Tag: friends

The iPhone and Starbucks Save the Day**

Today, Starbucks and my iPhone saved the day. I was at lunch when my friend Erin called me from the airport. It seems that she left her itinerary information for her business trip at the office. She was left with a dead battery in her work notebook and needed some assistance gaining access to her Expedia account.

Lucky for her, I was making a pit stop on my way back to the office at Starbucks. I was sitting using my iPhone on my T-Mobile HotSpot account. Had I been using the EDGE network, I wouldn’t have been able to chat and surf at the same time. A few mins after she called, I has retrieved the information she needed and the day was saved.

**By the way, this is post #400 for this blog. Thanks for reading!

A Clean Desk…

Partly due to the gifts given to me by [Mike] and partially of my own volition, I got down to business today after work and cleaned my home office desk. Below you will find the before and after photos. Now, the real test is how long will it stay this way?! I’m going to make a conscious effort to keep it looking as good as it does in the “after” photo below. We’ll see!

Before:
Desk Before

After:
Desk After

Jenie’s Spring Gifts

Chicks

My work friend Jenie bought everyone at work “spring gifts” and passed them out on Monday.

She went to Cost Plus and bought the pipe cleaner chicks above and gave them to people at work. Kind of pointless but really kind of cute. I kind of like them. These two are sitting on my computer looking at my while I work. One looks kind of creepy… hmmm.

Spring Training – Milwaukee Brewers

This post is a bit late but whatever.

Two weekends ago, [Mike] and I went to the Milwaukee Brewers game at Maryvale Baseball Park.  The day was actually  kind of hot and the game wasn’t very well attended.  We were surrounded by people from Wisconsin who were all uber excited about watching their team and being able to wear shorts in December.  I remember checking the weather forecast for Milwaukee during the game and I believe the temperature was something like 23 degrees.  Yikes!  We were at about 81degrees by the 3rd inning.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from that day.  Enjoy!


(The Chorizo Sausage Won!)

Bingo Night!

Last Friday, Jenie, [Mike] and myself went to Bingo.  I know what you’re thinking already… Bingo on a Friday night?  Was there really nothing better to do?  It was all Jenie’s idea.

Now, I really entered the night thinking that this was going to be a boring evening but I was totally wrong.  It was more fun than I expected it to be even though none of us won any of the games.  Here’s how it all went down…

We arrived just before 7pm and the session was about to begin.  There were tons of items listed on various boards telling you what games were played on what nights and how much each one cost.  One of the guys behind the counter must have seen our confused looks as he motioned us over to the counter.  He proceeded to SPEED through everything that we would need to buy and how and when each game was played.  I was able to catch 50% of what he was saying and we just basically shook our heads and agreed to buy the books that he suggested.  We sat down at a table that was empty except for one lady who, we were told later, was a “pro” and we were lucky to be sitting next to her.  The night proceeded with the calling of each game in the book.  They really speed through the games at these places.  It was a hell of a lot faster than I thought it was going to be.  Amazing that the old folks can keep up with the caller and all the various patterns you have to keep your eyes open to recognize for Bingo.  Maybe this is a way they keep their minds young? 

Anyway, the night went by pretty quickly even though we were there for almost 4 hours.  It was a good way to spend $20, in my opinion.  Maybe we’ll do it again someday.  I think our next Bingo adventure will consist of drag queens… if the place still does it.


Just Some Life Thoughts

As most of you probably know, my father passed away unexpectedly this past August. It’s coming up on 5 months since he passed and it seems like it just happened. Time seems to have a different meaning to me over these past months. You always hear people say “there are good days and bad days” when they explain to people how they’re doing after losing a loved one. I never fully understood what they meant by that statement. Now I do. Literally, there are good days and bad days. For me, 99% of my days are good. I don’t dwell on the loss and sometimes don’t even find myself thinking about it. Then there is the remaining 1%. Those days are bad because I’ll run across an old email, a photo, a card, or just some item dealing with the estate. I think that my bad days consist of mostly small bouts of depression or sadness just realizing how much work I have left to do or how much I truly miss my dad. I don’t’ think that the “bad” days will ever stop happening. They’ll probably become much less frequent in the future and maybe I will even be able to stop calling them “bad days”. Only time will tell. I wanted to say thanks to all my friends who have made my life truly great. I’m sure you know how much I appreciate you but it never hurts to say it again.

I’m never sure about posting items like this. I don’t want to be a “Debbie Downer” but, at the same time, I think writing about this sort of stuff helps with the whole process and most of you probably care about me enough that you don’t mind that I’m writing about it.

A Quote About Music

My friend Jenie said this to me the other day. She had Michael Jackson on the mind because she heard “Billie Jean” on the radio on her way into work.

“If you could hear that song every morning, you’d know it was going to be a good day!”

Well, in that case, take a listen and have a good day.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Windows Live Writer (part 2)

Ok, so I’m writing this post from Windows Live Writer software.  I used to use this for posting to LiveJournal until I found that it was less than perfect.  So, how does it work with WordPress?  Not sure since I can’t actually see how this shows up until I publish it.  Hopefully this will work as it will make creating posts much easier.

 

Here’s an icon that Mike created for me.  Isn’t it cool?

IconDaniel

(This was also a test of how images are uploaded and embedded by Live Writer)

A Friend in Need…

I talk about my friends here every once in a while. Most of the time, it’s a vent about something dumb they’ve done and how I got stupidly sucked into their drama. This is another one of those types of posts, in a way.

I have this friend (Sylvia) who has been having the crappiest luck with guys. I’m not sure if it’s because she’s got too high of expectations or if it’s just her dumb luck. In all honesty, it seems to be a combination of both. She wants a stable, mature man that has all his shit together. Sounds like good criterion. Problem is, she only seems to find this in “older” men. Not a bad thing, really. These “older” men she finds are the type that are old on the outside. They have not progressed very far socially. It’s really kind of crappy and I feel bad for her.

Anyway, she had a shitty day after Christmas where presents were given and then taken away mere hours later. She was at home all day today alone. I decided to go over and keep her company. I brought dinner that was so generously made for me the night before by Mike (leftovers were killer). She drank wine and vented. It was good.

As Lucy’s sign would read, “The Doctor is IN.”

On This Day of Thanks…

No, this is not going to be your typical “what I’m thankful for” post. I find those to be annoying. Instead, this will be a post of saying “thanks” to those of you who have done more for me this past year than I can even put into words. (fuck, I’m already tearing up and I haven’t even started!)

Jennifer – Thank you for being there for me. Thank you for comforting me. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you for loving me. You’re the greatest, sis!

Regina – Thank you for being there whenever I needed someone to talk to. Thank you for understanding. Thank you for being so supportive. Thank you for making me laugh when I needed it most.

Sabrina – Thank you for being concerned. Thank you for inviting me to forget about life, even if only for the weekend. Thank you for sharing more about yourself with me. Thank you for helping me to better understand myself.

Adam – Thank you for our IM chats. Thank you for distracting me from the craziness that is life. Thank you for listening to me in a way that no one else in our family really can.

Stacey – Thank you for letting me call you in the middle of the night. Thank you for giving me advice. Thank you for caring.

Jason – Thank you for being a genuine friend. Thank you for all of our conversations.

Sylvia – Thank you for being there during my most difficult times. Thank you for listening to me whine and bitch. Thank you for all of your advice.

Hollie – Thank you for standing by me all this time. Thank you for being there when I needed someone to talk to. Thank you for driving me home.

Erin Kate – Thank you for the stimulating conversation. Thank you for being my number one movie buddy. Thank you for sharing your successes and failures with me.

Erin – Thank you for the good times at sporting events. Thank you for coming to all those concerts with me. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being my communication to others I may have lost touch with.

Rachel – Thank you for always being there for me. Thank you for enjoying many of the same things I do. Thank you for our long phone conversations. Thank you for hanging out when you visit.

Jenie – Thank you for all your stories. Thank you for making office life more interesting.

Dad – Thank you for being there for me whenever I needed you. Thank you for just listening. You have no idea how much I appreciate the trust you had in me. Thank you for giving me a place to live when I needed it. Thank you for being my chauffeur, my grocery shopping buddy, and my free laundromat. Thank you for keeping me on the right track and telling me when I was wrong. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions with me. Thank you for allowing me to get to know you. Thank you for being positive, even when things were really bad. Thank you for loving me. I will miss you so much.

And to everyone else who has been there for me & my family over these past three, very difficult months… THANK YOU!