Omphaloskepsis  -

+ 2 - 4 | § ¶Quickies II

Thanksgiving morning, I woke up feeling awful, so I took some Tylenol and slept most of the day. By evening I was feeling better, so I drove to Le Roy to visit Dad, Dan, Doug, and Misty at the latter two's apartment. There was still food left from the meal, so I had a bunch of turkey, potatoes, and cornbread. There were also cookies and pie, though I didn't eat any pie at the time... I took it home to eat later.

Friday late morning, I went out to do a bit of shopping. At the Wal*Mart on University, I went to get a copy of Bewitched (the new one with Nicole Kidman) on DVD... they had it advertised on a flyer for $8.00. When I got to the cash register, though, it rang up as $19.98. The cashier called someone from the DVD department over, and she said that the $8 price was from "an old version" of the flyer, and the real price was supposed to be $9.78. Yeah, the flyer they're passing out when you enter the store is "an old version". Eventually a manager got involved, and she (very reluctantly) told the cashier to ring the DVD up for $8.00. This, despite the flyer saying in nice friendly letters at the top of the page, "No coupons, no hassles!". I did at one point bring up the term "bait and switch" (which was inaccurate... it would've been b-and-s had they refused to sell me that DVD at all and tried to sell me a different product for more money... this would've more accurately been described as "fraud"), but they didn't seem too concerned about that.

I also went to Menard's, where they had a $3.00 DVD sale. By the time I got there, most of the good stuff was gone, but I still found a few titles that I deemed worthy of three bucks. I did, however, reject a couple of interesting titles which were only available in fullscreen.

Josh's return has been delayed. He is now scheduled to return on Thursday, December 1. I really miss him. I want to love him and hug him and hold him and squeeze him and name him George. Well, maybe not that last part.

Over the long weekend, I watched several episodes of shows on the DVR. I also deleted unwatched episodes of Ghost Whisperer and Three Wishes, since I've dropped those shows from my viewing list. I got the hard drive utilization all the way down to 50%, which means I watched and deleted a total of 20 hours of stuff. Hmm... if I deleted eight hours (which sounds about right), then that would leave 12 hours, then subtracting commercials, that leaves 9 hours over three days. Not too bad, really.

Prison Break is now on hiatus until March. I'll definitely be on the lookout for it. Great cliffhanger.

Construction on Gale Ave. seems to be nearing completion. When I drove home tonight, I found that there were two lanes open in each direction up until just before the Forrest Hill intersection now. I guess I'll have to start using the left lane on the exit ramp again, now that the two lanes don't converge before I turn off.

I can't wait for my next paycheck to arrive. Money is exceptionally tight right now. I was able to modify some of my automatic payments... I hope I did enough so that I don't overdraw anything. Yeah, I probably shouldn't've gone shopping last Friday, but I didn't spend all that much.

I still need to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but I may have to wait a couple of paychecks for that. Maybe Josh and I can see it over Christmas break.

Oops, I've stayed up too late again. Off to bed!

davidh

+ 0 - 5 | § ¶Quickies

To the driver of the minivan with the Illinois license plate "SCOTT B 1", please remember to always check your blind spot before changing lanes, so that you will not cut somebody off with fractions of an inch to spare as you did with me on Sunday.

Although I don't really like being nagged--er, I mean, reminded--to go to bed at a reasonable time or to get up early, it actually does work. My average get-to-work time this week has been about 25 minutes later than my average from last week. The difference is that Josh is not here. Friday seems so far away.

I had a rather interesting dream this morning, in that I knew it was a dream as I was having it (though I didn't try to "take control" of the dream), and realized that several of the characters in it were played by actors I knew from television or the movies. However, when I woke up, the plot and the list of actors evaporated before I could write them down.

It looks like Neil will start moving his stuff in tonight. I'd been starting to wonder if he'd changed his mind about moving in, but I finally got ahold of him yesterday and he said he was still interested.

I have no special plans for today (other than helping Neil move in), but tomorrow I'll be busy. In the morning, I'm driving over to Bloomington/Normal to see Dad in the morning, then driving Mom down to Springfield for lunch with Jerry's family, then coming back in the late afternoon and having supper with Dad and Dan.

I'm now 29. I'm once again in my prime. However, this also means I'm no longer perfect. Alas.

Next year, on Thanksgiving Day, I will turn 30. Supposedly, that's supposed to be scary, but it doesn't really feel that way.

davidh

+ 5 - 0 | § ¶The best laid plans of mice and men...

I prefer not to blog about work, but I think I'll break that rule this time, as it has an impact on my personal plans.

I had been planning to take this week of Thanksgiving off and go with Josh to visit his family in Colorado Springs. We bought the tickets over a month ago, covering over 2/3 of the cost with the vouchers we got for volunteering to take a different flight back to Peoria, back in July. This would all be well and good, except for one thing...

Last Wednesday, when I reported my sick days for last week, I was told I had none left. No paid sick days. And no paid personal days. In fact, the only thing I had left was thirty minutes of paid vacation, which I did apply to my hours. So that week's paycheck is smaller than usual.

Taking this week off would result in my next paycheck also being much smaller than usual, and I really can't afford that right now. My budget for this pay period has already been highly modified, and another smaller check would throw it completely out the window.

As a result, I'm not going on vacation. No refund is available on the airline tickets, though I can get a credit on at least a portion of the purchase price to use toward a future flight. I will save some money directly by not going, though: I won't have to pay for a bus ticket to, and back from, O'Hare in Chicago.

Josh was considering whether or not to go for several days. Part of me didn't want him to miss out seeing his family for Thanksgiving, but another part of me hoped we would be together for my birthday. I wasn't completely sure whether he would go or not until we got to Bradley this morning at 6am and he boarded the bus from Peoria Charter Coach.

I miss him.

davidh

+ 3 - 2 | § ¶$roomies++

It looks like there will be another person living in our house soon. Neil, a friend of Josh's, is planning to move in later this week, on at least a short-term basis. He will be getting the front bedroom, while Joe stays in the basement (at least until I get my old bedroom cleaned out enough for him to move in there).

Should be fun.

davidh

+ 2 - 3 | § ¶Saturday: Cars and flapjacks

On Saturday, I was feeling a bit better than the previous couple of days. Still not super, but alright.

Josh and I went looking at cars, with the idea of trading in Josh's current car (a Ford Focus SVT) for something with a lower monthly payment. We first looked at John Bearce, just across the Illinois River in East Peoria, but they couldn't find anything new in an appropriate price range that I'd be able to get a car loan for (to include not only the price of the new car, but also the inequity in the loan on the current car, i.e. the current loan is for more than the car's worth, so in order to trade in the Focus, we'd need to carry the difference in value over to the new loan). They did, however, suggest we look at a used car sale elsewhere in East Peoria, where there would be cars and representatives from several different dealerships.

So, we went out there, and first checked with the Bearce salesmen about used cars. The salesman who talked to us told us pretty much the same thing, that because there was so much inequity in the loan, it would be next to impossible to find a car that would be financeable under trade-in conditions. Disappointed, we started to leave, but as we were looking at cars on the way back to ours, a salesman from the next dealership over came up and started chatting with us. After telling him what our situation was, he noted the same problem, but tried to work with us anyway. After working with the numbers available, he led us out to one car... which we couldn't find because it had already been sold to someone else. Oops. But he took us to another car in the same price range, and it was available. We tried it out, and traded the 2002 Focus for a 2005 Grand Am.

The monthly payment is lower (though the payments are for 6 years, instead of 5 years like the old one was), and the insurance is lower. And even better, it's an automatic transmission car, which means I can drive it, too! :-)

Saturday evening, Josh and I went to the Dee-Mack Pancake and Sausage Supper in Deer Creek, IL (the "Dee" of "Dee-Mack"; Mackinaw is the "Mack"). We'd been invited by Joe, who's been going to this annual event with his family since he was a kid. For only $7 each, we got all the pancakes and sausages we could eat; there was also unlimited applesauce, cottage cheese, white and chocolate milk, and orange drink. The pancakes were very tasty, and the sausages were fantastic. I'm not sure they're the best sausages I've ever had, but they're definitely in the top five somewhere.

davidh

+ 4 - 2 | § ¶Patriotic Stuff

Happy (belated) 230th birthday, U.S. Marine Corps!

And to all U.S. veterans from the Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard, Navy, Army, and the Reserves for each of these: Thank you for your service, and have a happy Veterans Day.

davidh

+ 2 - 3 | § ¶One small strep for man...

The past three or four days, I've had a bit of a sore throat. On Tuesday, that was strong, and I had a runny nose. On Wednesday, the throat wasn't so bad, and my nose was stuffy. When I woke up on Thursday, my throat was very sore, and I had a massive headache.

I really didn't feel like getting out of bed. When Joe left for work (he now works second shift), he knocked on the bedroom door and asked if I knew it was X o'clock... I told him I was sick and went back to sleep.

When Josh got home from his morning errands, he said he thought I should go see the doctor. I was hesitant, as I figured it was just whatever was going around and I'd be fine in a day or two naturally. But he persisted, and it's a good thing he did. He drove me to Methodist MedPointe (the extra "e" at the end makes it look more sophisticated!), where a quick (about ten minute) test revealed that I have strep throat.

What fun.

I'd been trying to work a few extra hours the past couple weeks, so that I'd have some saved up to use the week of Thanksgiving, when I'll be in Colorado, because I'm very nearly out of vacation hours for the year. But I guess all of those will be going to cover Thursday and Friday, since I'll still be contagious until about 24 hours have passed since my first dose of antibiotic (which would put it around 3pm Friday). I suppose if I were to work an extra four hours each day next week, that'd get me 20 hours toward the 24 hours I'd be missing from work the following week... but there's no way I'll be able to do that.

Ah well. I'll worry about work later.

In addition to the antibiotic, I was also prescribed much rest. So I've been laying downstairs in front of the TV, catching up on a bunch of shows I've had tivoed for a while now. I finally got caught up on NCIS (3 episodes), and watched an episode each of Lost, Survivor, and Prison Break; maybe on Friday, I'll get the rest of Prison Break (I think I'm two episodes behind), Numb3rs (about four episodes down), and Invasion (I've got about seven episodes recorded, but I haven't seen any yet, so I don't know whether it's any good or not).

davidh

+ 2 - 3 | § ¶I Didn't Vote

But that's okay, because Illinois doesn't hold elections in odd-numbered years. Local issues take their place on the March, even-numbered-year ballots, along with (if applicable) any primaries.

Basically, I have nothing important to say, but I decided to say it anyway. :-)

davidh

+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Time travel dream

A few days ago, I had an interesting dream that included time travel. Even now, I can still remember the main points of the story, though some of the exact details have faded. Here's what I recall. . . (more)

+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Saturday trek

Last Saturday, I went over to Bloomington/Normal for the day with Josh.

We started by going over to Dad's house, watching an episode of Lost with commentary with him and Dan, then going out for lunch with them at KFC. Actually, Josh and I had picked up some KFC to go on the way to town, so we sat and talked as Dad and Dan ate.

Then Josh and I went to visit my friend Kevin, whom I haven't seen in a while. We went to Barnes & Noble for a while to check out some books, then went to a thrift shop just to look around for a bit. Kevin played a recording of someone (I forget who) singing "Bob's Dog Obedience School and Taxidermy Shop", a rather amusing little ditty.

Then we went over to Mom's place for a while. I delivered a movie I'd purchased for her, and she gave us one she'd picked up for $3 with the purchase of another movie. We also had some supper.

It was a good day.

davidh