RSS Feedthe time that i had 13 days off – parts IV – X
i can’t remember the last time i was this lazy. i haven’t gotten very much accomplished in my time off.
one accomplishment is that right after i finished catching up with seasons 1 and 2 of mad men, i began watching season 1 of damages. i was blown away by the show. i watched almost every single episode right after each other and was hooked. so good. definitely 13 hours of on-the-edge-of-your-seat drama. season 2 starts next wednesday and i can’t wait.
i spent sunday through new year’s day at joe’s place in india(na). new year’s eve wasn’t overly exciting but it was relaxing.
i ended up watching joe play a lot of guitar hero on nye, so much that we decided to get one. my mom was nice enough to purchase one for my christmas gift so on our way back in to the city we stopped at best buy and picked it up. i forgot how much fun guitar hero is. it will be the perfect way to relax after a long day at work.
now there are only three days left before it’s back to work. kind of sad but i’m glad to be going back (except for the fact that i haven’t worked on the two things i wanted to during the break, i will leave that for sunday). 2009 will be a busy year so i have no doubts that it will fly by.
that’s all for now. time for some sleep.
the time that i had 13 days off from work – parts I, II, & III
prologue (22 december):
it was a struggle getting through work on monday. knowing that monday would be followed by 13 days of relaxation was too exciting. there was barely anybody in the office so luckily i was able to get some last minute items done before the holiday break. i was so excited that instead of taking the bus from the train station i decided to walk. as you see in the post below, that was somewhat of a mistake. that having been said, as you will read shortly, i haven’t left the apartment much since i got to walk home in -3 degree weather.
part I (23 december):
this started out my marathon of tv watching by trying to get through. by the end of the day i had like 12 hours of sleep and 12 hours of tv watching under my belt. there wasn’t much left on my tivo to be watched.
part II (24 december):
by this point in my vacation i started to realize that i wasn’t going to be able to keep this up much longer. the tivo was pretty much empty except for a few select programs. i finally moved on to starting to watch seasons 1 and 2 of mad men.
part III (25 december):
not a very exciting christmas. not going back home to see the family kind of ended up sucking, especially with having all of this time available. i’m nearly done with season 2 of mad men and it has gotten crazy good. i’ll be sad when i’m done but luckily only have a few months before season 3 starts.
after mad men is done i’m going to breeze through season 1 of damages and then i think i’ll be done with catching up on all of my television that i’ve been meaning to get through. beginning tomorrow i will also be trying to add other activities to my daily agenda as television watching and napping has gotten old really quickly. next week i hope to stop in at the art institute and see all my favorite impressionist pieces that have finally returned. beyond that i’m not sure what else i am going to do to fill in the time.
the time that i experienced many types of cold
walking from the train this evening i experienced a few different types of cold:
- not too cold. i can handle this.
- okay it’s a bit cold. it’s only five blocks home. i can do this.
- my face is starting to feel numb but i will survive.
- my feet have become numb so they skipped the whole painful cold part.
- the damn sniffles won’t stop.
- my ears are freezing up. i think they might be rock solid.
- it’s official. i’m frozen.
the time that i was forced into exile by a mouse
i’m almost too disgusted to write this but i figure it makes for a semi-interesting story so i will do it anyway …
so about four months ago i discovered possible evidence of a mouse in my kitchen. coming from living in the suburbs practically all of my life, this isn’t something i have become accustomed to. apparently this is commonplace for heavily urban areas as well as rural areas. i set out traps and poison in an attempt to eradicate this creature. with the help of joe, i was even able to get rid of most of the boxes i hadn’t unpacked yet. since i got back from thanksgiving i was almost 100% sure that i had gotten rid of him as i had seen no signs of him being present. this past friday i even went so far as to declare him gone and that i had won the war against him. apparently i was wrong.
early this morning at about 3am joe and i awoke to a scratching noise. at first i thought it was something outside since it was very windy. after a few minutes it became clear that it was something in the wall. freaked out, i examined every inch of my apartment for any sign that a mouse had returned. after finding none, i climbed back into bed only to continue to hear the noise. at this point i was beyond freaked out. this is something i’ve never had to deal with and it grosses me out beyond belief. at this point i turned on the heat which in turn starts the process of water from the boiler flowing through the pipes in the wall down to the floor space heaters. i figured the water noise would scare whatever was in the walls enough to run away. sure enough it stopped.
three hours later … i hear the noise again but this time it’s coming from a different part of the wall. it stops.
two hours later … it’s now about 830am and the scratching noise in the original location starts up again. at this point i’m beyond freaked out and annoyed. there’s no way i was going to fall back asleep so i tell joe to pack everything up and before we knew it we were on the way to his place in indiana.
so here i am. living in exile from my own apartment. i’m sitting in joe’s living room in indiana worried about returning to the scene tomorrow evening. at this point i have determined that what i assume to be a mouse, is trapped in the wall. the fact that i have never heard that noise prior to last night and the fact that it didn’t seem to move locations is strong evidence that i am hopefully correct. my plan is to return home tomorrow evening to peaceful walls. if not then i figure i will stay at joe’s the rest of the week and just commute in to the city every day for work and then i’m off for two weeks so i can figure a solution out during that period of time (all the while staying far away from there).
in even more exciting news … six more days of work and then i’m off for nearly two weeks. i have no idea what i’m going to do during all that time but i’m sure i will come up with something. i suppose my big task for the break will be to finish painting all of my mini-canvases and arrange those on the wall.
that’s all i have for now.
the time that i wanted to be on the amazing race
i have just finished watching the season finale of the amazing race 13. such a good show. i desperately want to be on it. seriously, how fun would it be traveling around the world and seeing all of that?
speaking of other countries … i had the day off on friday (due to agency mandated vaction days in december) and joe and i went to see australia. while it is generally a good story, it really started to drag on after the two hour mark. it seriously could have ended four or five times before it actually ended.
and now i don’t remember what else i had to say.
the time that i went to dallas for thanksgiving
first things first … i decided to do some redesigning this evening and have changed things up a bit. not a whole lot of major changes but i did need to do some work. still have a few minor cosmetic and function changes to make on the site but i’m nearly done.
i have journeyed down to dallas for the thanksgiving holiday. i was paranoid about leaving early because i was afraid that i was going to miss my flight or get stuck in a long security line as i have in the previous two years. i got to the airport with plenty of time to spare only to be greeted with an incredibly short security line (three people ahead of me). i was through security in less than 5 minutes. wasn’t expecting such an empty airport.
the big thing about my trip was the fact that i was testing out the new mobile boarding passes that american airlines is trying out. i was thinking this would be awesome. of course i was nothing but let down. oddly enough i had no issues at security. the TSA agent took my phone, scanned the matrix bardcode and i was on my way. but then when i went to board the plane, i had issues. the gate agent was being completely rude and was incredibly annoyed that i had used this. she barely made an effort to scan the barcode before giving up and resorting to manually entering my information in the system. so in the end, i got treated rudely and it took longer to board because of the incident. i don’t know what it is with american airlines lately. i used to be a huge fan and i went 5 years without ever flying another airline. between this incident and the last couple of times i’ve flown them, i’m now thinking i should start considering a new preferred airline. i flew united for the first time ever last month and was rather pleased.
other than that nothing too exciting has been going. i’m trying to enjoy the time off and relax a bit before i head back to work next week. the next few months are going to be rather busy, especially since i have almost half of december off.
the time that i remembered how cold the wind could be
while i am excited that winter is officially making its presence known, i am adjusting to just how cold the wind could be. as i was walking home from the train stop i thought my ears were going to fall off. i suppose it’s time to bring out the winter hats. i brought out the scraves this week which made me remember how much i enjoy wearing them.
more to come soon …
the time that it was a good week
tuesday evening was just amazing. what a great feeling to see obama elected. even more exciting is that joe’s vote helped make indiana a blue state.
i am amidst trying to get caught up on brothers & sisters. it’s hands down one of the best shows i had never seen. i can’t wait until i’m done with season one and can knock out season two and then finally get caught up with season three.
damn i forgot what i was going to write about. i’m sure i’ll remember eventually.
The time that Ryan wanted you to play a game
Guess how many things are wrong with this picture that I took on the train? Two! Somebody wearing Uggs and some guy with a bright blue little bag with some unknown character on it. Very odd.
The time that I needed a desk lamp
my desk lamp broke so i improvised. i call it the ryan signal (very similar to the bat signal).
the time that i stocked up on office supplies
now this is my idea of office supplies … 62 boxes of mike & ikes and red hot tamales
the time that i got caught up watching television
my oh my how september has just slipped away. with the onset of the 2008-2009 television season, i find myself with more television to watch than i can actually fathom. staying on top of everything is somewhat of a challenge. if it was just a bit colder outside then i would feel justified in sitting inside and watching television so much. on top of that i’ve been watching lost again so that i can get joe caught up on the show before the january season premiere. i feel like a freaking philanthropist sometimes. sharing the joy of lost, what a gift.
that is it for now. more to come soon.
the time that i started watching heroes
so i’ve made a few minor tweaks to the layout that should make it a bit easier on the eyes. i added some spacking in and made the sidebars a bit larger. the biggest change is the most unnoticeable. the top banner image is no longer one single image but rather 4 individual images that are individually randomized. this presents two problems now. the first, it’s now possible for an image to be displayed multiple times in one page refresh. the second, the landscape portraits that are broken up into 4 separate panes don’t work as well anymore. i’m trying to think of an easy solve for this, but ones not coming to mind. i could go back to the old way of doing things but then it makes it much more difficult to rotate in new images, which i hope to rotate in 2-3 new images a week.
other than that i have just been spending the rest of my labor day weekend watching heroes. this is my next venture. hopefully i can catch up before the season premiere on 22 september. i’m just thinking outloud here but:
- 2 september (tues): return season 1 dvds 1-3
- 4 september (thurs): receive season 1 dvds 4-6
- 8 september (mon): return season 1 dvds 4-6
- 10 september (wed): receive season 1 dvd 7, season 2 dvds 1-2
- 11 september (thur): return season 1 dvd 7
- 13 september (sat): receive season 2 dvd 3
- 15 september (mon): return season 2 dvds 1-3
- 17 september (wed): receive season 2 dvd 4
voila. i’ll be all caught up by 22 september.
i’m making a list of other shows i can catch up on winter quickly approaches and i imagine i’ll be spending even more time indoors. up on my list include: doctor who, veronica mars, alf, the riches, mad men, damages.
back to watching heroes. until later. over.
the time that i finally updated the site style
yes, ladies and gentlemen, i present the new website style. still tweaking a few pieces but i will get it all right soon. the best part of it all is the banner of pictures at top of the page. there are several different sets of pictures rotating through and they’re all taken by yours truly. more to come later.
the time that i had a case of insomnia
i have tried sleeping four or five times this evening and of course have had no luck. tomorrow is going to suck. i will be having to chug down the mountain dew just to stay away i imagine. bleh.
i thought about putting a great deal of thought into an entry here but i am going to get an episode or two of lost in before i have to start getting ready for work. damn this show is addicting.
the time that i got cubs tickets and will actually get to go to the game
I am thrilled like you can’t even imagine that espn scored me some AMAZING tickets for one of the cubs vs. cardinals games. so freaking excited. I have been dying to go and have missed both rooftop events that I have been invited to this summer. Next weekend is going to be grand.
the time that i cheated and read up on what happens on Lost
so i have continued my marathon Lost episode watching that i began earlier this month. i’m six episodes into season two and i absolutely despise michael. very odd considered i pitied him in the middle of the first season. the only thing that is keeping me going is knowing that he gets killed later down the series (yes, i cheated and read a few of the character summaries on wikipedia).
the time that there were way too many magazines in my office
– DISCLAIMER: Any misspellings in the above e-mail can be blamed on the fact that my iPhone thinks it is smarter than me.
