The Burlap Soulmate

Lame is spending 20 minutes searching for a cool e-card with just the right sentiment for your Sweetie and coming up with squat Lame is spending 10 more minutes staring at a blank email screen and coming up with bupkiss Lame is knowing that your Sweetie means the world to you, that you miss her and love her totally and completely, but not knowing how to express it

To keep my spending habits to a minimum, I will repeat to myself a simple truth that I have observed over the years. There have been many times when I have spent money on something, gotten it home, and then felt immediately bad about it, often with the thought, 'What was I thinking?' In contrast, the number of times when I have regretted NOT buying something have been very few indeed. Nothing could illustrtate this point more than this past week. To those newly engaged couples who have received emails, calls, solicitations, etc. from Pr0 He@lth Ultpa about free vacations, let me assure you that it is completely legit. For the cost of our Thursday evening, we did in fact receive an all-inclusive 3 day stay at a resort of our choice in the Dominican Republic or Mexico. I knew it would be legit for two reasons: First it was only 3 days and did not include airfare. Second was that the Dominican Republic, while very nice, I'm sure, is not the most stable or safe place to take a vacation. But I digress. Our Thursday evening did consist of a 90 minute sales pitch presentation on what appeared to be some really nice cookware. I know what you're thinking...cookware? Please...But truth be told it really wasn't a hard sell, yet we were seriously considering purchasing some of it. The kicker? The average price of one of the pieces was 2-3 hundred dollars. I have no doubt that this was really high quality stuff, nor that the sales person really believed in the product and that it was well worth the money. But we, the couple who has nearly had our car repo'd, utilities shut off, and nearly arrested for failure to pay income tax, was considering making payments on a pot. That's just so wrong and so irreponsible on so many levels. In the end we both agreed it was really cool, but eventually talked each other out of getting anything. And we did get our travel voucher which we have every intention of using in the future, possibly as a honeymoon add-on or something. But as I look over the stack of bills and collection notices that have arrived today, and ponder actually getting caught up on some of them (but sadly not all of them) I am so very grateful that we were not taken in by the whole thing. I guess we'll just make do with good ol' Aluminum and Teflon into the forseeable future. Chalk one more point up to the 'NOT regretting NOT buying anything' category.

At this point, even I'm sick of winter. Hope you like the new look. We both thought it needed a newer, brighter feel. It doesn't change the snow falling outside but you do what you can. As usual, all credit goes to my live-in web designer and now Photosh@p guru. Those from this area will easily recognize the Big Mac bridge in the background, which connects Newport, KY to Cincinnati, OH, and which I travel every day to go to work. Speaking of photoshop, the Ohio river is never that blue. Look behind the bridge to get a better feel for the true color of it. I'm feeling a little run-down. Like I didn't really have a weekend. I didn't really. I spent all Saturday morning at my old job doing some free-lance robot programming. I feel so important. Two places actually want me to work there. Yup, thats me. Mr. freelancer. Mr. Independent Contractor. At your service. J & Associates, LLC. Well, we'll see. Anyway, it was fun to see some old faces, to spend time on the equipment, without having to worry about EVERYTHING else that goes on there. The same problems are still there. No money, no material, old & outdated equipment, Low morale, High Turnover. But they're no longer MY problems. I'm glad to help whenever and wherever I can. But I'm still very glad I didn't turn this place down. But when that was done Staz and I spent some time around town, having fun despite the crappy weather. We even stumbled across an HP photosm@rt printer for $25.00 at Goodwill. It remains to be seen whether it works or not. Sunday was spent sleeping, and sleeping, followed by a nap. Then multiple showings of Gladiator on TNT. Then grocery shopping. Not exactly a thrill-a-minute. But something about her makes even the most mundane chore entertaining. We spent that time making jokes and giggling about everything under the sun and then some, making for a fun night under the flourescent lights and 80's era muzak.

I'm discovering the joys of having a substantial library of MP3's on my office computer, as well as Itunes to help organize and play them. With thanks to my Sweetie, I now have a pretty big collection of indie rock I can listen to while modeling brackets and motor assemblies or calling on vendors to see where my stuff is. Very cool. And the added bonus of uploading all of my old CD's is pretty cool too. I still don't like Macs, and Itunes has it's own issues, but so far it's working well for me. Regular viewers..(yeah right) will note that neither of us is discussing wedding stuff lately. After the initial rush and excitement, we've been hit with enough sticker shock to make us want to cower and hide, or at least run off to Vegas on the next Red Eye....We're not going to, but we are taking a break from all of the resulting chaos.

It's been a busy day. I have a new sympathy for those of you who have ever had property stolen, vandalized, or otherwise destroyed. You feel a very deep anger and hatred for those responsible, as well as mortification at being violated, your private life exposed to some uncaring interloper. And how am I suddenly aware of this? This should give you a clue. It used to reside on our storage unit, until the other night when it was sliced open by a pair of bolt cutters. Turns out we were one of 24 other people who had their unit broken into. The weird thing is nothing was taken. Nothing. I can't tell you how relieved I am, given that my dad's former golf clubs were in there, right up front. I still play with them even though I probably shouldn't. They just remind me of him when I do. But I digress. There certainly wasn't anything of great value in the unit. I can just imagine the thieves' disappointment at the site of our most prominent item, a wooden banjo-playing hound dog I made as a silly present for Staz. They did make a mess of things, and it will probably take several hours to put everything back into some kind of order. But, at any rate, a new, improved, cutter proof lock now sits on our unit. (At least the guy at Home Dep@t said they were cutter proof) We are really unhappy with the management of this storage facility and how they handled this whole situation. Isn't this what we're paying $40.00 a month to avoid? I'm currently pricing other places. But there you have our afternoon. Staz even has her name on a Police Report. Just call her Victim #18.

I'm starting to bitch and wax sarcastic at aggressive and speeding drivers during my commute, as though they can somehow hear what I am saying. I am officially an old geezer. It's only a matter of time before I start shaking my fist in the air...

So what does one blog about when one has nothing to bitch about? When you enjoy your job, love the woman in your life immensely, and actually enjoy the various aspects of your life, what is there really to complain about? I'll save you the hackneyed entry on bad drivers, winter weather, and lame television. Am I so bereft of originality and thoughtfulnes that I am only witty and entertaining when recounting my daily woes? So it would seem...

I'm not much of a sports fan. I don't eagerly anticipate the hum drum games of the regular season in any sport. I think Staz can attest to the fact that I rarely curl up in front of the tube on Saturday or Sunday and hibernate for 4 or more hours. Damn good thing since she would never let me get away with that anyway. It took the Bosox-Yankees series to make me a baseball fan. It took the Stanley Cup finals of 2002 to make me a hockey fan. There's nothing like the nail-biting thrill of a really good matchup to grab your interest. By the same token, it took some really good NCAA B-Ball games this past weekend to get me interested. Not to say that I'm as interested as I would be, if, say, the Wolverines were in it, but still pretty interested. We thoroughly enjoyed yesterday's Louisville, WVU game over the weekend, and were spellbound by last night's Michigan State-Kentucky game. If you can imagine driving home through the hills of Kentucky trying desperately to get a station in, ANY station with the game playing, and getting squat. And then finally pulling into a service station to watch the final minutes tick away with a congregation of travelling fans. Staz wasn't quite so thrilled with the outcome of course. As for me, I'm torn. I'm not a big Michigan State fan but it's good to see a Big Ten team and a Michigan team to boot go so far. But ay any rate, March madness has reeled me in. I will still take a genuine interest in the rest of the games regardless of outcome, and am very much looking forward to seeing which one takes the prize.

I'm taking a page out of Staz's book. Religious expounding to follow. If you're offended, too damn bad...Don't you have something better to do? I've been saving this entry for when I had the time and inclination to do it right. But I had a really good Easter and I thought that I would share. Since, you know, that's why you're here right? I like Easter. I think I like it more than Christmas. For a number of reasons: There just isn't the same pall of family expectation and pressure and chaos that accompanies the Christmas season. I'm not requested and required to visit everyone. A friendly phone call and Easter greeting are sufficient. Easter is also a Christian holiday that has not been hijacked by the secular world. There are no shrill demands for alternative holiday equivalents. Even in Christian terms, it's more special. I mean, anyone can be born, right? Well, okay, maybe not a virgin birth in a barn, but still. What really separates Christ from the rest of us is the rising from the dead. Before Easter he's just some kook. After Easter he is the Son of God. That's a pretty big deal. But anyway, back to this past weekend. I took the last half of work off on Good Friday. I wasn't getting anything done anyway since EVERY office that I was calling was closed. We took the grand church tour of Cincinnati, visiting some really old, really beautiful landmark churches and cathedrals in the area, including St. Peter in Chains, and our long-time favorite, Church of the Immaculata, where we have often gone to light candles and pray during some of the darkest days of our time together. We even stopped by the Church of the Basilica in Covington, which looked like it would have been awesome inside, but was closed. These are places that I had always vowed to see and had not in 5 years here. I really enjoy these times with Staz. Not really having experienced any of it, she is so awed and surprised by everything. It really gives me a charge, and reminds me that you can participate in religion without being old, ornery and cynical. Then over the weekend we visited her family as we usually do. We had the best time with her parents, actually sitting, playing cards, drinking and having fun, instead of plopping down in front of the TV. We had a great time. Then we accompanied her grandparents to their church on Easter. It wasn't a Catholic service, and lacked some of the pomp and grandeur that I am used to. But the sentiment expressed by the pastor and congragation was no less heartfelt and I enjoyed it very much. Between that and the basketball, I mean c'mon, who could ask for more?

I had a really fun time last night with my Sweetie. We had dinner at Penn Station, and had vowed to go grocery shopping afterward. Instead the evening took a different turn, with us strolling the Purple People Bridge, looking at the scenery and just talking about whatever. And we weren't even afraid of heights...much.