we got a new guy, as we often do, that has no way to get to work, so while training him, he sneaks in one of those "dude, you think you can give me a ride home...just for tonight?". that's all I need to hear anymore to be taken on a roller coaster ride. on the way home, he asks if I could take him home EVERY night (predictable). I tell him I only require a $5/week. he gives me that same lame thing I hear most every time; "that's ALL?! I'll give ya $20/wk!" (predictable) along with not bothering to make an attempt to pay anything (predictable). just like those in the past. this one lives right on the way home, so I tell him I'll give him a ride home, but that's it. and $5/wk is more than enough...the next day, he asks for a ride into work (god dammit!). I give him one of those looks and say "ah, here it comes", but only that day. he promises. saying he'll buy me lunch. I didn't eat lunch that day, thinking he'd fulfill his promise. wrong. "instead of getting something to eat, drop me off at the mortgage building. I gotta make a payment". god dammit! so we do. he said we should stop off to the bar on the way home. by this time, every answer is "no". long story short, he asks me many times for my phone number, of which I didn't give him, knowing, like those in the past, he'll call and beg and not pay. all, so I can pick him up and drop him off on a whim. "no". last night, he runs out of work hollering at me that his house burnt down to the ground and he won't need a ride home...I drive right past there on the way home, so I stop in and see. no police tape, no smoke damage, lights are on, house is fine [?!]. what's this guy up to? tonight, I'm gonna tell him to get his own ride. it's been a whole week (of me doing extra things for him) and haven't seen a penny. I'm sure he'll beg and plea and even maybe reach for his wallet, and get mad when I insist he get another ride (predictable). just like the rest. maybe I'll get a bumper sticker that says "no riders". if it were a friend, it'd be a different story, but I've only known this guy a week...and he's all ready used me as that door mat of a gopher. just like the others.

the old snow blower is earnin' it's price tag this winter! jeez! the snow gods took a good dump these past couple 3 days (I could've worded that better). I called in (stalag) yesterday, letting my boss know that I'd be late after hearing from a neighbor that there were a gob o' cars stuck just down the only road to get out of this wood-panel submarine park (I mention I'd be late, but had no intention of going anywhere all day). she (da boss) texts me back saying don't bother coming in. she cancelled today for our line (shweet!!). I quickly relayed the text to work bud Mark, who in turn thanked me, for not having to brave the elements just to find that info out. Brian (room mate/gangsta wannabe) got called into his job at 4:30am. once back home, he tells me the whole story about all slide offs, including him. he had to walk a long way to get help. he said there was a tow truck that offered to pull him out for $150 (damn!), but he had someone (who was also in the ditch) help him rock it out, in turn, helping that guy rock his out. the main drag that hooks to the trailer park is often the last road to get plowed, being that road is on the dividing line between two counties (my guess is one county says "that's yours to plow", the other says "nu-uh). I remember some winter's back, I tried to brave it thru. never again. once on, you had to run and gun, and if you stopped, even on the road itself, you were stuck. it's that bad! I did nothing but snow blow driveways and watch a bit of golf. I didn't have any beer in the house, but I drank two days worth the night before, so it all evens out (what?)

anyway, I'm going to venture out today and see how far I can get towards getting my hair cut and grabbing some groceries. wish me luck!

who am I kiddin'? he (Brian: room mate/snow boarder)'s got me completely trained to clean the wood-panel submarine whilst he's on vacation. he even makes a suggestion (ala Facebook) that I clean the house. nice. once again, does he own the place? he sure acts like it. oh well. cleaning is therapeutic anyway, so why not?

I make a big vat of stew in the crock pot. now I'll eat it 'til I'm completely sick of stew. it happens every time I crock pot something...

another cold snap on the way. I'll, once again, be able to ice skate in my toilet. *can't wait*

during one of my drunkenings before Criss miss, I apparently figured I needed another guitar to collect dust, so I bought me a fretless bass kit. yup, it came in a box full of pieces. that box sat in the corner of my room until this past weekend, when I had enough time (unt beerses) to build it. for as cheap (price wise) as it was, it doesn't appear to be cheap (quality wise), other than the strings. it's a cool guitar. it was fun to assemble! now if I'd only pick it up and play the damn thing, it'd be worth having around *fart*

gotta get ready for der stalag...

so, I'm usually squinting my ears at the volume (below 4) whilst watching TV after work, so as not to wake the room mate. he's gone to new mexico for the week, so I can actually watch and hear my goofy shows. day 1: the feeling of leaving my socks on the living room floor and my dinner plate on the counter is blissful. he's such an OCD cleaner, that he'll clean after me, or let me know that I've done wrong (in some subversive manipulative way). I'm sure the place will be trashed for the entire week, only to be cleaned the day before he gets back...I don't realize how completely OCD whipped this guy's got me 'til he's gone *heh!*

online banking shows today's bills include that mondo gigantor car note is due. always good to get that out of the way. it won't be long here, and it'll be going from a 5 digit balance to 4 (shweet!)

looks like we work today and have a real weekend off[?!]. although, next Monday is considered a holiday (MLK day), we gots to work it. that's ok (time and a half holiday pay plus straight time). we still get a two day weekend!! awesome!

I'm not one to buy a whole lot of munchies, but picked me up the best combo ever the last time I shopped. a big bag of Tostito Fajita flavored scoops (corn chips) and a jar of Tostito's 'zesty taco flavored' dip. MMMMMMMMMMMS!! it's a flavor explosion that compliments any style of beer!

hungry for making an omelet of some sort. I'll raid the coolerator to see if there's enough ingredients to make one...
[moments later, after looking in the coolerator] nope. eggs, beer and ketchup won't do. maybe some mini-wheats instead. rocket!

yet another good example of how backwards the stalag is...we work a solid weekend, while all the good NFL playoff games are goin' on, just to be turned away on both Monday AND Tuesday. I'm only half complainin' though, because any time off is good time off.

yesterday, having said time off, I was able to unbury my shrimpy bat mobile, hook a charger to the batt'ry, and take it out for a spin, hitting the car wash (unt beerses store) on the way home. man, that car's fun to drive! once home, I play a ton of hours of 'Borderlands 2' (awesome free download of the month!).

today, I hit the tire store to get those stuck stem caps off. they unstuck the old, replaced all the old caps with chrome caps, filled the tires mit air, all for free! I dig Discount tire! they're da shite! I've been a fan of theirs forever...

I think a good power-nap is in order, just because. then maybe hit me some Long John Silvers for supper (fish just sounds really good right now).

good gawd! does he know I work today? he starts the dryer at 20 after 7 am...the dryer, being new, usually is very quiet. he's gotta be polishing rocks. the washer and dryer are located directly next to my bedroom door, of which I can't close all the way, because Squabber would then be pawing at it to try and get in, so I'll try and fall back asleep to the mesmerizing clank sounds of igneous [...]

and as I'm typing, the machine quits. ok. back to sleep. but first a quick note (since I'm already awake, and typing) about the Kid (and his boyfriend)'s visit. I take a day off from work so we can hang (their visiting town 'til Sunday). it was nice to see 'em both again! we pretty much did what we do best when he's in town. get something to eat, catch up on what's what, visit Best Buy, rent a movie (Elysium. excellent flick!). it's always good to catch up with the Kid! they arrived here just before that blizzardy crap hit, and now it's been raining for the past couple days. weird weather. oh yeah...sleep. I'll type more about this laters.

last weekend brings lots of football playoff games, and lots of beerses to boot. Monday brings even colder weather (sub zero range) and blizzardy conditions which last all the way into Tuesday night. it looks as if the worst has past. they really got bombed just south of here, but it was still patches of white out conditions that scare the shit out of the most confident of driver whilst getting back and forth to work. it's been a long time since we've seen the likes of that kind of squall. the weather guy says it'll be back into the double digits, reaching as high as 40F within a couple 3 days. my snow blower got a damn work out!

holy frigid snap! the Mitten has turnt into Minny-soda these past couple days. frickin' colllllld (of course, cold isn't a new concept to winter time, but we're talkin' sub zero shite)...and it's supposed to get worse come Sunday unt Monday. oh well, spring is right around the corner (I'll keep reminding myself, 'til the end of March).

Thursday, we're told (stalag) that we'll have to work this weekend, then the very next day, we're told weekend work's been cancelled, then on top of that we get to leave a couple hours early. I like having the weekend off, but I wish they'd make up their damn mind (same old backwards ass place, so nothing new there).

Friday's work consisted of me and a couple 3 others heading off to the werehouse (yup, where the werewolves live) to sort for bad parts. we were pretty much thrown over there with amazingly vague instructions, so of course, we started off on the wrong foot, then slowly got our shit together (maybe?). we'd rework 6 boxes of parts, taking all of about 10 minutes, then sit around for a good 45 minutes waiting for the hi-lo to pick that up, and replace it with more rework, so all in all we prob'ly did about an actual 1/2 hours worth of work within the 6 hours we were there, making for a long day.

online banking sets me up for this weeks line up of bills (this is the week I get hit the hardest, bill wise). these past 2 checks have been minimal, being we hadn't worked much over the holidays, but compensated for thru savings from them weeks that we done worked a billion hours, so all is good!

the Kid comes to town today...I gotta find some time off to visit. I'll have to get with him and find out what day's be bestest.

holy crappage! it's been forever since I've been able to watch HBO, cinemax, encore, stars, and the like. some of these channels have upped their late night 'mature audience only' rating to XXX. wow! again, not complainin', it's just an observation...

otherwise, nothin' new. I gotta do some shopping today, being my fridge looks completely empty (sans some ketchup unt beerses).

day 2 of the new year means back to the stalag. I hope to find out today, whether we gotta work this weekend or not. here's hopin' not. the Kid and his boyfriend are comin' to town. I gotta fresh new batch of vacation days (in case they want to work us 7 days a week), in order to take some time off, so I can visit mit dem. it'll be good to see the Kid and Mark again!

Brian (room mate/skeet shooter) asks if we can get the whole movie channel package tacked onto the cable package that we already have. "as long as you want to pay for it...I can't find it in my budget". he agrees. so an extra $40 will be tacked onto his rent starting this month.

...and speakin' of Brian. his peroxide blondie is here less and less. and for shorter periods of time (10 minutes as opposed to over night). and when she does show, they have a verbal battle of which I can't help but over-hear, even over the TV (of which I turn up a bit louder). I don't hear the whole arguments, but I did catch her saying "you don't wanna do anything! you just wanna stay home and watch movies!" (which, is kind of funny, because directly afterwards he wants to order the movie package). I think it's the beginning of the end for them. she's pretty, and cool which is pretty cool, but I'll personally miss her dog. it was such a cute little booger who fell asleep on your lap any chance it could get. honestly, looking at the whole situation from my angle, I don't know how she put up with his overt OCD personality for this long *fart*

he's going to New Mexico on vacation for a week here soon. he tells me that he hasn't taken a whole weeks vacation in forever. maybe he's scouting out a new place to live? his past is chocked with moving around the country (Boston, California, Texas, New Mexico are some that I know of), or he's just taking some time off to use those toys that he carefully stores in the living room ...who knows?

because he orders the movie package, I sit and watch that silly ass movie 'super troopers' and one that I had looked to rent forever called 'the life of PI'. (very cool flick!)

anyway. back to nappage, so I'm awake during my first day back to the stalag...

did a bit of snow blowin' yesterday, when Brian (room mate/squid monger) pulls up in his Ford Exploder and shows me his new MP3 player. I spend the rest of the day obsessively trying to figure out how to make an apple product (ipod) work from a windows based 'puter. it was no easy task, but eventually learned how to reformat it, and get some of his CD's on it. it was prob'ly 'round 10 when I gave up...he continued to try and figure it out, while I watched the last Ong Bok (3) movie (awesome series of movies, if you're into martial arts). then a good sci-fi thriller called 'Europa' (yesterday was 'Ong Bok 2 and 'Zeitgeist; the Movie' along with playing catch up on the 'Dexter' series).

more snow overnight. it's lookin' mighty white out there!

I mention not being able to go to the Chinese buffet in my last entry, due to already starting my beer drinkin' early. I had changed my mind, only having a couple at that point, with 4 hours to power-nap those beers off until Mark wanted to meet there. I have two plates with mountains of shrimp, rice, general Tso's chicken, dim-sum, and whatever else I could pile on. Mark chooses about 4 items (none of them Chinese) and calls it good. "you know this is an all-you-can-eat joint, right?" "yeah, it doesn't take much for me to fill up". I just assumed he had picked that restaurant for either the all you can eat part, or the Chinese part...he had neither. oh well. it was good catchin' up with him, he's had a lot of time off from work to have his nose fixed (?). some sort of deviated septum thinger...today's the last holiday day off. I'll mostly slack, and maybe throw in a good power-nap (why not?)