entitlement?

i've been borrowing the internet for a good 6 months now. This usually works out just fine for me. After all, I have some Internets at work and on my phone already. So any Internets I use at home are for entertainment purposes. I'm just using it for looking at things, I think was the phrase I used to explain to the guy why I didn't need to have my own secure connection. I'm sure he thought that by "things" I meant porn. Sadly, I decided that I'd rather have him think that than explain that it's for looking at scrapbooks and blogs. ::sigh::
My borrowed Internet has been missing for 2 days now and you'd think I'm going thru detox if you saw me. I'm all edgy and restless and irritable and hungry. I haven't started puking and shaking yet, but I bet it's coming. So why do I mention all this? Because it's dawning on me how easily we can slip into this sense of entitlement in our lives. After all, it's not my neighbor's job to provide the Internet to me. Heck, the Internet isn't even a right. But man, am I annoyed.

waaay past my bedtime

Hello, all. Here are some general goings-on with which I could use help/feedback/support/encouragement/smiles:

1) If you volunteered to help with moving and I haven't already talked to you, it's because I can't recall who volunteered. If you are able to join us, I have several peeps lined up for Monday evening (Jen, Heidi, Kelly-B and their fellas), but the more the merrier. July 31. From the M-W to the 'Wood. It'll just be the big things. All the little boxes will be gone by then.
2) Update from the work front: I got the new job! Yay!! I'll be doing work on the same projects, but the work itself will be more technical. And at some point, more strategic. I love me some strategory!
3) Volleyball. If anyone wants to swing by Hooligan's at 6:30 or after, we could use any and all subs. We have 3 people out and it's tournaments, so we may not have subs depending on who we're playing at the moment (our usual subs are from the other work teams).
4) I'm really enjoying playing with Adobe Photoshop. Not for photo editing, for design and layout. Design #2 is posted here. Now all it needs is a photo or 2. I like it a lot considering I was just playing around. And, no mess to clean up when I'm done!

I hope everyone's having a good week so far. I'm going to try to be reasonably responsible and turn off the PC now. Oh, and I fixed my cookies (finally!) -- YAY!!

skin tag

this thing is driving me nuts. what should i do?

a) cut it off and cauterize the wound myself.
b) call now and make an appointment for some time several months from now, by which time I'll have been poking and prodding the thing to the point of nearly ripping it off anyway, or
c) bite it off.

VOTE NOW!!

Weakened America?

I heard some disturbing things on NPR this weekend. #1, one of the biggest trends among teens, tweens, and pre-tweens is spa visits. Spa visits, for pete's sake. As an employed, responsible, tax-paying adult, I've probably only been to a spa a handful of times. Yet we have an entire generation of young girls growing up who think this is part & parcel to everyday life. The reason why? This generation has the highest spending power per person than any generation before it. I believe the number was $159 billion. The report indicated that this works out to an average of $100 per week, per kid. Which is about $95 more per week than I have in expendable income. And with no financial obligations, these kids are going to grow right into a lifestyle that their jobs will not support. In case you're wondering who is instilling this set of values in these kids, it's the baby boomers. That's right. The Generation of the Underfunded Retirement is teaching their kids to put luxury purchases ahead of investing for the future. Now, I'm no money guru. Far from it. But I've learned the very hard way how to manage my money and make mostly responsible, fairly sound financial decisions. And it infuriates me that the very people for whom our government has had to implement the "catch up" retirement deposit is the same group encouraging their kids to follow in their footsteps.

I'm so upset about #1 that I can't even recall what #2 is. But when I do, I will definitely post a rant about it.

In other news, I decided to try my hand at digital scrapbooking. I wish scrapbooking had a cooler ring to it. Oh, well. I'm used to being a bit of a nerd. I will say that we have some good guys on our side. Mark Twain, for one. And that king from the book of Esther. They both had scrapbooks. And as self-absorbed as I sometimes feel that my scrapbooking can be, it also allows me to relive and enjoy the positive memories of my life.

Lastly, and I'm sure Heidi will have something to add about this, I wish our friends at Rubberm@id would have kept themselves focused on laundry baskets and storage tubs and out of the pre-fab shed business. Kelly's family (Mimi, Papa, and Abbey) along with Kelly and I got together today to put up her shed, the Big Max. The instructions indicated that this project should take 2 people a total of 30 minutes to complete. When I left at 9:45, the 5 of us had been at it since 7:30, and the roof was still not on the shed. We'll reconvene tomorrow to finish the job, but I just think that we either needed better directions or 2 giant guys from Rubberm@id in order to get that thing finished in 30 minutes. Silliness.

That's it for now. Hope everyone's doing well!

This landed on the windowsill just now...

...and one of my co-workers commented that it's probably because we all look bored nearly to death.

Nature. It's crazy.

open letter

dear lady shopping at biggs today.
when your kid comes careening around the corner pushing a kiddie cart at breakneck speed and almost takes out a couple of adult shoppers, don't tell her "Say 'Watch out!'". Tell her "Say 'Excuse me.'" Better yet, tell her to stop running around like a maniac in the store. Because next time, I'll tell her. And no one wants that. No one.

UPDATED. The people in your neighborhood

So, here are the links to the news stories:
http://www.channelcincinnati.com/news/9523596/detail.html
http://www.wcpo.com/news/2006/local/07/15/dynamite.html

The WCPO link is my favourite. You can actually see my neighbors and tenants in the photos there. One of which I have pasted here.

The picture right below that one is of 2 ladies I've never even seen before, standing in my driveway. I can NOT believe this all happened while I was out of town. Madness.

Apparently, in my neighborhood, they're hoarders of explosives and ammunition. I wish my little pocket internet could link this up, but it can't. So go to wcpo.com & find the headline about an evacuation in norwood. This is within a block of my house where I don't live. I'm in Urbana just trying to guess which of my neighbors this might be. Is it the guy across the street with the billy-bass mailbox? Or the other guy across the street who yells when anyone parks within 2 feet of the edge of his driveway? Is it the house where Herman the aged mutt lives? Or the abandoned-looking place that's 3 houses down? I'm pretty sure it's not either of my own next-door neighbors based on the description from the article. It could be the place 2 doors down where the old guy keeps a meticulous backyard. This is crazy.

If you ever find yourself wondering why I often say "welcome to my circle of despair," now you know.