Getting my weight up!

No, I'm not talking about getting fat, or even building some muscle (although beginning to bulk up a more is a goal for the near future), I'm talking about blogging. It's time for me to post a little more frequently and give people something fun to read regularly. I think I mentioned something like this before, and in my opinion, I have been doing better, but I'm still not there. Be looking for more fun randomness coming soon from yours truly.

Also, either Monday or Tuesday, be looking for a year in review post from me. I know most of you have not known me for the entire year, but I think it will be good for me put down a bit of a summary of my year so I can see what all happened and, as an added bonus, it will help some of you get to know me better. Be excited!

Alright...it's way past bedtime for tonight. Be looking for the YIR post!

Long time, no post!

Well, to be fair, it's only been a week, but it has felt like much longer since I posted. I actually had trouble remembering my login name to post tonight! haha! Anyway, while I've been vacationing, it looks like you all have been reading! I don't know if it was because everyone was home for the holidays and just insanely bored or what, but I had quite a few hits last week! Maybe I should stop writing more often! j/k

Anyway, all this traffic on my site has inspired me to actually write, when I was planning to avoid the blog and pretend I was still on vacation for a few days. Good work! But, that writing isn't going to happen tonight. It's bedtime!! Look for more fun stuff soon!

Merry Christmas!!!

I'm heading out of town Sunday afternoon for Christmas. Going up to the mountains with the fam again. Oh, and my aunt and uncle will be at their house across the road and apparently after Christmas another aunt and two of my cousins are coming up too, so it should be a big fun family Christmas! This is the fun side of the family (read: the side that drinks...heavily) so lots of fun will ensue! Hopefully there'll be good stories to share when I get back. I don't know exactly when I'll be coming back. Maybe on Friday or Saturday, it depends how much fun I'm having, haha. If you haven't guessed by now I don't like to plan myself too much when I'm out of town, but much rather prefer to play it by ear and see what hits me, lol.

It will definitely be nice and relaxing to go up there, and we might even get a bit of snow, which I certainly wouldn't get if I were in Florida, but I am going to miss going home. I mean, I know I was just down in Orlando last week, but other than my one friend who came over for dinner, I didn't really get to see anyone. I got an invite on MySpace tonight to the annual gathering my high school friends and I have every year since we left for college. We all go over to a friend's house and her mom makes us lots of food and we spend all night just catching up. Over the years, the group has grown as people have brought their boyfriends/girlfriends, then their spouses, and now this year for the first time, there should be a few people bringing their new babies! It's sorta like the family getting together once a year. I'm so sad I'm missing it! Guess I'm gonna have to phone this one in from the mountains and make my presence known! haha Going to the mountains also means I won't get to see anyone from my mom's side of the family, which kinda sucks. Oooh, that reminds me, today is my grandma's 86th birthday. Guess I've got a phone call to make! Anyway...I was never really given a whole lot of choice on the Christmas destination so I guess I'll just drive to the mountains and enjoy myself.

On the topic of good stories, I have like a million posts sitting inside me that I've been too lazy/busy to get out. Obviously it's not going to happen before I leave and I won't have internet up there, so I guess you'll just have to wait.

PS -- My check engine light came back on tonight. It actually came on during the drive back from FL but went off a day or two later so I didn't bother to do anything about it. If it's still on or back on when I get back in town, I guess I'll be making another appointment at the shop. Thanks to the holidays I suppose I will actually make it until next year before I'm back at the shop. If their track record proves anything, I'm willing to bet that my O2 sensor is bad again, but maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt and let the dealership diagnose the problem.

My life is so random!

I really had nothing planned for tonight and had actually planned to skip out of work a little earlier than I have lately, go home, put on something comfortable and veg out on the couch all night. But, this afternoon my cell phone started beeping that it had a low battery. The battery life had gotten really short lately...like after about an hour or hour and a half of talk time it was telling me it was dead...and the phone is only 6 or 7 months old! The low battery beeping was really getting on my nerves so I decided I had to go by the Verizon store after work to get it taken care of. Unfortunately, the Verizon store is across the street from the mall, which is exactly where I did not want to be on a Friday afternoon 3 days before Christmas. I ended up getting a new battery out of them and went ahead and upgraded my plan since I've been running out of minutes lately.

On my way home, I decided I needed to stop by the neighbor's house to pick up a dish I left there after the Christmas dinner. I was going to call first, but thought I'd just pop on in if someone's car was outside. Her car was there so I get out and knock on the door. She hollered something, but I couldn't hear so I just kinda hung out on the porch for a minute. After a minute or two, I see through the window sticking her head around the corner in a towel. haha! She invites me in and then goes to get dressed. She tells me that she was actually taking a bath and waiting for Hot Crazy Girl to come over. We pour ourselves some wine as we catch up a bit and she tells me she's kinda frustrated with HCG, as she had been waiting for her for about an hour and a half by now...told ya she's kinda flakey! Anyway, the neighbor tells me that she and HCG are going to pick up a guy she went to high school with who's now a chef down in Charleston and he was going to make dinner for them. She then invited me to tag along! Considering I had been excited about going home making some spaghetti (that's about as much cooking as I do), I definitely wasn't going to pass up the chance to have a chef make me dinner!

Since I hadn't yet been home from work yet, I ran around the corner to drop off some stuff and then went back to the neighbor's after a couple minutes. HCG arrived and we headed off to get the chef. We picked him up and went to the grocery store and followed him around as he bought whatever it is he needed. The three of us split the bill (figured it wouldn't be right to make the chef pay for it and cook!) and we went back to the neighbor's where we began the cooking. And of course by "we began the cooking" I mean me, the neighbor and HCG made ourselves some cocktails and went into the living room while the chef was in the kitchen cooking. The neighbor did go in to keep him company after a while, but since me and HCG didn't know him we just stayed in the living room chatting. He ended up making us shrimp and grits. It was actually really funny b/c since he's a chef, it was actually garnished and presented in a way you'd expect to see at a restaurant, but not necessarily on your dinner table. I'm not really a big grits fan, but it was a good meal. The grits didn't seem to have much flavor, but then again, grits rarely do...you mainly just taste cheese or butter or whatever you put in them anyway. It sure was a lot better than I could have/would have ever done! We stayed chatting and hanging out until 11 or 11:30.

Just so random...a quick, unannounced stop at a friend's turns into cocktails and a personal chef! I guess that's an Only Mark story if ever there was one! I have a fun life! lol

Hmm, well I guess it's time!

I don't necessarily have anything major to post about right now, but I feel like it's probably time that I should. I haven't put anything substantive up here in a week or more! Oh yeah, I should tell you up front that the 'e' key on my laptop has been sticking lately, so if any of my words are missing the letter e, I apologize.

I never did give the promised Orlando post, so I guess I can write about that. I had to head down there with my bosses for 5 days, 4 nights for a conference with work. The conference was hosted by our parent company and was actually really good. We just became affiliated with the parent company a couple of months ago, so it was all pretty new to us, but was so necessary. It definitely got us all excited about the company and where we're going next year with it! 2008 promises to be a busy year! and the next 2 or 3 months may very well kick my butt, but they'll all be worth soon!

As I alluded (or eluded?) to earlier, the convention was actually being held at the same hotel that my high school prom was at! haha How random is that?! Fortunately, it wasn't in the same ballroom, b/c that might really have been weird, considering last time I was in that ballroom I was 18 and watching various friends and classmates bumping and grinding and doing all those things we do when we dance in high school! haha (I say "watching" but I was definitely participating, haha). Anyway, those who know me know that I'm pretty much a completely different person than I was back then. Well, maybe not completely different, but would it make sense to say "amplified"? I guess who I am now was always in me, I've just pulled it out more since high school. There are various reasons for that, but they are all beside the point right now.

Anyway, the hotel was definitely sub-par for our expectations and we made that quite known, haha. There were water stains on the ceiling and the bathroom wasn't all that clean at check in -- and this is at a major convention hotel at Disney World! The deal breaker for me, however was when I woke up at 9:00 one morning (I decided to be late to the 8:00 session) to the sound of drilling reverberating throughout my room! There was some horrible buzzing noise coming from outside my room and it wouldn't stop. I thought maybe it'd go away, but after about 5 mins. or so of it, I decided to handle it, haha. I got up and stumbled across the room to the phone and called the front desk. When they answered, I said:

"I don't know what kind of work you are doing on this hotel, but there's a horrible buzzing noise in my room and it has got to stop...NOW!"

Haha! I'm so charming, aren't I? Anyway, she put me on the phone with the manager who told me she'd call me back in a couple of minutes. As soon as she hung up the phone with me the buzzing mysteriously stopped! Aren't I persuasive! When she did call me back she told me that the noise was from some sort of core drilling or something that was happening on the roof as part of their renovations (which also explains the stains on the ceiling, as my room had not been renovated yet) and that it would start up again at 10am and continue until 6 that night. She offered for me to change rooms to which I replied, "Well not right now...I'm SLEEPING!" I mean seriously! Anyway, I ended up getting a new room later that afternoon on the other side of the hotel away from the commotion. Oh yeah, and they took one night off my bill too! My boss laughed at me and told me she was having me do all her complaining from now on. I guess we'll file that under the category of "other duties as assigned" in the job description.

We went to the Mall at Millenia in Orlando, which is their really upscale mall, to have lunch one day and dinner another. It was really nice to go there, partly because it was out of the touristy-Disney-family vacation part of town we were staying in and partly because it's just nice to be around people with money! I mean we only ate at P.F. Chang's and the Cheesecake Factory, so it's not like we were exactly at the upscale restaurants, but just sitting on the patio of P.F. Chang's for lunch (in December, no less, which was a treat in and of itself) and watching the people pull up their luxury cars to be valet parked while they shopped and then returning with all their purchases, haha. It's just such a refreshing change from Columbia where most of the people have no money, don't really want money and wouldn't know what to do with it if they had it, and the people with money basically have to leave town to go spend it - either to Charlotte or Atlanta. I mean in Columbia, most of the people are afraid to shop at Dillard's because they're scared of the prices! (when in reality you should not want to shop their because of the quality of the clothes! Unless you're getting a recognized name brand, like Polo or something, don't bother. And Dillard's is slowly doing away with other brands and making almost everything one of their crappy store brands...but that's a topic for another post). We walked around the mall after dinner one night and just enjoyed the shops. No one bought anything, but we liked having the options of Louis Vuitton, Mont Blanc, Gucci, Dior, Jimmy Choo, Kenneth Cole NY, Hugo Boss, etc. around to choose from. Oh yeah, and some other store my boss was all excited about...Betsey Johnson? I'd never heard of her, but apparently she's some big designer in NYC who doesn't have many stores and is pretty exclusive. Anyway, there were many other great stores there, but too many to mention. Next time when we return for a convention we'll all be ready to shop...and purchase!

I also dragged my bosses across the street to Downtown Disney just so they could experience it. They thought it was alright, but agreed that everything was overpriced and that there were too many tourists around. Oh yeah...I also noticed that they changed Pleasure Island now to where you don't have to buy admission to it. Is there just a cover to each club, like at City Walk? When did this happen? My boss also wanted to go see the Bentley dealership just to admire them so I drove across town to find it. My parents came over for lunch one day and another friend from back home came to meet me for dinner too! It was nice to be back down there and be in the energy of the city! It was a much needed break from Columbia, but made it all that more difficult to return home after the trip. Overall I had a good time, but was kinda tired of being around my bosses and missed my life as a single person where I do what I want when I want, haha.

Now that that's done, I've spent the last couple days catching up on everything from last week, had some personal stuff to take care of, and now I'm spending the rest of the week getting ready to be out all next week for Christmas! Yikes! I can't believe Christmas is in like 6 days!!! EEK! I guess I'm not getting any Christmas cards out again this year...I don't think anyone is surprised, haha.

Sunny Florida

Just checking in from beautiful central Florida! The conference has been going great so far! Some fun random happenings, including a room upgrade, good food and some great shopping! Anyway, I'm not getting into everything now, just wanted to say hey! I'll be back in SC by the end of the weekend. Enjoy yourselves!!

Here today, gone tomorrow!

Alright readers, I'm off again! Early tomorrow morning I'm heading to Orlando for a convention for work. Me and the bosses are heading out for the rest of the week and won't return until Sunday. Don't worry, we're not taking another trip in their defective car! Thank goodness!

We're staying at the convention hotel which is a Hilton right near Downtown Disney! It's a really nice hotel and, I won't be positive until I actually see it but, I'm 75% sure it's the same hotel we had my high school prom at (not me in the photo, but quite entertaining, huh?)! haha! How random is that? Anyway, it will be nice to get back into FLA for a few days and hopefully even get to relax a bit.

Plus, Orlando isn't that far from where I grew up, so I'll probably even get to see my parents for a minute or maybe another friend or two from back home, it just depends who can make it over to O-town. I'll have my laptop with me, so I can check e-mail and read all your comments which just pour into my blog every day (AHEM! *Not so subtle hint*). I may even find time to eke out a post or two, but I make no promises! Catch you on the flip side!!

I have the fingerprints of a 70 year old!

Yesterday I had to go by the police station to get fingerprinted for something at work. No, I didn't commit any crimes! I needed them for a background check by the state for the license I took the class in Charlotte to get. Anyway...in true Mark form, this could not be done easily. I was trying to rush the process as soon as possible so I could get it out of the way. I took the test I needed Saturday and, after passing, got my fingerprint card. My goal was to get the prints done that day and overnight the forms to the state. I head down to the police department to get printed and kinda assumed they just had the stuff up at the desk and about anyone could do it...oh silly me! Apparently there's only one person there that does fingerprints, meaning they can only be done M-F, 9-5.

I went back Monday to get them done and, naturally the woman is at lunch when I get there! Geez! I have a few other errands to run downtown so take care of those and come back. When I get back on my 3rd time, the lady is apparently there (finally) so I'm thinking, oh good, someone's gonna bust out an ink pad and take care of this. Not so much. First the lady at the front desk asks me "Have you filled out your card yet?" No...so I fill out the card. Then when I'm done I look at her and she says "Well have you paid and all yet?" Paid?! I have to pay them for this kinda thing? Is paying my taxes not enough to earn some ink on my fingers?? So I ask her how much and she tells me $15!! I mean I realize in the grand scheme of things that's not really all that much, but still, I didn't know I had to pay at all! She makes me walk over to another window to pay (behind which were four women leaned back in chairs talking, clearly getting nothing done), then I have to go back to her and show my receipt before she'll call the fingerprint lady (gotta love the inefficiency of bureaucracy!) She calls the lady and tells me to have a seat.

10 mins. later I hear someone from around the corner scream "Fingerprints? Come follow me!" I get up and walk in the general direction of where the voice came from and finally found the lady. We went up stairs and she began the fingerprinting. To be fair, she was a very nice lady with a lot more personality than I expected to find working there. She took the fingerprints and was disappointed with how they came out on a few of my fingers. She re-inked them really good and tried again on another piece of paper, but still they weren't very clear. She just concluded that I'm one of those people who doesn't have very good fingerprints. She said "You know, a lot of people think it has something to do with age, but really, some people just don't fingerprint well. Guess you're one of them!" haha

So I'm a freak...oh well, no news there! At least if I do want to commit a crime I stand an above average chance of not getting caught...well, as long as I don't leave DNA traces either (not that that's on file anywhere). Also, I guess it would help if I were selective with which fingers I used, since some are worse than others. Ehh, I guess it'd just be easier to don some Isotoners OJ style.

Well, I made it just over a week!

Yeah, so remember last week when I took my car back to the shop to have the CV joint re-replaced? I mentioned that my goal was to go the rest of the year without having to go back to the shop. Well, I was off to a good start! Last Sunday, my check engine light came on again! It had just been on like the whole time I was out of town for Thanksgiving, but went off the day before I took it to the shop so they couldn't look at it. When it came on again, I decided to give them a call and have the dealership check it out. The call went something like this:

Receptionist at the Dealership: Nissan service.
Only Mark: Hi, my name is Mark [Last name]. I don't know if you remember, but I had my Maxima in there last week and you commented on how often I'm up there. I told you my goal was to get through the end of the year before I had to come back.
Receptionist: Uh huh?
Only Mark: Yeah, well uhh, I need to make another appointment! haha
Receptionist: Hahaha! Okay, when do you want to bring it...

It would appear that my frequent customer status is starting to pay off though! I had made my appointment for Saturday morning but then later found out that I was going to have to do something I'd hoped to do on Friday. So Friday morning I called and told them I couldn't make it at that time and offered to bring it later on Saturday. My service advisor said they wouldn't have enough time, as they close early on Saturdays. He also added "I'd say bring it next week, but didn't you tell me you were leaving town next week too?" I was so impressed he remembered! He told me to bring it in that afternoon (same day service...no appointment? Word up!).

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to take it in that afternoon b/c my bosses had made an appointment to get their car looked at for the head light/windshield wiper issue and I was going to be their ride to and from their dealership. Of course their car had so many issues, they almost just left it there and bought a Hummer. Since they were considering buying the new truck (which they later decided to hold off on for now) the salesman let them take it to drive around for the day. Now that we had a car, I could drop mine off to be fixed!

Turns out, the rear O2 sensor went bad in my car. I don't know exactly what this does, but it has something to do with the air-fuel ratio or maybe the something about my exhaust and emissions. Anyway, whatever it was it was also covered under my warranty and the actually had the part in stock for once, so they were able to fix it that day for, as usual, no charge! I definitely think I go there too much, though, because when I call there I recognize everyone by their voice on the phone! haha

When I went to pick it up, Dave, my service advisor, told me that I definitely picked the right warranty when I was buying them. Apparently some people get ones that are very comprehensive, but have a deductible, so like they'd have to pay $50 or so each time they brought it in, even if the work was covered! I would've had to take out a second mortgage buy now if I had to pay a deductible every time! I did laugh and tell Dave that after all this work under warranty, the dealership about had more invested in the car than I did and asked him if they'd rather just buy me out soon! haha

I'm hesitant to say it, but NOW my goal is to make it the REST of the year without a visit to the dealership! (20 days!) Say a prayer for me!

PS - While writing this post, I noticed online that, not only does this seem to be a fairly common problem for Maximas (and actually making 75k miles before it happened seems to be pretty good) but that the repair work would probably have cost me around $300-$400 to get done with out the warranty! My $1100 warranty purchase which was added onto the financed price of the car has now given me well over $6,000 worth of repairs. Yikes!

It's like some sort of parallel universe!

Normally I'm one of those people who's really good at directions. I'm kinda a visual thinker and so it's easy for me to sorta draw a map of wherever I am in my head and think logically about where I need to go. I've always been one of those people who can go to a new city and find my way around fairly quickly. Normally when I'm lost, people who are with me don't even realize I'm lost because I can get back to where I need so quickly.

I think there's probably a few reasons this works for me. First off is the one I mentioned above...being a visual thinker. Also, growing up, my dad got lost a lot when we would go on vacations. Well, to be fair, we just referred to it in my family as "taking the scenic route," but same concept. Getting used to watching us drive through random streets in attempt to get back to where we need I guess wore off on me. Also, if it's somewhere I've ever been before I'm almost guaranteed to find my way. Along with my visual thinking, I have a very good memory. Like if I see a building or intersection once, I'm probably going to recognize it again for the rest of my life (crazy, I know). Also, I'm one of those people who, if I get any amount of time in a city, I just drive around the streets checking them out and learning where they go. I get familiarized with cities really quickly!

That brings me to the title of this post, however. Charlotte must exist in some sort of parallel universe! There's some sort of Kryptonite or something around that city that renders my super powers useless! I don't know what it is about that city but every time I go there I just get lost! What makes it even crazier is when I've asked for directions in the past, the people who live there can't even give me the right directions to major places! For instance, when I was up in the city last May, I just wanted to find the South Park Mall. I think everyone pretty much knows that place and where it is, but yet, I couldn't get there. I ended up driving for about an hour or so once I got in the city trying to find it. I stopped and asked directions at least 3 different times before I got there! The directions that finally got me there were from a 15 year old girl (the previous person's directions led me up a dead end road that ended in her high school parking lot, so I just asked someone there, haha). What's the most frustrating is that I'm usually no more than 5 miles from where I need to go, but just can't manage to get there. I drive in circles for half an hour or an hour at a time!

Even last time I was up there a week ago, I couldn't get anywhere. After my seminar was over I wanted to go to a couple of places around town, including the same mall. Even though I knew full well where the mall was, I couldn't figure out where I was! I basically again, drove in circles for about an hour or an hour and a half just trying to get there! Then, after leaving the mall, I decided to back uptown to hang out for a bit. I had just been uptown and knew exactly where I wanted to go. I was excited because, for probably the first time, I could get where I wanted without getting lost. Or so I thought! There was some sort of big high school football game going on up there which caused the road I wanted to be on to be closed. I drove around trying to find another street running parallel to it or one I could use to intersect my road later...but alas, nothing. Again, I spent another 30 mins. literally driving in circles in what was about a 10 block radius of where I wanted to go! (well, except for the time I ended up on some random freeway that I couldn't get off of for about 2 or 3 miles).

Ugh! Oh well, point is, I did eventually make it home, just probably drove an extra 50-100 miles and used half a tank of gas. I get so annoyed and frustrated every time I go up there because that is the one city I just can't make it in!! Pretty town...horrible roads! :)

Lazy Blogger

Sorry for the complete lack of posting lately. I'm just gonna churn out a quick update since it's late and I have an early morning tomorrow.

Yeah, I've been a bit lazy lately, I guess. No running, no posting...what have I been doing?

Let's see, since last we met, I went to the tree lighting for my town, which they conveniently held across the street from me. Of course, they later moved the tree down to city hall, but I guess they've decided to start doing more community events by me. There's a mall across the street which is undergoing a major rehabbing (read: vacant) but it has a big parking garage which, due to a lack of customers, is pretty much always empty, so the city likes to host it's events on the roof of the garage. Works for me! I grabbed the neighbor (her roommate had oral surgery earlier in the day, so was out of commission) and we headed over. It was a good time. Free food, some strange calypso band playing non-Christmas music (random) and a million people. Well, okay, maybe a thousand or so (at least a few hundred) but considering within the city limits of where I live there's only technically about 10,000 residents, that's way more than I expected. Actually, I'm kinda surprised the city does a big tree lighting at all b/c my city has a very strong Jewish Community (both of the major Temples in the Columbia area and the Jewish Community Center are located within our city limits). I told the neighbor we needed to find me a girlfriend. She replied that we needed to find her a boyfriend. Always the practical one, I recommended that we just pool our efforts, find a cute couple and split them up. That way, we each get one but only have to do half the work. Plus there are WAAAAY more couples around here than single people anyway, so I'm sure it won't be that hard. She did bring up the point that if we did that we probably couldn't be friends anymore since significant others would hate us. I told her I was willing to make the sacrifice. :)

Friday, I mentioned that I had to go out of town for a seminar for work. I did. The seminar was, like all work seminars, informative, but overly so. I was done taking in information long before they were done talking. Plus, it started too early in the morning. Ugh! Oh well, it's done and taking that class will be making me a lot of money soon. :) Instead of burning up the highway to get back home, I decided to hang out in Charlotte for the rest of the evening. As always, I enjoyed myself there, but that's a story for another post. Hopefully I'll put that up by the end of the week.

Saturday I slept ridiculously late b/c I got in from Charlotte late and because I pretty much had no sleep Friday night. The no sleep was partly because of me staying up to get stuff done and partly due to a 3 AM random phone call from a friend. While it is a funny story, it's not mine to tell. When she gets a blog and posts about it, maybe I'll link to it for you! After I woke up, I went to the condo of my suitemate from freshman year for a big holiday dinner he started doing a couple years ago. He invites a bunch of us over and has a big turkey and various other "fixin's" and we just catch up and relax, family dinner style. It was good, but I certainly did not know as many people as years past. That also reminds me of another observation I've made about many of my friends. But again...for another post. I had plans to go to an event with some other friends later in the evening, but was really just too tired. I decided I needed a night in for a change. I did catch up with a friend later in the night at like 10:30 or 11 or so and he wanted to come over. We rented a movie and hung out for a bit. I popped some popcorn and finished off a bottle of wine I uncorked the other day. It was nice. Between the Holiday dinner and the movie, however, I probably had about 1 and a quarter bottles of wine on Saturday though...oops! :)

Sunday again I slept in. I don't know what it was about this weekend, but I guess I needed some sleep! I ran a few errands in the afternoon, tuned into our weekly conference call for work and snuggled up to my Sunday night shows...here and here. (Don't think I've forgotten about What's in Mark's DVR...they're still coming, just delayed. I'll probably have time for that when we run out of episodes next week thanks to the stupid writers' strike! Grrr!) Oh yeah, during these shows I also pulled out my Christmas decorations and started some light decorating.

Monday I went to work, came home, went running, then went to buy a Christmas tree. I only use real trees every year! A fake one just doesn't cut it for me, I don't know why. Plus, the smell is nice. I was very pleased with the tree I ended up with - and it was pretty much the first one I grabbed! Maybe someday soon I'll begin sharing with you old Christmas memories and family "traditions," if you will, of how things normally go at Christmas. I'm much more low-maintenance around the holidays than my family is, so it's always a nice refreshing change to me. Anyway, now the house is all decorated and I'm pleased!

Today was work, got my car washed, went running, met a friend for dinner (same one as Sunday night) then came home to my TV.

Oh yeah...as far as my pledge last week to run twice on Wednesday and Thursday...didn't happen. I did manage to make it out once on one of those nights, but I just went about a mile or so around the neighborhood. Yesterday when I went, I ran two miles around the neighborhood which was intense, considering I'd been on running-sabbatical for so long, but I was proud I could do it. Oh yeah, also when I run in the neighborhood, I have plenty of hills here, as opposed to the park, which is relatively flat. Today I ran at the park, but decided I needed to try for 2.5 miles since I could obviously survive 2 miles on hills. I'm very proud to say I did it, but it probably wasn't the best idea. My legs were already a bit tense from pushing myself yesterday, and so about a mile and a half into tonight's run my knee started getting a little sore. I definitely felt every step from then on, but I persevered! It wasn't an unbearable pain as long as I kept it moving, but after sitting down for dinner and what not, it's actually quite sore now. Argh! Hopefully a good night's rest will heal it up, but no running tomorrow! I guess it's my first exercise related pain, which is kinda cool. That means I am pushing myself, so mission accomplished! Although, I am a bit disappointed in you, readers! Only one of you actually held me to my pledge of running like I asked you to! And to be fair, he only asked me once! What kind of friends are you?

Well, I guess the post wasn't all that short per se, but it was fairly quick for me to write. I think that's all I promised. I did somehow manage to create at least 3 more posts in my mind during this one though. I guess I've created more work for myself!

It promises to be a busy week at work this week and the weekend has plenty of plans too, but I'm going to try my hardest to get lots of content up for you since next week I'll be out of town for almost the whole week. Details will come later....crap, now that's 4 posts I have to write! I'd better stop!

Pardon me, is your refrigerator running?

Cuz Mark sure isn't!

Okay, sorry for the lame title/intro...it's late and I couldn't think of anything else. Go ahead, make fun of me.

I really do need to go running though. Perhaps you'll remember all the progress I was making...up to 2 miles around the neighborhood - with hills! But alas, I've gotten lazy. And uninspired. But mainly just lazy. I actually haven't been running since several days before Thanksgiving! which means it's been well over a week since I last sweated it out on the asphalt. In my defense, it has been cold (kinda) and rainy (well, one day) and I was on vacation (only for about 2 days). Alright, I know my excuses are weak...and so am I. :( I'll get back on board.

I may or may not be able to tomorrow night...ooh, and I actually have something to do Thursday night, and I'm going to be out of town Friday. Well, I guess I just need to get over my excuses and do it anyway...I can work my schedule out if I really want to. Alright, it's official, I'm running both tomorrow night and Thursday, regardless of what time I have to do it! Hold me to it friends!

Oh yeah...the car is going to the dealership again tomorrow morning to get the CV-thing replaced again. My goal is that this will be the last time this year it goes to the shop. It's only 34 days...is that too much to ask?

**UPDATE: Ack! As I was writing this post and trying to link back to previous running stories, I realized it's been a lot longer than I thought since I went running. I was under the impression that I last went out the weekend before Thanksgiving, but that was the weekend I took myself shopping and to dinner and then discovered the car issues, so I decided it was a good day to put on pajamas and stay on the couch all day. I've certainly had plenty to eat and drink since then...maybe I should go out twice tomorrow and twice on Thursday. Yikes!!

Hittin' the Highway

Oh goodness, faithful readers, do I ever have a great "Only Mark" story for you! Definitely one of those situations that probably only I could get into. I'm not sharing details yet, but it should be a good one.

Since I'm only teasing you with that story, I'll give you another fun "Only Mark" story that happened recently.

So a couple weeks ago, my bosses (they're a married couple) and I decided we needed to head to Atlanta for a seminar with our parent company over there. The seminar was from about 7-9 in the evening and Atlanta is about a 3 or 4 hour drive, I knew it'd be a long night. We left the office at about 4:30 or so and hit the road. My boss decided we'd take his car, so off we go. We get about 2 hours up the road or so and decide to go through a drive through for something to eat. After we get our food, my boss announces that he can't eat and drive, so I volunteer to take over at the wheel. This is when it gets interesting...

As I start backing out of the parking space, I notice the bright lights are on in the car. It was just starting to get dark, so I just wanted to turn them down to the regular lights. Seeing me look around for the way to do that, my boss chimes in with "Oh, don't bother trying to turn the lights down, that's all we've got!" Apparently they were having some sort of electrical issues which caused the low beams to not work, just the high beams. We were already running a little bit behind, but, of course, not longer after we get back on the road, we hit a major traffic back up on the interstate. We never did figure out what was going on, but basically, we lost nearly half an hour sitting in stop and go traffic. When we finally get back to the open road, I really have to move that SUV to avoid missing the entire seminar. Fortunately I have torrid history of driving at very high speeds, so I was quite comfortable with this. So here I am, flying down the highway in a big ol' truck at 80+ mph with nothing but my high beams on. Yeah...I think much of the state of Georgia was pissed at me for tailgating them with my bright lights on that night...oh well.

We go to the seminar...it was a good one, worth the drive, and then it was time to head home. My boss was actually quite tired, and I don't think he likes driving at night that much (especially with only the brights), so I hopped into the driver's seat again. With the bright lights a-blazin', we roll back up I-85. Running low on gas and getting hungry, we pull over near Commerce, Georgia. It's nearly midnight at this time, which was actually nice because there was a lot less traffic to offend with my headlights. As I'm pulling out of the gas station, I see rain drops begin to fall on the windshield. When my bosses see me start fiddling around to turn on the windshield wipers, they just start laughing. Apparently, as part of the aforementioned electrical problems, the windshield wipers also were not functional. Yeah, and my hopes that the rain was just a passing sprinkle were dashed as well.

I hit the interstate and proceed to start driving through very heavy rain that was probably one of the hardest rains we've had in months (well, maybe since the last time I drove back from Atlanta when the air was broken in my car so all the windows fogged up and I could hardly see). It was certainly an interesting time, my one boss was sleeping in the back seat and his wife was sitting patiently next to me listening to me ramble on about one thing or another for pretty much the whole drive home. I'm not sure why I was so chatty at that hour, perhaps I was still excited from the seminar, perhaps I was just a bit tired and was trying to keep myself awake, or perhaps I was just trying to distract her (or me) from the fact that on more than one occasion I was having quite a bit of difficulty seeing the road. At any rate, we finally returned home at about 2:30 in the morning or so.

But, yeah, I was driving down the interstate, in someone else's car, at 1:00 in the morning with only bright lights and no windshield wipers in the pouring down rain...and do it all as calmly as ever, as though there was nothing wrong at all. Who else but Mark? haha

I guess all that time spent driving through torrential downpours in Florida finally paid off. Good times!

Realizations and Resolutions

I've been blogging now for about 6 weeks and have begun to realize somethings about my blog:

• My blog was supposed to be chock full of funny stories about my life and encounters I have. So far this has not been the case. Up until now, it has actually seemed to be more filled with my rants and complaints, intermixed with a few blow-by-blow replays of my days. No one wants to read this...at least not only this! So many bloggers have deep philosophical and introspective viewpoints, others have funny stories, and I, up until now, basically just have a diary of me. Not the original intent.
• I write too much! Not necessarily too frequently, but when I do write, I just make my posts too long! I should probably take a moment after I write them to edit them down, taking out some of the boring details...but it's so much easier just to click post and not re-read it.

I'm sure there's other realizations I could come to, but in light of that last realization, I'll spare you. Anyway, point is, I'm going to work on these things and will be bringing you much more exciting and concise posts as we ring in the holiday season!

Also, as I mentioned before, I'm heading back up to the mountains for Thanksgiving with the fam. I'm leaving tomorrow and will be back sometime over the weekend, so no posts until then. I'll be thinking about the above realizations, though, and am vowing to do better.

Oh, and in my 6 short weeks, I have had no fewer than 5 separate hits from at least 3 different countries outside the US and plenty from states all over...that's definitely fun to watch! As always, if you are reading, you are greatly encouraged to comment or e-mail me! I take requests!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, this is getting almost comical!

Despite my plans for other great accomplishments today (like, say, working) I spent pretty much all day today having work done to my much-storied car (here, here, here & here). Basically, today I spent over $200 that I don't have on various repairs/maintenance to it and probably should have spent at least another $200-300 more! I mean, seriously, if this keeps up, I'm going to have to create a blog label just for my car!

I started out by calling the one place in the yellow pages that said they repaired rims (well technically, there are two, but it turns out one is actually located in Greenville, 100 miles away, but for some reason decides to advertise in our book). I was really excited when the guy told me they could probably repair it in a little over an hour or so (not a day or more, as previously feared and as the place in Greenville seems to take), and that he could do it for probably $115 or so, considerably less than I feared. Before actually going to see him, though, I decided to go back to the Tire Kingdom I originally went to on Saturday to have them look at the remaining slow leak and rotate my tires. When I got to the Kingdom, they had a long wait (I did accidentally wait until lunch time to get there, oops!) so I just made an appointment for later that afternoon and went to the rim shop. I walked in and told the guy what I needed and he said "Oh, did you call me earlier today? Yeah, we'll take care of it for you." I dropped the tire off and now had an hour or two to kill before I had to be back. Inspired by my outpouring of cash into the car and in preparation of my upcoming Thanksgiving travels, I decided I may as well get the long over due oil change I needed.

I ran up the road to the place I always go and handed her the keys. I also asked about getting a transmission fluid change, since I have known for a long time I need that done, but decided without a coupon and in light of all the money I was spending on everything else that day, that I should chance it for a little bit longer. The repair guy also told me I should have my fuel injection system cleaned every 12-15 months or so. I normally don't 100% believe repair people when they tell me what I "should" do (not that I would know better than they would, I just like to think that I do), but since I've never had it done, I did entertain the thought. I ruled it as out of the budget too.

When they finished, I did swing by the office for a bit to get together some stuff for my boss and find something to do that wouldn't cost me money while I waited for the rim. Finally, I head back up to the rim place and pick up my tire. They mount it for me and end up only charging me $100 total, parts & labor, for the work. Awesome! After I left there, I realized I should've just had them look at the leak in my other tire and rotate them, since they did seem to do tire work, but I didn't realize that before, thinking they primarily just sold custom rims. Oh well. Once the wheel was mounted, it left me just enough time to run back up to the Kingdom for my afternoon appointment. The guy pulled the car in and lifted it up, then did what every car owner dreads when work is being done...comes in to speak to the customer!

I walk into the garage with him and he tells me 3 things...first, there's a lug nut on the back wheel which is stuck on there and he's afraid he'll destroy the stud if he removes it. (You may remember, this is hardly the first time I've had lugs over torqued and destroy wheel studs...in fact, if I count right, this is at least the 7th stud to suffer such a fate. Why do people have it out for my wheel studs?) I told him to go ahead, even if it meant stripping it and replacing the stud, (which would add about $30-40 to my bill) basically under the 3-fold logic of

1. I really do need my tires rotated regardless,
2. Heaven forbid the tire should go flat and I would be left on the side of the road trying to man handle that thing, and
3. I'm already dumping money out, so why not!?

The second thing he pointed out was that my belts were old and worn and beginning to crack...a fact which I had already been told, but since it would add at least $175 to my bill, I declined for today.

The third thing he told me(and here's where it gets comical, folks) is this:

"Have you had someone look at your CV boot (or some other part he was pointing to that I had no idea what he was talking about)? You see, it's leaking here and it is basically dripping all the oil right out of it and slinging it away. You can see it here...(still pointing)"

At this point, I just start laughing, because while I didn't understand exactly what he was saying, I knew enough and, seeing where he was pointing, realized that this is the exact same part the dealership replaced not 3 weeks ago!!! Yeah...that $1100 repair they did, guess it didn't work! I told him not to worry about that and assured him I'd take it to the dealership. Oh, they did find a nail in that tire with the slow leak, in case you were curious...maybe I should have had it looked at some point earlier over the 6 or 9 months it's been slowly leaking...oops! :)

Once they finished up all they were doing and I paid another $75 or so, I was deciding how to set up an appointment with the dealership to have them re-repair my CV joint (or whatever). I was going to call, but I didn't have their number and I had to drive right by there anyway, so decided to just stop in and make one in person for next Monday when I get back. I told the guy at the dealership what the man at the Kingdom said and admitted that it was still making a strange noise, but, since it was considerably quieter than the noise it was making before, I had sorta relegated to just being the noise my car was going to keep making...at least until I got sick of it wanted to brave the dealership again. At first the guy was content to just make an appointment, but when I told him what was wrong, he got all concerned that I was going to driving through the mountains with this potential problem and wanted to have it looked at immediately. This was fine with me and actually, I just didn't suggest it b/c it was already 4:30 when I got there and didn't want anyone to have to stay late.

I then headed back toward the waiting room where I've grown so accustomed to staying and ran into several other of the employees I've come to know around there (yeah...clearly I spend to much time there!). I chatted a bit and then went back to reading the book I'd been working on all afternoon. Half an hour later, the service guy tells me that they looked at it and they're going to have to order the same part again and install a second new one to try to fix the problem. He did assure me that I would be fine driving on it (a concern I did not have until he raised it) and I'm supposed to hear from them when the parts come in. Oh, then I put $40-something worth of gas in it and was done on the car for the day.

After spending all this time at the dealership, I'm beginning to notice a trend. A very unpleasant trend, but a trend nonetheless. Any guesses?

Yeah...it seems they like to do all of their work multiple times! Let's recap again...

• this piece was replaced three weeks ago and will now be replaced again in a week; my air conditioner was "fixed" once in June and then surprisingly broke again a month later,
  
• the motor on one of my power windows needs adjustment almost annually, and
  
• my radio has been replaced not once, not twice, but three separate times!
  

I guess the logic is practice makes perfect?? This would be much less unsettling if they just gave me a loaner car every time, instead of making me coordinate rides or listen to daytime soaps on their TV in the waiting room while trying to read. I guess I can't do anything but laugh about it!!

Oh well, at least an old friend was rolling through town so she stopped to hang out. She introduced me to Raspberry Martinis and Bang Bang Shrimp at Bonefish Grill! Not a bad way to end the night!

Robin Sparkles, Let's Go to The Mall - How I Met Your Mother

And for you REAL fans...here's a throwback, some vintage HIMYM!

You Just Got Slapped - How I Met Your Mother

For all you fans out there, here's Marshall's song he composed for the long anticipated slap tonight!

Nothing like changing a tire in cashmere...

Remember how yesterday I put off getting my tires looked at? The logic was, "Oh, they're just slow leaks, they won't go anywhere." Well, this morning I got up early to go to church (I was going to early service to be able to go by the tire place and still get other stuff done in the afternoon) and walk outside to see the tire with the "significantly less slow leak" was completely flat. Ugh...no I have to change the tire! So yeah, it's 7:30 in the morning, 45 degrees outside and I'm wearing a Banana Republic cashmere sweater and now I have to change a filthy tire - lovely!

I had to fight with the tire b/c it didn't really want to come off, but I finally got it. After looking at it, I saw that in addition to having a bad valve stem, the rim is bent also!!! I have no idea how that happened. I mean, Columbia's roads are really crappy, but I haven't particularly noticed hitting any new pot holes or bumps over the last few days. Best I can figure, I'm thinking maybe the bad valve stem let the air out of my tire and, while driving around with low pressure, I hit one of the normal bumps which caused the bend. Anyway, moral of the story is, reshaping the rim is SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than a little patch or new valve stem, and may not even be fixable at all, but may require replacement. I'm really hoping replacing isn't the way I have to go, seeing as I checked into getting a new rim from the dealership several years ago and was quoted a price of $634 per rim, or something like that. Not what I need!

I threw the little donut spare tire on, tried washing my hands, and rolled on to church. Of course, I was an hour late, and really dirty, but at least I made it. I couldn't get anything done about the tire today, since most tire shops won't repair a bent rim; I'll have to so see a guy that specializes in it this week. The timing of this is so perfect too, since starting Wednesday I'll be driving 500 or so miles next week on the interstate, through the mountains, and on dirt roads with possible ice and snow. I'm reeeeaaalllly hoping I don't have to do all that on the donut at 55mph.

Yeah...I'm soooo over this car! Let's just recap what this car has put me through over the last 6 months:

• My A/C has broken...twice!
• I replaced a wheel stud that had been cross thread and stripped.
• I replaced my front brake pads.
  
• I replaced the rear pads and turned the rotors.
• I had an $1100 repair done to the CV joints.
• And now...I have a bent rim that will need repair/replace.

I know I said I would try to get a car next year, and as much as I enjoy having no payments, I'm starting to think once I get a little better cash flow going and a few debts are paid down, I may find myself in the market sooner. I think I'll be ready to dump this thing off a bridge if I have to go through another 6 months like this!

Oh yeah, and to add insult to injury, I cracked my KRZR yesterday! I dropped it in Barnes & Noble and noticed later that the face of it had a big crack across it. Of all the phones I've had since I first got a cell phone 6 or 7 years ago, and of all the times I've dropped them in the dirt, on the floor, even on asphalt in roads and parking lots, I've never had one break like that...and this happened on carpet!! Piece of crap! Verizon told me they'd replace it for $50. In light of the tire situation, I think I'll keep my money and my cracked phone. Grrrr!

It's Not All About Me

I have great difficulty finding presents for other people. Birthdays, Christmas, weddings, whatever, I just find it hard to get things for others. (Well, maybe not so much weddings, those are fairly easy for some reason.) I've always had this problem. I remember when I was younger and my mom taking me to the store to find birthday presents for friends and getting really frustrated while I wandered aimlessly. Every time I go shopping for others, I tend to end up finding stuff for me and nothing for them. I guess it might mean I'm selfish, but I like to think otherwise. I mean, if I were truly selfish I'd just run out and grab the first thing that worked and not think any more about it, right? Instead, I usually can't find anything b/c I spend so much time trying to find something that fits their personality, without trying to force my tastes on them. Perhaps I should back up though and give you the whole story of my day to better illustrate my point...

I slept in a bit and then had to head up to the office to do a little stuff. I didn't really want to be there, but I wasn't there too long, so it wasn't bad. I then went home to change clothes and called my sister b/c today is her birthday. She didn't answer so I left a voicemail and sent a text--very personal! I also called a friend who I was supposed to help refinish some table she just got...I called to reschedule b/c I wasn't feeling up to it and had other errands to run. Then, I decided to run up to the mall to find Sis a birthday present (I'll be seeing her with the rest of the fam on Wednesday for Thanksgiving, so I'm not really late in shopping...I never mail it, just give it to her then). I drove all the way out to the mall, which is about 15 miles from my house, to go shopping. There are one or two malls closer, but I wanted to head out to that one to browse some specific stores (for me, not her--I know, back to the selfish thing).

I get all the way out to the mall, hop out of my car, and realize I left my wallet and everything else, other than cell phone and keys, sitting on my dresser when I changed pants earlier...yeah, I was thrilled! I thought about just walking around the mall and, if I saw anything, coming back tomorrow, but, decided I didn't have much else planned today and really just wanted to wander around shopping without having to come back tomorrow. So, I drove home, got my wallet, did a couple other things, then drove back across town and hit the mall (Please note, we're already at 45 miles for the day just driving to the mall, not to mention the 20+ miles earlier driving to and from work. Good thing gas is so cheap right now! Ugh!).

I wandered through several stores with the hopes of coming up with a good idea of what to get my sister. Okay, so I didn't actually expect to find anything for her in the men's department of Belk, Banana Republic, Express, Abercrombie, Gap or American Eagle...but I didn't get anything for me there either, so that's good right? In fairness I did go into Williams-Sonoma also (not that I think she's a big cooker, but then again, I don't cook at all and still go into that store pretty much every time I'm at the mall...I don't know why) and whatever bookstore they have in our mall and I could have conceivably found something in one of those. To be honest, I pretty much wouldn't ever buy her clothes anyway b/c, not only do I not know her size, but I think clothes are a very personal expression that are best picked by the wearer. The most I would've gotten there was a gift card, but that's usually a last resort. I really just went for inspiration and to get me in the mood to shop...and if I happened to find a great deal for myself, so be it! I also went into the store I used to work at to say hello to some people I used to work with and see if anything had changed. Other than the Christmas decorations being out, no, it hadn't.

After leaving the mall, I ran up to the tire place b/c I have slow leaks in two of my tires (although one is significantly less slow than the other), both just bad valve stems, I believe, but needed to get them fixed before I head out of town next week. Unfortunately I got there at like 5:58 and they close at 6, so I'll head back Sunday or Monday. I then ran up to Best Buy to continue birthday shopping. I don't really know why I went here, but I thought I might find something. I wandered around looking at things for her IPod, random computer games, DVD's and whatever else. Didn't see anything that worked for her, but I suppose this is when my selfishness comes out. While perusing the DVD section, I noticed that they had a few different TV series deeply discounted...no good reason it seemed, as they were all current a popular shows, but they still had a temporary markdown. I kept walking, looking for a few shows I know my sister likes, when what did I stumble across? The Nip/Tuck DVD's! Lo and behold...they were some of the ones on sale!! Well, only seasons 1, 2 & 3; season 4 was at regular price, but still, I didn't have any, so I checked them out. Ummm, yeah...each season is normally $45 for the set, but today, they were marked down to $14.99 each! You read that right! So, considering buying the seasons was cheaper than renting them if I ever wanted to catch them, I had to buy all 3. I got all 3 seasons for less than the price of 1 normally! That's not selfish, is it? I mean, how could I pass that up? I stayed in that store clutching my DVD's before checking out, never finding anything for her, but I did see a lot of other cool stuff. Not being a big techie, I don't usually go into electronics stores often, but I think I'm going to have to start!

I hopped across the street to Wal-Mart to wander their electronics section for goodies, then looked for a couple things I wanted (didn't find any) and went down to Circuit City. Headed to Barnes & Noble next, which was purely for her b/c I wasn't in the market for books and she reads like all the time, then went to about 5 or 6 other stores. In all the other stores, I was mainly looking for something for me...a ficus or other large plant to stick in a naked corner of my newly rearranged living room, which I never did end up finding. I think I'm just going to stick a Christmas tree there for now and deal with it in January. While in the parking lot of one of the stores, I realized it was getting really late and I was getting quite hungry (no doubt aided by the women reading out loud from a cookbook in Barnes & Noble). I was kinda tired and new I didn't want to go home to make anything when I was done and thought it a good night to treat myself. I remembered I had a gift card to Outback from waaaay long ago, and that it was time I cashed it in. I gave up on the ficus, hit up BAM in a last effort for sister, then went back across the street to eat.

Of course, it was just me eating, which was kinda sad. I mean, ideally I would've wanted to go somewhere like that with a date/girlfriend or at least some friends, but, with no girlfriend or dates (*sigh*) and figuring most of my friends had already eaten/weren't on that side of town, I figured, "Who cares...I deserve, I'm treating." There was an open booth at the bar so I plopped myself down and was watching some football on TV. I decided to order a big steak (12oz.) and got a salad and loaded baked potato, with the intent of eating half and having some leftover for Sunday lunch. I thought I could fill up on the free bread too. Oh yeah, I also ordered a Sangria with my meal, since it was the closest thing I've had to a date in months anyway. I don't care if it was 50 degrees and dropping outside, I figured a Sangria was a good way to go since I somehow managed to make it through the entire summer w/o making a pitcher of it at home once! (How'd that happen?) FYI - The Sangria at Outback is not so good. I'm not sure if it was because they used an Australian Cabernet as a base (I don't normally like Aussie wines) or if it was just the way they mixed it, but I'm quite confident that the Sangria I make is much better. I should've gone with my first instinct and gotten the margarita. Anyway, while I was eating my salad course a group of three people decided to sit in the bar area for some reason, but the only table available was this tiny little table with 2 chairs (and frankly, it was small for 2!). They pulled up a third chair but they just looked so pathetic sitting there next to me with their legs all touching and crammed in. I felt a little bad sitting right next to them alone in a spacious 4-person booth (see...I'm not completely selfish!) and considered telling them or a server that they could switch with me if they wanted. But then, I realized that I didn't feel that bad about it and that it really wasn't my place to meddle. I didn't really want to sit at the little table and why should I be inconvenienced? I got there first! (ok, back to the selfish thing.) I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes:

"I'm not an unfeeling man, I'm just an uncaring man. What's the difference, you ask? Well, you see, I do feel bad, the problem is, I just don't care!"

I think I stole that from a sitcom years ago (Grace Under Fire, maybe?) but I thought it was particularly appropriate and is often accurate to my view. Anyway, another booth opened up shortly there after and they moved to it, so problem solved. The food came with the sub-par Sangria and I guess I was hungrier than I thought. Remember that plan to eat half and save the rest? Yeah...new plan...how about eat it all and go home stuffed! Somehow I managed to down the whole salad, a 12oz steak, a loaded baked potato, a Sangria, about 3 or 4 glasses of sweet tea and half a loaf of the free bread! Literally the only thing left was about a bite and a half of potato (they over cooked it -- the skin was dried out). I swear, I'm a fat man trapped in a skinny boy's body! Where does it go??

Anyway after all that beef, I was quite exhausted so I ambled out to the car and started the trek back home. Pretty much hung out on the couch since then. It really was a great lazy Saturday...one I hadn't had in a looong time, but my to do list is no shorter than it was this morning. Let's recap, comparing the list of things I was supposed to do to the list of things I actually did accomplish:

Supposed to do:

• Get up early to do laundry
• Go to work
• Help a friend sand her table
• Call my sister
• Find my sister a birthday present
• Wash my car

Actually Accomplished:

• Slept in
• Went to work
• Rescheduled friend
• Left sister a voicemail and text message
• Bought myself 3 seasons of Nip/Tuck
• Took myself out to dinner

Okay, 1 out of 5 isn't bad, right? You be the judge...does that sound selfish to you? Okay, nevermind...don't judge...I like me and my life and I'm not ready to change it. Besides, I think I know what I'm going to get my sister now, so that's like half a point! Anyway, leave me alone...I have a steak to digest!

More Clog Woes

I wasn't going to post on this, but a friend of mine was harassing me about this earlier, so I just had to. I'm still breaking in the clogs for this year and it made for a painful day, haha. Walking around doing errands my back was actually quite sore, then my leg started hurting. Then, later tonight, I got a random cramp in my toe! I can't be sure, but I'm just going to go ahead and blame the clogs. Anyway...since my friend was making fun of me and my shoes (I believe his quote was..."Clogs, you mean like the shoes lesbians wear?") I took a couple pictures for him. I'll share them with you too. Be honored! :)

Bigger than the Spice Girls!

Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I think it's safe to say that the blog is now an international sensation! Okay, I'm still stretching it. But when checking the stats on my site (yeah, I track you people!), I noticed I had my first visitor from a foreign country! Someone from New Zealand stopped by the blog briefly! (New Zealand is a country right? Or is it part of Australia?) Anyway, all I know is, they do speak English there, so the person won't actually need this site to understand me.

It wouldn't be fair to call this person a reader, per se, since my stat counter said they didn't actually stay long enough to read anything. But the point is, they stopped, I know have international exposure! How exciting!

Man Clogs...and other randomness

Lately, here in good ol' South Kakalak, we've had our first real bursts of fall weather. Well, actually it's been a bit colder than fall, but still, it's finally cool here. That change in weather invites us all to adjust our wardrobes to more fitting cool weather clothes. So tonight after work I had some errands to run and started to get dressed to go out. I didn't really feel like putting on my tennis shoes, but didn't want to go to all the effort of wearing my oxfords. Suddenly it occurred to me "Wait, it's fall...that means you can wear your clogs with your jeans!" I know, I know...man clogs...go ahead and make fun of me! It's okay, I'll accept it, but I still like them because I consider them winter's flip flops--well actually, now that I think about it, they're not really winter's flip flops, since wearing them in winter would mean you have cold heels, or, if you live somewhere where there's actually snow and winter weather, you would have cold and wet heels--anyway, I like them. It's a great way to say "Hey, look at me! I'm being casual by not wearing actual shoes, but I'm stylish enough not to go out in only tennis shoes."

Anyone who's ever worn clogs (man clogs, or otherwise) knows that walking in those is completely different than walking in pretty much any other shoes. Basically, clogs don't stay on your feet the way normal shoes do, and, unlike flip flops, you don't have a little toe thong to grab hold of to keep them in place. Walking in them is a finely tuned balancing act between forward momentum and gripping on as well as possible with your toes requiring just the right sized stride, pace and foot height when walking. Each year when I put on my clogs for the first few wearings, I have to essentially re-learn how to walk in them. It's kinda embarrassing when, after 24 years of walking, I'm forced to spend a few weeks tripping over my feet and stepping out of my shoes. The worst part training yourself to walk in clogs is the countless times you step out of them and nearly fall over. Of course, once I get through the adjustment period, I become quite comfortable in clogs again and can basically do anything in them...running, climbing things, whatever...it's just the adjustment period which sucks. Oh, the troubles I face, haha!

In other news...I'm still running. I'm so impressed with myself! Tonight, I actually made it 2 miles!!! Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the furthest I've ever run in my life without stopping. It's helped that I've been running around my neighborhood a bit, which has hills, and the park I run in is flat. But it also helps that I run with a friend who continues to push me and doesn't believe me when I tell him how out of shape I am. 2 whole miles! Who would've thought?!

Can't really think what else is going on. Busy week at work this week. We're hosting a few seminars in the evenings and I'm going to ATL Wednesday night to attend a seminar. Add this on top of lots of planning for stuff going on to wrap up our year and I should be quite busy. Other than that, I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week!!! What is going on? I'll be heading up to the mountains again sometime next week, but I haven't yet decided when I'm leaving. Maybe Wednesday? But don't worry, you'll get more posts out of me before then.