HELL NO. 

I'll leave it at this:

"the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

I'll keep my guns thank you very much.
   

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I have work to do, but I'm going to do something up real quick. 

I got into work about two hours early this morning since they had issues and I was out of town.  I'm finally having my first cup of coffee and I can't enjoy it.  I can't enjoy it because my teeth hurt.  My teeth hurt because I've finally started to whiten them.  I'm whitening them because I have to get my final veneers put on in two weeks.  I'm having veneers put on because the bonding that I had on my teeth since I was in second grade has finally been retired.

Ok, I think that it's safe to say that I don't like reverse chronology posting. 

I'm super-tired.  I got about five hours of sleep last night.  I think having a medium length of sleep night like that is actually worse than getting a lot of sleep 8-10 hours or a short night like 3 hours.  Hell, Friday I was going strong all day long and I only got about 3 or 3 1/2 hours of sleep.  Could it be that I only need 3-4 hours of sleep and if I go over that amount it starts to wear me out?  Maybe I'm like some strange sleep case and my problem lies that my 'normal' is actually my abnormal amount of sleep.

Yesterday after returning from the airport, I played like a half an hour of COD4.  Then Amanda and I went to see a movie.  We watched '21'.  It wasn't too darn bad and it makes me want to go to Vegas for a weekend trip.  The movie wasn't that deep but it was fun. I think that it's going to be a love or hate movie...basically if you love gambling and Vegas you'll love it, but if you don't care for either one of those then you'll probably hate it.  All throughout the movie I couldn't help but think that many of the actors in the movie weren't the right one for the part. 

After the movie we went home.  We were going to get something to eat but neither of us were that hungry so we figured that we could just grab something at home.  I think that Amanda ate cereal but I didn't eat anything.  It was a combination of forgetting and not being starved.

No big plans this week...just the same 'ol.

Ok, time to get moving!

P.S.  I am going to be changing my Xanga username soon, so you may have to change your bookmarks or something. 

I'm sitting at the airport in Little Rock getting ready to head back to Indy.  Since I have about two hours until my plan boards I figured that it would be a good time to do up a little post. 

While I didn't get to see much of the city or the state it's been enough for me to come to a conclusion on what I've seen.

-People-
I've spent quite a bit of time in the south with the majority of my time in Georgia.  It's no secret that I didn't like Georgia and I despised Georgians.  I thought that the people were rude, inconsiderate, and truly thought that they were better than anyone else.  The people in Arkansas have helped change my opinion of Southerners.  The people in Arkansas were all genuinely friendly and nice.  They were helpful and they seemed quite happy.  I'm really pleasantly surprised with how friendly the people were. 

-The state of the State-
Yeah, the stereotypes of how the people live down here is probably true.  I didn't get into the countryside but from what I did see in the general Little Rock area...I think that it's safe to assume that the people do have cars on blocks and other junk in the yard.

-Little Rock-
Seemed like a nice medium sized city.  It appeared clean, there was some construction underway.  The traffic didn't seem too bad.

-Little Rock Airport-
Small airport with probably less than 100 flights a day going out.  Check-in and security was a breeze due to the size.  Oh, and they have free wifi so they score high in my books!

-The military post I stayed at-
Blah

-The weather-
Might as well have been in Indy, the weather stunk. 

-The food-
Only went to one restaurant, which was last night.  The place was called 'Cajun Wharf'.  The food was ok, a little overpriced, and the servings way too small for what you pay.  Thankfully they had some kick ass oysters so that saved them.  The service was good as well.

-Final Impressions-
Overall I was impressed by Arkansas, but I doubt that I ever come here for pleasure....seriously, what the heck is there to do for fun? 

There you go, my impressions on my little jaunt down here.

Nothing else exciting going on.  I have to fly to Chicago and from Chicago to Indy.  Total travel time from the time that I got on the shuttle to come to the airport to pulling into the driveway at home - about 9 1/2 hours.  Total time to drive from here to home - about 9 hours.  Gas saved about 30 gallons by flying.  Granted, if I drove the military would have paid for mileage, up to the cost of a plane ticket so I probably would have made about $200-300 minus the cost of gas...but that just isn't worth the hassle of driving 600 miles. 

That's about everything...I'm going to put on my headphones and see if I can zone out for an hour and a half.

This is such a great question, it's important to think of who inspires you...especially so you can thank those people when you have the chance.  I'm going to stick with 'real' people that I actually know and not just famous people.

Person One: 
Amanda (aka my wife).  Amanda never ceases to inspire me to strive to be sucessful.  She had everything stacked up against her goal to be a pharmacist.  From financing school, to getting into school, the length of time of school, adults in her high school against her going into the field, and not having any medical types in her family (you know that question on the application).  She managed to defy all the odds and now has the title of Doctor in front of her name even though she feels like a lot of the customers treat her like a Wal-Mart clerk.  She also has pretty good taste in men. 

Person Two: 
Lowell, my grandfather.  He currently is enjoying retirement and has been doing so for the better part of two decades.  He grew up in a working class family in Michigan and spent his childhood working in the families grocery store.  He was an exceptional athlete in high school and had numerous scholarship offers to play football and baseball.  Before he could go to college his father grew sick and he had to give up his dreams in order to help the family.  He married his high school sweet heart and they have been married for over 50 years.  He worked hard throughout his life and along with his wife they raised five kids.  IMHO, they live comfortably in retirement due to hard work and smart living.

Person Three:
Coach Drotar, my high school football coach and high school government teacher.  I admire the man so much for how he coached, mentored, and challenged me to play football.  He put faith in my as a skinny sophmore more to not only play a new position but start on the varsity team.  He was the type of coach that never stopped trying to squeeze just a little more out of his players.  Besides being a great coach he was also a great guy.  He and his wife managed to raise some great kids through some extreme difficulties.  Most importantly and much to the suprise of us he quit coaching after my senior year because he reocognized the strain that it was putting on his family. 

Shoot, I have to go to my conference again.  I'll get four and five up later!

**Edit 3:57pm**  Ok, another part of the conference is done...try to wrap these last two up.

Person Four:
SGM Jeffrey McLochlin, my first Platoon Sergeant and the First Sergeant that pinned my stripes on me when I was promoted to E-5.  When I first met him it was my first drill as a new E-2 in 2000.  He had a huge dip in his lip, a Ranger tab, a Ranger Bat combat patch, a combat infantry badge, jumpwings with the mustard stain for a combat jump, and this aura around him.  Of all the 'tabbed' Soldiers that I have ever met he was the only one that fit the image of the Hollywood airborne Ranger.  He was 6'2" or 6'3" and probably weighed upwards of 230lbs.  The first time that I went into the field with him I was in awe.  He was an All-American football player in college.  He had a combat jump into Panama.  In the civillian world he was a police officer.  He went to Afghanistan for one last tour before being able to retire in 2007.  On July 5th 2006 he came under small arm fire and was killed.  He left behind a wife and three children.  Mitch Daniels, the Govenor of Indiana said the following at SGM McLochlin's funeral:

Person Five:
I'll leave this reserved for the next great person that I'll meet.

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We don't have unpleasant neighbors, just people that don't talk to us since we don't have kids.  The only odd thing that our neighbors do is the new neighbor was caught by us letting their dog take a dump right in our front yard.  They let the dog have free reign since it runs all around and they let it walk them. 

Thankfully our little 5 pound mutt has tiny poo, and if we start to notice big poo in our yard the neighbor will get their poo returned to them, albeit on their front step.

I can't think of any other 'bad' neighbors that we have had next to us....just some oddities.  I know that we make every attempt possible to remain hospitable and respectful for them.  This was especially true when we lived in an apartment but I still make sure to be nice.  I'll do little things like making sure that my grass clippings don't shoot into their yard, that my dog doesn't do his business in their yard, that I don't mow at 6am on a Sunday morning, etc.  Hopefully the karma train stays inline and things remain fine.

Oh, if I had bad neighbors it would be on like Donkey Kong.

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I have just a little bit of time before I catch my next flight.  I’m flying to Little Rock, Arkansas.  I’ve never been to Arkansas, but I might have driven through it at sometime, but I’ve never actually ‘gone’ there before.  Sadly, the extent of my knowledge of Little Rock is the state capital and Bill Clinton was the governor of Arkansas back in the day.  Of course I have heard all the stereotypes but we’ll leave those out for now.  I actually only know one person from Arkansas. 

It’s not like I’ll be doing any sightseeing or anything since this trip is strictly business.
Last night I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to return Jorge (our Roomba, see the previous post).  I didn’t have the box, didn’t have the receipt, and didn’t have any other proof of purchase.  All that I had was the accessories that it came with.  I stuck Jorge and all of his parts into a garbage bag and went to the store. 
I went to a new store that just opened up down the road from us and figured that it was worth a try, it’s not like I would be out anything if they didn’t take it back. 

I told them my story, that we got the Roomba for our wedding in spring of ’06.  I didn’t have a proof of purchase and the thing is no longer on our gift registry.  The customer service girl got the manager who quickly looked up the model to verify that they sold it at sometime and then she asked if I would like to get a new one or get store credit. 

I wanted a new one and I walked back and picked up the model that they now sell.  This new model retails for $299.99 and is full of advanced features that Jorge didn’t have at his disposal.  The work some stuff in the computer and then they present me with a store credit of $31.81 and my new Roomba.  I was shocked at the store credit since I certainly wasn’t expecting it, and even after I said that I just wanted to exchange they insisted that I take the credit since it was policy. 

Bed Bath and Beyond, you have earned a faithful customer as long as you maintain this level of service.  Granted that we’ve bought quite a bit of stuff there through the years and we received a ton of gifts from our bridal registry.  Anyways, I can safely say that from now on if I’m looking at purchasing something and they sell it, I will b purchasing from them.

After exchanging the Roomba, I went to Chic-Fil-A to get dinner.  We eat very very little fast food, but I didn’t feel like cooking and Chic-Fil-A is good compared to the rest of the fast food industry. 

When I got home I started charging Enriquie (the new Roomba) and we ate dinner.  After dinner I started to get around for my little trip.  I went to bed around 12:20am or so.  I didn’t get much sleep since I had to get up at 3:30 or so for my flight.  I hate early flights, especially leaving that early, but when you are flying to a place like Little Rock you don’t have a whole lot of choices.

Ok, that’s going to be it for now.  I want to wrap this up well in advance of my flight boarding.

Wow, nothing is happening.  It's seriously that slow around here.  I've been busy with work stuff and nothing interesting has happened.  Have I became boring?  Not like I was all that exciting to being with but there was pseudo-interesting things to talk about.  Things would happen during the day and I'd think "Wow, that will be neat to put on Xanga".  I haven't had a situation like that happen in the last couple days and it's kind of disheartening. 

Ok, I do have something to talk about.

I love my Robots.  I have three that help to keep our house clean.  Two are vacuuming iRobot Roombas and the third is a iRobot Scooba that mops the floors.  Our first Roomba "Jorge" has died.  I tried to revive him with a new battery, new brushes, and a complete disassembly and cleaning but his brush deck transmission has been destroyed.  It will cost about $80 to buy a new brush deck and that is just too much to pump in this guy.  He was our faithful helper for two years and has picked up countless bins of cat hair, cat litter, and other dirt.  He's always been a little goofy and actually took two trips down the stairs.  Now that he is dead I need to replace him.  Jose, our other Roomba expressed his anger this weekend at having to do double duty all weekend long without breaks.  He would expend his full battery and a new battery would go in immediately.  He said that if we don't hire a new robot soon he'll be going on strike. 

Anyways, we are trying to save money and buying a new robot for a couple hundred is tempting...especially when one is on woot.com right now for $150.  So I called Bed Bath and Beyond and asked about the return policy.  I know that they have a pretty much unlimited return policy.  They said bring it in and they'll return it.  Wow, that's nuts.  I don't even have the receipt or packaging.  If for whatever reason they don't return it, I'm not out anything, but if they do, and give me a new one that is super-sweet!

Tonight I'm going out to eat with a buddy.  We are going to eat some sushi!  I can't wait!  I need to think about where we want to go since there are a couple of good places in town.  Yeah, it's not following the menu but it's ok, the guy is only in town for a couple more days.

Nothing else exciting going on.  My coffee is good this morning.  I need it since I was tired.

New TV show episodes are just around the corner.  Thank goodness...if I watch another reality show my head my implode.

Nothing else exciting going on.  Easter was just another weekend. 

Get off your ass and do what you are putting off.

Seriously though, I never managed to figure out how to stop this while I was in school, luckily I did some of my best work at the last minute while feeling the pressure. 

Today in the 'real' world it's still a problem but it's not like I have a grading resting on a due date.
   

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If I get sick again I'm going to really be pissed.  I think that I have had something like three colds already this winter and I'm beginning to think that I have round four coming soon. 

Is anyone else suffering from some serious lack of motivation?  I don't know what it is but I think it has to do with the change of the seasons.  Either that or daylight savings or something.  It's like the shifting of that one hour of daylight just starts my day out in a slump.  It's so much harder to drag your butt out of bed in the morning when it's still dark out.  We had something like a week or two of morning sun and bam, suddenly it's dark when you wake up.  Then, to compound the problem it magically is light an hour later and your body doesn't want to go to bed immediately after sundown. 

Yeah, I'm in a slump and the weather shows no signs of improving.  This morning when I went outside I thought "YES, spring is here it will be a wonderful day."  In fact, I actually called Amanda to tell her how happy I was for a nice day.  Then I get to work and check the weather and it is crap...all crap until next Thursday.  I was hoping that it would be nice and I could start golfing next week, but that isn't going to happen for a little longer. 

Last night was the first time in two weeks that Amanda and I deviated from our planned meals.  We both were on the same wavelength and needed a meal out....we went to Red Lobster and had a nice dinner.  We agreed that we would eat lunch at home on Saturday to help recover from our little deviation in eating at home.

This weekend is a weekend off for both of us.  It's also Easter weekend which is finally looking like nothing is going on.  I'm usually all about the holidays but this is quite possibly the first holiday where I don't feel like doing anything.  I just want to hang out at home, watch some movies, play video games, maybe do some shopping on Saturday, and get a couple of projects done. 

Ok, maybe not necessarily projects but some little things.

• Install the emergency sump pump as long as the sump isn't constantly filling up.  I'm kind of nervous about putting the thing in and I'm close to just calling a plumber to do it.  I am going to take off the one flexible joint that is connected and go from there.  I don't want to cut the plumbing running to the outside because there is only about 8" to work with.  Ok, after further thought maybe I'll call a plumber. 
• Clean the house
• Get groceries for the week
• Clean the garage?

We also have some other assorted home improvements to do.  Our upstairs guest bath has went to hell.  The grout is really crappy.  It's crumbling and discolored.  It needs to be replaced.  From everything that I read it sounds like the installer had too much water on his sponge when he was wiping the tiles and he over hydrated the grout.  This is the only spot in the house that is like this and it thankfully is the smallest install.  I think that I may try the re-grouting myself, what is the worse that happens?  I end up with crappy looking grout like I have now?

I read somewhere that when you get a house you should plan on spending between 1-2% of the value of your house a year in home repair/upgrades/improvements.  I guess that is turning out to be true.

Did I mention that I really am despising Comcast?  Yeah, but I hate them more now.

They called collecting payment after I paid the bill and after I called my local branch to get the incorrect late charges removed since they skipped a month of invoices with the buyout.  When they called I almost exploded.  I've been trying to keep my karma in good shape so I prefaced my tirade as follows:

"Listen, I know that the dialer called me and it wasn't you personally, and what I'm going to say is not directed at you personally but instead at the company that you work for."  I then proceeded to rip into her reinforcing throughout the conversation that it was at Comcast and not her. 

Ok, that's the update, time to do some work!