Money, it’s a gas. Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash

Current mood:content

It's beena while since I've pontificated here. I really haven't had all that much to say. Politically I'm stll bewildered at the amounts of tax money is being spent to save banks and return the ability of people to buy things on credit, which kind of was part of the problem to begin with. And I feel kind of bad for all those people in the ATL that can't seem to find gas. I keep reading articles on the shortage and have yet to find any media outlet report why there is a shortage, apparently is just because. We here in Louisville have plenty of gas, and the price has been dropping steadily since the Hurricane came through. Maybe I should barrel some up and send it down.

And then there was a presidential debate I tried to watch last night, It sort of lost me in the "he said, he said" crap. I would love for one of the candidates to just get pissed off enough to walk over and bitch slap the other one. I would vote for that.

Otherwise, in the real world of stuff that affects me, I had JoHnathon as a house guest this past week. It was almost like having a roommate again, and welcome diversion. I would love to have more such guests. JoHnathon seemed comfortable here, even sleeping on the air mattress TanJoe defiled. We didn't do any exciting tourist stuff, just hung around the local area.

At work, I received a lovely plaque to commemorate my first official flight plan/release sent as a qualified Brown dispatcher. It's actually qute a cool looking little momento, and is sure to have a special place in the random airline crap I have here. And I did get an "at-a-boy" at work the other night from a manager. Which surprised me. Normally when a manager comes over and starts a conversation "SO, I had pulled up one of your flight plans..." it usually isn't good. But apparently in the efforts to not take responsibility for their own issues, the pilot management types tried to find some one (namely me) to blame.

He couldn't I guess, Yay for doing everything right.

In other news, I received my first big check yesterday, nice. Now to just be responsible and not spend on frivelous things (Wii, new TV, trip to Tahiti, etc...).

SO, that's about all that's happening. I still haven't decided on the Brazil thing, and I'm still missing Susan, and I still think Ryan is a No Talent Ass Clown, and I still miss the party people back home. Which I understand gathering may be in order soon.

Oh and a Happy Birthday to Adri!!!! I wish I could be there for the party!

you light up my life.

Current mood:luminous

I have returned to Louisville, to the pleasant discovery that I have electricity back in my house. Yay!! I thought about turning all the lights on in the apartment just to bath myself in the beautiful incandescent glow. Then i realized that was dumb and I should focus ..ting the flashing clocks and making a shopping list for my trip to replace the pounds of food I threw out. I've managed to accomplish one of those tasks.

I spent a lovely few days with Susan, who very charitably took me in. As always, a most wonderful host. Everyone should take some time and go visit her! I like to think I treat her to fabulous dates when I'm there. SO this time, being no exception, I took her to one of my favorite dining establishments.... Chic-Fil-A. I spared no expense on dinner, offering the ability to value size her drink and waffle fries. Yes, I know... I'm quite a catch. It was very intimate dining experience. I highly recommend all you single guys think of Chic-Fil-A as a potential first date dinner location.

Of course, after this I tried to top the Chic-Fil-A (I know, almost impossible) for dinning experiences. So a return to the Melting Pot for dessert and drinks. I highly recommend the dessert there. And you can almost make it into a meal. I mean, who doesn't like pound cake, cheesecake, marshmellows, fruit, and Rice Krispie Treats?? And then dipping the above in melted chocolate.. yum!!

Ok, so now that I've covered the perfunctory "What I had to eat" blog section, lets delve into something more indepth. I would like to congratulate all my friends and fellow Americans on our new ownership of a insurance company! Yes, we seem to have bought AIG. The big question I know everyone is asking, will we get discounts on our car insurance??? I don't know, but surely ownership comes with some perks! Also, AIG own ILFC. Even though we all know who ILFC is and why we should care, I'll spell out my plan. As part owner of AIG, and thusly ILFC (which stands for International Lease Finance Corporation) who happens to be one of the largest lessors of airplanes in the world, I'm think we can get a good lease rate on a plane. You know, as part owners.

So i'm thinking we can pool our petty cash and get us a 747 for our personal needs. Jersey, tired of flying coach??? We'll give you your own room on board. Susan, not interested in paying for a ticket? Well now you have a plane at your disposal! Are your over the TSA Tanya?? No more security lines for us. And JoHnathon and Joe... how would you like to upgrade from the Barbie Dream jets to some real heavy metal??? Y'all can take turns being Captain! And finally, Grace, you can be the rude, obnoxious passenger you always wanted to be and harass our own personal flight attendants!

I think that since we own the place, we can get the owners discount!!!

Seriously, I really have no idea why everyone is panicking over these big banks going bust. I understand the people who are losing jobs and people who worked 40 years and put money in their stocks being pissed off, but a bunch of rich people who tell me the economy is fine but we need to spend Billions (yes with a B) to keep a bank afloat kinda are getting on my nerves. Maybe I'm taking a simplistic view.

I wonder how much debt I have to rack up before the government bails me out... I should be getting close... except I'm paying it off now like a responsible person.... silly me.

OK, that's enough drivel for now. I've covered the political soapbox portion of the blog.

I think I've typed enough for one night, I'm tempted to sleep with the lights on t just enjoy it. I know, I'm probably going a bit over board with the whole power outage thing, but you really don't know just how much something like electricity plays in your life until its gone, and not for a few hours, but for a few days. Trying to imagine living without such conveniences is no fun, if I was told we have to go back to roughing in the wild and living with electricity, running water, air conditioning, heat, microwave meals.. I'd probably let out a resounding "Awwwh Hell Nawwh", cover myself in honey and wait for the bears to take me.

Its time for some le sleep... later

This Blows!

Current mood:savage

So, for the first time I can remember, I was awaken by wind. I knew before leaving work this morning it was suppose to be a windy day her in Kentuckiana (or the other name I heard, Indyucky). The forecast was for gusts up to about 30-35 knots, 40 mph. Well.. they missed that one. Apparently 75 mph winds rolled through this afternoon. My power is out and has been for a few hours, and I don't expect it to be back on for a few hours still.

Thankfully there's Starbuck's, the last refuge for man in a storm. Of course I had to pass 4 to find one with electricity still on. I do have to commend the KY drivers on figuring out the inop traffic signal rules. Everyone pretty much has the treat it like a stop sign thing down. Georgian drivers, for the most part, could never figure that out.

It amazes me how much I get annoyed at the loss of modern conveniences. The power goes out, no big deal. I can amuse myself with a flashlight and a book. No internet, well I can wait till later and use work. And lack of cell phone signal, I'll just ue the internet to keep in touch... oh wait, its gone. Well, I should call some one about that.. oh hell, the phone isn't working. ANd it's getting dark, I can't shower by flashlight... i should call or email the power company.. oh wait.. OH my god, what will I do.. PANIC!!!!

(Yes apparently the T-Mobile tower by my house lost power, or the whole tower, I went from 5 bars of signal on a normal day to none!)

So, if you don't hear from me over the next couple of days, it's due to roving bands of marauders (who are dreadfully similar to the people from a Road Warrior movie) attacking our makeshift fortress on Duker Ave. Good thing I have fake swords for my defense.

Other than that, I'm trying to engineer a trip to meet Ryn in Brasil. Unfortunately getting my visa is being well more complex than I hoped. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal, but giving up my passport for a couple weeks could put a crimp in my travel habits. We'll see what I can work out.

Anyways, I need to go foraging for food before the marauders return. Wish me luck.

Randomness

Current mood:hopeful

I think this one is going to cover a lot of ground, so hold on.

First of all, it's very hard to believe that its been seven years since our world changed. It's kind of weird to think about how things have changed, and not changed, since that day. It struck me today that all of Susan's students were born after the towers fell. They'll grow up in a world that's incredibly different from the one we grew up in. They'll never see a picture of the twin towers gleaming in the sun and know immediately what icons there were. I can only hope that someday we can make the world a better place, and they'll never have one of those days that define a generation.

And along that same line, it was a day of remembrance. And we should always remember.

Think about more changes, I was spending some time last week with Ed and Sheri, and we got into the subject of politics. That conversation and many I've had with Susan lead me to believe that the general populace think this election is something different And it is. A black man on one ticket, and woman on the other. Who would've envisioned such a choice 10 years ago? Nevermind the philosophies of the candidates, this election has the potential to be one of the most memorable in American history. That's kind of cool, watching history unfold, knowing people will talk about this or decades to come. And not in a way that makes us tear up.

So, I just returned home from spending some time with Susan in Birmingham. As always we had a great time just generally being our dorky selves. I'm sometimes surprised we don't get strange looks from neighboring tables in restaurants. It's nice to be able to be a dork with some one, and some how she seems to think you're kind of cool. I don't see it.

We did more exploring of culinary arts in Birmingham. Neither of us having any desire to cook, we had Thai, Mexican, Greek, and ... well, sort of an eclectic mix at a nifty place. More about that later.

But as usual the time was too short, but we made the most of what we had. We ventured out to downtown B-Ham to a Greek festival at a local church. It was very neat, with lots of tasty treats. Yummy Gyros and some kind of Greek doughnut thing that I can't pronounce. After we had desert and a snack at the festival, and took in some traditional Greek dancing, we decided to go find "real" food for dinner.

Motoring around the Highlands of Birmingham (Ironic how I always seem to end up in neighborhoods called "The Highlands"), Susan spotted a place that looked interesting and we decied to stop. It's called Fire & Ice, and was very good. it works like this, theres all kind of raw things on a bar. There's a salad bar, for those of you who are into that, and then pasta, random veggies, random meats, and random sauces. So, basically, you get a bowl and fill it with whatever ingredient you want, pick a sauce you like, and the take it to a large round grill in the middle of the place. And they cook your mixture for you. It's really a great idea. I've been to a similar place before, but this one had more variety of food. For example, I had egg noodles, green peppers, jalapenos, chicken, sirloin, and calamari in an Orange-Ginger sauce. I wish I was hungrier, I would have went all out.

Did I mention there's unlimited trips to the grill?? At one point the two guys grilling led the people waiting on their food in a verse of the Cupid Shuffle. Susan, being the dancing aficionado she is, didn't partake. And she wonders why that song follows me everywhere since she has never heard it outside my presence. I think it's because the song is fun, and fun follows me everywhere. I'm a good time!

So, thats really about all. I hope we all take a little something from today. It was a good day for me, though there was the overshadowing of the seven year memory. If there's anything I wish we could take away in retrospect, it's how much this country became united and stood as one. Since then, various squabbles between various races, religions, political parties, ethnicities, etc.. have all returned to situation normal. Hope fully we can regain some of that unity, without the need for a disaster to pull us together.

Jumpin around all nimbly-bmbly from state to state

Current mood:indifferent

It's Friday night and I'm bored sitting around the apartment in Louisville. I'm not normally off on Friday night, and all the people I normally hang out with are working tonight. I've even thought about doing some cleaning. Thought. It can wait.

I have just returned from an airline weekend in Atlanta. It was essentially an apartment family reunion. Tuesday night we informed TanJoe that we would be coming over for dinner, we being Grace, JoHnathon, and I. Along with various other folks. Charity put in a guest appearance, along with some people I didn't know. After we informed Tanya we would be having dinner and drinks there, we (by we I mean Grace, I was napping) informed her we would also require lodging for the night. So it became a slumber party. We watched scary movies, braided each others hair, had pillow fights, and played light as feather stiff as a board.

OK, we really just hung out and had cocktails and dinner. Grace made "haystacks," a dish inspired by JoHnathon's life experiences and youth in Nebraska. It's apparently a taco salad without the giant taco bowl. At any rate, it was a fantastic dining experience. I really enjoy going to Tanjoes, not just because I get to spend tie with that total hottie Joe and my mistress Tanya (well, I guess since she's the married one I'm the male version of a mistress... a Mister?), but I get to play with Mac and Mandy. Mac has grown rather large and is still such a playful puppy. Hard to believe how small he was when he first came to visit. And Mandy has grown more friendly, to me at least. She likes to come up and shamelessly place her chin on you and give you that "please pet me" look. And of course you do pet her because you can't resist the cuteness.

On Wednesday, after sleeping in we met Amie and Charity for lunch. It was a very yummy place in PTC I had yet to visit, something about artisan pizza. Of course none of us had pizza, but we did have some very yummus hummus. That evening Grace, JoHnathon and I met Jersey at Taco Mac, and later I was joined by Sheri and the former boss, Ed. The final three of us discussed politics and airline operations over several beers. I wish I could have spent some more time with Jersey, we haven't hung out nearly enough.

I did learn that Taco Mac now has a prize for getting to 1000 on the beer list. So once again, I have a goal in life!!! Only 644 to go.

Thursday, i sent Grace off to work, and returned back to bed. Later, I got the bike out. I was very happy that she cranked right up. After doing some checking of the equipment, I ventured out for a ride around northern Henry County. Stopped by and visited mom at work for a minute, then ran across Goodie who was playing cop. I sped by him and gave him the finger. That's definitely one way to get a cops attention. Of course, I'm lying. We met in downtown Stockbridge to chat for a moment. It' amazing how much that small town has changed. Not necessarily all for the better.

That afternoon I hung around the mom's house until I had to whisk off to collect Grace. She promptly informed me she had much better things to do then spend time with me and threw me out of the car to find my own way home. Apparently her and Amie are conspiring in the hate for me. OK, so that's a lie too.

After a flight home, where I had to endure the captain talking about how much fuel he really needs to land and how we dispatchers are all trying to kill him. So, I skipped the step of shorting him fuel and just smite hime.. down right there.

OK another lie, I needed some one to fly the plane back.

And now, here I am. I had int'l recurrent class this morning. It was riveting. I did however find an envelop last night when I got home with a nice check in it for me. That significantly improved my mood.

That's really about it. I'm going to go do some laundry and continue to think about cleaning the apartment. My next days off I'm either working OT or going to see Susan. It's tough to not go see her, but it's also hard to get $500 of pay. I apologize to thse I didn't get to see this last trip thought Atlanta, and we'll endeavor to get together next time.

Everyone have a good weekend