A Turkey's Western Migration

Turkey sandwiches, anyone?

Feast week went relatively well this year, despite not being able to make the trip home. My grandmother and father came down here for a visit and stayed through the weekend. It was nowhere near normal: new house, not home, no A, etc.. BUT - we did have plenty of food. A made two pumpkin pies, sweet potato casserole, and a whole bunch of food before she went home. A turkey made the migration from east to west, and we made green bean casserole and had cranberry sauce and gravy to boot. Good food, not a normal holiday.

Friday I went in to work at the usual early start time but left around 2:30. Let me tell you, not many people in the office world stay around the day after they eat turkey. I am so used to having that day be such a tremendous volume day that I almost forgot most normal people get to take it off. It was nice to leave early at least. Tired of turkey, we ate barbecue for dinner.

Saturday we woke up early, because dad and my grandmother just do that, and sat around until about an hour before the Vols game started. Just when I was getting good and settled in to watch the game, it was time to go to a shoe store we have here but not at home to get that special you can only buy out of town pair of shoes. It ended up being a treat though, while she was in a shoe store we were in a second-hand golf store and I found a damn-near brand new Nike driver, usually $250-$300, for $29.99! Sweet. I can't wait to try it out.

The Vols finally won. I can't believe it, we beat freakin' Kentucky. Now, we have no bowl to look forward to and that idiot offensive coordinator Cutcliffe is coming back again. I thought we got rid of him to Ole Miss, but they didn't want him either. What's more, I have to hear about how we had a losing season all year. Blah.

A came back Saturday afternoon and we all went to Home Depot to pick up some fire irons and stuff for the fire place. Cool, we had a real fire. It was great. Then we drove around the city for awhile and gave the nickel tour of the area and where we just moved from. That night we came back and ate leftovers from turkey day.

Sunday morning dad and grandmother woke up especially early to make the trip back home. They were predicting bad weather so they wanted to beat the rain. Who is 'they' anyway? The weather was cloudy and gusty, but 'they' swore up and down on live television there were tornadoes and floods and a whole mess of terrible things we never saw. We ended up going to lunch at a new place, in hopes of it replacing our old favorite Mexican restaurant of the same name. No go, it wasn't the same. The food was close, but the atmosphere lagged.

The restaurant was in a shopping center that had a birdfeeder store. I have no idea why we went in or what sparked us to decide to, but when we left I was out forty bucks and had a bird feeder, a bird feeder mounter hook, a five pound bag of bird seed, and a Christmas tree ornament. I don't know, don't ask. We came back home and mounted the bird feeder on the special hook we bought for it, which in turn was mounted to a post on our wooden fence. We haven't seen any birds yet, but if we do I'll be sure to let you know.

Sunday night was, you guessed it, movie night. We watched Crash, which for as good as everyone said it was, was terrible. The point it tried to make was done so in a manner overly obvious, it was overdone, and the thing lasted way too long. Despite the star-studded cast, this movie is a pass on the rental list.

And now it's Monday night. Work was great, I'm still trying to get used to this 8 to 5 thing. The job is actually fun, and I'm enjoying my new role and loving the fact I have less people reporting directly to me. Sweet. We just got back from eating at a Japanese restaurant that was pretty good, recommended by several people. I had the spicy tuna roll and vegetable tempura. MMmmm....

Now let's work on digestion a bit before we break out the pumpkin pie...

The Fifty

What a weekend! This kicks ass.

I take that back. Not all the weekend was cool, just Sunday. Saturday was kind of crappy. First, the Vols lost to freakin' Vanderbilt. What is that all about? Furthermore, that loss took us out of bowl eligibility and puts the last nail in the coffin for our hopes to have a winning season. IF, and i mean IF, we beat Kentucky this weekend we will still have a five and six record. BLAH! I don't want to talk about the Vols anymore.

So, other than the Vols, Saturday was also crappy because I had to work. I went in at around 1:30 pm and left at around 11:30 pm. Crappy, crappy, crappy all around.

Saturday night picked up a bit with a visit to one of our favorite bars in town with a bunch of friends here. It was pretty cool.

Sunday was absolutely awesome, well it ended up that way after what seemed like was going to be a bad day. We woke up relatively early to get a start on the final move-out phase from the apartment - vacuuming. We went over, swept up, picked up about five or six trash bags and locked the door for the final time. Sigh. It was a good apartment for the time I lived there, and I'll always remember it as a cool place in a city I didn't much care for at the time. However, it was time to go. In the almost three years I lived there it has slowly degraded in terms of neighbors and whatnot. It was definitely time to get out while the getting was good.

After the final move out we headed to a nearby sub shop for some tasty sandwiches before picking up my work buddy who drives a big ol' Expedition. We needed a big car for the afternoon plan. I've been saving up money for the last couple of buying periods of my company's stock plan (no, not 401k, I'm not that dumb). We were headed to Best Buy for a TV purchase. Since we've moved into the house, the den is a lot bigger, and our nineteen inch TV just wasn't cutting it. I've been studying up for months and debating on what type of TV to get. I had decided on the 34 inch Sony VEGA flat screen CRT based HDTV.

My plan was foiled.

That morning I'd called my golf partner from work to tell him I wasn't going to be able to play because we had so much to do with the apartment, and I planned on getting a TV that afternoon. He is planning on getting one too. We talked. I started to sway in my decision. A voice in my head said bigger is better. Shutup!

We got to Best Buy and looked around and got some pretty good advice from a sales guy. One of last year's models of a 42 inch LCD projection TV was on sale, way on sale. We asked if they had it in stock and decided that was the one we were going to splurge on. I had enough money saved up to get a TV and an entertainment center (as in furniture to put the TV in). They didn't have it in stock. Now we just weren't going to get as nice of an entertainment center. Off to compare prices.

We got to Costco and looked around a bit, but they didn't have very many TVs we were interested in and no 34 inch Sony CRTs. We headed to Circuit City.

At Circuit City we found our long lost buddy 42 inch LCD projection TV at Best Buy for guess how much - the same as it was at Best Buy. Wow. So here I am with A and my work friend looking at these TVs. D (work friend) and I started talking about wheter or not it was more important to have the absolute best quality picture I could afford (as in the 34 inch) or to go with great picture and bigger size. The pros to the 34 inch were that it had unbelievable picture. The cons were that it was bulky in the back, weighed nearly 200 pounds, and it was relatively small in screen size. The other side was the LCD 42 incher. The pros there were the big screen size, great picture, and small overall size at less than 70 pounds. In the end we decided on the LCD. Sweet! I'm going to get a 42 inch LCD Sony Wega Projection HDTV. Wait, where's A? D didn't know either. We went to find her to tell her and get her final opinion.

We found her in utter shock, mouth wide open, amazed. She was looking at some type of display of which the back was turned towards us. We walk around to where she was standing and just stood there, speechless. At least five minutes.

There it was.

A monster 50 inch LCD Projection Sony Grand Wega television. The motherload. On sale.

There goes the entertainment center.

Every time I walk in the den now I laugh out loud and hoop and holler. I watched Man U beat the crap out of Charlton on this huge bastard, then I'm watching Monday Night Football right now. We watched The Fast And The Furious last night and then Gone In Sixty Seconds after that. It is heavenly. There goes a couple of weeks of house projects, there goes Thanksgiving Day, There goes Saturdays during college football, and there definitely goes the entire 2006 MLB season. I shake just thinking about my first Braves game.

I have to go now, I'm watching TV. I know, it's pathetic, but it's fun.

Belated Weekend

You know, this house thing is keeping me rather busy. Here it is Thursday and I haven't even posted about the previous weekend. Here goes nothing.

Friday night A's parents came to town. After I got off work at around 8:30 pm or so I met them at an Italian restaurant. Not much happening. It was the first Friday I didn't make it to the spot in some time now.

Saturday We all slept late and ended up not getting much accomplished. Saturday afternoon the Vols almost lost to Memphis. Ugh. At any rate, we made it to Home Depot to pick up some of the epoxy paint you paint your garage with. That evening we ended up cleaning off the floor with degreaser, then citric acid, then rinsed, then rinsed, then rinsed, then squeegied, and let dry over night.

Sunday morning we woke up a little earlier and got started painting the garage floor. Oh, and don't forget the speckles. Speckles are awesome. We finished up in a couple of hours and now I have a light gray garage floor with speckles. Did I say Speckles are awesome?

And in short, that pretty much does it for last weekend...especially since it is now Thursday and I have forgotten most of the details.

This coming Saturday I have to work. BUT - since I am in my new position now, or at least transitioning into it, it will more than likely be one of the last ones I have to work as a part of the operation outside of two weekends a year. Yipeeee!

Tonight A and I met up at an Irish bar in midtown that's pretty fun. There were several of her work friends there and we ate and drank and talked and had an overall pretty great time!

Well, sorry for the abreviated weekend summary, but that's it and my garage is painted and tonight we went to the bar and now I'm ready to go to bed.

ZZZZzzzz......

The Ballad Of Ol' Dirty

With this post I will have officially caught up with my posting. Whew!

The weekend has been quite busy, to be honest. After the Friday news I received (read below) I wanted to celebrate. Only one problem: the information was confidential so I couldn't tell anyone outside of family and friends.

With Friday's light volume I was able to get out of there relatively early. Of course, me and the co-worker met up at the local spot and enjoyed our weekly watering hole. It was great. We have come up with nicknames for all the regulars we see in there every week, and some are quite humorous. There's Bar girl, Bar dude, Pan-Am, Ol' Dirty, Detective Guy, Pinky, and a whole mess of others. You get the point.

The story is about Ol' Dirty. Ol Dirty is a woman of about mid-forties I'd say who acts and dresses as if she thinks she is still in her early twenties. Her hair looks like that of one of Van Halen's roadies...fried, she wears stone-washed jeans with high-heels and always has on something tight to show off her, well, age I guess.

Ol' Dirty has a thing for my work buddy. I must say, this has provided me with ample entertainment over the last couple weeks. Friday night I was driving from work to the spot and received a call from my friend. "Help Me, come quick man, you've got to come help me out dude!" I asked what was wrong. Ol' Dirty was at it again. She had been approaching him and chatting him up, to this point without much success. He had 'gotten a phone call' just as she was about to start talking.

Later that night, since the bar was full, we were forced to resort to a table. Ol' Dirty was at the Bar. She ended up sending over what we thought was her boyfriend. He told my friend to "go get her man, she wants you. I've partied with her before, she's great." Eeeeeewwwww!

My friend coolly ignored her request. Then she sent our waiter after him. "Hey man, that girl over there wants you to come talk to her." He said this with a shit-eating grin.

Again, coolly ignored.

Now Ol' Dirty is not one to give up. She comes over and sits at our table without invitation. I am trying at this point to hide the tears erupting from my eyes as I suppress my laughter. She is so drunk she can barely speak and keeps asking if my friend would take her downtown to a club. Again, he smoothly tells her 'that isn't his thing' repeatedly until he finally had to resort to the "I've got a girlfriend" technique. She replied "OH I'm not like that." Sure, of course you're not. Are you starting to get the nickname yet? Eventually she got the hint and moved on to the next table of unsuspecting victims. I have to say it was great to see, almost as good as something on Comedy Central.

Ok I'll wrap up. Saturday we planned on finishing up the apartment but didn't. We ended up drinking beer and watching the Vols get beat by ND. (vomit again) Saturday night we cooked a DiGiorno and work buddy came over to see the new house. Beer drinking continued. It was a pretty lazy day.

Sunday sucked. It just sucked, there's no other way to put it. We headed over to the apartment early thinking we could just go ahead and get the apartment over with. We got there around 10 or 11 and were still not finished after two trips back and forth, hours of cleaning, and back-aching climbs up and down those damned three flights of stairs leading up to the old pad. It was nearly eight o'clock at night before we made the last trip back. And, we still have to get about four boxes, a half coat closet of coats, and all of our framed pictures. Again, Sunday sucked.

Sunday night, beaten down, I resorted to Abita's Purple Haze beer and the Philadelphia/Washington NFL game. It was a pretty cool night in the new house. I was so tired I packed a cooler with three beers to eliminate the possibility of me having to get up to go to the fridge. A laughed at me, but totally was on the same level and thought it was a great idea.

So, this Monday morning I have woken up, made coffee, and have spent the entirety of it catching up with my posting. Good job me! I reckon I'll start getting ready to go into work now. I think the official announcement of my good news (read the previous posts dog-gone it!) is supposed to happen today, but I'm not sure.

It's been a great month. Ol' Dirty and all.

The Work-Week Ensues

Wednesday I woke up and tried to get things to as normal as possible. With everything packed in boxes, plastic on the floor, and of course simply the newness of everything, sticking to the routine was out of the question.

The previous week's Wednesday and Thursday had been quite interesting. I have applied, upon the suggestion of several peers and superiors at work, for a managerial position that brings with it more responsibility (in terms of dollar amounts) than any other position of the same title in the country. So, on both Wednesday and Thursday I had interviews with my bosses. There has been a big push for them to get someone hired as the current manager accepted a new position quite a long time ago. With that said, I was hoping for a quick turnaround.

So what does all this have to do with this week? I was hoping to hear something regarding my position upon my return. Well, I did. I found out late Wednesday night (the same day I got back) that I had an interview scheduled with the VP on Thursday morning before ten. Now, I didn't get off work until well after midnight Wednesday night. It was just a busy day. I didn't get in bed until well after 1 am. Further, I was to wake up extra early because I still hadn't got the commute time down pat and had never done it at 9 am. I showed up for the interview about twenty minutes early and waited. To my surprise, the interview was not only with the VP, but also with his right hand man. They tag-teamed me.

For whatever reason, I have always almost enjoyed interviews. I like the challenge, the back and forth dialogue and the adrenaline they bring. It is almost like a game. Any good interviewee knows that (and this is terrible to say) it isn't so much what you have done or what your capabilities are, as it should be, but more of whether or not you know what to say and how to answer questions. I have thus far in my career been very lucky to succeed in this arena. During college these skills won me a prized internship and just after college got me on with the company I work for now, which is among the biggest in the world. At any rate, I felt I did well on the interview and since I knew both the gentlemen and I knew the topic of which we spoke intimately, I was very engaged in the conversation and put forth my ideas and listened to theirs as well. If it hadn't been in the context that it was, it would have been one of those in which great ideas and strategies come out of that I love to have with co-workers.

That was Thursday. I was hoping best-case scenario I would know something by the following week. Thursday night the VP came out of the front office to find me. He said he wanted to express that I had done a great job that morning and to let me know my immediate boss was out of town and that's why I hadn't heard anything yet. Wow, that was quick.

Friday I showed up to work in a great mood not for the prospects of the job so much as that we had extremely light volume for a Friday. If no problems ensued my team was on track to finish in less than eight hours - which rarely happens. It was about 2:15 when my boss called me and asked that I meet him in his office at about 2:30. My heart skipped a beat I think. Needless to say, it was the longest fifteen minutes of the week. When 2:30 finally arrived I went in to his office and he instructed me to close the door.

It could go either way.

I sat down and he began to talk a little corporate speak as most bosses do. "As you know this position has been open and you have applied for...." blah blah blah, get to the point, please.

He went on to say that I did pretty poorly on my interviews and that these were skills I needed to work on and he would help me with.

"Is this guy for real?" The thoughts raced through my head.

He then went on to say he wanted to help me with my terrible interview skills in my new position.

I got the job.

Later I asked him if he was just joking about the interview thing and he laughed and said of course he was, that I had done exceptionally well. Relief. After four interviews for one position, for an internal candidate (me), I would hope that I did relatively well.

You know, it's been a good month so far. I bought a house and then I got a new job. I've got a lot to celebrate and be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

So Much For The Plan

Well, as predicted, very little went according to plan.

First I must apologize to my readers for not having posted for such a long time. However, there is an excuse. One thing that didn't go to plan was that the moron at the cable company who entered in the 'transfer' of service put it in as a disconnect. So, the 8 am to 10 am appointment we had for them to come out was futile. They never showed up. We called, they told us, they waived the transfer fee, and we got cable and internet just yesterday morning - five days unfavorable to plan.

So let's go back to last Friday night after I got off of work, the day before the Saturday we took possession at 8 pm. That night we did the usual, of course, and went to the local bar spot. Had a good time, drank, celebrated.

Saturday was a complete mess. We woke up relatively early to go get the paint. We know a manager of a really great paint store who got us some great prices - it was awesome. However, it took us almost forty-five minutes to get to the store, then we went and changed the shades of paint we had originally wanted, and everything took a little longer than expected. We didn't get back to the apartment until around early afternoon. The packing ensued. We didn't make much progress though, and it was pretty frustrating. We did get a lot done I guess, but it didn't feel like it.

Saturday night we continued to get more and more excited as 8 pm approached. We kept packing to pass the time more quickly. Pack pack pack. Our real estate agent called around 7 pm or so and asked us how everything was going and mentioned that the sellers probably were going to be out well before 8 and that we could show up early and be fine. We passed because we didn't want to run the risk of getting there before they were out. What did we do? We went to the liquor store and bought a little bottle of champagne and two bottles of wine. I got red, A got white. With enough time killed we headed to the house.

We didn't get there until around twenty after eight. The sellers were still there. We kind of deflated. What the hell? We told them we were going to go get something to eat and we'd be back later - they said they needed ten more minutes and they'd be gone.

We went to O'Charley's for dinner. It was kind of a blah dinner because neither of us were really hungry nor wanted to be there. But, the Vols were playing on the big screen TV - to be beaten by the worst team ever, South Carolina. (insert vomit noises here). We got back to the house around nine-thirty. They were gone. But, the clean house we were told we'd be moving in to was nothing but a dream. It had not been cleaned, there were boxes left in the garage, and there were still old paint cans in the garage. The paint was actually written into the contract to be removed because we didn't want it and it is hard to get rid of. Whatever, we weren't going to let a loss to SC, a few boxes and some dirt spoil our evening!

We were exhausted by this point, however, and decided against painting initially. Then, as the radio got cranking and the wine started pouring I broke out the primer and went after the dining room. This began what was a three day painting marathon which is still not complete. We still have two walls of the den to add a second coat to. The painting was not so bad, it was actually fun. But, with so much of it to do we both got sick of it. By the way, I had to buy two ladders from Home Depot too.

Sunday morning we slept a little too long, but we needed it. It was a surprisingly good night's sleep on a blow up mattress I've had for a while. When we did wake up, we realized we had no clue where that lovely commodity on which we so desperately depend was - where the hell was the coffee, the coffee maker, the filters, the mugs? We went to Starbucks. It was a beautiful day, so we sat outside and enjoyed their breakfast scones with their coffee. Sunday afternoon it was painting, painting, and more painting. A friend from work stopped by and brought us lunch from Rafferty's and was officially our first house guest. We stayed up late painting and I believe we ordered pizza that night. We have eaten so much pizza for its convenience that I am, yes me, beginning to tire of it.

Monday of course we continued to paint. I put on the last coat of paint in the dining room and was pleased with my success. A continued to trim the den and got started on some of those little areas around the fire place with a brush. Monday afternoon the movers showed up at 2:30 pm. They were supposed to be there at 5 pm. No bother however, because we hadn't completely finished packing. They came and while they were moving stuff A and I packed faster than anyone has ever packed. They said they needed the boxes to be sealed, so we did it. We just threw stuff in there and as soon as we were done one of them would come and take it to their truck. But, we weren't able to get all of it out. We left what we thought would be another trip of boxes for us to pick up later. I'll tell that story in another post...

By Tuesday, with both of us completely exhausted and most of our stuff packed in our new house, we continued to paint. We did a pretty good job finishing up the den, but we still haven't had time to put on the second coat of two walls. Tuesday night I believe we took it easy and tried to prep ourselves for the return to work. I keep saying 'believe' because I am so far behind with my posting it is a challenge to remember all the whens and whats.

Ok, so the plan went to you know where. But by Tuesday night we had done relatively well getting everything going. The work week ensued, and the mornings were filled with finding coffee makers and using fortune cookies as forks for Chinese food.

More to follow on the move....