Happy 2006

Well, I got to spend the changeover to the new year with family. . . and ponder the meaning of this odd old song.

http://www.maybole.org/community/celebrations/christmas/greetings/auldlangsyne.htm

Mild day in December.

It was nice out today, comparatively. It was very mild for late December and the sun shone the whole day.  It is an odd December.  We had winter storms, up until Winter actually started.  Then the weather decided to be friendly.

I found a webcam that shows the downtown skyline as seen from my neighborhood. My house is a couple of blocks beyond those apartments and to the left of the image. That little strip mall with the green signs on the lower right, next to the interstate, contain my gym. http://www.dnr.mo.gov/env/esp/aqm/kccam.htm

Christmas Night

What a lazy day! I slept in til noon, then went to my brother's house, where the niece and nephew showed me every thing they got from Santa. Mom cooked, dad grilled, and we had a great lunch. I finally saw the movie Madagascar. I played Nerf darts. I worked Sudoku puzzles. I think everyone really liked the gifts I bought. It turned out to be a great Christmas.

KC Brigade

I've never been an arena football fan. I don't foresee becoming an arena football fan. But now that we have a team here in Kansas City, I want to check out a game. I think I'd like to see the KC Brigade versus the Austin Wranglers home opener on February 12, 2006. No punting? Passes that hit the net are live til they hit the playing surface? Gotta see how this works.

56 Hope Road at Mike's

Tonight I saw The Duo Trio, my brother's band, at Mike's Tavern, followed by a fine band from Chicago called 56 Hope Road (pictured).  Their sound is difficult to classify, so they get lumped into the jam band genre.  The band they remind me of the most is Eels.  I had a good time.  I got hit on by the aunt of the Duo Trio guitarist.  She was fun to dance with at first.  Then she became stumbling drunk, which wasn't fun when she was waving her cigarette around.  I think she burned my hand just as she was reminding me that I was cute.  Hey, (no) thanks.

The rest of the day was pretty standard.  The snow looks less beautiful today.  Someone pulled Kortney's car out of the ditch before I got a picture of it.  There's another car which is stuck on 43rd with a telephone pole where the radiator should be.  I managed to avoid sliding off the road, but I did get stuck on one of those hills yesterday and had to put it in reverse.  I just went right back home, because it's just not worth the risk when the roads are that slick.

I found a cell phone in the snow in the Price Chopper parking lot.  So, I called 611 to report it lost.  It told me the phone was in a shared plan with 5100 rollover minutes.  Wow.  I navigated the IVR to a Cingular chica on the other end, who assumed I was trying to report another phone lost.  I explained that I had found this phone, so she asked for the zip code, and gave me the location of the nearest Cingular store where I could drop it off.  Whatever.  Then, I went into the stored numbers and found an entry called "me".  I called it and got the voice mail box which had no password.  The first message goes, "Hi, Matt!" and blah blah blah.  I found another entry called "mom" with a local number.  I called it and left a message that I had found Matt's phone and asked her to please call me so I can return it.  Later, Matt's mom called from Wal-Mart, where she was on break and said that I could drop it off with her in the garden department.  I was only 3 miles away eating dinner.  So, I did.  She called me a good Samaritan, thanked me, and checked me out.  I bought some thick winter socks and a couple of Christmas gifts.  She wanted to reward me somehow, but she didn't have anything.  If I had thought fast, I would have asked her to swipe her employee discount card.

Snow

The snow is beautiful, but it's a hassle when driving around. When I went to work today, there was a little powder on the roads and the side streets were a little slick. I stayed a few hours until the snow started falling harder still and surpassed the forecast of 3 inches. Now they've closed schools early and I made my way home. The streets were somewhat slicker and the interstates were all stop and go traffic. I stopped at Wendy's to pick up a burger and some chili on the way home. Now, judging from the traffic report on the radio, the driving conditions have gotten worse still, so I'm glad I left when I did. There's a car in the ditch at the end of my street. My car is at the end of the driveway. I won't be able to get it all the way up the hill unless I go out there and shovel some snow, though.

Grosser than gross

I just saw the most awful thing. I don't know whether to be angry or disgusted. Who would eat a fetus? I think these people took the term baby back ribs too literally.

How about them Chiefs?  I'm excited about the Chiefs versus Broncos game tomorrow.  Looks like it's going to be a cold one.  I may have to go get some kind of medium weight coat for tomorrow's game.  I lost mine.  The laundry lady told me I left it there one day, but when she went into the lost and found, which was just an out-of-order dryer full of stuff, it wasn't still there.

I was recruited by a curling team, so I'm curling tomorrow before the Chiefs game.  I'm excited about that, too. 

Hockey fight

There's nothing like a classic hockey fight. http://www.zen36114.zen.co.uk/bonvievsvandenbussche.wmv

Chip guy

milwaukee (2:36:19 AM): actually two of the H.E. techs I was talking to the other day had a great idea
milwaukee (2:36:26 AM): being the potato chip delivery guy
milwaukee (2:36:31 AM): big boxes but all really light
milwaukee (2:36:49 AM): not too many people hassling you about some chips being late
rr C Hill (2:43:27 AM): if it pays the same, sign me up.
milwaukee (2:43:29 AM): hehe