Long time no blog

Sorry for the lack of blogging over the last week, John and I were in MN for the 7 days and it just didn't happen there... We had a good Thanksgiving in J-town, plus had much fun in Mpls prior to going back to Jackson...

News from MN:

• Big flaming homo from my HS lives in Uptown only a block from Alicia and Heather's house. Strangely enough, neither of us fit in too well at the American Legion on Wed night so we ended up hanging out for an hour and chatting.
• Yeah, Mary is coming home this week! Yipee!
• I went to Nye's for the first time on Fri night w/ Julie, Brandon, and Rich. Very strong drinks - a good time. John got yelled at in the men's bathroom, v. funny.

I'll post tomorrow - I'm too tired right now :)

Fun with Frequent Flyer Miles

A few notes on frequent flyer miles...

NWA is changing their frequent flyer program - not too bad for how I use my miles (cashing them in for coach domestic trips) but apparently they're bumping some of them up. Check it.

Second, this bulletin board talks about attaining elite status, and then switching it to a different airline - nothing that applies to me cause I don't fly enough but interesting anyway. Many of the chat/bulleting boards on that website are fun.

A few links I forgot

I'm not proud of the fact that I stay on top of news in the gaming industry, so I came across this... This is silly - who would play this game? Seriously, lame-o.

Second, I read about this blog, widely regarding in DC as being on the cutting edge of political news, often prior to the normal news circuits picking it up. Check it.

Busy

I had a busy day - working at Pottery Barn and trying to buy skis. There's a ski expo coming to Boston tomorrow that John and I are going to with the mission of buying me boots, binders, and skis but we did some pre-shopping tonite and ended up buying cheap-ish boots and ski pants for me - we figured that doing a fitting at a real ski shop was worth any savings we may get at the ski show. So that leaves skis, bindings, goggles, gloves, ski bag, boots bag, and poles. So appx. $500 left to spends. I'm again amazed by how expensive skiing is - let alone lift tickets. And I thought golf was expensive... Hopefully I'll go skiing a few times this winter to help me feel like the $ is worth it.

As part of our commitment to skiing, Michael has to plan a VT trip that we can go on, and Missy/Tim have to let us come to Tahoe (I know we have the invite but I'm just saying). Ooh, and this brings up the point that I'll have then been to SF twice in the last year, whereas Mr. Marc will have been to Boston 0 times. Zero. You were asking for a call-out on my blog Marc, and there it is. Till you visit, that's the best you get.

Marc if you come to Boston I promise I will bring you to Provincetown. It's super-gay-fun, promise... And feel free to confirm with Michael, he's been there done that.

No smoking?

Really? Will this work? I like the "no food = smoking" approach actually...

Red v Blue

I like this article - check it.

So it turns out my job is changing a lot in the next month - I'm turning from a gaming/Best Buy rep into a Cingular rep. Changes coming from the merger w/ AT&T and our sales rep structure going through a re-org. It will be interesting to see how this works and how much I like it. I'll keep you posted.

Famous people

I have two things for today. First, check out who may play the lead role in the Da Vinci Code movie - not happy with their choice. Not sure who I'd pick - maybe Clooney?

Second is a fun story - when working at Pottery Barn on Saturday, I rang up a couple of purchases for a woman and her daughter. They were items we were sending out, so I had to get her name/contact info for the shipment - her address was on Park Ave in NY and seemed very important. So I came home and googled her and found out that yes, she is important. She's the great-granddaughter of Henry Ford, and an accomplished author in her own right. And she shops at Pottery Barn :) I'm keeping my out for more famous people at work now :)

Re-damn-diculous

This is so true it's not really funny.

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4045

Bad blogger

Sorry for my delay in posting another blog, I've firmly convinced myself that it is muy importante to post daily as I know all of you are hanging to the edge of your chair at work waiting to see when I post again. Oh wait...

I've been in CT the last few daysand as you all know my feelings on the state (it sucks), I have nothing exciting to report. Except a funny picture to share except that I'm having a hell of a time trying out how to figure out how to post digital pictures on my blog. It'll happen sooner or later.

While Alicia has her conspiracy theories regarding Arafat - speaking of him, did you know that in France they don't announce cause of death because of patient privacy laws? Highly coincidental he went there to be "treated" aka die -- any ideas on the mystery illness that killed him? I've heard ideas on TV (leukemia mostly) but would be open to hearing any ideas.

So aside from Alicia's Arafat conspiracy theories, here's an excerpt from an email I just got from Moveon.com. Check it.

Questions are swirling around whether the election was conducted honestly or not. We need to know -- was it or wasn't it?If people were wrongly prevented from voting, or if legitimate votes were mis-counted or not counted at all, we need to know so the wrongdoers can be held accountable, and so we can prevent this from happening again. Members of Congress are demanding an investigation to answer this question. The decision on whether or not there will be an investigation could come as soon as Monday. Join us in supporting the call for one now, at:http://www.moveon.org/investigatethevote/Then please invite your friends and colleagues to sign, as well. We need to show Congress that hundreds of thousands of Americans are serious about protecting the integrity of the vote.

We're all hearing the stories and wondering what's true and what isn't. But at least two cases of serious problems are accepted beyond doubt:
In Broward County, Florida, electronic voting machines counted backwards: as more people voted, the official vote count went down.

In one Columbus, Ohio suburb, election officials have acknowledged that electronic voting machines credited Bush with winning 4,258 votes, even though only 638 people voted there.

These are just cases where we know something went wrong. There were also lots of reports of people being denied ballots on Election Day. So far, these reports remain anecdotal, but they must be compiled and examined. And the Internet is abuzz with theories about why the official counts were so different from the exit polls.Do you have a story? Were you prevented from voting? Tell us, at:http://www.moveon.org/investigatethevote/Six prominent members of Congress have called for an investigation.

Representatives Conyers (D-MI), Holt (D-NJ), Nadler (D-NY), Scott (D-VA), Watt (D-NC) and Wexler (D-FL), have demanded that the U.S. General Accounting Office:
immediately undertake an investigation of the efficacy of voting machines and new technologies used in the 2004 election, how election officials responded to difficulties they encountered, and what we can do in the future to improve our election systems and administration.

We've got to support their call by asking our own Representatives and Senators to join them.If you have a personal story of disenfranchisement, tell us. These members of Congress have agreed to include our stories and comments in their call for an investigation. Please sign now -- we'll deliver our compiled statements to them on Friday.Even if you don't have a personal story, your signature on our petition will still help build support for an investigation.To keep our faith in democracy, we need to know the facts. Your signature, and your story if you have one, will help.

John Pohl is still missing but...

While Johnny Pohl still may be missing, at least we know where his little brother is. And you know how much I like little brothers...

(from GopherSports.com) Tom Pohl, joins the Maroon and Gold for the 2004-05 season as a 6-1, 180-pound forward from Red Wing, Minn. The younger brother of former Golden Gopher Johnny Pohl, Tom is currently in his second season with the USHL’s Tri-City Storm. He is third on the team and 28th in the league in scoring with 16-28--44 in 60 games. A highly-skilled player with a strong work ethic, Pohl had seven goals and eight assists in 55 games with the Storm in 2002-03.

And look at this event - you should do this if you still live in MN and think of me cause I can't go (oh and even if I was there I couldn't go since I can't skate)... Look like fun...

Skate with the Gophers December 12th 1-4 p.m. Call 612.624.8080 to schedule your skate time Autographs, Photos, and games on the concourse...$5 for adults $3 for youth

Random links

I've found a few of these sites lately and thought I'd share them. I think they are funny, if you are my friend you also will they they are funny...

• As Bejota helped me "pinkify" my blog, I found this site. I decided if you own any of these items, you are a big big loser. http://www.visibone.com/color/

• I'm trying to get tickets for the Gophers hockey game when they come to Boston and play at BU. It's showing the game as sold out, but I'm trying to go through Alumni/Gopher sales and see if they have a block of tickets for MN fans at the game in Boston - but I need to find the phone number to call them. So I type in "gopher tickets" at the U's website, and this is what the #1 site is from that search... They need to googlefy their searches I think... http://www.econ.umn.edu/~rolleigh/teaching/1101spring02/HWI.htm

• Self explanatory. http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/

• This girl's blog is really annoying. What's funny is that she lives in the Twin Cities - which makes it kinda fun to read what she does in her life... http://www.cittigirl.com/arch/week_2003_09_28.html

R. Kelly got pepper sprayed and not by a small child

http://www.livedaily.com/news/7266.html

This is random - are rappers now packing pepper spray rather than packing heat? I didn't get that memo...

Dying Civic

My car is not really dying, it's just hurt and it makes me crabby. I'll be picking it up from the repair shop tomorrow to a bill of about $2000. This would make sense if I was driving a crappy Taurus or a 1988 Civic even, but driving a Civic w/ only 90,000 miles and 6 years old makes me crabby. They had to replace the whole wiring system in the car, which I am suspecting is due to someone in a repair shop in the past 6 years messing something up. My letter writing campaign is beginning to try to get to the bottom of this. I'll keep you updated.

SMS hints

Check this out - it's possibly better than the Google function (less the "define" function)
http://www.upsnap.com/
You have to sign up but them you're set to go - click on demo on the right and it gives you instructions. I like that you can search by area code rather than zip code...

News with Laura - I'm planning a big night out at Gastof's while I'm home so that'll be fun. Everybody should've received an evite - unless I don't have your email in which case you'll have to wait for me to track that down before I can evite you.

And finally, I just got a second job. I started at Pottery Barn this week (10-15 hr/wk) as Christmas help, could continue on past then... We'll see how it goes :) I'm hoping to get time off while Alicia is here visiting - don't worry I'll get it off Lici.