Xanga peeps, I wrote a long political post that was about half done, but I've decided to keep it private.  I started writing it not sure if I was going to leave it public, private, or protected and I've decided that it will just stay private.  Some of it has to do with me writing in the middle of the night in a fury of typing and sleep deprivation while some of it   I wanted to finish it, but I've lost the raw emotion that I was fueled on while I wrote.  I guess that my little manifesto will just stay mine....

Ultimately, I don't think it's much of a surprise who I will be voting for on election day.  As much as I want to like the young, dynamic, and charismatic Obama....something doesn't vibe right. 

I have decided to cast my vote based on three different things...

Many people have called this the most important election of our lifetime.  I really can't argue with that one...because I feel that one party control of the executive and both houses of Congress will not be good.  Gone will be compromise and at least two years of unchecked policy will be upon us.  That is not good for any party.  Our little two party system hinges on having compromise. 

Continuing my cliff notes....

Obama's voting record on the Second Amendment is scary for anyone that believes in the right to keep and bear arms.  I won't go into specifics here on what his record is...but no matter what he says during this election it doesn't change the ideologies that he has voted for in the past.  If you've read anything on here over time you know where I stand with this one.

Finally, I'm grouping taxes and the redistribution of wealth into one big steaming pile of economic crap.  With Obama I'm given the guarantee that my taxes will not go up if I make less than $250,000 a year.  Yet, if he repeals the Bush tax cuts, my taxes will increase.  My wife and I pay an absurdly high amount of taxes a year and if you dip into my pocket book anymore, I'm going to be upset.  If you take more of my money and then increase welfare programs then I'm really going to be upset.  Welfare has a place, but it's a mismanaged and abused system that has gotten better since the mid-90s but it still has a long way to go. 

I don't even want to get into the whole ACORN mess, voter fraud, and that kind of thing. 

That's it, my huge post that you will never see in a couple paragraphs. 

I'm a real honset to God Political Scientist (I even have the fancy diploma to prove it) and I approve of this post.

Wow, what a totally and utterly crappy football last night.  I was really hoping that the Colts would show up to play.  The defense did a commendable job but the offense just stunk.  You can't really win if you can't score.  I cooked some chili before the game, it was pretty good, the game not so much.

I woke up this morning and was dead tired.  I'm feeling better now as the morning coffee is starting to work it's magic.  I'm also really hungry, but it's a little late to eat some oatmeal.

This weekend is drill again....

I just have nothing exciting and interesting to say...I'll try to think of something by the end of the day to share.

Hopefully everyone has had a kick ass weekend.  My weekend hasn't been too bad so far...so here is a little rehash of what has happened.

Friday I managed to sneak out of work a little early.  I didn't feel too bad though since I basically worked an extra 20 hours if you figure in all the traveling on Sunday/Monday.  I drove home and met Amanda.  She had already packed both of us for the trip to Chicago, so I basically just had to change my clothes.

The drive to Chicago wasn't too bad for me, but Amanda spent most of it stressed out.  She is a very stressful passenger and she makes it tough for me.  For example, if she sees something instead of saying "brakes ahead" she just has this huge sigh or hits the armrest.  She has a total and complete inability to speak.  What this means is that I'm driving and I see brakes so I let my foot off the gas and move to the brake pedal but don't hit the brakes.  Then all of a sudden I hear this huge gasp next to me and I think...

"OH SHIT I'M GOING TO DIE"

Which usually that I'll began to brake or swerve, when all the excitement was just her reacting to what I already saw.  The kick in the proverbial nuts is that I would rather have her gasp than not gasp...

Anyways, the drive wasn't too bad and there weren't *that many* gasps.  It's just annoying because some assholes never get over and insist on driving in the passing lane like it is their God given right to be there. 

We met Amanda's mom to drop of the doggy.  Then we drove the rest of the way to Chicago. 

I haven't been to Chicago in years.  I used to go semi-regularly when I lived back home, but it's been like 8 or 9 years since I was last there.  We were going to go to the hotel and check-in but we hit some traffic and decided to go directly to the concert, which was a good idea since we got there while the first opening act was playing. 

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, that we were going to see New Kids on the Block.  I represented the 1% of the audience that had a Y chromosome.  I was surrounded by girls fulfilling their childhood fantasies by seeing them in concert.  In fact, Amanda was even fulfilling it as well.

Ok, I'll be honest, the concert was pretty good and you can read the play by play in my pulse updates.  The concert was loud.  If you have never head tens of thousands of women scream at once you have never head noise.  It was absurd.  Absolutely absurd.  My ears were burning from all the noise and windows probably broke in the parking lot.  Sadly, I didn't see anyone faint like they did for the Beetles.  That would have been funny. 

I took some pictures but I'll have to post them later.  I'm sure that Amanda will give a better concert recap, so you will have to check out her site.

After the show we went to the hotel.  The hotel was ok, nothing spectacular but at least it was clean.  They also had one of those cool desk chairs like they had at the Hilton in Dallas (a Herman Miller Aeron).  I would love to try to sneak an order in for one at work but I'm sure that they would shit at the cost, around a grand apiece for a basic model.  I guess that I'll add it to the list of things that I want but could never plunk down the cash for (Rolex, Mercedes, etc.). 

Sunday morning we got around and went to get lunch.  Then we drove to Amanda's house to get the dog.  Amanda actually managed to sleep the entire trip home which is highly unusual. 

We stopped and picked up the dog and visited for just a few minutes then were back on the road. 

I stopped at the Sprint store and the way home and picked up my replacement phone.  Then we got home and Amanda left for an overnight shift at work.

At 10 or so, I picked up dinner at Olive Garden and brought to to Amanda.  We attempted to eat but Amanda's food went cold.  We were going to watch some movies but the sounds was too quiet on the laptop and Amanda was really too busy.  Finally about 1am or so I left to come home.

Today, nothing exciting.  Amanda is sleeping since she didn't get to sleep until like 8am.  I will probably wake her up around 3pm if she isn't up by then. 

The Colts don't play today, they have the Monday night game. 

I had other exciting things to share but I can't remember....I also have to go to the bathroom so I'm going to get going.

Tonight I fell asleep on the couch.  I had been tired all day and the bottle of wine that I drank this evening didn't help matters much.  I got a couple of hours sleep downstairs before I was rudely awoken by geese as they migrate away from the north.  I wanted to go outside and yell at them since it was 1am and they shouldn't be flying around at night.  Seriously, they should be sleeping.  I wonder why they were flying around at night. 

Ok, back to why I am really tired..

This weekend was a drill weekend.  I left work at noon on Friday and went to drill.  I had a busy weekend running a range and finished up with drill around 1pm on Sunday.  I met Amanda in downtown Indy for lunch.  We hadn't seen each other for a few days and I figured it would be nice to see her.  We ate lunch and socialized for a bit before I had to leave again.

I went to the airport and flew to Dallas.  For whatever reason I couldn't get a direct flight from Indy to Dallas and had to take a transfer in Memphis.  That mean that I was technically traveling from 3pm to 10pm.  Yuck...

I was going to Dallas to teach a two hour class on inventory management.  Definitely not the most interesting thing in the world to teach, but it was nice to be invited to teach a class. 

Anyways, I get to Dallas and get the rental car.  I then have to drive about 30 miles to the city the class was being held in.  I think the city was called Denton, the class was held at Texas Women's University.  Finding the hotel was really frustrating though.  I guess in Texas they simply can't build streets that make sense and instead have these looping one way streets that make loops around the highway.  It has to be the dumbest thing that I have ever seen.  Instead of simply going a quarter of a mile to get to something a little behind you, you have to take a two mile loop to get there.  It's a waste of time and fuel.  I don't know whether this stupid thing is all over Texas or only in Denton, but it was pretty dumb. 

Ok, when I get to the area that my GPS says the hotel is located on I don't see the Holiday Inn anywhere.  I drive around the fuel wasting circle about 4 times.  Finally I see a hotel that is about a half mile off the road with no sign.  The sign was missing, technically they had a sign but they were missing the plastic lettering thing for it. 

I finally check into the hotel and go straight to eat.  I ate at Applebees.  Dinner was bleh.  I finished dinner and went back to the hotel.  I crashed pretty soon after I got in the room and had to wake up at 5:15am to iron my suit and leave for the class.

I was originally scheduled for 7:30 but got moved to 9:30.  No biggie though, I can handle.  I did go back to the hotel to check out since I would not be able to get back until after the check-out time. 

Finally I give my class and totally kicked ass.  Once I finish that I ate a quick lunch and once again headed to the airport. 

I then spend another 8 or 9 hours flying back to Indy.  I drive home and crash soon after.

Whew, what a weekend. 

Not to mention that I had 4 different flights and each flight was full.  Two of them I was in the center of a three seat row in coach.  I'm a big guy and sitting between two people is not my idea of a good time.  I was suprised that all the flights were full though.  I did read an article though that the number of daily flights is way down and that means fuller flights.  Wow, it only took the airlines like 40 years to figure that one out.

I also need to write a whole different post about what is appropriate to wear while flying...it seriously is nothing more than a Greyhound bus.  I wish that I could have experienced flying during the heydey of the 60s-70s.  When you would put a suit on and have stewardesses (yes, I know they are flight attendents now but then they were stewardesses) care for your every need.  The food would be good and not the crap that they serve today if you happen to have a flight that served food. 

Today it's totally different and people just wear anything.  I kind of did my two extremes during the trip though.  Flying down to Dallas I wore jeans and a t-shirt.  Flying back I wore a suit and tie.  It was the first time that I had ever flown wearing a suit so that was kind of fun, but dealing with the jacket was a pain in the ass.  Jeans and a clean t-shirt are acceptable atire pretty much any day flying in my book. 

The guy that was wearing shorts and a Harley Davison tank top was NOT in proper flying atire.  I don't think that they should have let him on the plane.  Southwest wouldn't allow short skirted girls fly but this fat dude with hairy shoulders can fly? 

Then there was this other chick that got on the plane in Memphis.  She was wearing tore up jeans, a cut off shirt and a vest.  Her hair was kind of like mullet meets 80s big hair.  I should have taken a picture.  If she was from here I would totally think she was a butch dyke, but saying that she was from Memphis and I've never been there, so she might be the norm.  The funny thing to me, was that when she met her family/friends in Indy, they looked normal, so I don't know what the hell she was doing. 

I'm not expecting that the airlines should require people to dress formally or something, but I'm just in awe of what people wear to travel. 

Tonight Amanda cooked dinner.  This might have been her first time ever cooking dinner from a recipe.  Seeing her in the kitchen was a totally alien experience for me.  Granted, that probably doesn't compare to what Amanda felt cooking.  On the positive side her dinner was really good.  She cooked this chicken noodle thing and it was really yummy.  I always knew that she could cook if she simply followed recipes.  I think that she totally despises the whole cooking process though for the time that it takes, and even if a meal was prepared in 30 minutes that is 30 minutes of wasted time. 

I'm really about done on this post.  I could probably talk more about drill but that would be kind of boring for you to read about, so I'm going to end this post and go to bed. 

Hello everyone!  The workday is almost done for me and I cannot wait to get out of here.  It's not that today was *that* bad but it wasn't a super day.  I was busy most the day so it seemed to go by pretty fast.

Nothing too exciting going on the last few days with me.  Mostly the same old. 

Monday we ate a long dinner at 'The Melting Pot'.  Before the dinner though Amanda wanted to get some new makeup.  With every other girl that I know makeup is kind of like shampoo...when you run out you get some new.  With Amanda makeup is a whole different level.  It involves research and testing.  Not just testing a shade or two but testing dozens of shades from dozens of different companies.  It involves lots and lots of time.  Left to her own devices she would probably spend a couple of hours in Sephora.  It's crazy...it's much worse than me going to a gun shop or an electronics store. 

After the makeup experience we went to eat.  The meal was outstanding.  It was the kick-off for their cookbook.  The last time that we went there for an event we were in a large room and it lost the intimate feeling the place normally has.  This time I was really happy to find out that Amanda and I had a private booth.  The first third of the meal was great with just the two of us...then we had an uninvited dinner guest.

This lady sat in the booth next to us (the booths are designed so you can't see anyone else) and she proceeded to talk on her cell phone the whole meal.  The lady was loud in a quite restaurant when she didn't have to be.  She also was totally lost in here little world (like cell phone drivers).  She was clueless to me making fun of her.  She was clueless to us answering her questions on the phone.  She was clueless to everything.  The idiot needed slapped (not that I condone violence but maybe an emotional manners slap).  I was mad at Amanda during the meal.  Well, not really mad at her.  If Amanda had a couple drinks she would have let me say something to the lady instead of being a passive aggressive asshole. 

At one point during the meal the lady got up to go to the bathroom.  She left her phone on the table and I wanted take her phone and do something to it.  Whether it was erase her contacts.  Redial numbers.  Or look up the number of her fiance Shaun and give him a call.  Of course Amanda would have died if I did that...but I should have.

Tuesday (yesterday), both Amanda and I took a nap after work.  I was really tired for some reason.  We watched a little bit of TV in the evening and that was all.  Nothing else exciting went on. 

Today my leg has been killing me.  My back is making my leg hurt which is worse than my back hurting.  I can't take it anymore.  The last month or two I have been taking so much ibuprofen that I have to be killing my liver.  I have to stretch my back out every 45 minutes or so at work because I am so uncomfortable.  Today I scheduled an appointment with a chiropractor.  I am also seriously contemplating getting an inversion table.  You know, one of those things that hang you upside down.  I'm hoping that it may take some pressure off of the nerves and fix my leg because this blows....big time. 

I have drill this weekend.  Then after drill I fly to Dallas to teach a two hour class/seminar Monday morning.  It's a lot of travel but it should be worth it for the networking.  Not to mention the subsequent job offers that come through unsolicited is always a boost to my ego.  It's not like I'm going to relocate but it sure makes you feel good

Ok people, I'm going to try to get out of work now.  Don't forget to watch the debate...I should be doing some tweets on twitter during the debate.

Tonight Amanda and I are going to go to the special unveiling for the cookbook from 'The Melting Pot'.  I received an e-mail on it last week but didn't call and make reservations.  Today when I *finally* got around to calling for reservations they were booked.  I was pretty bummed because I know that Amanda was looking forward to going to the place. 

One of my bad points (yes, I know that it is hard to believe that I have any) is that I can be pushy.  I called the restaurant back an hour or two after my first call and convinced them that they could fit two more people there tonight.  I could proudly proclaim "Let them eat fondue!" 

This weekend was another good weekend. 

My mind is a little fried and I can't differentiate Friday and Saturday so I'll just talk about those two days in general....

We went to a movie and saw the newish Samuel L. Jackson movie.  It's the nightmare neighbor movie where everything that can go wrong goes wrong.  The movie is flopping in the movie theater but the movie was ok.  It wasn't very deep but it moved along at a good pace so it kept my interest.

Saturday I actually picked up our computer room / office.  I haven't cleaned off my desk/junk in a long time since I don't use the room too much anymore and the place was a little messy.  It looks so much better in there now.  I have two or three little clutter areas to work on and I'll be happy and Amanda will be ecstatic.

On Sunday I went to the Colts-Ravens game with a friend.  We got there about 8:15 in the morning and tailgated until the game started.  It was a pretty good time.  it was my first time in the new stadium and let me say that it is unbelievable.  It's truly stunning from the sheer size of the stadium.  The great view of the skyline.  The amazing design that leaves every seat a great view.  The plentiful bathrooms and concessions.  The list just goes on and on. 

To make it even better the Colts kicked some ass and I was there for the first win in the new stadium.  I really want to get season tickets now.  Maybe I'll be able to butter Amanda up for them next year.  She is turning into quite the football fan so maybe season tickets is the next logical step

I wonder what the hell is up with my memory because I can't remember a lot of the fun details of the weekend.  Maybe I need some herbal memory supplement because I feel like a 90 year old right now.

Work was busy today and Amanda is getting impatient with me since we have to leave to go to the mall before dinner tonight, so I better go.

Sometimes a picture says a thousand words....

Sometimes a picture says three words and screams what millions of people have been thinking....

All credit for the picture goes here

I find myself sitting at work on Friday.  The workweek is only about 6 1/2 hours from being over.  Then I have two wonderful days of no work and no worries.  Just relax and more relax.  The last few days haven't been anything exciting but they haven't been bad.  Granted the economy is falling all to shit, but on the bright side gas is under $3 a gallon now.

Yesterday I nearly achieved my goal of isolating myself from all the negativity in the news.  I didn't know the stock market had went down again until I was off of work.  Granted, I spent most of yesterday in meetings but still, it was kind of nice being isolated.

Last night we ate dinner at the hamburger joint Red Robin.  The food was pretty good but something about the atmosphere was off.  It really felt like I was eating at some restaurant in a theme park.  Hell, there was even a costumed Red Robin running around the restaurant.  Maybe it wasn't *that* bad but where we sat in the bar we were extremely scrunched up and not too comfortable.  I think that I would try it again because my burger was pretty good.

I also was reintroduced to my Sony E-Book Reader yesterday.  I got the thing for Christmas last year but sadly, after reading a book on it I never used it again.  It was just annoying to use for *free* books since it had so much trouble with pdf's.  It just couldn't properly reformat them for the page and it made text that was just way too small.  I don't know what got into me, but for some reason I decided to dust it off again.

It turns out that Sony came out with a software update that fixed all the gripes I had about the device.  It now allows pdf text files to be "reflowed" so that the font size is adjustable.  That means that now I can comfortably read the books that were too small before.  It's not that I couldn't read them, because I really do have good eyesight but it just wasn't like reading a book. 

They also now support Adobe drm protected documents.  This means that there is a virtual library that I can use now.  The Army has a large electronic library to download for like 7 day loan periods.  It is full of real books and not just Army manuals.  I checked out a book last night and within minutes it was on my reader with an expiration date 7 days away.  It's really pretty neat, plus the software update also allows the viewing of epub files.  I should now be able to put a bunch of books on the thing.  When I first got it I spent like 3 or 4 hours trying to convert an ebook for the thing before I gave up, now it should be nice and easy. 

We watched a little bit of tv last night, House and Grey's Anatomy.  I don't know what is up with Gray's, but the show has lost its mojo.  The characters are just whiny....I wish that I could go through the tv and bitch slap Meridith because she is really getting on my nerves.  The only part of this season (and basically last season) that I actually liked her was last night when she actually showed a hint of emotion. 

I also bought Colts tickets for the game on Sunday for Amanda and I.  Turns out that she has to work....guess that I'll be going with a buddy.  I'm excited though, this will be the first game that I've been to inside Lucas Oil Stadium (their new home).

Ok, time to get back to work.

I think that I'm going to take up a policy of isolationism.  I'm going to implement firewalls at work and at home that prevent any content from the internet that contains the following terms:

economy
stock market
savings
bail out
AIG
crash
dow jones
unemployment
recession
gdp

I am beginning to feel a little overwhelmed at the current situation we are in.  In all the other times of economic crisis and trials in our history we were partially isolated.  When everything went to hell in '29 there was newspaper, some radio, news reels in the movies, and word of mouth.  You read one paper a day, and a fairly large percentage of the population was illiterate so they only got word of mouth.  The radio was there but you could only listen to one station at a time and even then it was just snippets.  If you were fortunate enough to be able to go to the movies then you watched a short news reel at the beginning of the movie that gave you a little news update, but even then the update might be a few days to a few weeks old.

In the late 70's you had about three or four TV stations which had one national news broadcast a day.  There was no CNN, Foxnews, etc.  There was plenty of radio but I'm not sure how much of it was actually devoted to news/talk and not just music.  There was also newspaper and magazines. 

Today it's all a little overwhelming  You wake up in the morning and listen to the radio.  You get news updates as you get ready in the morning and then drive to work.  All throughout the day you get text messages from Reuters news update.  You open up your internet browser and your home pages is the customized google homepage and you have a couple modules that have stories on the economic crisis.  You get e-mail news updates.  You can watch any of a dozen news stations on cable/satellite.  There are numerous talk radio stations to listen to.  There even is still newspapers and magazines if you desire. 

I think that I'm going to avoid news for day.  I'm only going to listen to Sirius Lithium 24 which is 90s Alternative and Punk.  I'm going to just work like its 1999.  I'm going to watch TV shows and movies on DVDs.  I will refuse to talk to anyone about the current economic situation.  I will not look at my investments (or more like financial drains).  I will not check my text messages.  I will not open news related e-mail.  I will be free of all this negativity.

I will put the filters on the firewall at work and not tell anyone.  Or perhaps I will just shut the router off and kill everyone's internet.  I will blame it on the ISP.  I will bear witness to a more positive enviroment.  I will not let the media act as if they Chicken Little.  I know that times are bad but we will recover for the better. 

I honestly won't be able to do all of that, but it does feel a bit overwhelming at times.  I just wonder exactly how much of the problem is being worsened by the medias constant drumming about the economy.  They have accomplished one thing though...they have moved the focus of the election onto the economy in the matter of about a month and a half. 

---

In a little less stressful news our dog had a dental cleaning today.  Let me just say that I'm glad that a cleaning for us humans isn't as involved as it is for a dog.  They have to put them under to do the cleaning and as if that wasn't bad enough he had a dental vaccine.  The vaccine goes into their hip and it is extremely painful....bad enough that they have to have pain meds.  Even though the shot is really hurting the little guy it will probably be better in the long run since small dogs get periodontal disese that is usually pretty serious.  The bad thing is that he has to get a booster in 3 weeks and shots every six months. 

The little guy is typically full of energy and spunk but he is just all beat up.  Hopefully he is better tomorrow but jeez, he's a mess today.

Nothing else really exciting....had chinese for dinner and watch some House.  I'm going to go to bed now, thankfully there is only a couple of more days left in the work week.

Boy, what a busy weekend, I'm going to try to squeeze out a quick post, but it's not going to do justice to the weekend. 

Friday I worked, so there was nothing exciting there.  Amanda didn't have to work.  We met for lunch which was nice.  After work we bummed around the house for a bit which meant that Amanda watched TV and I played some XBox.  We then went to have dinner at Moe's Irish Pub.  Dinner was pretty good, the place was packed and I'm still amazed that we got a seat so quick.  After dinner we went to a movie.

We saw "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" and no, the 5 million advertisements on Xanga didn't really influence our decision too much.  The movie wasn't too bad but it wasn't *that* great.  It had it's funny moments and it's touching moments but it was just a couple really good scenes away from being the magical love story that it could have been.

Saturday Amanda worked and while she was at work I washed the car, cleaned out the car, mowed the lawn, ate lunch, and went shopping.  I thought that shopping went pretty well.  Old Navy had a bunch of stuff on sale and I wasn't planning on buying shoes but I found a nice casual pair of Ecco's for about half off and I picked them up. 

When Amanda got home from work we both got ready for my class reunion.  Yep, I may not feel old but I had my 10 year high school reunion.  We drove the 2 1/2 hours north and got into the little town that I grew up in.  Of course we go past the dive bar that we are having the reunion at and Amanda laughs her ass off.  We went to my parents house and dropped off our dog and then wen to the reunion.

Ok, so a little bit of background.  My high school class had like 120 or so in it, so the class was pretty small.  Most of my classmates I haven't seen since graduation.  I've seen perhaps a dozen or so off and on since graduation but the majority I haven't seen.  Our whole reunion was this huge ordeal to organize and it looked like it was going to be a bust.  We had something like 20 say they were going with about a dozen paying.  When we got to the reunion, besides the event planners we were the first ones there.  Thankfully, people started to trickle in and eventually we probably got around 40 from the class, which really suprised me. 

The reunion itself was pretty fun but the location was kind of ackward.  It was neat catching up with so many people.  It's kind of fun seeing how people have changed over the years and how they have stayed the same.  It was neat seeing everyone socialize all night long and not just jump right back into their old cliques.  I really thing that for a reunion to really be a reunion it has to be a little longer.  We had the bar to ourselves for like 3 hours, but that wasn't nearly enough time to talk to everyone.  I ended up leaving the party at about 1am. 

I would have like to stay longer, but it was probably a good thing that I left when I did....we'll just leave it like that.

Amanda drove us to a hotel for the night. 

The next morning sucked ass.  I had the hangover from hell.  Seriously, I have never had one that bad before but thankfully by 4pm or so I was feeling normalish.

Sunday morning we got around and drove to visit Amanda's sister.  She is living in the South Bend area while she is going to school.  We visited with her and then went to Hacienda for lunch.  We met Wes there and watched the Colts game.  Lunch was good, the service was bleh though.  I hate bitching about things like waitresses/services but come on, you make your money from tips, the least you can do is actually try to work for them.  I've said it on here before but my visit to the UK reaffirmed that tipping is just complete bullshit.  In the UK tipping is not standard policy/practice.  Restaurant/pub owners pay their help a living wage and not depend on the customers for paying their employees.  Uggghhh, it just pisses me off.  15-20% is not GUARANTEED because you took my order.  Sorry, but you have to have some resemblence of service to get that.  The thing is that you don't even have to suck up, use 'waitress voice' or act like it's a 5 star restaurant.....just do the basics.  Ok, off my tangent...

So we watched the Colt game unitl the start of the 4th quarter and called it a day.  Who knew that they would have an amazing two minute stretch that had 21 points and three turnovers.  Luckily Amanda and I made a quick run into a bar to watch the final score. 

After the game we drove to get our dog and visit with my parents.  We did that and then visited my grandparents.

Visited with my grandparents for two or three hours and then headed home.

The drive back was long like usual but wasn't too bad.  We themed our music on the way home and ended up listening to songs that empowered women.  It actually turned into a pretty good game to stay awake.  Amanda would pick a song and while her song was playing I was thinking about what song to play.  I would play my song and then she would pick a song....and so on. 

I don't know whether she like the little game or not, but that could be a driving game in the future. 

We got home and went to bed since we both had to work.

This morning I head the bathroom door and figured that Amanda got up to go to the bathroom.  I open my eyes and I see her in a towel and I wanted to cry....that meant that it was pretty much time to get up and wasn't the middle of the night like I was hoping.  Thankfully I'm not dragging ass today and feel ok.  I think tonight might be an early night.

No other super-exciting news.  I don't even want to look at my 'investments' after the stock market goes to the dumps today.  I know that it's the wrong thing to do, but I'm seriously contemplating moving it into something a little less risky because my -20-30% return on the year is depressing. 

Ok, enough of that....time to get back to work.