Daily Update

Today at work my bosses took us all out to Lunch. We celebrated this years Christmas party at a Chinese restaurant. I think it was some sort of experiment; although they called it a buffet, it wasn't. They just brought out a set number of plates, with weird Chinese type food on them. Just to describe what we had, the vegetable plate had three different types of mushrooms and Bok choi. the bosses got the korean kid Jelly fish to be funny. It tasted like cooked pencil eraser. I really think Buffet city is better. I even think Panda Express is better. For me anyway.

Last night I ventured down to target. It was the first time back since the Gypsy incident. Although nervous, I made it in and out with virtually no problem. I did see a girl I recognized from the Santa Monica ward, and my first instinct was to greet her. I was mildly smiling and started to raise my eyebrows in interest to open a line of communication with her, but at the last second I decided I didn't know her well enough to greet her in public; you know, out in the open- outside of church functions. So I canceled the greeting at the last second. But as I was pulling out of the dive, I noticed that she had started to see me, then saw me not follow through, then I realized that she could have recognized me, so I felt foolish, so then I felt it necessary to start running away to avoid any embarrassment. Thats how I avoid embarrassment, by running away.

It was a good day at work today, as busy at it was.

Lunch was sponsored by VIP Harbor Seafood- the Chinese restaurant spoken of earlier.

And as the season required, I listened to Christmas music for most of the day. until I left at 3:30. :)

Merry Christmas everybody!
and if you haven't seen it, my christmas card to you can be found at:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1202157408

Daily Update

I went running last night. It was like a snake shedding its old skin, and becoming new again. A rebirth if you will of the old 'new jim'. I was up in the Australian Outback. We went there because of the long flat planes that go on forever and ever. I was weary of my walking limb injury last week, so I promised myself that I would run this week for sure. And oh how right I was. I was like a like the most wild and viciously ferocious prairie dog alive. I would jump from one place to the next with no care in the world of what the others would think. I was a good running Field Prairie Dog cause my left ankle was bound up with tape, and extra socs, and I tied my shoe extra tight to prevent movement. As people would pass me, and I let them this time, I would scamper about and nibble on sticks, and scurry about to avoid any enemy. I didn't see the usual enemy's so that was good. They probably are on vacation with the Holidays coming up. When I was trying to walk down the stairs to go running I couldn't move my foot at all. So I just hobbled along like a pirate till the tape relaxed. It must have been night time in Australia cause there were very few lights around like there usually are. I thought it was supposed to be summer time there.

Also, right after that adventure, I went to the grocery store to return a few un-needed food items. I quickly jumped into the shortest line and waited my turn. It was a rather long wait for one person to purchase 5 items, I first thought, but then I pushed that idea away, cause I was in Happy person mode, cause grocery stores aren't as accommodating to angry people. So when I got up there, I slowly realized why his line was shortest. He had something wrong in the head, I swear. As his fellow employees walked by and asked him if he needed more bags, he would drop everything to check how many bags he needed. If someone asked if that was a 'take-back' in the corner of his area, he would organized Everything in the area, inspect it, then respond. Shortly thereafter all the other customers went thru their lines yet I remained still. But then some of the other 'sane' employees came over and told him to just do it the easy way. '12 $1 items, credit him $12.' end of story. "Oh no, thats not the way I know how to do it, here let me try" is what I heard about 12 times before I realized that I should find a chair cause it was about to be a long time. I kid you not, but the first item was back on the shelf before he was done crediting the second item. The there was some sort of problem on his machine, so he had to ask one employee to go get it back off the shelf so he could re-scan it, then void it, or something like that. Good grief Charley Brown!

work was busy today. they switched me to another project again, and not the one I wanted to work on.

Lunch was sponsored by Jamba Juice, and co-sponsored by Stan's donuts, with additional assistance from the Vat of popcorn that was still left in our kitchen at work.

I listened to Euro-techno today in order to help me work faster. I don't think it worked.

daily update

I worked a little late last night, and then went right over to Damon and Pythia's, a food place for a get-together in honor of jessica's graduation. Now that she will have so much free time, I wonder if she'll think she needs to take on a second full time job, just to come close to the amount of work that they required in school. I know exactly how she will feel. I went crazy with all the free time that I had. Lost of Play-time. Its great!

On the way out of the place some weird looking elf like dude came up to us and started asking stupid questions. Who are you? are you married? do you read? do you live in area? etc. I even asked him in his line of questioning if he wanted my social security number and credit history from me as well. He looked like his name could have been Ernie Goldstein, and he was possibly related to the family of Keebler Elves who make cookies for a living. So he started prostituting himself by soliciting his own book to us. Then he would ask if we liked being happy, "cause [his] book would help us be happy too". Lots of dumb questions like that. the came the price tag. He wanted 20 smackers for his stupid diary! We refused to pay such outlandish prices for such drivel. From there Elf-boy didn't miss a breath and thus went on to tell us that because we're such good people, and cause he likes me (cause he things I'm a sucker cause I'm listening to him) he'll give us a deal of 5 dollars off, making the price only 15! Sorry Mack, I didn't even pay that for my treasured Harry Potter collection. Then after another minute of him yapping away, Cheryl interups him and says "No, (you lame-o) We're not interested (in your crappy scribblings) We have to Go." ... At that point I wasn't sure if she was sternly talking at my new author 'friend' or at me for allowing us to talk with him that long. I took that as a hint that she was done with me listening and playing with this old elf's emotions. After all, it was raining. And Elfie had strategically tipped his umbrella(in a retarded like manner) so the downpour was shooting right at us too. I think at that point she just wanted to pinch his head off. Now that would have been interesting to see too.

Then a bit later, I started the mass assembly of my Gingerbread Castle. It was fabulous, other than misplacing my frosting recipes and having to call a bunch of girls I knew for it. It was a fragile process, but with spectacular results. And yes, it may have taken just over an hour to make one quart of frosting. But it was done with the up-most care.

Lunch was sponsored by In N Out. I ran into Rick n Silvia there.

I'm listening to Christmas music right now. Its splendid.

Daily Update

I woke up to a lovely European Morning. Drizzling rain, a cold gentle breeze, fallen leaves scattered everywhere, muted colors of every shade of gray, and toast for breakfast. I had done the usual routine by waking up early, ignoring my alarm, then sleeping till 10 after 9. Work is busy, Christmas songs are heard everywhere. It sounds so peculiar.

Last night Cheryl and I went to see the new Will Smith movie. It was kind of scary, and weird, yet somehow interesting. After that I took CS to Jack in the Box for dinner. I only realized after that it probably wasn't a great idea. I already found out that she didn't like Costco hot dogs the hard way, and now Jack in the box. I'm still learning... kind of.

So the craziest thing happened at work. Collins was asking about Steve's computer monitor. I asked him why he would want to switch monitors. Then I suggested that Steve doesn't use the computer that much anyway, but Collins looked at me plainly and said, " he wont' be using it anymore, at all". I was confused for a second, and asked him to clarify. He responded by stating that i don't check my [work] email very often. Even more confused, I checked my email, and found a memo from the bosses announcing that his services are 'no longer needed in helping us out'. Oh well, One less desk mate. No more Irish swearing, or stories of how he 'once wrote a Screenplay'. One thing's for sure, there will be a lot less swearing in the office.

Attention guys: mistletoe is on the move! In the past weekend's activities, both at a birthday party, and a Gingerbread house extravaganza, there were at least 12 mistletoe fungi's seen planted on ceiling fixtures and such. Both of these 'Suggestive' moves were done at Girls apartments. So be careful guys. and Girls, We know what you're up to. You and your devilish tricks!

Another peculiar thing in our office. We opened the third vat of popcorn this morning. And it too has been evaporating like crazy. Not to mention the 'desert type bread basket' that was dropped off for us. Mmmm, I love the holiday gift giving season.

I'm listening to the 'Last Battle' in the Chronicles of Narnia. The first 5-6 chapters were the worst things I've ever read. I actually stopped out of anger. I sat in turmoil for the next 30 minutes before I broke down and jumped into the wikipedia article that explained what was going on. after a quick read, I decided to continue in good faith. It steered a little more to a decent path, but never fully recovered. ... I just finished it and yup, the ending was truly worse than that of the third lord of the rings movie.

Lunch was sponsored by Taco Hell today. I went there cause I couldn't think of where else to go, and nothing else seemed to appease me.

daily update

On Friday night there was a fun little get-together at Fairburn. I was in my room, after work, preparing to fight the battle of my life when I got a call from Ms. Bethany herself. It turns out that she needed someone's help purchasing food items for the little b-day party she was throwing herself. She only gave me 45 minutes to do this, so I slowly hurried out the door to help a few friends out. Now the guest list had like 200 people on it easily, but they only told me to buy for 30. So I improvised and just got what I thought they would need. It may have been a little much, but oh well.

I treated myself to a glorious batch of Pancakes on Saturday morning. Right before I started plotting a computer model, and then physical model of my future Gingerbread house. Ahhh, just like school again. And all for a gingerbread house. Oh, just you wait though, Its going to be spectacular.

In the afternoon Jeff took some of us to see Alvin and the Chipmunks on the Fox Lot. It wasn't bad. It wasn't great, but entertaining. Better than I thought it would be. Then later I had to rush home, get dressed up, and meet some of my old school mates at some fancy restaurant in West Hollywood. Yes, I found out more about gay culture than I ever had wanted to. It wasn't all dudes though, I sat next to a chick I knew. She quickly reminded us how weird she sometimes is.

I woke up early on Sunday to plan out and make a foam-core model of my gingerbread house. It, like most things lately, took longer than I thought. As well, making the actual gingerbread dough. But in order to start that, I had to run over to Jeff's place to get the rest of the ingredients that I needed. Then mixing all that stuff took until 5 minutes after church started, then I got there 15 minutes late, so in other words, right on time for Elders Quorum :)

After church was over there was a very meager munch n' mingle. I found nothing there for me, so I just went home to start my gingerbread prep. While at home I realized that I didn't have the necessary bake-prep devices, so I had to do it somewhere else. At Greenfield.

The Gingerbread House Party at Greenfield was a Huge success. There were tons of people there. Too many in fact. That could have been part of the reason I left so early. But there were enough activities for all to enjoy. I was literally in the kitchen for 90% of the time working on cutting my Gingerbread shapes. There was hot Cider brewing. There was Eggnog, and a delightful assortment of cookies. There was a full table of people making gram-cracker houses being made. They were quite creative. And in the other room, if that wasn't enough, Emily had purchased a schlew of C-tree ornaments and some glitter/puffy inky stuff, that you would draw on the ornaments with. Now that was truly fascinating. I wish I would have spent more time decorating those bulbs.

Lunch was sponsored by the Corner Bakery

I'm listening to The Chronicles of Narnia- The Silver Chair right now. It was just like the last. They could have made a 10 minute story out of it and covered just as much ground. It was barley entertaining. No new concepts were revealed, and no new excitement was engaged.