Stephen's Journal

9:39am: All star game recap and other stuff
Went up to STL on Tuesday for the All star game. Went and hung out with my dad, we had hot dogs for dinner and settled in to watch the game. Although the American League won yet again, I'm glad it was a close game. I feel sorry for Albert going 0-3 with an error, but after the first inning he and Chase Ultey tore up the right side of the infield. Molina stayed in most of the game, finally coming out in the 8th inning. I stayed until the end of the game, and then went down to see Sarah.

She didn't get off until 11:30, so I had about an hour to kill. I had fun finding unsecured wireless networks in Arnold. Not too many around. Sarah said her work uses wireless, but they must keep it under tight wraps. Their network never showed up in my list of local networks (which displays secured networks also). We grabbed a bite to eat, talked a little while and then I made my way back home.

Work has been offering shit tons of overtime. This weekend alone they are giving out $50 gift cards to Walmart to the 10 agents who work the most OT. I'm considering going in for a couple of hours today. It will be taking regular calls, not help desk calls. I've taken help desk calls for so long, it's a little scary going back to regular calls! Tonight is the zombie role playing game, I need to find my character sheet for that and find out how to get over to Chris's house. Might need to buy some allergy medicine, I think they have a lot of cats over there.

Lastly I need to make mention of a weird dream I had last night. I was in some kind of retreat like atmosphere. Our group had this area to ourselves. The part I remember started when it was raining. We were all outside and had to come inside. This disappointed the group greatly, but we all decided to come inside. I'm hanging out with this girl I thought was cute, when Matt E. (from work) announced this was "her" last day as a male. Apparently she had undergone hormone therapy and had exhibited a lot of features of a female, but had not yet under gone a surgery to turn her completely female. This freaked me out greatly and I retreated to my room. I was sharing a room with my sister and had claimed the better bed, which really pissed her off. Later on it was my job to get pizza for the group. I headed out with my friend Bryan. We were heading out highway 70 going west to find a dominos. I told him I knew of one closer and that he should turn around and head back east, During this point I noticed he had his Sega Genesis in the car with the game Jurassic Park in it. We started talking about games, and I remarked that my sister and I had just beaten Toejam and Earl and I how I thought the game was too easy. On our way back east we ran into the rest of the group who was playing soccer on the highway. We got out and joined in the game. Father Goellner (a priest at St. Matthias when I was in school there, who has since passed away) was in the midst of the game playing with everything. I remember the teams were uneven, and we joined the short team. It was about this time the alarm went off. I know there was more to the dream before the rainstorm, but I just can't put my finger on it.

I love dreams, especially the crazy ones.

9:23am: Memory Monday 5
I'm late again, but I had to think hard for a baseball related story. This is one of the stories in which my memory may be a little hazy.

Soccer was my game in grade school, I played every year we had a team. I only played baseball for 1 year. I believe it was my 3rd grade year. Most of my memories revolve around people helping me in and out of the catcher's gear. I never had a hit that season, but I did lead the teams in walks. I believe I actually threw a couple of people out trying to steal second base. Most of the time I never tried. That year we had an end of the year tournament. We went to to the finals, but lost to St. Justin's. That was the only year I played. I imagine I didn't play any more since I felt I wasn't too good at it, unlike soccer.

The funny thing is that since then I have kept an eye out for St. Justin's teams. My sister played volleyball, softball and basketball and I played a bunch of soccer. You always arrive early for the games and see other teams finishing their game on the court/field. I have never seen St. Justin win again (any sport, any grade level).

9:08am: Another short weekend
These weekends are never long enough! Friday was spent with my dad going to the All Star Fan Fest. We hopped the metrolink down to the convention center to avoid the road closures and parking debacles. It worked very well, dad enjoyed the ride, and I would rather give my money to Metro than one of the lot operators downtown.

We got in with no problems, they were checking bags outside. The first room had some nice replicas of Sportsman Park and the two Busch Stadiums. They had a nice wall of history about the Cardinals, Browns and Stars (negro league team in STL). They had info about the St. Louis Hall of Famers and all the World Series that the Cardinals have won.

We moved into the main exhibition hall. Down the middle were many vendors, with activities along the wall. We watched the steal home challenge, in which some guy ran the 90 feet in 3.7 seconds. It as fun because a lot of friends raced each other and made up things that the loser would have to do. The guy with the microphone was very entertaining to listen to, They had an indoor batting cage, an area to practice fielding and an area to try to strike out a person. Taco Bell sponsored that event called Bring the Heat. If you succeeded in striking out the person you got Volcano Taco hat. It was taco shaped and when worn it looked like you were sporting a mohawk. They had displays on women in baseball, the minor leagues, the world baseball classic and the negro league. They had a list of teams from the negro league, my favorite name was the "Black Crackers". They had many radio stations broadcasting from fanfest. The point had an area for Take me out to the ballgame karaoke. There was an area where you could do your own play by play and take the recording home. There were many video games setup so fans could challenge each other in baseball games. They also had a neat area that was setup as the back wall of a baseball stadium. They had several steps you stood on and they took your picture from the waist up so that it appears you are jumping at the wall to save a ball from being a homerun. They also had a section where you watched plays and made the call. Most were calls about whether a runner was safe or out. One tricky one involved a bloop hit down 3rd base line. The 3rd baseman charged in, but the ball hits the ground and goes foul. You have to make the call on whether he touched it or not before it went foul.

We made our way through the exhibits and then looked at the vendors. I could have spent my life savings on pins there. I did pick up two. One commemorates the 2009 All Star game being in STL. The other is a very unique pin that caught my eye. They had 13 different pins of this type, each with a hall of famer on it. The pin has hinges on it so that it opens up. It features Stan Musial and has his stats on the inside. I will have to get a picture of it and post it as words will not do it justice. After that we headed out and caught the Metrolink back to the parking lot. We were exhausted by the time we got home. We were there just under 4 hours.


Saturday was spend with Sarah and my sister. We went up there to hang out. We did lunch at Wendys, the came back for some video games. At this point Sarah fell asleep on the couch, and stayed out for most of the time. My sister and I beat TJ&E with no problem. We would have beat Sonic 2 if I hadn't bumped the Sega with 3 levels to go. We then moved to Super Off Road, a game my sister admits she didn't play too much and wasn't too good at. We finished with some Road Rash. About 5 we called it a day and Sarah and I headed back south. The original plan was to meet up with Sean and maybe get a snocone. During dinner at O'Charlies Sarah and I were talking about how she still doesn't have a chest of drawers for her bedroom. She had checked several goodwill stores but didn't have any luck. I told her about one I knew of on Bayless, and we went to check it out. Turns out they had a chest of drawers there. We bought it, and the rest of the night was spent trying to get it back to her place. It came in two pieces. The bottom part has 3 large drawers (which do not come out) and is pretty damn heavy. We someone managed to get that into my backseat. The top part is more like a bookshelf. It would not fit in my car along with the other piece. Goodwill closed at 8, and at this point it was quarter after 7. They let us keep the bookshelf part there. We dropped the main part off at my dad's (and had a hell of a time getting it out of the backseat, went back to goodwill and got the other half. We dropped it off at her place, then came back for the drawer part. This time we leaned the front seats down and slid the furniture in. It fit a lot better, but left us cramped for space. None the less we made it down safely and got the chest of drawers into Sarah's room. By then it was close to 9:00 and I was tired as hell. I hit the road and made it back to the farm where I promptly fell asleep.

Weekends are never long enough!

11:16pm: Another year older and hopefully not deeper in debt
Happy birthday sungazing

9:17am: Work news and this weekend
You probably don't care about the work stuff, so I'll put it under a cut

( Read more... )

Tomorrow my dad and I are going to fanfest for the all star game. Since we can't go to the game, going to the fanfest will be good enough. Still get to be a part of everything. I was mentioning this to my dad to try and convince him to go, and one of my arguments was that neither of us have been to Cooperstown (Baseball hall of fame) and that they would have displays from the HOF. That is when I found out my dad has been to Cooperstown, but back in the 70s. They have a lot of interactive exhibits, like hitting and fielding which I know he wouldn't want to do. I sent him the website, and he called me this morning saying we have tickets for Friday.

Saturday I will get a chance to hang out with my sister and see Sarah. Nothing concrete there, but I think my sister and I will be playing some Toejam and Earl. Always good times there.

8:58am: Memory Monday 4
Sorry I'm a day late here, it just slipped my mind.

This week I take us out of the neighborhood I grew up in and into high school where my horizons were greatly broadened. The end of my junior year I was in my first play. Over the summer, my friend Joe convinced me to go over to Notre Dame and do a play over there. He had being doing plays there since his sophomore year. Since Notre Dame is an all girl school, it can be hard to find male actors for some plays.

Fall of our senior year (97) Notre Dame was doing The Crucible. I ended up getting the largest role of my life, Reverend Hale. I got to dress like a puritan and be an expert in the occult. My friend Joe was hoping to get the lead role, but instead was the judge in the court. At the end of the 3rd act there is a court proceeding. Big drama happens and leads to me and Joe yelling at each other in the scene. This was very fun to do, and leads to me storming out of the scene.

During the play I am carrying around a large book, which is supposed to be my book about the occult. In actuality it was a large, outdated dictionary we had hanging around the house. During the first couple of performances I slammed the book down on the stage, and toppeled a few of the benches over as I stormed out of the scene. I think I scared several of the extras who were playing townfolk. The closing show I thought I would spice it up. Instead of slamming the book down, I hurled it offstage. It slammed down and skidded across the floor. It landed closer to the audience than I had intended, but was in no danger of hitting anyone. I'd love to see the video of everyone on stage, but I remember seeing a lot of shocked extras as I stormed off stage.

10:26am: Broke the bed
First off, don't get any ideas in your head. This story does not head down the path of kinkiness at all.

I decided last night (although I was thinking about it for a while) to rearrange the bedroom. Moving heavy things with one person can be a challenge, but I figured since I was off the next two days I had plenty of time and was in no rush. First thing I needed to do was take the bed out of the bedroom. The mattress a little heavy, and the boxsprings was no problem. This issue was with the frame. The headboard and footboard are connected by 2 rails that run the length of the bed. I was able to get the rails out of the headboard, but has having issues with the footboard. As I was trying to coax the rail out, a piece of wood snapped off. I have no idea how old the bed set is, I got it secondhand for free. So now the mattress and boxsprings are sitting on the floor. I have the bed in a corner, so my pillows don't fall off the bed when I'm sleeping. I got the other piece of big furniture moved, I just have to move a couple of smaller things.

Sarah called me when she got off work, and I was wandering the apartment while I was talking. I gashed my foot on the railing on the bed (which is now set in the living room). I broke the skin and may leave a nice scar on my foot. Not sure what I'm going to do about the bed. I don't think I want to repair the frame (the rails and supports underneath are quite warped). I may buy a new frame once I can get the money to do so. For now I will sleep with no frame. I can't tell a difference sleeping, but it makes getting out of bed much harder since I am so low to the ground.

At the moment I'm following Wimbledon online. Andy Roddick is up a set on Andy Murray. The winner will face Federer on Sunday. Tomorrow the Willams sisters face each other in their final. Should be good to watch.

8:27pm: The other change
Yesterday I said a lot of change was going on. Sarah moved out recently. She is living in Imperial with her dad and brother. They need the help. I recommeded that she send the money she pays me each month for rent and the phone/internet to her family. Either way I would be paying everything for this place. She didn't want to go that route. I still don't know how she expects to pay for more household expenses when she is making less money up there and she has no vehicle (her car needed a new engine, $1700 was the damage). It just seems everything she has worked so hard for has all come crashing down.

So I'm staying put the moment. I can afford this place by myself. I don't really want to move back to where I lived before and have to sign another lease. Who knows what is going to happen. I was kind of in a holding pattern. Prior to all of this Sarah was planning on moving to Nashville next year for film school, and I was going to go down there with her. Now I doubt that will happen. I really don't know where the future is taking me. For now I have a roof over my head and a steady job, which is more than a lot of people. I'm hoping some good can come from the seperation, but I fear it may cause more problems. Right now I'm just taking it one day at a time.

10:30pm: Lots of changes
I will start with the good, and talk about the bad tomorrow.

I bought a laptop on Friday. I love it, despite the vista thing. 2.1 gig dual core processor, 4 gigs ram, and a 17 inch screen. The 17 inch screen was the big selling point. The keyboard is pretty much regular size with a full number pad on the right side. Got the wireless network setup, I really never need to leave my bed! I was just talking to my friend Joe on yahoo, and played around with the webcam feature. Then Joe gave me a call from comp to comp and we had a nice talk. I've always said that having a laptop was a luxury, I'm very thankful that I was able to get one and for a decent price.

7:56pm: Memory Monday 3
Keeping with the games theme, I bring you this story.

The street in our subdivision was in a constant state of replacement. It seems that every year or so a part of it was being repoured with concrete. There was an area in which existed 4 spaces that were pretty much square. This made a great impromptu tennis court. There was no net of course, we judged for ourselves if something was too low. My sister and I were playing one afternoon when Mr. Eck came down the hill. He saw us, and slowed down. In this situation we would stop the game, and let the car go through. Mr. Eck made some hand signals to me as he crept up behind my sister. I think I was serving, and delayed my serve for a couple of seconds as he inched closer to my sister. He couldn't have been more than a couple of feet away when he honked the horn which scared the shit out of my sister. If this were a cartoon, she would have jumped 15 feet into the air. Mr. Eck and I had a good laugh, I don't remember how my sister reacted. I think she was distracted every time we played tennis in the street, scared that a car might sneak up on her.

11:35pm: Who will be the next two?
We've had 3 celebrity deaths lately, now a 4th. Billy Mays died! Another man shot down in his prime. Sounds like he got hit by some luggage during a rough landing. He seemed fine that day, but died the next. This is crazy times for celebrity deaths. I don't think I can remember to many dying so quickly.

10:31am: How many people do they think I'm feeding?
Twice in the last month of so Buffalo Wild Wings has done something crazy with my takeout order.

1) I think I posted about this, but I ordered some traditional wings for myself and some boneless for Sarah. I think we had 16 wings between us. We both love the bleu cheese. That day they gave us 8 containers! We made them last for a while, it was nice.

2) I got takeout last night. They gave me 7 wet wipes. I could almost wipe my hands after every wing I ate. How messy do you think I am?

7:48pm: 3 deaths
1) Ed McMahon - Not a huge suprise here, he had been having trouble for a while (health and financial). Kind of sad to see him go from being pretty big to struggling.
2) Farah Fawcett - Not much of a fan, didn't watch Charlie's Angels, if it wasn't for that poster with the nipple showing should may have never come on my radar.
3) Michael Jackson - Huge shock! 50 years old. I never was a fan of his music (I didn't listen to 80s music in the 80s), but I give him props for giving Weird Al a career. Al wasn't very widely known until Eat it (from Beat it) and Fat (from Bad). Sounds like Michael and Al had a good relationship.

There is our 3, I guess celebrity deaths will take some time off for now.

9:00am: Suck and more suck later
Recap: Help desk agent for giant cell phone company helping agents and taking escalations

First call I took at this morning was an escalation. Long story short, guy wanted new phone because his broke, not elig for upgrade, no insurance on phone, outside of 30 day period. Agent explained options to him, I went over them again. He could go through manufacture's warranty (no cost), take it into store to have it repaired (costs him) or use his upgrade and get another phone (again cost). Customer states he will not go to store, as the closest one is across state lines. I checked and we're talking 5 miles away. He emphatically states that this will be resolved on this call. I inform him this will not be resolved, that even if I wanted to order him a phone I could not as our department does not have the capability or systems to do so. He said last time this happened the shipped him out a new phone right away with an envelope to mail back the old one. I checked, and he has never had the insurance (which would allow for that kind of situation). I apologized, but explained I don't know how that happened last time. In the background I hear him ask "how long does it take to port a number?" At this point in my career this does not phase me. I inform him of etf, he starts calling me every name in the book and says that if I can't get him a new free phone he's canceling. With those magic words I transfered him, hoping our cancellations dept wouldn't cater to this dick.

Now, I have calls like that every day. Kind of sucky, but nothing too bad. Cut to later in the day.

I'm in a meeting with my supervisor S and S's supervisor K. It's a new program where all 3 of us listen to a couple of my calls and discuss. The big boss happened to pick my first call from today. We listened to it, but unknown to me, our systems still record after I put the customer on hold. You hear the hold music on our end, but you can still hear the customer. He is laughing and talking to a friend, talking about how he loves harassing us, that last time it took him forever to get his free phone because he had to escalate to the CEO, and a whole bunch of other things that I can't remember at the moment. My jaw hit the ground when I heard all of that. S and K were pretty taken back at that also. After it is over, K says "we're flagging that call". I don't know what the end result will be, but I know in the past K has had corporate terminate customer's service with our company because of they way they have treated the representatives. When K speaks, stuff happens.

I'll try and provide a followup in the next couple of weeks to see if anything happens.

9:06am: Memory Monday 2
Picking up from last week, we are still on the subject of bicycles and my friend Bryan. This story stems from a commercial on television during the 90s. I've tried finding it, and alas I cannot. I believe the commercial was for Sprite as part of the series of "image is nothing, thirst is everything". At one point in the commercial you see a bunch of a preppie guys dressed in ascots, sweaters and khakis holding tennis rackets. One of them says something along the lines of "want to play another game, Buffy". Somehow, the word Buffy became equivalent for tennis. Hence the name of our game, B.O.B. or Buffy on Bikes.

We played at a park not too far from our house which had 2 tennis courts, but more importantly, a nice sized usually empty lot. The objective was like football or basketball; get to other side of the court in order to score. You held the racket in 1 hand with the face of the racket up, and bounced a tennis ball in the air. You steered the bicycle with the other hand. One eye was always on the ball making sure you had control over it, and your other eye was trying to make sure you didn't crash into anything. The opponent would try and steal the ball away from you. If you dropped the ball, it was fair game.

Needless to say this game was a very violent game. I can't begin to count the number of crashes that happened on that parking lot. Neither of us was ever seriously injured, but the game involved many risks for serious injury. I think the plan was to eventually play the game in teams of 2, which would allow for passing the ball to your partner and more crashes. I don't think we ever got 4 people on the court to play, but I seem to recall having a 3rd person there once (maybe my friend Matt?).

All in all, we had a lot of fun playing (which is the point of it right?), however I don't think it would be something I would let my kids play.

Keeping with the theme here, next week's story is another involving tennis and our neighborhood. It's a short story, but one I still laugh about.

9:57pm: Birthday weekend day 3
Day 3 started at 4:00 AM. Unfortunately the sun didn't co-operate. Actually, it was the clouds that caused mischief. There was a large crowd at Cahokia Mounds, probably close to 100. It was a neat presentation that lasted about 40 minutes. We heard a lot of history about the moundbuilders and the recent excavations and theories about the people. Afterwards we headed to Collinville for breakfast at Bob Evans, then back home for 8:00 mass. After that I napped for a bit and my sister showed up. We bbqed, had chicken, mac salad and deviled eggs. After lunch my sister and I played some darts downstairs. I won 3 games to 2. (neither of us are very good). After that we took a trip out to Ted Drewes for dessert. After that was home. For my birthday I got a new over the shoulder bag, some $ and a best buy gift card (wonder where that will go??). Very enjoyable time, I had a wonderful weekend. Going into work tomorrow is going to suck hardcore.

7:13pm: Birthday weekend day 2
Saturday started with some confusion. I was going to hang out with Jeff and Julie, but could not contact them. Sarah and I ended up heading out for some adventures. We went into Illinois to the newly built rampway and viewed the skyline. From there we crossed back into Missouri and headed back to the hill for canoli part 2. We ended near Brentwood, where I looked at some laptops. I found one I think I will purchase. I should be getting the laptop sometime later this week.

We went back and watched some television. That 70s show rocks. Watched part of an episode of a series called "Penguins of Madagascar", it was interesting. I had to get ready for the evening's events: dinner with Ted.

Ted and I met up at the Target in Hampton Village and drove my car downtown. We parked and took the underground tunnel to the Millenium Hotel. We arrived right on time for the reservation. We had a great dinner, complete with drinks, salads, filet mignon for me and lamb for Ted, followed by desert. Ted had a great time, and we made our next bet to be fulfilled in 2012. The premise is will the republican nominee for president in 2012 be someone who has run for president before? We don't count people who have formed exploratory commitees, but haven't competed in primaries. Ted says the republicans will field someone new in 2012. He can't think of anyone old that can unify the party. I don't think the republicans can beat the democrats in their game of "change", and will look for someone with experience to run. We also made a side bet (no stakes for that). We guessed on what day of the year half the states will have held their republican primary. Since in 2008, everyone pushed theirs up, we figure it will probably get worse. We both are of very similiar thinking on this. He guessed March 15, I guessed March 7th. The stakes for the main bet are another dinner at Top of the Riverfront. Even if I lose this one, it will still be a great time!

7:01pm: Birthday weekend day 1
Sarah and I went to see Joe's new place in Webster. It is quite nice, but his living situation is not. He is living with Patti, who is also his business partner (dog walking and grooming and whatnot). She is 55 or 56 (Joe is my age) and a recovering alcoholic. Joe thinks she is just using him, I agree. We went to lunch at El Burrito Loco (which btw Sarah, is in south city). We hit the hill for a canoli and then back to Joe's place. We took our leave shortly after and went to see a movie.

We saw The Hangover, which was pretty good. Sarah said it reminded her of "Dude, where's my car". The plan was to head to Sean's, but Sean wasn't feeling well. Sarah and I got sno cones, drove around JB for a while then hit dinner at Lion's Choice. Thus ended the first day of my birthday weekend.

12:14am: Plans for the next few days
Friday

1) Hang out with Joe during the day, possibly hit El Burrito Loco for lunch
2) Meet up with Sean in the evening. I'm sure video games will commence, along with a trip to the Sno Cone Nazi

Saturday

1) Nothing yet during the day, maybe see my sister
2) Dinner with Ted at 6:30 at Top of the Riverfront.

Sunday

1) Watch the sunrise with my dad at Cahokia Mounds
2) ???
3) Come back to Farmington at some point

8:08pm: Memory Monday 1
Here is the first "official entry" for Memory Monday. I came up with this concept as I was up in STL on Saturday. I was stopped at a light at Victory and Lemay Ferry when I saw two kids, probably 14 or 15 riding their bicycles across Lemay Ferry. I stopped and looked, thinking that about 15 years ago someone in that vicinity might have seen myself and my friend Bryan doing the same thing. Then a sobering thought hit me; 15 years ago, those kids may not have been born.

Bryan and I did a lot of riding in our days. It was a great escape the house in summer. One trip sticks out in my mind. Bryan had his eye on a piece of software called Ram Doubler. It was supposed to double the amount of RAM on your computer, (I'm assuming it played the virtual memory setting, not really sure). We rode up to Best Buy, bought it and installed it. The plan was to return the software, thus netting Bryan a free piece of software. We rode back up to BB after the fact. Bryan wanted me to do the return, and I had my first run in with software return policies. We couldn't get our money back, but we could exchange for another piece of software. We looked around at Mac software (the selection was limited), and Bryan picked up a game by Bungie called Pathways into Darkness. It turned out to be a kick-ass game that we both enjoyed (and to my knowledge, we've never beaten it). It's a first person shooter game, but I like to think of it as killing with a purpose. You're exploring this pyramid in Mexico or Central America. As you go deeper down, you can communicate with the dead bodies of other people who have traveled into the pyramid. The goal is to get to the bottom and deactivate a nuclear bomb before it does off. I could go on and on about this game, and maybe I will in a future Memory Monday post.

I have a story lined up again next week, it involves Bryan and bicycles again. After that, I'm not sure where I'll go. Maybe each story will have a link to another story, or there may be no rhyme or reason to them. Who knows. At least you'll get to know a little more about me in the process.

9:35am: Third time around
Haven't done this in a while, but nothing has changed. Julie is still on top!

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8:14pm: Memory Monday (2 days early)
I've decided to start a new feature for my journal called Memory Monday. This replaces Musical Lyric Monday. Eventually I'll think of a feature that starts with a T, S or W so I can post on different days of the week.

Memory Monday is dedicated to things that happened that predate your LJ account. For me, it will be a lot of things from my childhood. Monday's entry will explain to you why I decided to do this. Today's first entry focuses on that is recent, but has it's roots in high school.

Flashback to 1994. As a graduation gift, I got Sega Genesis. It came with Sonic the Hedgehog (part 2) and for my birthday I got Road Rash 2. I loved those games a lot, but after a while 2 games gets kind of boring. I was saving money for a game, and my friend Bryan suggested Dune II. He had heard a lot of good things about it. Looking back, many game analysts say it was the first great real time strategy game. There was no save system, just a password after each level. The later levels could take as much as an hour and a half to two hours to beat. I was enthralled by the game. Then somehow (I don't remember how) I found out that this was based on a book series. I quickly checked out Dune from the local library and had loved the series every since.

I picked up my license plates yesterday. MUAD'DIB means means educator in Arabic. In Dune, it is the sietch name of the main character. Think secret name that is only used in his tribe, a name outsides wouldn't know. In the Dune universe, Muad'Dib is also a desert kangaroo mouse, admired by the indigenous people for its ability to conserve water in the desert. Growing up, there was a short list of things I wanted on a personalized license plate. This one won out. Since it all wouldn't fit, I had to omit a D. I'll still damn happy with it.

2:20pm: The 4:29 call
Got a call at 4:29 this morning. Sarah was on her way back from STL and her car caught fire. It wasn't too bad as she was able to put it out with a bottle of water. They didn't send a fire truck, but someone from the highway dept showed up. Sounds like it was a timing belt that stopped working and caught fire. I got to watch it get light out this morning as I had to go north of Bonne Terre to pick her up. This throws a lot of kinks in a lot of plans. I was able to get the car towed to a place today while Sarah was at work. I shutter to think what the damage looks like underneath.

Speaking of getting up early, I have one thing for certain on my schedule for next weekend. Dad has agreed to go to the summer solstice sunrise observance at Cahokia Mounds. We went in 2005. Here is the description from the website.

"Learn about the discovery, form and function of this ancient post-cirlce sun calendar. 5:20 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. Meet at the reconstructed Woodhenge, West of the Interpretive Center on Collinsville Road."

That's for now.

10:08pm: 1.5 hour detour
I had a great conversation with Sean earlier tonight. By the end of it, we had talked an hour and a half. I realized how much I miss the times we had together. It's probably been 6 months since I've talked to him, in other words way too long.

I called to tell him something that I will tell all of you (since I didnt think he reads LJ anymore): I will be up for my birthday weekend. I have 3 days off, June 19th, 20th and 21st. I hope to be in STL the whole time. I want to see all of you, so let me know. Let's spend some time together and make some good memories for the future.

I only have one thing for sure that I need to do, and that is collect my dinner from Ted:)

10:10am: Musical Lyric Monday
Heard this band on loveline last night. Great song, full of deep stuff.

Sometime After Midnight by Airborne Toxic Event

And it starts...
Sometime around midnight
Or at least that's when
You lose yourself
For a minute or two

As you stand...
Under the barlights
And the band plays some song
About forgetting yourself for a while
And the piano's this melancholy soundcheck
To her smile
And that white dress she's wearing
You haven't seen her
For a while

But you know...
That she's watching
She's laughing, she's turning
She's holding her tonic like a crux
The room suddenly spinning
She walks up and asks how you are
So you can smell her perfume
You can see her lying naked in your arms

And so there's a change...
In your emotions
And all of these memories come rushing
Like feral waves to your mind
Of the curl of your bodies
Find more lyrics at www.kovideo.net
Like two perfect circles entwined
And you feel hopeless, and homelss
And lost in the haze
Of the wine

And she leaves...
With someone you don't know
But she makes sure you saw her
She looks right at you and bolts
As she walks out the door
Your blood boiling
Your stomach in ropes
And when your friends say what is it
You look like you've seen a ghost

And you walk...
Under the streetlights
And you're too drunk to notice
That everyone is staring at you
And you so care what you look like
The world is falling
Around you

You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her

And you know that she'll break you
In two