

     I should know, I made that mistake last night.  I woke up around 2:30 or so, and was hungry for some unknown reason so I decided I would just pop a couple of microwave burritos in and snack on those before going back to sleep.  The cooking part went well, or about as well as cooking things in a microwave can go and I was back asleep about a half hour after waking up. 

     This morning I went into work late, it is a holiday after all, I knew things would be slow and I couldn't even go to the bank to do deposits, the most I could do would be the paperwork from the weekend and, time permitting, a couple of odds and ends tasks.  So I start by getting the money out of the lottery machines, and then proceed down to the office to count it and make sure the numbers all match with the reports. I am sitting in the office counting when my ass decides to disagree with me.  Suffice it to say, the stench that came forth would  be considered a war crime in most civilized countries.   Thankfully I was in the office by myself at the time.

     I figure that I could just chalk it up to the microwave burritos that I probably shouldn't have eaten.  Of course the fact that I am making chili not even 24 hours later means maybe I didn't learn my lesson after all.

Blogger 365 Day 145 - Ideas at inopportune times

     So I woke up this morning and started being functional after some fits and starts and decided I would try to get an errands or three done.  I walked over to Gus Millers, Sam said he wanted to see me this morning but when I got there he wasn't there, so I then decided I would take in some grocery shopping instead of just coming home.  I figured a trip to Bottom Dollar would result in me getting the stuff to make chili again, as well as some other odds and ends so that I am eating at home this week rather than ordering in and wasting money that way.

     I climb aboard my bus (the 61C for those who are interested in such things) and made my way toward the Waterfront.  On the bus I started getting an idea for what I might want to blog about, the problem being of course that I was on the bus, and it was standing room only again, so no just whipping out the iPad and even taking a couple of notes down about my idea.

     I get to m destination and actually get through the picking out of the groceries in relatively short order.  One thing about me, when I go shopping I am pretty focused on what I want, there is not a lot of wasted motion or energy on the whole browsing aspect of the process, I have an idea of what I want, I go get it, and then I get out.  Of course check out was a different matter.  My cashier was polite and competent and all, I wouldn't say she was alarming fast or slow, just that she seemed to be pretty good at what she was doing.  Instead my problem was the person I got in line behind.  First was the little divider thing that goes on the conveyor belt to make sure orders are separated, when I was in line behind her hurried up and put the divider down and looked at me like I was their to take her groceries.  Trust me, I had no desire for any of the shit that was in her cart.  As she is being rung out we find that she is either blind or managed to damage some of her groceries in her cart, because the packages she was putting on the belt were either half empty or she was disputing the prices on them.  Finally we get to the point of the paying phase and she wonders if she actually saved any money by shopping there.  At this point I would have preferred she didn't shop there, it would have been one less piece of aggravation I dealt with.  She tell the cashier, well maybe I should have just shopped at Giant Eagle instead and it took all of my boyish charm not to pipe in with "Please, don't do us any favors".

    Finally she gets out of line. I get rung through and I spent like $40 dollars or so and got meals enough for the coming week, without burdening myself too much with excessive bags to take bag with me on the bus.  Anyone who has tried to get groceries home on public transportation will tell you just how much of a problem that can be.  I get bonus point because as soon as I get to the bus stop my bus in less than a block away.  Being that it is Sunday and hitting the bus stop at the wrong time can result in as much as an hour wait, I credit clean living and good mojo to actually hitting the bus arrival almost perfectly. 

     Then I get home and unpack my groceries and all of a sudden I am sleepy, not sure why though it probably has to do with working long hours yesterday then getting to bed late and not getting enough sleep before deciding I would be productive today.   The problem is, going back to my blog idea, I need to do a little bit of research for it and I don't think I could pull it off in the time allotted before I would hit my midnight deadline.  Thankfully it is an idea that will keep for a day or two, so you get this entry instead and I get to ruminate on just how I want all of the pieces of that entry to fit together. 

Blogger 365 Day 144 - I could have used a partner in crime

     On my way into work this morning I stopped by the former Gus Millers, they had a cigarette order that they wanted me to put in for them, and I noticed a sign on the sidewalk next door.  For those familiar with Oakland, you know what is next door, it's Primanti's.  And they were running a special, 2 sandwiches for $10 from 10pm-3am Thursday through Saturday.   I though to yself, this might be worth looking into after I get home from work, if I feel like venturing out that is.

     Well, guess what time I got home from work?  If you are guessing 10pm (after starting at 11am) you would be correct.  And while I haven't eaten all day, two Primanti sandwiches would probably be a little much, even for me.  So I guess I have found one disadvantage to being singe after all, I pay more for my sandwiches after 10pm.

Blogger 365 Day 143 - Casino night

"Standing at the station, teardrop in my eye......" Sorry, fell into some Keb Mo there while waiting at Allegheny station to catch the subway back into town. Just making my way back from the casino, had $50 in free slot play to get rid of. All told I am probably up thirty dollars or so, though I could be up much more. I pissed some cash away, just hanging around relaxing otherwise I would have been up another hundred dollars or so. Que sera sera and all that jazz.
I know it is a holiday weekend for some, I could tell because I actually got a seat on the bus on the way to work this morning. Yes the holiday isn't until Monday, but never underestimate the feeling of some that if a holiday occurs on Monday, their laziness will precipitate not working on Friday just to make a three day weekend a four day one.
Nothing really all that new to report, I am just biding my time at work waiting for the right moment to sit down and talk to Ed about my compensation going forward. I have a number in mind that I believe is fair, but that number does come with conditions, mostly that I am free to do my job as it needs to be done. Whether he will see things my way has yet to be determined. If not I do have the job offer where I can pick up some extra cash, I have already talked to them about working part time around my existing schedule and they would be open to that, so if I can't get more money with one job, I can always get more money with two of them.
The baseball game must be letting out, the first stop after the casino in PNC Park and a bunch of people just boarded the subway. Maybe I should have left the casino earlier, I would have more money and fewer drunken assholes to deal with. Personally is I want to deal with drunken assholes I will just jam a bottle of Red Stripe up my rectum and viola, problem solved.
It looks like I will be running the dog and pony show solo at work on Monday, Dee is taking the day off so yours truly will be doing all of the paperwork, as well as plenty of other things. We just got a new freezer in today, and I have to make ready for deliveries come Tuesday.
Steel Plaza, everybody off the subway. Okay, not everybody, but more than me. Time to transfer from subway to bus to complete the trip to Oakland. I still have a stop to make on the way home, I need some beverage in ye olde household. Food is taken care of, I am just going to reheat the meatballs I had last night when I made meatball sandwiches and French fries. I know, I know, I astound you with my cooking abilities, especially when they consist of heating something up. You should see what I can do with a microwave.
Okay, snagged a 61B, that should get me to where I need be. In fact it is probably a better option than any of the 71 buses because it leaves me off a block closer to my ultimate goal of getting home. I was also smart enough to catch a bus heading into town first, that way I guaranteed myself of getting a seat, not a given if I would have caught the bus as it was leaving town and tried boarding the bus with more drunken baseball fans. Not sure which they are bigger fans of, baseball or beer.
Anyway, I probably should put the iPad away. I am about five minutes from where I am going and typing and shopping don't mix. Nor does typing while walking with my hands full, so better to nip that problem in the bud by packing this up. Till later, toodles.

Blogger 365 Day 142 - Congratulations are in order

     Something happened the other night that I forgot to mention and since this place has been an absence of good news recently, maybe, just maybe, this piece of good news is worth mentioning.

     Back right around the time I was entering radio there was another person that that was in radio here in Pittsburgh by the name of Rocco Pendola.  I can't say I was avid listener of Rocco's show here on WTAE 1250AM, I listened when I could, but on my list of hierarchy in radio, he was not appointment listening for me unlike the late Doug Hoerth and Laurence Gaines, but when I could listen to Rocco's show I liked it.  At times it was a little abrasive, but not to such a degree that I found the show disagreeable.

     Apparently I wasn't the only one who at least liked his show, as Rocco would see his career go from Pittsburgh to The Ticket in Dallas, which is a much bigger market, in case you were wondering.  It was at that point that I had stopped listening for a minute, because this was in the day when streaming on the web was more a novelty than a practical was of listening to the radio.  Besides, why would a guy like me living in Pittsburgh want to listen to people talk about the local Dallas sports teams?

     It wouldn't be long before I would get to hear Rocco again though, he was picked up by Sportsfan Radio Network, which at the time was a nationally syndicated sports talk radio network.  I think I might have called his show once or twice, but I am not much when it comes to being a caller when in comes to radio, my skills were always better suited to being a producer.

     Admittedly my memory becomes a little bit fuzzy here, I am not sure if Rocco was employed by Sportsfan to the very end or whether he either left or was let go before bankruptcy came and Sportsfan was no more, but again I just lost touch with him and what was happening in his life.  Best I can understand he went back to school in California and studied urban planning before being picked up by The Street.com, where he was (and continues to this day) in writing financial advice columns.

     I found myself reaching out to him though when Laurence Gaines passed away.  I know that they had worked at the same station in Pittsburgh for a while, though I didn't know how close they were.  And for a inute I was acting almost as a go between, keeping Rocco in the loop of things that were happening here as I was to find out that he was a good friend of Laurence's (which doesn't surprise me, Laurence seemed to touch everyone that way, another reason why he remains the gold standard in talk radio producers in my eyes).  The process would repeat itself about a year later with the passing of Doug Hoerth, though not to quite the same degree as Doug was more of a loner than Laurence was.

     Through all of this I am not sure if I would say that Rocco and I became friends, maybe somewhere between acquaintance and friend if I had to pinpoint exactly what our relationship actually is.

      Right about now you are probably wondering just what the hell this all has to do with good news.  Well, I used to use my blog page to pimp my own radio show appearances, if I was sitting in for Lynn Cullen or if I was going to be on Doug's Friday group show.  Today I am going to use it to pimp someone else's good radio fortune, as Rocco is back in radio with a regular shift as he will be doing Sunday mornings on Fox Sports Radio (http://www.foxsportsradio.com/main.html) starting on June 1st from 9am-1pm EST.   Congrats Rocco!!!!

Blogger 365 Day 141 - Unscheduled

     Once again I find myself on some awkward sleeping schedule where I am up when I should be sleeping and then too tired to get up in the morning.  Last night I couldn't sleep so I did one of my late night runs over to the laundry mat and threw a load of clothes in, and yet when I got home I still wasn't tired, not falling asleep until after 4am.  When I did fall asleep it took a lot to get out of bed this morning and make it through work, but I did, only to come home around 5, make a couple egg salad sandwiches and then fall asleep for an hour or so.  I am hoping that I will not be up again half the night tonight, I know I have a lot of things to do at work in the morning, I don't really want to be dragging all day again.

     I should give an update here, I finally did hear back from the job interview I went on.  On the plus side, as Sally Field would say, they liked me, they really really liked me so I was offered a job.  The problem being what they offered me wasn't what I was looking for, I was hoping for management but they have management meetings all over the place, not just in the city of Pittsburgh, so for me to be a manager there I would have to go get a car (and insurance) and be willing to travel everywhere for meetings and be wiling to work in any store that needed me at any time, of which they have 55 locations in the area.  They would be willing to bring me on as a part time employee in one of their local stores, so I might go that route if I decide I need the extra income and it works around my existing schedule.  If however they want me to give up a full time job to work part time, well that wouldn't work for me. 

     Anyway, I am going to try that sleep thing, maybe I can get back on more of a routine, we will see.

Blogger 365 Day 140 - Change I can't believe in (yet)

     I know I haven't done a change meter update in about a month or so, I wish I could say that I have been scooping up all kinds o cash, but I really haven't.  In the last month or so I have only found .91, a paltry month to be sure.  But there is a but, as is often the case.  Technically with that additional money the change meter is now up to $505.76, but there is more money, I just haven't decided if I will add it or not.

    You see, a few weeks back I was out on my Sunday walk.  Unlike a lot of people, I am constantly studying the ground when I walk.  I scoop up Coke caps for my rewards program and if I find the occasional coin I will pick that up too and add it to my total.  But what I found the other day was neither a cap, nor was it a coin.  Instead it was a gift card, laying out in the street, looking like it had been run over a time or thrice.  I picked it up thinking it is probably just a grocery store gift card a student was given and subsequently spent and thrown in the trash once it was used up.  So I flipped the card over and it wasn't a grocery store, instead it was to Aeropostale, a clothing store.  I stuck it in my pocket thinking that I am sure this has been spent, but I will take it home and check online anyway, and if there is something left on it then I may go shopping.

     I get home and do the necessary research and there was money on it, $18.75 to be exact.  The dilemma then becomes, how does this count to the change meter?   I have made exceptions in the past where I have counted the value of things to the total provided they met two criteria; 1) I could establish for certain a value of the item.  In the past when I found a monthly bus pass on the 1st of the month it was easy.  A bus pass costs $90 for a monthly, it was the first day of the month, so the full value of the pass would apply to the total here.  2) is harder, I have to be able to use the value of the item.  In the case of the bus pass it was easy, since I use public transportation all the time.  Aeropostale is a different animal in that it is a store I usually would not shop at, it is a little to young hipster GQ-ish for my tastes and the closest location is a decent bus ride away (and out of the way at that), so it is uncertain whether I can use this gift card or not.  If I do, then I will add the total of the gift card to my change meter, if not then it is of no value to me and therefore does not count. 

   Leave it to me to make an issue out of finding stuff.  But if I didn't, oh what would I possibly blog about?

  

Blogger 365 Day 139 - Spent

     Not sure why, but I just lack energy this evening.  Work was good, I was what I would like to call relatively productive, but when I got home it was just like someone sucked the life out of me.  I popped in a DVD I bought yesterday, thinking I would relax with some McDonald's food and a movie and next thing I know I was sleeping.  It was a short nap mind you, but it was only short because I forced myself to wake back up, I could have easily went to bed and not gotten up the rest of the night.  I could see if I had pulled a long day, in truth it was only 8 hours, nothing all that long.  Maybe it was eating food from McDonald's that did it, I know I hadn't had anything from there in probably close to a year, sleep may have been my way of my body dealing with the lack of nutrients McDonald's food actually provides.   Whatever it is, I just know that I am beat and I have no logical explanation why.

Blogger 365 Day 138 - More milestones

     In August of 2012 I made this particular piece of real estate my blogging home.  IT wasn't my first choice mind you, I was on Multiply and Yahoo 360 before that, but for almost two years now this little corner of the webiverse has been what I would call my home.  While I am not going to go on some lengthy discussion of what led to me ultimately ending up on Blogger, I am going to take a moment and say thanks to everyone who has stopped by here.  Seems that as of yesterday or two days ago ( I wasn't paying that much attention) this page has cracked the 10,000 page view threshold.   I know for serious blogs out there that number pretty much means nothing, but for far less serious blogs like this one it is a bit more of a benchmark.  So thanks for stopping by, whomever you all are.  

Blogger 365 Day 137 - The cat is out of the bag

By now I am sure you have seen the video, it has been all over the internet, where a little boy is playing in his driveway and a dog comes up behind him, grabs the boy's leg in his mouth and begins to drag him when the family cat springs forth and leaps at the dog, freeing the little boy. 

I watched the video and admittedly I was fairly impressed by what the cat did. Now I am not going to try to climb into the cat's head and understanding the reasoning behind its behavior, I was just impressed by what it did. I was not impressed with the video however.

You see, the video is edited together, not in a bad way, everything fits chronologically and all, but it is obvious from watching it that more than one security camera was used and that both cameras were on the property of boy's home. What is worrisome to me is that, at some point, one or both of the boy's parents thought to themselves, you know what would be cool, if we edited together footage of a dog using our son as a chew toy. Even better, after crafting this little piece of video together, then the licensed it to Junkin Media, so now they are profiting off of their son being attacked. Mind you, the family are now also being treated as celebrties, they are doing tons of media interviews about their heroic cat, hell the cat is scheduled to throw out the first pitch at a baseball game (though I am not sure just how that happens).

Maybe this is just me being old fashioned, and admittedly I am not a parent so I am not speaking from experience, but I would like to think that if I were and one of the neighborhood dogs had attacked my child my first, second, or even third thought would not be, I wonder how I can make money or garner any glimmer of celebrity off of this. I wouldn't be viewing and editing security camera footage together to get the best possible angles of my child being viciously attacked. I would like to think I could find better ways to make money than by exploiting my own child's suffering. But that is just me, and given the internet fascination over the video and subsequent media fascination over the family in general I guess I am the only one that feels this way.

Blogger 365 Day 136 - Mailings

     Some of you may remember a post from a little bit earlier in this project of mine, "When Pranks Go Wrong", and that the first and only stop in my foray that evening was to the Rivers Casino.  Well, along with breaking the gnome, I also managed to spend a few shekels losing money at said casino.  Ever since then apparently the casino has wanted me to come back.  I have gotten emails from them and I now get mailings pretty much once or twice a week about different promotions they are having, or giveaways and contests that or running, or even concerts that are taking place at their venue.  For the most part I just toss them off to the side, like if I would have went on Mother's Day I could have gotten some free cheap jewelry just for showing up.  Thanks but no thanks.

     One of the mailings did intrigue me though, it was a mailing for a contest that happens on Fridays.  Each Friday in May you take a card with two pull tabs on it that was mailed at the beginning of the month. You take the card into guest services (or whatever they call that place, I think the Players Club but I could be mistaken), hand them the card and your casino membership card as well as ID and then have them pull one of the tabs.  You get the prize underneath the tab.  The smallest prize you can get is $25 in free slot play.

     Given I was looking for something to do after work tonight I decided that I would go to the casino and see how this process actually worked.  It didn't seem to make much sense to me to just give out money, otherwise people could just load up their card with the free slot play, stick the card in a machine and then turn around and cash right back out.  And if that is in fact how the process worked, well the number of promotions I have been getting sent with some amount of free slot play would lead me to believe I could have an entirely decent second racket going just getting my promotional credits and then turning around and leaving without actually playing anything. 

     The added bonus of going today was that I had to get a new bus pass for work and I could justify the trip to myself by saying that worst case scenario I will get my bus pass at one of the kiosks in the subway terminal next to the casino, so the trip over would be of some small benefit to me.  I would just stop at an ATM on the way over, maybe grab like $20 bucks and if I lose that at the casino, oh well, I have done worse things with $20 in the past (don't ask).

     Today at work Ed wanted to see if I could handle the paperwork, apparently he wants me to be there when Dee leaves, so today I did most of that stuff in the office, balancing the books for Smithfield and what not.  I also had to sort out 4 different cigarette orders that came in, all of which I had priced out beforehand so we would collect the right amount of money, did a lottery ticket order, took out trash, processed a handful of invoices for our accountant to pick up Monday, ran the deposits to the bank, and showed him where I am saving him money by switching vendors on his e-liquids for e-cigarettes from the vendor he had ordered from previously.  If it sounds like a lot, really for me it is just a typical Friday.  Nonetheless Ed gave me a $50 bonus today just because of the job I did, so maybe I am getting out of the dog house, we will see.

     Now I am thinking I can certainly go to the casino, and not even stop at an ATM on the way, I have money I didn't have when the day started, even if I spend $20 and the promotion sucks, I come home with $30 more than I had when I went to work and I have my bus pass to boot.  So after work I go to the First Avenue subway station and catch a subway for the Allegheny Station.  I managed to finish my book on the short subway ride (it is the top one on the shelf to the right), hop off of the subway, buy my bus pass at the kiosk in the station and walk across the parking lot to the casino.

     Once inside I had to ask where I needed to go to deal with this promotion, having only been there once I had no idea how I was to go about redeeming this offer I had with me but the casino staff were gracious and told me everything I needed to know and in short order I was standing at the proper counter and turned in my ticket, told them which tab I would like pulled and was told I won $35 in free slot play.  Yay me!!  I asked how this is redeemed and was told it is loaded onto my casino card.  A casino card there is just a gold metal flake card, about the size of a credit card, that you can slide into a machine before you play it.  The longer you play, the more points you acquire on it, points that determine your player level.  Certain level players get bonuses throughout the casino.  I am on the lowest level, so I get things like "Free self parking" and 5% off of the Grandview Buffet (one of the places I took the gnome before he died) but the card is not in anyway cash itself, so I was curious how my free slot play was loaded onto it.

     I decide I would go stick my card in a machine and see what happens, so I pick a slot machine, one that says .02 slots, which is a lie unto itself.  The alleged penny and nickel slots do not cost one and 5 cents respectively, rather that is how much each pay line on the machine costs on the smallest possible bet, so my two cent machine I sat down at would have been better called a $1 slot, because there were 50 paylines on it at 2 cents each.  The card reader for my casino cards says I have free slot play on it, so I hit the promotions tab to see how much I have and it says $1.60, or roughly that is what they game me back from the night of "Death of the Gnome".  Seeing $1.60 on the screen made me think that it was less a gnome and more akin to that bad luck idol from when the Brady Bunch went to Hawaii and Greg almost drown in the surfing competition.  Since $1.60 wasn't going to do much anyway, I decided to just stick a $20 in the machine, lose my money and go home.  Except I didn't lose.  Not that I won a great deal either, I got up to $30 and decided I would cash out, put $10 in my pocket and blow the $20 on a different machine.

     I see this really cool Iron Man looking slot machine and think, well, I have blown $20 on worse things (again, don't ask) so I stick my casino card into it and the promotion thing lights up again, except this time I do not have $1.60 in free slot play, I have $61.60 in free slot play.  Not only did I get the $35 I had won, but I got another $25 for some other promotion I wasn't even aware of.  I did see how the promotion worked though, as I was asked how much of my promotional money I wanted to use on the machine, to which I typed in $60 and the machine kept a running balance of how much promotional money I had left, which was separate from any money I won on those free spins.  Which was quite a bit actually, by the time I had spent my promotional cash I was up to $140, which I of course cashed out.  So I sat down at another machine, put $20 in, won $40.  Finally on the last machine I played I did lose some money, but I went into the casino with $60 in my wallet and left with $175, so I can't complain too much.

     So, in the course of one day I managed to get out of the doghouse at work, buy a bus pass, figure out how promotions work at the casino and learn that gnomes are bad luck.  All in all, a pretty productive Friday.

Blogger 365 Day 135 - Just cut him

       When the NFL Draft took place I wasn't all that keen on watching.  To be honest, I rarely get caught up in where guys go and who gets picked in what round, my interest only begins to take shape when I see how the guys are performing on the field.  There are plenty of stories of guys who get taken in the first round who end up being busts just as there are stories of undrafted free agents who go on to have amazing careers.  Some times the prognosticators get it right, some times they don't.  For me I tend to let my own two eyes tell me more than anything I may here on TV or read on a website.

     So when the media went all apeshit about Michael Sam getting drafted by the St Louis Rams in the 7th round of the NFL draft to me it wasn't that big a thing.  He certainly had enough of a college pedigree that would merit being drafted, including being the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and named an All American while in college.  In my own mental world that would merit someone taking a chance on him to see if he could play at the professional level.

     The thing that made the Michael Sam story so juicy from the media perspective is that he is an openly gay man.  Personally, I couldn't care less.  Who you love or who you fuck in your free time really doesn't matter to me.  All that matters to me is whether you can play or not.  So when Michael Sam was drafted, and there was video of him getting the call, followed by him kissing his boyfriend I was just like, ho hum.  Let's be honest, if this were any other player and the video would have been of them kissing their girlfriend, there would have been a collective ho hum from across the spectrum.  But because it was a man kissing another man, now let the kerfuffle begin.

     I personally thought that being drafted by St Louis was a good place for Michael Sam to land.  Sam, who plays defensive end, would be playing on a team with a defensive minded coach in Jeff Fisher, and playing on a team that has quality players on its defensive line, as evidenced by the fact that the Rams finished 3rd in the NFL in sacks last year with 53.  Even if Sam didn't win a starting job out of the gate, it would be a great place for him to learn and develop as a pro behind guys who are really good at what they do.

     Now, word is out that Michael Sam has sold his story as a documentary to Oprah Winfrey's OWN Network, a point that he did not tell any team in the NFL prior to or during the draft.  What this means is that all through training camp there will be cameramen and microphones trailing him and his teammates around simply to get the Michael Sam story.  And let's be honest, OWN will not be following Michael Sam around to break down his pass rushing technique, there will be no critiquing his swim move to get around a 300 lb offensive lineman, rather they will be there simply because he is a man who is attracted to other men. 

     St Louis plays in arguably the toughest division in football, the same division that has the 2014 Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks and the 2013 NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers.  A quick look at the Rams schedule for this coming season shows that they will play a team that made the playoffs last season 8 times out of their 16 games, so an improvement 7-9 record last will be a tough road to hoe.  And instead of using training camp and the preseason as a chance to learn, grow and help his team get better, Michael Sam has decided on his own to use that time as little more than a publicity vehicle for himself. 

    Of course there is one way that Jeff Fisher could keep the cameras and the media circus away from his team as he prepares for the 2014-2015 NFL season, and that would simply be to cut Michael Sam.  Would that provoke scrutiny and would the St Louis Rams organization be forced to answer questions?  Absolutely, but no matter how this played out that was going to be the case.  If Michael Sam was cut before the season, there would be questions, if Michael Sam made the team but wasn't a starter there would be questions, if Michael Sam made the team and was a starter there would be questions.  At the end of the day, there would always be questions.  The only question that should matter to the Rams though is whether a person you thought just enough of to take in the last round of the NFL draft worth not just the media spectacle that was bound to happen, but the added intrusion by people that Michael Sam invited of his own accord without clearing it with the team beforehand.  If the answer is no, then the easiest solution is to simply cut him.

Blogger 365 Day 134 - Round 2

     Well, Ed comes back from Florida tomorrow.  Not sure what to expect really.  There has certainly been an underlying tension there, admittedly it has been mostly of my own creating.  That being said the last week or so at work has went very well for the most part, and I would hope that would continue.  Don't know if it will, it may end up that that I get fired, who knows.  Can't say as I am anxious about it one way or the other, I just go in, do my job to the best of my ability and let the chips fall where they may.    Que sera, sera.

     The hockey game did not go well for the home team last night (for those that did not see the highlight package on the previous entry) and sure enough all the talk today was about changes that need to be made, the coach didn't do this, the GM should have done that, this player needs to go, blah, blah freaking blah.  I like the Penguins, obviously or I wouldn't post all of their videos on here for starters, but my life isn't so boring and desolute that a playoff loss forces me to break out the suicide implements and start drinking heavily.  It happens to every team but one in the end. 

     Anyway, off to make something to eat and then who knows, maybe some Hulu to cap the night off.  Ever the antisocial butterfly, that's me.

Eastern Conference Semifinal NY Rangers @ Penguins 05/13/2014

NY Rangers 2  Pittsburgh 1

Jussi Jokinen - G

In each of the last 5 years Pittsburgh's playoff loss came against a lower seeded team, Pittsburgh went 1 for 20 on the powerplay in the 7 game series

NY Rangers win best of seven series 4-3

Blogger 365 Day 133 - It comes to this

I am just sitting here, waiting for the hockey game tonight.  Game's like the one tonight are the joy and bane of sports fans.  While there are plenty of sports in which a playoff format is simply one and done, there is much more complexity and nuance in a Game 7 of a best of seven series.  For the winner there is a sense of relief, an almost Houdini-esque escape which allows the season to continue, for the loser the first impulse is to almost overreact, that if only certain changes were made the team would not find itself in this position again.

Here in Pittsburgh winning is treated almost as a birthright (save for baseball) and losing is abject failure.  There is no perspective when it comes to our sports, places in the NHL like Edmonton or Toronto, or Florida would love to have a team that consistently makes the post season and while not always winning championships (only one team gets to win that after all) almost always find themselves in the mix with at least the possibility of reaching for and grasping the brass ring.  There is little appreciation for what we have here, only a sense of entitlement.  A loss tonight will not be greeted with a "well, we had a nice season" but outrage and a myriad listing of who should be fired or traded.  A win and the process will repeat itself in the next round of the playoffs.  

As for me, a win and I will be positing at least five more highlight videos on this blog, a loss and there will only be one.  At least until next season when everything will wash, rinse, repeat.

Blogger 365 Day 132 - Jumping off point

     This is one of those days where I am just plum fresh out of ideas.  My job has been going well enough that I haven't had to bitch about it in a few days, the weather is warmer so I don't have to sit in my apartment shivering all the time, the college kids have went home for the summer so the noise level has died down incredibly and such inane sports as "hit beer cans with golf clubs" are not taking place in my driveway.  While I would say that I am overly happy or blissful, at least there is a certain contentment and sometimes being content is good enough.

      That being said, being content hardly is inspiring in writing a blog entry, in fact it is pretty much debilitating.  There isn't anything out there to be overly angry or excited about, the world is just there and I am part of it.  Admittedly I do like sports, but I do not have the fire in my belly to get all upset over the David Sterling's of the world, or feel the need to opine greatly about ESPN filming Michael Sam and his boyfriend kissing after Sam was drafted by the Rams.  Sure I have opinions about such topics, I just don't have the desire to argue over them, especially with people whose minds have already been made up.  If fools errands were my forte I would still be fighting with 9/11 Truthers, or Birthers, or North American Unionists, or any of a number of inane conspiracy theorists out there.  It is one thing I do not miss about my talk radio days, anymore I am content to leave people wallow in their own ignorance.  I am not an educator, nor do I play one on TV.

     Instead of me being the brains of this outfit I think I will just throw this out to the public at large.  What should my next blog be about?  I've been blogging for probably a decade now, and over the course of that time I have covered many topics, is there something I missed that others were clamoring for?  Not that I know everything because I don't, if you ask me with ideas to fix your car it would be a short blog entry along the lines of "See a mechanic", but anyone who has been here longer than a minute would know what I tend to focus on, so perhaps there is something within those realms of thoughts/ideas that I completely skipped over. 

     If not, that's okay, I am sure something rather boring or routine will happen around these parts soon enough that will allow me to grind out a paragraph or two.  Until then, I am open to suggestions.

Eastern Conference Semifinal Penguins @ NY Rangers 05/11/2014

NY Rangers 3  Pittsburgh 1

Brandon Sutter - G

Pittsburgh is now 15-15 in Game 6s in their playoff history, Pittsburgh outshot New York 37-29

Best of seven series is tied 3-3

Blogger 365 Day 131 - Just Sunday

Just laying around my apartment, getting ready to watch a hockey game and thought maybe I should bang out my daily blog entry. No, I will not be glogging tonight's game, consider yourself spared.
It was a pretty uneventful Mother's Day here, I woke up relatively early for my day off, 9am or so and after I got my eyes to focus a little bit I padded over to the phone and called my mom to wish her a Happy Mother's Day. We chatted for a bit, I wanted to let her know that I ordered her flowers, though because I didn't do so until Friday they would not get there until Wednesday. I ordered them online and it was a painful process, at least three different selections I had made turned out to not be available at the local florist before I was able to find something that they had and was decent looking. Well I hope it is anyway, we will wait and see on that.

I was supposed to go to breakfast with my aunt today, but last night after I had finished my blog entry I got a message from her saying she couldn't make it. She had to go to an event for one of her sons, who was submitting a project to get into Eagle Scouts. Really though, on Mother's Day I would have expected her to be spending time with her family anyway, I was actually surprised when she first mentioned it last Sunday.

After chatting with my mom for an hour or so I decided to throw some clothes on and run to the corner store to grab some java and complete the waking up process. It was sunny and warm out, reason enough to not spend the entire day indoors, so after grabbing my coffee I came home, showered and got dressed and decided to head over to the Strip District solo. Instead of breakfast I figured I would catch lunch at Kellie O's instead. Good thing I opted for lunch because by the time I got to the bus stop I must have just missed a bus because I ended up waiting for 45 minutes or so until my bus actually came. Thankfully I took my book to read, between my time waiting for the bus, riding the bus and eating lunch I managed to read a good chunk of my book. If all goes according to plan I should have it finished some time this week, maybe as early as tonight. After the hockey game I am going to head out and do some laundry and I will probably take my book to keep me entertained. Should be fun.

First intermission of the hockey game, I could continue babbling but I think I will go make something to eat instead.

Eastern Conference Semifinal NY Rangers @ Penguins 05/09/2014

NY Rangers 5  Pittsburgh 1

Evgeni Malkin - G

Jussi Jokinen's point streak was snapped after 8 games, Evgeni Malkin has taken over the team lead in points in the post season with 13 (6 G, 7 A)

Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 3-2

Blogger 365 Day 130 - Calmer seas

     Well things are going relatively smoothly here of late.  I haven't heard anything about the job interview I went on last Friday, but the  again things at work have been pretty good regardless of that.  Not perfect by any measure, but better than they have been in the last month or so.  I guess that is all that can be hoped for at this point.

      I was the inspiration for a memo that was handed out at work with all of the paychecks.  Basically it said if anyone was unhappy they could feel free to leave.  I don't think that the bosses get why there were so many people that were so frustrated (no, I was not the only one), I just happened to be the one who was most vociferous about their unhappiness and as a result I was the poster child for the memo.  That is a burden I will bear.   Que sera, sera and all that jazz.

     Tomorrow I am supposed to take in one of my breakfasts with my aunt, which I am looking forward to.  I am spending less time at our now no longer owned store, though I still stop by a few times a week, which is actually freeing up my time a lot.  It is nice to only work 50 hour weeks as opposed to the pushing 60 hours I was doing.  I realize this is only a temporary thing, once Dee leaves I will be on my own to a large extent, but that is still a month or so away, until then I am enjoying the fact that I can rest and recharge the batteries to an extent.  And part of that recharging is spending time with my family and enjoying a hearty breakfast, which I hear is the most important meal of the day.  I'll get back to you on that tomorrow.



      

Blogger 365 Day 129 - Karaoke Friday "Why you shouldn't drink with me"

     Wednesday was payday, and after getting off of work I meandered my way to my local watering hole for some refreshments of the beer variety.  After having a few too many I made my way over to the jukebox and for some completely unknown reason I decided to look this song up.  Goes to show just how drunk I was I guess.  Also goes to make for another fine installment of Karaoke Friday


The only one I know, has come to take me away
The only one I know, is mine when she stitches me
The only one I see, has found an aching in me
The only one I see, has turned her tongue into me

Everyone has been burned before, everybody knows the pain

The only one I know, never cries, never open her eyes
The only one I know, wide awake and then she's away
The only one I see, is mine when she walks down our street
The only one I see, has carved her way in to me

Everyone has been burned before, everybody knows the pain
Everyone has been burned before, everybody knows the pain

Everyone has been burned before, everybody knows the pain
Everyone has been burned before, everybody knows the pain

Blogger 365 Day 128 - Trial run

     Provided that I stick around my current job (which is not a given yet), tomorrow will be a trail run of sorts for me.  Dee is off and I am no longer running between two stores every morning, so this will be as close as I get to what life at work might be like come April.  I am not all that nervous or anxious about it, I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do and how I want to map things out, it is more just a matter of executing the plan that I have in my head.  I already know I have at least 4 deliveries coming in, maybe even more because I am still waiting on a 5th delivery from Lowe's that hasn't shown up yet

     If all goes relatively smoothly I might take myself out for a treat tomorrow night, if it goes poorly I will be sitting in my apartment drinking Red Stripe and trying to drown my sorrows.  Let's hope the next time I am here I am not drunk.

Eastern Conference Semifinal Penguins @ NY Rangers 05/08/2014

Pittsburgh 4  NY Rangers 2

Evgeni Malkin - G, A

New York's first goal in the second period was the first allowed by Marc-Andre Fleury over a span of 145 minutes and 30 second of playing time; Jussi Jokinen has an eight game points streak

Pittsburgh leads best of seven series 3-1

Blogger 365 Day 127 - We will see

     Today was either a very good day or a very bad one.  On one hand we may have rid ourselves of one of our larger problems at work, the same person that has made it a theme of constantly calling off was fired today.  Not by Ed, who seemed to be more than content to let this nonsense continue unchecked, but by Brian, who had seen enough of it already and another no call, no show today was finally enough.   We will see if what he did is permanent or if it is just a small bump in the road before Ed comes back and rehires this person and let's this nonsense continue.


     By the same token, there was a memo that was handed out with our checks today that said anyone who is unhappy can feel free to leave.  In part I am sure that this memo was inspired by my having an interview last Friday for another job.  I have made no secret of my unhappiness (in part because of the person who Brian finally fired today) because I have been a manager in name only, I really haven't been allowed to actually address any issues that come up because if we are going to allow people to consistently not show up for work, then what authority do I have over anyone, they can simply point to that example and say if they can get away with such and such the why can't I, and I would have no legitimate argument to that line of reasoning.

     That being said, there was also another reason why I was relatively vocal in my displeasure at work, that being I knew at some point there would be a person or two who would run to Ed with that bit of information in order to play kiss ass with him.  It isn't the first time I know of that some people I work with ran to him, looking to make themselves look better not by actually doing their jobs but by  brown nosing the boss.  Which for me is fine, if that is who he wishes to cater to he will find himself working an awful lot more than he currently does, the brown nosers aren't looking to actually do anything themselves, they are just hoping to make themselves look better.  Any time they wish to actually do my job, they are more than welcome to my keys.  But I am willing to bet none of them are ready to give up 6 days a week, every week, to do what I do.  And certainly not for what I get paid to do it.  So I really have no problem with them continuing to run their mouths, it will just make theirs and Ed's lives more troublesome in the long run.

      I think the best thing that has happened recently is that I have just developed an attitude of really not giving a shit one way or the other.  I am sure that if my current job doesn't work out I will find another one, and if it does work out then the people who seem to think running their mouths constitutes work are going to find that they are sadly mistaken.

Blogger 365 Day 126 - It's over

      Well it only took a month or so, but finally the lottery license has been transferred at Gus Millers (or whatever the new owners decide to call it now) and my work there is done.  At least my free work, since our business with that store has now concluded.  The new owners have asked if I would help them out with the lottery machines, which I really do not have a problem with, in fact they may even throw me some shekels for doing so.  For now though I do not have to trek in there each and every morning looking to get a tobacco order, or empty money from the machines or run lottery reports and make sure everything balances because that is no longer my problem.  It is the relief I was hoping to feel a month or so ago when we actually sold the place, but somehow we managed to make selling the place more work than when we owned it.

      Tomorrow is payday, I might take myself out to celebrate.  I haven't been to the Squirrel Cage in a while, a cajun chicken sandwich might be a good call.  Then again, I need to buy some new shoes to, so maybe I will head off to the Waterfront.  Who knows right now, all of that seems like long term planning and I am not even thinking 5 minutes ahead let alone 5 hours. 

     Not sure how much everyone liked yesterday's glog, apparently listening to the local media today I must have been watching a different game.  To hear them talk, the Penguins have played great the last two games, which isn't what I took out of last night at all.  Last night the Penguins were lucky, they were vastly outplayed for major stretches of the game but he thing about hockey is if a goaltender gets hot he can almost single handedly carry a team, which is what happened.  The Penguins had few really good scoring chances, but managed to capitalize on two of them, the Rangers had quite a few scoring chances, but either Marc-Andre Fleury made a great save or the Rangers would be hobbled with bad luck, as evidenced by hitting two posts and one crossbar and the puck never actually ending up in the net.  Last night the Penguins stole one, which is fine, it counts as a win just the same, but if they want to win a best of seven series they will need to play better than they did Tuesday night.

     Enough from me already, we all know that we have better things to do than read my gibberish, so we should all set about doing such things.

Eastern Conference Semifinal Penguins @ NY Rangers 05/05/2014

Pittsburgh 2  NY Rangers 0

Marc-Andre Fleury - 35 SV

Sidney Crosby scored for Pittsburgh, snapping a streak of 13 straight playoff games without a goal, Marc-Andre Fluery has not allowed a goal in the last 120 minutes of this series, stopping the last 57 shots he has faced

Pittsburgh leads the best of seven series 2-1

Blogger 365 Day 125 - Pittsburgh Penguins @ New York Rangers Eastern Conference Semifinal glog

Good evening and welcome to the glog of tonight's hockey game between the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins.  For those that are unfamiliar with hockey, tonight marks game 3 in a best of seven series, New York won game #1 3-2 in overtime on Friday, Pittsburgh evened the series up winning 3-0 on Sunday.  Tonight will mark the 4th game the Rangers have played in 6 days, having went the full seven games in dispatching the Philadelphia Flyers 4 games to 3 in the first round of the playoffs.  Pittsburgh got to this point by defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets 4 games to 2 in the opening round.

Pittsburgh has been lead this post season by Evgeni Malkin, who has 10 points (4 G, 6 A) in 8 games this post season, New York's leading scorer has been Brad Richards with 7 points (3 G, 4 A) in 9 games played.  In goal for New York is Henrik Lunqvist who has a 5-4 record (2.07 GAA, .926 SV %) and for Pittsburgh it is Marc-Andre Fleury who is 5-3 (2.49 GAA, .914 SV%).

There, that should lay out some of the background info before I get all stupid and comment on things that I know little about.

Eastern Conference Semifinal NY Rangers @ Penguins 05/04/2014

Pittsburgh 3  NY Rangers 0

Kris Letang - G, 2 A

Marc-Andre Fleury (22 SV) now hold the Penguins post season record with 7 shutouts, Pittsburgh outshot New York 35-22

Best of seven series tied 1-1

Blogger 365 Day 124 - Ideas

     One of the problems I have been having with this page and trying to blog every day is coming up with ideas.  Generating content on a daily basis can be hard to do, because let's be honest, I doubt people want to listen to me bitch and my life all of the time.  So I was thinking just what could I do and I think I have an idea, an old idea to be sure but one that that I used to do with more regularity.  A glog.  Yes, those live sports blogs that you have all come to hate. 

     It is one of the things I had gotten away from here, in part because I rarely watch TV and I do not have cable, so my sports offerings are somewhat limited.  But I remember that back in the day there was a website where I could catch live sports streams, a site that I hadn't visited since I used to be on my desktop computer on a daily basis.  Now my desktop sits there collecting dust, most evening I am content to be on my laptop, which is smaller, and more powerful (which shows how old my desktop is) than to try to get the hamster wheel rolling that powers ye olde desktop.

     So tonight I decided that I would see if I could pull up the same website I used to visit.  Some sports webstream sites have been hut down by the government but after doing some investigating it would seem that my favorite among them, firstrowsports, is still functional and accessible here in the states.  Right now I am watching the Pens game, albeit on a feed from Canada, but it is a working feed nonetheless.  Which means I should be able to pull up game 3 tomorrow night on the same site and be able to glog tomorrow nite's game.  For those of you that are fans of my glogs (there are none of you I know) one is coming in about 24 hours or so, for those that aren't, just move along, nothing to see here. 

Blogger 365 Day 123 - Alzheimers

     Silly me, I went and did an entry yesterday and was feeling all good about myself for having kept this up as long as I have, though truth be told the last time I attempted this I went probably two thirds of the year before falling behind on entries, and after putting together the entry just what did I do?  I forgot to cross promote the entry on Facebook and Google+ (which I still don't think anybody uses).

     Today was a back in the saddle day for me, catching up on the work I missed yesterday as well as getting a few side projects done that needed addressed.  The empire didn't fall apart n my one day absence, but just the same there were things that didn't get done because I am the only one that knows how to actually do them.  I often joke at work that I am the keeper of the great knowledge, because there are certain things that, without me, can't be done.  I am literally the only one that knows how to do them, like adding new items to the register system or changing the prices of items that are already in the system. 

     Dee knows some things about our new register system, but that knowledge is mostly regarding pulling reports and the like, when it comes to actually making the system work upstairs, that falls almost solely under my purview.   It is almost a layer of job security, not that I need such a layer, but I have one nonetheless.  It is also another reason why I am enjoying the job hunting so much, if a better offer comes along and I sit down with the bosses, I have bargaining chips all my own on the table, my knowledge leaves with me and given Ed's near fear of computers and Brian's lack of knowledge as to how the current system works, once Dee leaves in June to move to Florida my value to the empire increases incrementally.   I am not untouchable (in my eyes no one actually is)  but losing me makes their lives much harder because there isn't anyone there who can sit down and show someone how to do the things that Dee and I do, they would literally have to go back to square one and start all over again.  Power is a glorious thing.  Me, I am just basking in its glory.

     Tomorrow is an off day for me, I will probably spend it in the homestead, the Pittsburgh Marathon does a fine job of keeping anyone from actually getting anywhere so I will stay within the friendly confines, maybe fill out another application or three and work on my breakfast plans for next weekend.  Plans are also glorious things. Just not as glorious as power.

    

Eastern Conference Semifinal NY Rangers @ Penguins 05/02/2014

New York Rangers 3  Pittsburgh 2  OT

Lee Stempniak, James Neal - G each

Pittsburgh has never won a home playoff game in overtime since Consol Energy Center opened, Sidney Crosby has now gone 12 straight playoff games without a goal

New York leads best of seven series 1-0

Blogger 365 Day 122 - A third

     Hard to believe that I am one third of the way through this little project of mine. There have been pluses and minuses thus far, the pluses being that I seem to have shaken off some people that I did not want around here anyway, either through the sheer volume of my posts or some second hand blocking that I did on Facebook, so now for the most part the people that come around here are people that I do not mind having around.  On the minus side I think I have become redundantly whiny of late.  Just lots of same old bitching on my part, hopefully that will change in the near future by one means or another. 

     I spent this hallmark of a day at a job interview that for the most part went well.  I am not sold on the position even if it is offered, but I would rather have more chips on the table to play than fewer chips and be trapped.  What was better was when I finished up with the interview I went to work, even though I didn't have to, juts so I could get a few things off of the computer and then off to Gus Millers just to reload the lottery machines for the weekend.  Apparently the lottery will finally switch off to the new owners sometime next week, but they still want me to come out and maintain their lottery machines for them.  As an added bonus, while I was there being all spiffy in a shirt and tie I was asked why I was dressed up, when I mentioned a job interview they offered me a job as well.  Just more chips to play with for me, and I am not complaining about that. 

     I also picked up a lead on yet another job while I was coming back from my interview, albeit briefly so Sunday I might sit down for a while and follow up on that as well.  But probably the best part of today was just being off, being able to sit back and relax for a minute, sleeping until 9am and going to the laundrymat in the morning as opposed to the middle of the night, slapping on a dress shirt, dress pants a tie and dress shoes and looking like a real, live human being as opposed to the jeans and t shirt ensemble I normally wear.  It was nice.  It was very nice. 

     I even made plans with my aunt for one of our breakfasts on Mother's Day.  Not sure where we are going just yet, probably Kellie O's but that is yet to be determined, it is just nice to have plans that involve being out and about.

    For now though time to get rested up, tomorrow is back to the grind and I already have a handful of projects that will require my attention Saturday.

Blogger 365 Day 121 - Leftovers

     The title of today's entry is not to suggest that I left something out of the blog, instead it is just what I am having for dinner.  rather than go through the hassle of making something new I decided to make a meal out of the portions I had left in the fridge, so there was a little spaghetti, a sandwich, some soup.  Sadly I did not have any leftover dessert, but then really, who would leave any dessert behind?  That is almost as criminal as leaving a Marine behind.

     As for what else I am doing, right now I am just biding my time.  I need to do laundry for my job interview tomorrow, but I am also in the middle of an event in Marvel Puzzle Quest.  Normally I would be content to walk away from the game and come back later, but the event is timed to end at midnight and I am currently in first place.  I am going to try and stay in first if possible, but for that to happen I need not stray too far from the homestead and my wi-fi so I am delaying my laundry for a computer game.  And once again we see why I drive the chicks wild with desire.

     I am looking forward to Friday, not just because of the interview but just because it is probably the first weekday I have been off since last June when Ruth was here.  Ever since then the only days I have taken off have been Sundays, and one Saturday after Christmas so I could spend the weekend with my family.  Told you I was the antisocial butterfly.

     Part of me almost wants to be a fly on the wall at work tomorrow.  We only have four different cigarette orders coming in, a grocery order, a Pepsi order, a Coke order, an order for a new line of protein bars (Nugo) just to get the day started.  Should be fun, glad I will not be there for it but I am curious to see how things play out.

     Instead of being there I will sleep in, maybe take a walk after my interview and grab something to eat.  I haven't been over to the South Side in quite a while, it might be nice to just stroll around a bit and sit down to a meal with my book, which I am enjoying but not spending nearly enough time reading.  Perhaps I will take it with me when I do laundry tonight as well.  I am almost halfway through it, with a little free time I am sure I could blow through 100 or so pages. 

     Before that can happen though I need to sort some clothes so I best get to it.  This is one of those days where I really am disappointed I did not get a maid for Christmas.