daily grind: March 2007 Archives

Fortunately I emerged unscathed after telling my wife about the new laptop.

She found it quite humorous - my momentary weakness at controlling my impulsive desires. I showed her a camera that I was looking at on Friday night. She figured I was going to come home with a new camera on Saturday. The camera, however, would have ended up costing me more in the long run with all the new lenses, flash accessories, etc . . . so maybe I did control my impulsive desires.

Who knows?

In other news . . . I went to an interview for a new job today. I feel good about how it went - a little choppy in a couple areas - but overall, I think I did pretty well. I should hear something by the end of the week. Funny thing is that I applied for this job way back at the beginning of January. More news on that as it happens.

The only thing really on the agenda today was my son's soccer game at 2:30. After taking my wife to work this morning the kids and I went back to bed and I slept until roughly 9:30. I woke up with a dreadful headache that I still haven't really shaken . . . even after multiple doses of Advil and Excedrin. It's a little more bearable, and I think it might be fading.

It's always this way for me at the beginning of spring. Sometimes I wish I lived some place where the weather was a little more consistent. Call me crazy, but I really do like the rainy days that we have had the last few days. Often I think I'd probably like it somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. But then San Diego has an incredible climate that I would probably appreciate just as well.

Perhaps some day . . . Getting back to the point . . . My wife called and asked me stop and get her some new pens. She bought a bunch of them ( she loses them faster than the weather changes here ) the other day and upon trying to use them at work she found she did not like them. We had to make a little stop after the game to get some cat food and with Office Depot right next door to Petco I figured I could knock it out no problem. Strolling past the laptops on my way to the pens, one of them reached out to me, grabbed me right square by the eyeballs and pulled me in. I ended up walking out with a Sony Vaio. It's a nice laptop.

I'm wondering what my wife is going to say as I sit here typing out this post. I'm trying to come up with a perfectly reasonable explanation for my lapse in frugality. Very rarely do I make these kinds of purchases. Part of my plan is to say the blinding pain in my head had an adverse effect on my ability to fight off impulsive behavior. Think it will work? If I don't post by tomorrow night I've been bound and gagged and thrown in the storage closet in the garage.

Someone please come help me get out.

I missed a couple days posting here. I've been in "react mode" due to an announcement at my job. You see, my employer depends on revenue from government contracts. One of these contracts has been reduced. Another contract that my employer normally enjoys without being forced to bid on may or may not be awarded to my employer. In a nutshell . . . people are going to lose their jobs.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean a couple people. It means quite a few people. And, in the months to come, there may be another round of layoffs if we are not awarded the other contract. The scary part, from all the speculation and gossip floating around, is that it is widely agreed upon that the first round is going to be pretty close to the bone. If we do not win the other contract, my employer may be forced to cut off a leg or an arm.

I've dodged layoffs here before. Since I have worked here ( just shy of five years ) there has been one layoff. This time, I am fairly confident that I will dodge any bullets. But, the coming months are very iffy. If we don't get that contract ( which I directly support ) I am confident I will be voted off the island.

Since I have developed a desire for food, housing, and clothes and I have a family who depends on me for the same, I decided to be a little proactive and start trying to find something else. In the words of another person I work with ( and I'm paraphrasing ), "We never really know when the axe could fall." My wife finds it very ironic that we moved to a place she has come to despise as the result of me being layed off only to be layed off again.

We tossed the idea of relocating elsewhere around a little bit. I'm against the idea. Not that I have come to love where we live, but it is a decent place to raise kids without the crime and drugs that are so prevalent in larger, metropolitan areas where jobs are plentiful. Besides, my kids do have friends here and I would hate to take that away from at this time in their lives.

For me, it's a difficult decision to which I really don't have any answers. So far, I have an interview on Wednesday. I had already applied for this job back in January. I visit their website on a fairly regular basis. A couple weeks ago I saw that the posting was removed and assumed that the job had been filled. They never called or sent me one of those gracious, "Thanks for applying but . . . blah blah blah," letters. At first glance I assumed that they decided to go with someone cheaper or less experience than I have. However, much to my surprise, I received a call from them on Wednesday.

The upside to all of this . . . the job that I will be interviewing for is much more appealing to my interests. I may have to take a small pay cut, but I don't know the whole compensation package just yet. The benefits may outweigh the small pay cut I will face. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I'm pretty open to any suggestions. I'm certainly not in, "Oh My God I've Got To Do Something!!!!" mode. I have time to make any changes that need to be made.

Another Friday is upon us.

Most people would agree that Fridays are something to look forward to. For me, it usually is the beginning of a hectic weekend of chauffeur responsibilities. Somewhere, I hear someone saying, "James, bring 'round the limo . . .."

This weekend it'll start at 5:30 am Saturday morning. I'll take my wife to work and then come home. My son's soccer game isn't until 11:30 am, so I get to take a little nap. The rest of the day is wide open, but I imagine the remaining agenda may be subject to the kids' whim. Then, around 10:30 pm or so, we'll all go pick up Mommy from work. Sunday, it'll start out just the same - take Mommy to work. My daughter's soccer game got canceled, but how fortunate to be able to fill that slot with volunteer work at my son's BMX track from 1 until 4 pm.

We'll finish with an hour to spare until my daughter's soccer practice at 5:30 pm ( and a 20 minute drive away ) before heading back home, getting ready for the next week, and then going to pick up Mommy again around 10 pm.

And the season of outdoor activities is just getting started. I can hardly wait until soccer practices start overlapping, the kids have soccer games at the same times on different fields, or we have to make a choice between a soccer game or a BMX race.

And CEOs think they have to make tough decisions.

So far I know that my daughter's soccer practices are Sundays and Tuesdays at 5:30 - 6:30. My son's soccer practices are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:30 - 5:30. My daughter's flute lessons are Thursdays at 7:30. Pretty soon, my son will want to go to open BMX practice at the track on Wednesdays around 7:00 ( or so ) until 9:00.

A daddy's work is never done. The upside to all of this. Man I'm glad that I can provide for them to have a life beyond home, school, and television. They both give 110 percent at everything they do. At the end of an exhausting, hectic, logistical nightmare of a weekend I can say:

I'm so damn proud of my kids.

After picking the kids up from the bus stop today I pulled into Great Clips to get my son a much needed haircut.

I've pretty much gone to the same place to get my haircut since we moved to this Midwestern-hell-on-Earth. The biggest plus is that it is within walking distance from where I work so whenever I want I can get my hair cut and be back to work without anyone ever knowing I slipped out. The other part is that it is right on the way home, so it works out well.

This particular Great Clips is located in the Foxcross Shopping Center on 29th Street just East of Wanamaker Drive. For those of you not acquainted with Great Clips it's one of those shops where you go in, give them your name, and then sit for any varying measurement of time until your name is called. We were fortunate and had to wait only 15 minutes. I had hoped that the girl who generally cuts my hair was available. Unfortunately we were destined to face the luck of the draw.

The person who cut my son's hair was, by far, the least likely person to win a customer service award. What's more, she single-handedly has guaranteed that I will not return, ever. Just so this post doesn't come across as a rant or a total bitch session, I'm going to highlight the points that pissed me off and give some suggestions that may help you if you rely on the gratitude of customers to pay your way through life.

If you registered for the Do Not Call Registry when it was first implemented as I did it is now time to re-register. Click here to get registered. From the Do Not Call website:

The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. Most telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, you can file a complaint at this Website. You can register your home or mobile phone for free. Your registration will be effective for five years.

The registry started in 2002, and registration only lasts five years. In other words you have to re-register every five years. I don't know who thought people would want telemarketers calling them, but I'm not surprised that there are 1.4 million phone numbers on the registry. It seems to me that if enough people signed up they'd outlaw telemarketing for good. I didn't even know there were 1.4 million phone numbers required in Kansas. I'm quite certain that it doesn't reflect that each person in Kansas has a single phone because I hardly believe it's possible that many people are crazy enough to want to live here.

We spent the day searching for a new car on Wednesday. After test driving a few cars we ultimately decided that we get the cool toy rather than the sensible, family wagon.

We've always been the type that swims against the current.

This is the second Jeep I've owned. Our last one was a Grand Cherokee. I have to admit, I'm a lifetime Jeep owner. Thankfully the weather was great and we took the top off. The kids flipped when we picked them up at the bus stop. I wish I would have taken a picture Wednesday because it was all shiny and stuff. However, it snowed Wednesday night and I didn't get to take the picture until this afternoon after the snow melted and my brand new Jeep got dirty. Part of the deal was running boards that have yet to be installed. I'll take another picture once they get put on. I love this Jeep. It rocks!!

2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited X