Uh Oh!

Well, I’m off to a lovely start of the evening.  Once again, I’m at the ballpark and brought my laptop with me.  I pulled up, parked the car and walked Samantha over to her diamond.  I went back out to my car and was going to move it to the outfield fence on the diamond that Samantha is practicing on so I could watch while I blogged.  But apparently, my car had other plans.  I got in and it won’t start.  It’s turning over but won’t catch.  I called my step-dad to come look at it, since I don’t know jack about cars.  I know, a guy who doesn’t know about cars, take away his man card.  Bite me!  Anyways, I’m awaiting him to arrive.  Hopefully it’s a cheap, quick and easy fix.  Cheri is really hoping so since she will have to drive me to work along with the kids to school tomorrow if not.  He’s here, be back in a few with hopefully good news.

You can’t keep my car down.  Apparently she just wanted to sit in that spot for a few minutes.  She must have needed a break from that long drive here (10 minutes).  Who knows?  But I’ve had this car for 9 years and it’s paid off so I can’t afford to have to go buy another one.  My stepdad thinks it just got flooded.  He pulled up and got out.  I figured I’d try to start it so he could see what it was doing.  And it started right up.  I apologized for bringing him out, good thing he doesn’t live far.  He said it was fine, he had the niece and nephew over so he was happy to leave for a bit.  Although, now I’m going to have to apologize for narcing him out because my mom reads the blog.  Sorry Randall.

Insane in the Membrane

Just a quick one today because I had one song in my head all freaking day.  Which is rare because I listened to my spotify for about an hour and a half and usually I’ll pick up something there and start singing it.

Good thing I work alone, it’s not a pretty song to be singing out loud.  It’s noisy enough in the factory that I can pretty much sing as loud as I want and nobody will really hear me unless they come walking up to me.  I have been know to serenade a few people when I know they can hear me.

While I was listening to my spotify (which I am listening to now) I was texting lyrics to my wife if it was a song she would know.  I only had to text her 4 songs in that hour and a half.  She wouldn’t have know most of them.  She doesn’t listen to a lot of rock so most of it was that.  Here’s what I texted her, see how well you do.

1. “My life, would suck, without you”  She got that one right away.  She even told me the singer, I want to say Kelly Clarkson but if you would have asked before she told me that, I wouldn’t have had a clue.
2. “And I will always love you”  Another easy one for her.  I believe her text said something about Whitney coming back to sing to her.
3. Here’s where it got tough for her, let’s see how well you do.  First I sent “I can smell a pig from a mile away”  She accused me of calling her a pig.  So I sent “Riding at night cuz I sleep all day”  She said she didn’t know so I told her it was Kid Rock.  Then I sent “I’m not straight out of Compton, I’m straight out the trailer”.  I had to tell her it was Cowboy.
4. This last one was easy for her, let’s see how well you do. “Let’s get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance.”  She got it right away considering she introduced me to that song on a mix tape she made me.  Anybody?  It’s a great song, I’ll see if I can find it for you.

That’s all I got for you today but keep your eyes peeled for a special post coming soon, probably next.

I lied, I have more for you.  I typed this out and saved it in order to send once I got back home to an internet connection.  My phone rings, it was the lady in charge of the local ballpark.  She had tried to talk me into coaching a new team a few nights ago.  I told her that I would help out but I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be he head coach.  Well, she roped me into it.  She asked where I was.  Um, at the ballpark watching my daughter’s practice.  Great, why don’t you come on up to my office.

So now I’m coaching Trevor’s team.  While I’m excited, I’m also very nervous.  She told me that she would take care of contacting all my kids about practice and so forth.  All I had to do was coach, which is all I want to do.  She gave me phone numbers of people to call if there were any problems with the parents (not the kids, the parents).  That’s just kind of pathetic.  So now I’m busier than before.  Damn!  There went all my sitting on my couch, doing nothing time.

Tantrums & Annoyance

I just read a post about how to deal with tantrums in your child right here.
I must admit, that I have, on a few occasions, dealt with this myself.
I sat down to get at their level, I looked them in the eye and said something like this,

“Oh!  Come on!  If your going to pout go all out, you can do better than that.  How do you expect to get what you want if that’s the effort your going to put into it. Come on!  Cry a little harder that.”

For the record, it worked.  But I’m guessing after that, you won’t ask me for any parenting advice. 


How long did it take before you were annoyed?  I know, I’m an ass.

Just threw this up real quick before I head to bed.  It’s going to be a busy week, not sure when I’ll be able to post some more.  Monday night (practice), Tuesday (Supper at my moms), Wednesday (Practice), Thursday (practice), Friday (practice) and of course I work Mon-Fri so that pretty much books my day.  The little league called me and said they found another sponsor and wanted to know if I wanted to coach the team.  I told them I don’t mind being an assistant but I don’t want to be the head coach.  I don’t mind the baseball duties, I don’t want all the additional stuff like organizing which parent brings team snacks and such.  I just want to help the kids learn how to play correctly.  I have a feeling they won’t be able to find anyone and I’ll get stuck with the job anyways.  So we’ll see.

GREAT Grandparents

I’m sitting here in my car, at the local little league park.  I usually sit and watch practices if I’m not helping but todays practice is being held entirely in the batting cage.  So I brought the laptop and am chilling in the car, listening to the radio while Samantha practices.

Yesterday was Easter, in case you forgot.  Once Cheri and I rolled out of bed, we had the kids find their buckets.  It took them a little while, Samantha found Trevor’s first (but didn’t tell him) and then eventually found hers.  We had to guide Trevor a little bit but he finally found his.  Samantha enjoyed her Angry Bird Dog Tags and Trevor his baseball cards.  Now that they are getting older, I’m trying to get them into some hobbies.  Trevor seems to have taken to cards.  Samantha I’m still searching for something.  She liked the Bella Sara cards (horses) but I can’t seem to find them anymore.

We got together at my mom’s and had huge amounts of food for lunch.  Which is good, because there are quite a few huge people in our family.  Including myself.  We are a big family.  Let’s just say, my brother and I grew up with 2 cousins that are the same age as we are.  I’m the smallest of the 4.  And I’m 6’3”, 250 lbs.  Of course, that’s a far cry from the 6’3”, 150 pounds I was when I graduated high school a little over 20 years ago.  Anyways, we always have ham, and it’s always really good.  About the only time I have ham is on a couple of holidays, I’m not sure why, because I really do enjoy it.  On top of that, there are always massive amounts of side dishes.  Green bean, corn, and hash brown casseroles, deviled eggs, cowboy beans, mac and cheese and rolls.  I’m probably forgetting others but you get the idea.  Lots and lots of food.

After lunch, some of the adults and all the kids walk down the road a bit to a park right on the river.  While they are all down there, the remaining adults hide eggs with candy and cash in them.  This year we were down to 6 kids with 2 at their mom’s and 2 getting older now.  So we hide, probably 250 eggs for 6 kids.  Needless to say, we run out of hiding spots and just throw them on the ground after awhile.  I’m sure my mom finds them for months afterwards too.  The kids got stacks of candy and a couple of bucks.  Grandma always provides another Easter basket with goodies in them as well.

After that, I had to take the kids to meet their mom so they could spend the evening with her.  When I got back from that run, some of the guys were out playing horseshoes so I headed over there.  My brother and I took on my grandfather and stepdad.  When we get together for horseshoes it always seems to end up with those teams in the end.  Now I know it sounds a little unfair, I’m 38 and my brother is 35 against my grandfather, who is around 80 (not sure which side of that he’s on) and my stepdad is mid to late 50’s somewhere.  You’d think my brother and I would have the advantage, but that isn’t the case.  I always throw alongside my grandfather, because he’s good and I am a little more consistent than my brother.  The problem is, every time I throw a point, my grandfather usually matches it.  So with us equaling each other out, we have to rely on the other two.  Well, for the first time in how ever many years we’ve been trying, we finally came out on top.  My grandfather claims it takes a few games before he gets hot, something about being older now.  But I’m not buying that.  Next thing he’ll be claiming that he has trouble because he only has 1 lung.  Whatever!  Take your beat down, old man!

I love my grandparents, on my mom’s side that is.  They’ve always been a part of my life.  I have many memories of staying overnight there on school nights when I was a kid.  I remember some great holidays at their house.  They’ve always supported all our school activities and sports.  They even lived with us for a stretch while we were growing up.  The sad thing is, my grandmother could probably out walk me.  Even into her 80’s she’s full of energy and is always on the go.  It’s kind of disgusting if you ask me.  But that’s probably because I have trouble getting my lazy ass off the couch.  My grandfather played softball up into his late 60’s, possibly early 70’s.  I always said I wanted to play for that long, now here I am at 38 and I’ve been retired from softball for about 5 years now.  My grandfather battled cancer in his lungs a few years back (and won.)  And the fact that he beat cancer, just goes towards what I’ve always thought.  That nothing can take that man down.  He may not realize this, but I’ve always looked up to him.  I may have not always realized that he was my idol, but he was.  Even to this day, he’s my idol.  My only goal in life is to be the man that he is.  A great father, husband and man.

I love my grandparents, and when they are gone, it will be a devastating blow to our family and myself personally.  Of course, the larger than life persona that he has on me, he will probably still outlive me.  Which is fine, because I don’t want to live without either of them.

Weekly Catch-up

Weekly Catch-Up

I’ve slacked on this one again.  Sorry.  I do have the Muppets Movie sitting here that I’ve been meaning to watch, but I’ve been waiting to have time with the kids to watch it, and they were on spring break last week.  So between being at their mom’s, their friends and practices, they haven’t been home much.  Although, talking with my family today, it doesn’t sound like I’m going to like it anyways.

Stats

• Total page views = 124 (up 20 from last week)
• Total posts = 16 (same as last week)
• Total followers = 1 (up 1 from last week)

I’ve had to curb my spending, more like stop my spending, so this blog has been kind of on autopilot.  Just posting catch ups from stuff I’ve purchased about a month ago.

• Cheap Ebay Pickups – I highlight some 1975 Topps cards I picked up.
• Cheap Ebay Pickups – I highlight some 1972 Topps cards I picked up.
• AL Central – My predictions for the White Sox and their division.
• Cheap Ebay Pickups – I highlight some 1974 Topps cards I picked up.
• Trade with Tim – I highlight some of the cards received in a trade with one of my blog readers.
• Cheap Ebay Pickups – I highlight a couple of Konerko cards I picked up.
• Happy Easter Everyone – Just good wishes with my favorite Easter toon.

Stats

• Total page views = 14,054 (Up 400 from last week)
• Total posts = 339 (Up 7 from last week)
• Total followers = 74 (Up 2 from last week)

Random sports photos.  There are only some stats for this blog as it is a Tumblr account, not a blogger account.  I’ve slacked on this blog as well, I’ve reblogged some stuff but haven’t taken the time to post my own stuff up.

• 3 University of Michigan posts.
• 9 White Sox posts.
• 7 other MLB posts.
• 0 Indianapolis Colts post.

Stats

• Totals posts = 302 (Up 19 from last week)
• Total followers = 7 (same as last week)

Do I really need to explain this blog.

• Weekly Catch Up, late edition – Same as this post from last week.
• Flashback Friday – I talk about my 1st job when I was 16.
• Debate with Frank – Frank and I had a discussion about a black kid getting shot by a cop.
• Music, Work and Sexy Aliens – A tell all about the tracks I listened to while typing out the post, a quick paragraph about working my ass off, and a top 8 list of the Sexiest Aliens from FuriousFanBoys.
• Kids and baseball/softball – I recap the kids practices and my involvement with the teams.
• Flashback Friday – I talk about my Easter memories.
• Happy Easter Everyone – Just some good wishes with my favorite Easter toon.

Stats

• Total page views = 1620 (Up 247 from last week)
• Total posts = 116 (Up 7 from last week)
• Total followers = 5 (same as last week)

I only guest post on this blog about my Michigan cards.  And as stated up above, I haven’t been buying cards lately so I haven’t posted here recently.  Although Dennis still posts on here so there are posts to read, just none by me.

Stats 

• Total posts by me = 9

I don’t add people I don’t know, but if you’d like me to add you to my facebook, just let me know who you are and that you read my blog.  If I have an idea who you are, I’ll add you.  Although, I guess you don’t need to if I post it here.

Hehe.  My wife will love that posted this.  She already saw it as my cover photo.

Had to trim my name off the top when I screen captured it since facebook has added crap at the top and bottom of both pages.  I had to post this to tease the 2 mentioned above the pic because they don’t have these where they live and the love the place.

Cheri got mad and shut the TV off because I kept changing the channel on her from work.  I made sure she knew it was me by changing it to the MLB Network and then the Playboy channel.  We don’t get either channel but it’s the thought that counts.

Happy Easter everyone.

By the time this posts, I’ll be sitting down to lunch at my moms.  Hope everyone has a great Easter.  A day with the family always makes it a great day for us.

Flashback Friday

For Flashback Friday, I figured I’d go back to some Easter memories since it’s Easter weekend.  I described here what our Easter traditions are now.  I don’t really remember a lot as far as traditions go.  I remember my dad being in passion plays.  I remember getting to hold palm branches but I don’t remember why, as in, in the actual play, or if they just let the kids hold them.  I don’t remember anything about the plays, obviously I know the story, but I don’t remember my dad actually performing.  For all I know, I don’t remember anything right.  I have a distinct memory from his funeral that my mom says never happened.  So who knows.

Every Easter morning, my brother and I would wake up.  Well, my brother woke up, then woke me up.  He always got up at the asscrack of dawn.  And our job when we woke up, was to find our Easter baskets that the Easter bunny hid.  I don’t remember a lot of years of searching, but I remember one hiding place.  It was probably the best place it was ever hidden.  I think we had to ask for hints because we could not find them.  Wait a minute, we asked my mom for hints but how did she know where the Easter bunny hid it?  I’m so confused.  Ooohhhh, she probably went to make breakfast and realized they were in the oven.  Wait a minute, my mom doesn’t know how to use the oven so that couldn’t be it.  Anyways, I remember them being in the stove.  We got the usual Easter baskets, colorful, weaved, with Easter grass.  Usually loose jelly beans at the bottom, that must be where those cravings come from.  All kinds of candy, maybe a toy or some kind of an item that meant something.  I want to say matchbox cars were in there for years.  Always a chocolate bunny.

My brother, me and my 2 cousins on Easter - 1985

This went on for years.  And my mom loved that tradition, she loved giving, to us or anyone.  She still does.  She truly is in it for the giving, wait until I talk about Christmas.  I remember being the know it all teenager, you remember those years, where the only thing that matters is what you think.  You don’t care what anybody else thinks or how they feel.  I remember just sitting in the living room, and my mom was trying to get us to go look for our baskets.  I just sat there, knowing I was taking away her fun, intentionally taking it away.  I figured eventually, she’d just take it from it’s hiding spot and give it to me, and she did.

I look back now at how I must have made her feel.  And I hate that I did that.  Certainly not WWTJD (What Would Teenage Jesus Do).  I was an ass, I was selfish, I was a teenager.

But here I am, doing the same things to my kids.  Although we use Easter buckets now and no grass.  But my wife and I hide their buckets every year   And they love it.  And it’s the tradition that they know.  Until they become teenagers, and treat me like I did my mom.  I’ll complain to her, and she’ll just smile that knowing smile.  Because inside, she remembers how she felt.  And she’ll be sad because of that.  Or is that her evil smile, and inside she’s laughing her ass off.  Yeah, it’s probably that one.

Kids and baseball/softball

I seriously need to get caught up on my blog reading.  I’m averaging about 2 days behind.  I seem to read about a day’s worth everyday, so once I’m caught up, I might be good to go.  Now I just have to get caught up to stay caught up.  I need to update my blog roll too, I follow so many more blogs.  Of course, on my other blog (My Sports Obsession) the blog roll won’t let me update it so we’ll see if this one still works.

Trevor had his baseball practice.  I was sitting off to the side with Cheri and she asked me if I was going to help with his team.  I told her I will if they ask.  You see, Samantha has been playing for 5 years now, and I’ve helped her team every year.  I’ve never signed up to help, but eventually they ask.  I figure they see this athletic looking father and they can tell I know everything there is to know about baseball.  I just ooze knowledge of the game so much that it’s visible in my aura around myself.  In reality though, they just usually never have any help and I stay at the practices, therefore they ask.  I like the baseball oozing story though, I’m sticking with that.

So last night, I ended up helping out the coach.  So now I’m helping coach again.  While I do enjoy helping out with the kids, I don’t mind sitting in the stands and cheering my kids on as well.  One thing I’ve noticed, when your kid is on your team, they are usually the only kid that doesn’t listen to you.  This will be my first year coaching boys only.  Samantha’s first couple of seasons were coed, but they’ve been all girls for the last couple.

Samantha has been one of the better players on previous teams.  This year, she’s the youngest age group and is far from being one of the better players.  So this year I’ll get to see what she’s made of.  If she’s willing to work for it.  She tends to be lazy with most things so we’ll see.

Trevor, on the other hand, I have no idea what to think.  He looks like he’s really enjoying himself.  But he’s so off in his own world.  He forgets things I’ve taught him, sometimes doesn’t hear anything around him.  He’s so out of it sometimes, I have to keep an eye out to make sure he bats left handed because he won’t pay attention.   But as long as he says he’s enjoying it.

I worry sometimes that the only reason that both my kids play sports is because they want to impress me.  I never push it on them, it is their option to play, but I hope if the day comes where they don’t enjoy it, that they tell me instead of playing and being miserable.  Yes, I love sports.  Yes, I want my kids to love sports.  But if they don’t, I’m ok with that.  I’ll even support them if they played instruments, but my God, I hope they don’t.  I’m not a huge fan of watching bands but if I have to, will.  My mom would make me anyways.

WTF Were They Thinking

Since it’s a little after 6 and you all should be sitting down to supper, I figured I’d show this to help you out with that diet.

Enjoy supper!

Music, Work and Sexy Aliens

I’m sitting here, chilling.  Got home from work, showered, wife is snoozing and I’m guessing the kids haven’t figured out I’m home yet.  So I’m sitting here in peace and quiet, except music that is, but I need that to block out the kids playing in their room.  Otherwise I would sit here with nothing on.  Since I’m on my spotify account, I figure I’ll throw out what it plays while I’m doing this post so maybe you can get an example of what all I listen too.  It’s on shuffle so hopefully it mixes it up a lot.  I currently have 760 tracks.

• Chicago – What kind of Man would I be
• Khachaturian – Sabre Dance
• Bryan Adams – Heat of the Night
• Prince & the NPG – Cream
• Mary Chapin Carpenter – Let me Into Your Heart
• Alanis Morissette – Uninvited
• Whitney Houston – Run to You
• Rod Stewart – Reason to Believe
• Petra – Love
• Michael Jackson – Jam
• Petra – the Coloring Song
• Cranberries – Dream
• Neil Diamond - America

Wow!  That is so not what I generally listen to.  Not one song from my preferable genre.  Yes, all these songs are on my spotify and yes, I do like them all.  But the shuffle must have been set on easy listening today.  I’m not even sure there is a song up there from the last decade.  The genre I listen to the most is Rock, where are all my rock songs?  I have a rock list and it has 186 songs on it, but apparently none I get to listen to today.

I’ve currently worked 10 days straight.  For those that don’t know what I do, I work in a factory, usually 8 hours a day, sometimes more, mainly Monday – Friday.  We do work weekends (mostly Saturdays, hardly ever Sundays) as needed.  Obviously it was needed last weekend as we worked both days.  Friday is good Friday and is a paid holiday.  Except that they scheduled us to work anyways.  So obviously, we are very busy.  Not a big deal to me as we don’t usually do anything on Good Friday anyways, Plus it’s double time and a half so I can’t really complain.  We are broke and need it.  I do get a little wore out working this many days straight, and you can be sure I am looking forward to relaxing on Saturday.

Also, for those that don’t know, I’m a geek at heart.  I love Star Wars and Star Trek and a lot of other science fiction.  I’m a regular reader at FuriousFanBoys and they compelled this list that I had to share.
THE HOTTEST ALIENS IN SCIFI
These were chosen by readers on their facebook page.  It doesn’t say if they are in any certain order, but there are 8 of them.
First off, they had Twi’lek from Star Wars, episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith

Don’t remember much from Star Wars: Episodes 1-3, not a huge fan of them to being with.  I love the originals and just had trouble getting into the prequels.  She is hot though, I’d tap that.  If I wasn’t married of course.
Next is Number 6 from Battlestar Galactica

Never watched the newer version of Battlestar Galactica either.  I know, so much for me being a geek.  But the my cable plan didn’t carry SciFi channel when this was on so I couldn’t watch it.  I did watch the original one in the late 70’s, early 80’s though.  I know, I’m old.
Deanna Troi of Star Trek: Next Generation

She’s good looking, but I never thought of her as being hot.
Next up, Leeloo from the 5th element.

Now this one I love.  I loved this movie, my wife hates it.  She looks at me funny when I quote it or stop on it when it’s on TV.  SciFi, comedy, action, and a hot alien, really?  What’s not to love about it.  And let’s face it, Bruce Willis is a bad ass.  You can’t mess with John Maclaine in space.
Lisa from V

I also liked this one, she was definitely hot.  And I liked the show while it was on.  It didn’t effect me like the original one did.  I think it was probably one of the first alien takeover movies for me and it was scary to look at it that way.
Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager

Oh yeah!  I had the hots for her.  Of course it was probably the tight outfit.  Doesn’t hurt that Jeri Ryan is hot in her own right.
Sil from species

She was hot in this movie as well.  Of course, this was released in the mid 90’s making me early 20’s so I was all about the gratuitous nudity and there was definitely some in this movie.  Don’t get me wrong, I still like nudity in movies, it just doesn’t get me going like it used too.  Probably too used to seeing it now.
Last but not least, Space Girl from Lifeforce

Yeah, don’t know that one or her.  But judging by the picture, I’m guessing geeks were voting for the nudity more than looks.
I loved this post from FuriousFanBoys.  Hopefully I don’t get in trouble for copying it over, I linked all the pictures and their name so they shouldn’t get too mad.  Hopefully I don’t lose the female viewership with this post, but I gotta be me.  I have to get back to posting what I want instead of forcing myself to come up with thoughts.
I only have 5 followers, so I guess I don’t have much to lose.  And 2 of them are my wife (she can’t figure out how to delete her old account).  Now I have to go up and post a paragraph under the music played while making this post.  Then I’m out to take Trevor to practice and then over to a friends house to stay overnight.

Debate with Frank

I got into a debate at work.  Frank was telling me about some story in California where a black (it matters for the debate) kid broke into a car, stole a backpack and a laptop.  The owner called 911 and said he saw it and the kid had a gun.  The cops tracked down the kid, cornered him an alley, and ended up shooting the kid.  The cop claimed he went for his waistband.

Frank was arguing that it was the typical white cop shooting a black kid.  His reasoning was that he has never seen anyone cornered with a gun pointed at them, go for their waistband.  Even in movies, they never go for anything.  If you had a gun pointing towards you the last thing you do is sudden movements.  So he was claiming common sense would have kept him from doing this.  Therefore the cop was guilty of murdering him and using unnecessary force.  Now I haven’t researched the story or anything, because as I was talking to him, I had no research so I was just going by what he told me of the story.  He also said the guy that called 911 admitted to lying about seeing a gun and no weapon was found on the kid after the shooting.

I told him I understand what he’s saying.  Common sense would prevent you from going for anything.  Common sense would tell me first thing you do is get your hands away from your body, up or to the side.  And I can also see a cop shooting him just because he’s black.  Sad to say, it wouldn’t be the first time.  Racism is still around whether we want to admit it or not.  But I can also see the kid going for his waist.  Frank looked shocked that I said that.  I kept saying, I’m sorry, but people are stupid.  A lot of people don’t have common sense.  I’m not saying the cop didn’t do it for the wrong reason.  I’m saying you can’t discount the fact that people are idiots.  For all we know, he had drugs in his waistband he wanted to throw out, or his pants were falling down (which seems like the style nowadays), maybe he was going to grab his pecker and do the pee pee dance, there is no way of knowing.  Sure you can blame the cop, but there is no reason you can’t blame the kid either.

I can’t imagine being a cop in that situation.  You’ve been told he has a gun so you have to do what you can to protect yourself.  Maybe the kid went for his waistband for whatever reason.  What choice does the cop have now?  You can be angry and cry racist cop all you want, but there is no way to know what happened with the information given to me.  Had it not been reported that he had a gun, it would look totally different.  The cop would have been a little slower with the trigger if he hadn’t been told there was already a weapon.  You have to look at both sides.

Frank doesn’t typically go to the racism thing first, he’s not that type.  And usually he has a point.  But I couldn’t agree with him on this one.

Flashback Friday

Had a lovely evening with the wife tonight.  Went to the mall for a card show and to check up on Skyler on her first day on the job.  We basically only hit one table but she helped me go through the cards looking for White Sox cards.  Then she checked my lists for me.  The girl behind the table was very pleasant and we chatted while we searched.  It’s always nice to get out and spend time alone together.

That’s why this is a little late.  Technically it’s after midnight here.  And I have to be up at 6:30 for work.  And yes, they posted Sunday too.  So I’ll be working 11 days straight before my 3 day holiday weekend.

Flashback Friday

I’ve seen on a couple of other blogs that they were talking about their 1st jobs so I figured that would be a good subject for my first Flashback Friday.

My first job was at TJ Maxx.  I assume they are all over, I know it was a chain, but if not, they are mainly a cheaper clothing outlet with all kinds of other things as well.  I remember having to wear the gray smock over my dress clothes.  I had to wear ties to that job, and if you know me, that’s a negative in my book.  I was 16 so I could only work limited hours but I usually worked a few nights and the weekends.

I ran the register, straightened shelves, a little bit of everything.  Even cleaned bathrooms, and let me say, women are way messier than men.  Running the register was my favorite, as much as I hate people now, I enjoyed dealing with them back them.  I was young and stupid, what can I say.

Mostly what I remember from that job was going to Hacienda on lunch breaks, ordering pop and eating the free chips for a whole meal.  They don’t allow you to do that anymore, they don’t bring the chips till you order your food.  So much for cheap meals.  The other thing I remember is perfume fights.  When one of the other employees would walk buy, you come up behind them and spray a crap load of perfume on them so they would reek with it the rest of the day.

It wasn’t a bad job by any means.  Not an exciting story I know, but I don’t really remember too much about it.  It was 23 year ago.  Holy Crap, I’m old.

WTF Did They Say?

Welcome to the 2nd edition of WTF Did They Say.  Today’s stooge hales from Indiana and doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut.  Need I say more?  Yeah, it was me.

My plant manager walked up to me and asked if I was going to play the lottery tonight, my quick response, with obviously no thought.

“You don’t pay me enough to afford to play the lottery”

Probably shouldn’t tell the person who pays you that.  I told you I wasn’t that bright.  But wait, there’s more.

My foreman came up and handed out new handbooks, I took it, listened to his speal about it, then asked

“So does everyone get the same handbook or does each person get a different one since everyone has their own rules”

Maybe I should have titled this “Reason’s Why Jeff Will Never Advance at This Company.”

Yeah, I’m an idiot.  Good thing they are used to putting up with me.  If I ever start to suck at my job, I may be gone in a heartbeat.  Hey mom, you got room in the basement?