Good evening,

How's it going? Hope you're doing well this evening.

My cousins are over for a visit this weekend, so we've been busy hanging out, shopping, and watching movies and whatnot.

I forgot to say that last night, I watched Roman Holiday. The old school movie that was Audrey Hepburn's first major film. I can see why that movie's such a classic, as I could see where a bunch of recent Hollywood movies are kind of similar. I kept on thinking that the princess would show up again at the ending, but alas, no such luck.

This evening we watched this cheesy Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen movie (don't ask why). Let me tell you, they aren't the same young ladies from that early 90's sitcom anymore...

-Kirk

Doh!

My last blog entry didn't save. Grr. I'll try to recreate it again...

Hiya,

It's been a while since I've written. I've been slacking, I know. That's what happens when I go on vacation, I guess.

Hope you are having a nice holiday. This year was a good gift giving and receiving holiday. I managed to get pretty much everyone done before the middle of December. I think I'll do that again next year. Sure, I'm sure it's kind of weird to receive gifts at the beginning of December, but why not? People send out holiday cards right after Thanksgiving. And hey, if the stores start pushing holiday stuff in November, then giving gifts during that time should be good too :)

Today Suzy, my friend from WA, came to visit me and my new place. I see her about once or twice (if I'm lucky) a year, so it's always good to see her. Tonight, my cousins from Toronto are coming down to visit.

I got my new phone line today! How exciting. I'm totally in love with Caller ID. I think it's one of the top inventions in the telecommunications world. I know, I know, it's old skool technology by now, and almost everyone and their brother has it. I've gotten used to having it on my mobile phone, on my work phone, and so I had to get it on my home phone. Now I can screen calls without picking up the phone. Isn't life grand? ;)

Ahh well, that's all for now. Not much new to report.

Catcha later,
Kirk

Greetings,

So for tonight's blog entry, I have a gripe - I was online and at Sears today, looking for a replacement HEPA filter for my portable air cleaner. Online? USD$ 83.00 (+S&H). At Sears? USD$ 69.00. I truly believe the machine probably cost that much when it was purchased in the first place. Now that price is just for the HEPA filter. if I wanted to replace the pre-filter as well, it's another USD$ 20. OK, so here's the kicker: For another 30 bucks, I can purchase a brand new air cleaner, one that's better than the one that I have now. I'd be set for another 1-3 years, and the new one would probably have a longer life than the one that I have now. What's up with that? Is this what it's come down to? Don't maintain it, just replace it? That's truly sad. So let's say I do buy a new one? What do I do my old one? Use it as a fancy looking previously high priced fan? That seems wrong too. A perfectly good air cleaner demoted to being a fan? Well, I ended up buying nothing. So I've got a dilemma. My conservation side says to just buy the replacement stuff and be done with it. But my materialistic side wants to upgrade and get the nice new shiny three speed, dual fan model. (sigh)

Ahh well, better get to sleep. I'm going to try and sleep in tomorrow...

-Kirk

Hi Everyone,

Hope you're doing well. Yesterday, I was at the shopping mecca around town. I know, I'm absolutely nutty for going to a shopping mall on the Saturday before Christmas, but Jarrett was going to pick up some stuff, and we decided to meet up since the place was by my house. The crowd wasn't too bad when we got there, but as the day went on, more and more people showed up. Most alarming to me was the number of women sporting Louis Vuitton bags. It's like there was some kiosk in the middle of the mall handing them out for free. I know, they could have been the bought on the street for 50 bucks variety, but I was proud of Louis for designing such stylish and popular bags. Man, people were buying gifts like mad too. Everone had their hands full of shopping bags, boxes, etc. Hopefully, the retailers are seeing some good sales numbers.

So a point of randomness. Jarrettol had to visit Tiffany's for a gift, right? I've always raved about how I marvel at the speed of the "professional consultants." how they whip out the trademark Tiffany Blue Box, put the merchandise inside, and wrap the box in the white ribbon in less than a minute. Honest. If you blink your eye sometime at the beginning of the process, the next thing you'll see is the wrapping of the ribbon. Which is a nifty feat by itself. Finally, there's always the familiar blue bag as well. I can see why Audrey Hepburn's character wanted to have breakfast there. Oh yeah, for shits and giggles, I wanted to see the highly coveted Tiffany's diamond engagement ring with the six prong setting. Pretty nifty indeed. I wonder if they'd just sell me the box and the bag...

So yesterday, I believe I spent over an hour looking for a CD case that was missing. I'm absolutely terrible about maintaining the sacred relationship between a CD and it's home case. I'm totally guilty of putting CDs in an easily available case when I'm in a hurry, (usually of the next CD I'm putting in), and well, once in a while, things get lost. But I'm trying to get better, honest. The only time that I still do it is when I'm driving. No time to look for the case. Too much going on. I guess the worst is when you buy a CD-R spindle, and you don't have enough cases to go around when you burn discs. I've been guilty of double stacking, even triple stacking cds in a case until I find a new home for the excess CDs.

That's all for now...

-Kirk

Hi Everyone,

I AM THE GARAGE DOOR OPENER MASTA!

Well, sort of. Today I conquered the garage hardware world by fixing the door opener. Woo hoo! Thanks to help from our family friend, Mr. E, I was able to find out what was wrong with the thing. I also found out that I'm a total wuss when it comes to opening stuff up to try and fix it. When it's consumer electronics stuff, not a problem. But when it comes down to hardcore "mechanical" stuff around the house, I'm pretty timid. I can only troubleshoot so far until I give up. So what was wrong, you may ask? There was a plastic (why it's plastic I don't know) power gear that was totally shredded inside. Of course, it's the one that turns the chain to move the garage door. The gear was so badly wacked that there was white plastic shreds all over the inside of the case. Almost looked / felt like the white stuff that's on top of those Hostess baked goods (I forget what they're called - sno balls or something). Oh yeah, there were no teeth left on this gear either. Nuttiness, I tell you. I am not really sure what happened to cause the shred-ation.

Kudos to Sears for having a kickass service/parts place near me. It's wild how this place carries almost every part for hardware stuff they sell. If you were truly hardcore, you could make your own Sears products from just the individual parts. Sure, it would be 10 times as much as if you just bought it new, but you'd have the satisfaction of knowing that it was assembled with pride by your own bare hands. Plus, you'd know the thing inside and out.

So if you ever need help with your Craftsman garage door opener, model 139.53615 (I'm not making this up) and you've stripped your drive gear, you'll know who to contact. :)

Today was day one of vacation. Totally cool, man. It was an administrative type day, but that's good, so I can just get most of it out of the way, and get on with enjoying my vacation.

Until next time...

-Kirk

Good evening,

It's been a while since I've written, I know. Many things in flux, I tell you. Craziness.

this is going to be a short message, must get to sleep soon. I'll write more later. I was at the client site all day today, at a training. I learned some good stuff though, so that was cool. While I was at the client site, I met up with some people that I used to work with. Very fun. It was cool to see them again.

Watched the Osbornes today. Like the shite Jerry Thinger show, there was so much censoring that it was hard to understand and get the jist of what the family was talking about. Kelly's boyfriend is way ooky. I wanted to find out what his nickname actually was. I had a funniest moment ready to say, but I don't remember what it is now. Ahh well, maybe over the weekend I'll catch a rerun and will think of it then.

I wrote out holiday cards. I'm always so lazy about them. I started getting cards right after Thanksgiving, and now I'm sending a few out about 2 weeks later. I love receiving cards, but I'm just putzy about sending them out. I never know what to say in them. Ahh well, it's the thought that counts, right?

Catcha later,
Kirk

Hey,

Man, was I tired last night. So tired that I couldn't think of anything to write in my blog entry. I pretty much went to bed after that, almost tempted to bypass the strict dental care regimen. But I was good. Brush, floss, and mouthrinse. Take that, periodontal disease.

I just got back from the ice skating extravaganza. It'll actually be televised tomorrow (Saturday) from 2-4 on abc. Nifty, huh?

The Palace of Auburn Hills is pretty swank. It's been about 8 years since I was there last. I don't remember much about the venue, but it was impressive to see the place again. It's wild the way the Palace people convert the floor from a basketball stadium to an ice rink and then to other stuff like a concert stage.

It looked like my mom enjoyed herself, seeing all of the skaters perform and whatnot. Not being a major ice skating fan, I was more amused by the actual venue itself, and the people around me. There were supposed to be 6 dudes, and 6 young ladies skating this evening, but one lady dropped out. Funniest thing that happened during the show was in between the men's and women's skating sessions. The zamboni broke. I'm guessing that this thing probably doesn't get used that often at the palace (unless it's brought in from somewhere else). But the driver guy is just cruising around. And you know everyone likes to watch the zamboni go around. It's funny, and of course, it looks fun to drive. Well anyway, the driver guy is about 2/3 done, right? Next thing you know, this really loud noise starts. It continues, and everyone knows that something's gone bad. The crowd was mesmerized as to what was going to happen. The zamboni stops zamboning (heh) and shuts off the water / ice mechanism at the back of the vehicle. Next thing you know, there's like 5 people busting out onto the ice to see what happened. A few minutes later, they start running the zamboner again, and it's making the loud noise again. But they kept on using it anyway. The zamboni was obviously not well, but they used it anyway. From what I could see, it looked like there was too much snow / ice build up in the machine, so as the zamboni zamboned, it would leave this dual line ice poop trail (on both sides) behind it. Eventually, the sound stopped, but the operator just hauled through the rest of the surface, and put the zamboni away. So then these squeegie people come out onto the ice with their squeegies and start pushing the ice around into the sides and stuff so it's out of the way.

Wow, a long story to say that the zamboni broke. I was amused. I think the crowd was too. There, how's that for a summary.

But, the highlight of my evening though was not really the skating, but the ticket lady. I already had my tickets, but I thought I'd try my luck, be crafty, and see if there were any open seats left that were more towards the center of the ice (we were in the corner). You know, like a trade. Well the ticket lady was LOVELY. She reminded me of a young lady I met (that was equally lovely) when I was an intern one summer. Reminded me of Meg Ryan. Unfortunately, slow thinking gets you nowhere. Alas. Also the 1 inch thick pane of glass that separated me and the ticket lady didn't help either - Hope I didn't fog it up. Oh well, maybe next time East Entrance ticket lady.

Oh yeah, so I froze my arse off at this ice skating thing. I thought I was well prepared with a sweater and stuff on. Never did I wish more for my fleece lined sporty spice pants. And, the seats were hardly padded, so my buttocks hurt during and after the show. Poor me. But the minute I got home, I changed into my sporty spice pants, and now I'm toasty warm.

Allright. Must go to sleep now.

Catcha later,
Kirk

Hiya,

Today was my mom's birthday :) She liked her gift. It was cool, because her friends kind of threw her a pot luck party. It was nifty.

It's Thursday, so it was Must See TV night. The people of Good Morning Miami have to change their outdoor shots. Great show, but the return from commercial sequences always the same (they choose like one out of three). It's like the same car drives by every time.

Tomorrow's Friday! This week has totally flown by. Oh yeah, tomorrow's Ice Skating day too.

Catcha later,
Kirk

Hey,

How ya doin? Tomorrow's my Mom's birthday. I hope she likes her gift my brother and I got for her. It's to ice skating on Friday. But shh! Don't say anything ;)

I cannot get away from that damn mile road song. Every day, almost during every drive, I'll hear it at least two times. Yes, I am an avid radio channel surfer. And I get mad cause I can't find anything good on the radio. The Avril Lavigne CD in my stereo is getting old. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like her music, it's just that I need a temporary break from it. I listened to it nonstop at work (until my coworkers even commented about it) and now I just need a break. Don't worry Avril, you will not be forgotten.

Every so often, I need to take a hiatus from top 40 / pop music. Those are the times when I go explore other genres. That's how I got on my old skool jazz and random reggae music kicks. Actually most are inspired by experience. Reggae happened at a microbrew in Grand Rapids, and the old skool jazz probably came from Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel or somethin. Funny, huh? Although as of late, I've not been going places where they aren't playing holiday music. I can only take so much holiday music. Oh well.

I've had to dress up for work 2 days in a row now. I'm glad I can wear my regular scrubby clothes tomorrow. The scary thing is that I was getting used to wearing nice clothes. Tomorrow will be back to normal :)

-Kirk

Hiya,

Yesterday we got our faithful snowthrower back from the snowthrower "spa." After quite a few days of rest and relaxation, the snowthrower is good as new. Starts on the first pull. Like the way it should. All I can say now to the snow powers to be is "Bring it." I'm ready. (But if history repeats itself, then there will be minimal snow, just like last year when I did some maintenance work to it.)

I was Pro Skating all night yesterday, so that's why I didn't write. I'm slowly getting better, but still need some work doing all of the tricks and the combos and stuff. I can see why the game is so popular. It lets computer geeks like me feel athletic, and makes us feel that we can do cool assed half pipe tricks in real life.

Just finished watching the Osborne's - Funniest moments were when Ozzy was cursing the ocean and Sharon said that he was trying to catch Moby Dick. Never underestimate the power of cheese, right?. How's that for a commercial.

Tuesdays seem to be my long days at work. I don't know why that is. I was out at a client site until 7 this evening. Well, I didn't have to fight much traffic coming home, so that was good :)

Catcha later,
Kirk

Hi,

Hope you're doing well. Just a short blog entry today.

Today my Mom helped me hang some pictures around my place. It's hard to believe how a nice framed painting really makes a difference on the off white world that is my condo. My mom's been painting for a while now, and now my townhome has beome a mini-gallery for her. You should see them sometime. She's very talented with the watercolor paint. I'm still in flux about how to decorate the other rooms in my house, so the rest of my condo is pretty bare.

I caught the last (maybe) half of the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off on the televizzle today. A classic of the 80's. Loved it then, still love it now. However, I must add, the "editing for television for content and length" is kind of annoying. Many of the jokes featured in the movie were ruined because the "coarse" language is all rated G-ized. It's like that with music on the radio too. It's really too bad. Ahh well.

-Kirk

Hey all,

Hope you're having a good weekend.

Man, my thumbs are sore. I broke into the Tony Hawk Pro Skater empire today. It's quite fun. Made me want to be a real-life thrasher (are they still called that? They were back in tne day). The nice thing about being a virtual skateboarder on the PS2 is that you never get hurt. Well, other than sore thumbs and maybe carpal tunnel. I was trying to pull off some crazy stunts that my good friend Tony Hawk was teaching me. If I was doing these tricks in real life, my head would be cracked open, and I'd be in the hospital. Especially wearing shorts and a short sleeved t shirt with no helmet and knee pads like my character was outfitted. Game play was great, as to be expected on the PS2. Controls took a little bit to get the hang of, but I think I'm better at it now. I did have a steep learning curve, because I had to semi-learn all the lingo. You know, terms like ollie, nollie, and wollie. Don't ask me what a nollie is, I forget now.

Today my mom and I hung up holiday decorations at my parent's place. I know, it's kind of late, but hey, better late than never, right? I dunno if I'm going to do anything over at my place or not. Probably not. :)

Oh yeah, I watched Monsters Inc. today. It's such a cute movie. I still haven't seen much of the bonus material though. I'll have to save it for another day. In fact, I've saved much bonus information from other DVDs for this "day in the future" whenever that will be. :)

2 weeks till the week of Christmas. The year is quickly coming to a close.

-Kirk

Hey all,

To all my peeps on the east coast, I hope you're weathering the storm ok... Hang in there.

After quite a few hours of fighting with the snowthrower, trying to sweet talk it to start, I finally thew my hands up in the air and caved. My mom helped me load it in the ambulance (i.e., the soccer mom mobile) and I took it to the dealership in the Hills. I didn't want to wait until the weekend, because I was sure many many people would have encountered the same type of machine failure when they took their snowthrowers out for the first snowfall. It's been two days and the service people still haven't gotten a chance to look at it. I'm just hoping that I'll get the snowthrower before the next snowfall. Same as taking in my little car to the dealership, I feel helpless and totally at the mercy of the service people. I hope they're gentle...

Today I supported the Tony Hawk empire by purchasing one of his PS2 games. They always look so fun, and one of the older games was on sale at Target. It was part of their "Greatest Hits" collection. I'll let you know what I think of it whenever I get a chance to play it.

I've been driving the soccer mom mobile for 2 days now. Tomorrow it'll be 3. My car and the soccer mom mobile are now featuring new car paint fashion techniques. I like to call it salt speck. You paint the car just as normal, and then you drive it on the heavily salted Michian roads for a few days, and you're stylin'. The only thing is that everyone seems to feature this new paint technique on their car as well, so it's become pretty mainstream. Oh yeah, why am I driving the stylish soccer mom mobile? If I have to go get the snowthrower, it won't fit in my car.

So I'm getting broken down by the Man's uniform store and it's clever advertising schemes. I was watching the Gap commercial today during Must See TV, and I have actually started to liike the stripes motif featured in this year's clothing line. It's that damn catchy remake of the O Jay's Love Train song. It's a good one too. Next time I'm at the shopping mecca of Michigan, I'm going to get suckered into buying a striped scarf and then next year it'll be out of style, because solids are back in again. (sigh) It's all a scam by the Man's uniform store. I'm such a sucker for the Man's uniform store.

Tomorrow's Friday! This week has totally flown by. Craziness.

-Kirk

Hi Everyone,

The final step of the winter garb has been taken out of storage. Yesterday, I took my boots out of storage. Oh yes, because it snowed all frickin day. So you know what that meant. I had to shovel the driveway. Unfortunately, our faithful Honda snowthrower decided to stay on sabbatical and didn't want to start. Grrr. After a little good old fashioned manual shoveling, our neighbours felt really sorry for us and let us use their snowthrower. I was truly shamed, as my family machine would not perform.

So on the way home from work yesterday, an interesting phenomenon happened. On 4 of my 6 FM presets, a certain artist had his recent song playing on all of the stations at the same time. It was out of control. For a moment in time, all the CDs in the sky seemed to line up in the right positions. As I got tired of listening to the song, I'd switch the station. Then I'd switch again. It was like I was stuck in song hell, and my radio buttons didn't work. Freaky, I tell you. Good old Marshall and his mile road.

So one minor drawback about wearing fleece is the static electricity that you build up. I swear, every time I've gone to the restroom today, I've gotten an electrical shock every time I've flushed. I guess I just ground myself on the cold water pipe, and that's that. So just in case you were wondering, yes, I am a flusher. Normally, in a not so familiar surrounding (e.g., bar, restaurant, etc.) I use the foot flush method, where I just push the flusher with my foot. A little strange? Perhaps. But I bet more people do it than you think. Don't worry though, if I come visit your houses, I won't do the foot flush.

Catcha later,
Kirk