The topic of whiskey came up tonight, and that reminded us of this great story from November 2007. Enjoy:

Apparently I should not be allowed out in public after sharing 3/4 of a bottle of whiskey with Stacey.

We spent most of Black Friday trying to figure out what to do with ourselves. The world was our oyster, but it was a cold oyster, and most of the fun stuff we could think of required a lot of outdoor walking around. We REALLY wanted to go shopping, but not along with the crazed hordes of sleep-deprived soccer moms who'd been at the mall since 4 am. I am in dire need of warm clothing and boots, but I knew that it would only take about five minutes at the mall before I went postal and started shooting bolas de fuego from my eyes.

So shopping was out. I asked Stacey if she wanted to go bowling. I figured we could have a few beers, maybe some snacks, roll a few balls, and it would kill an hour or two. She agreed and we went down the street to the bowling alley, prepaid for two games and our shoes and got all set up at lane 25. I found my trusty 6-pound ball, typed our names into the computer and then headed right to the bar. We discussed drink options while we waited for someone to come take our order. After a few minutes, the crusty old hag behind the counter yelled over to us from the snack bar section. "The bar isn't open yet!"

WHAT? The bar is not open yet?? I couldn't believe my ears. "When will it be open?" I asked her, trying to remain positive.

"Not until 5:30."

It was only a little after 2. We were fucked. We walked back to lane 25, sober and dejected. "This is bullshit!" I yelled. "How can the bar be closed? This is a bowling alley! I can't have a beer while I'm bowling?? Isn't this AMERICA?!?!"

But, we tried to make the best of the situation. Especially since I had already paid for us to bowl two games. We figured we would just get those two games out of the way as quickly and painlessly as possible (easier said than done with NO BEER!), and then head to Nipper's. In my very first frame, I threw a strike. The screen above our lane flashed with the big red X and then a little animated scene began. It showed a mug of beer sliding down a lane and smashing into all of the pins. Then the screen mocked me and proclaimed this was a "BEER FRAME!"

That started my rant all over again. "How can it be a beer frame when the bar is closed? That's fucking false advertising!"

I managed to bowl a 115 in that first game, which is a pretty decent score for me. Especially when you consider my technique. My Uncle Paul and his college buddies were the ones that taught it to me. They called it Ogre Bowling. First, you find the smallest ball you can. I like the six-pound ones they keep in the back for the little kids. Then you get a good running start and launch the ball as hard as you can down the lane. Even if you don't get it right up the middle, the sheer force behind it will usually mean that a lot of pins go down. Usually because they knock into each other after flying through the air. It's great fun.

Stacey's bowling technique is much different. First of all, she likes to cross the foul line and make the buzzer go off. Then the little referee animation comes on and yells at her. So then she takes the ball (She usually goes for the basic eleven-pounder, but this place is prejudiced against odd numbers so she switched off between a ten and a twelve) and walks all the way up to the beginning of the lane, turns around backwards, and tosses it between her legs. This usually gets her a strike. It's amazing to watch.

Shit. I got all caught up in the bowling story and now I'm losing steam. I'll never get around to explaining that opening line if I don't get on with it. Right.

Like I said, after the bowling alley we went to Nipper's. They also managed to disappoint us in various ways before our time there was up. I wanted to get some lunch since I hadn't eaten anything yet that day. Stacey had already eaten, but she got a crock of french onion soup anyway. I ordered a salad with chicken on it, and ranch dressing on the side. When the bartender delivered it, I took the lid off the little sauce cup of ranch dressing and noticed something strange right away. It looked really thick and seemed the wrong color. I sniffed it and thought it smelled a little bit like mayonnaise. But it didn't look EXACTLY like mayonnaise, and I did sort of smell ranch dressing too, so I asked Stacey for her opinion. She agreed that it seemed strange so we tasted it. It did have that little tang to it like ranch dressing normally does, so I figured it must be okay and dumped it all over my salad.

About three bites in, I realize that I taste mayonnaise. But I can't figure it out exactly, because I also taste ranch dressing. What the fuck? Stacey suggested that maybe they were running low on dressing & mixed it with mayo to make it last longer. I don't know. But whatever it was, it was starting to make me feel sick to my stomach so I stopped eating it.

Meanwhile, we still don't know what the fuck to do with ourselves for the rest of the day. It was still pretty early in the afternoon at this point and my ideas were running out just as fast as the disappointments were mounting up. Then I remembered that Nipper's has The Society Page by the door so I ran and grabbed one. We leafed through it, promising each other that if some asshole with a camera ever walked up to us in a bar and asked us to pose with The Society Page, we would promptly tell him to fuck off because we so don't want to be these girls. Towards the back I spotted an ad for O'Malley's that said Don't Call Me Francis was playing there that night. Stacey decided she needed a new memory there, so it was decided. We finally had a plan.

Unfortunately, our plan hit a speed bump right away. The band probably wouldn't hit the stage until at least nine, maybe later. That gave us something like five or six hours left to fill. What the FUCK were we going to do?

Somehow or other we came to the conclusion that the only thing left to do was go back home and crack open the bottle of whiskey that my Aunt Kathy gave me at Thanksgiving the day before. She is moving and cleaning out her house, and apparently they had a treasure trove of unopened liquor bottles that people had given to them as gifts over the years. They were just collecting dust and she didn't want to move them to the new house, considering they were obviously never going to drink the stuff. So I got a big basket of booze to take home.

I poured myself a glass and put on Eddie Murphy Delirious. We drank whiskey and giggled and said some of the lines right along with him. When Delirious was over, I put Raw in and we continued drinking and giggling. The sky grew darker, the whiskey bottle grew emptier, and before I knew it the credits were rolling and it was time to freshen up and head out.

I would like to point out at this juncture that the next morning I woke up and went into the bathroom to discover a half-drunk glass of whiskey sitting on the counter next to the curling iron, which was STILL TURNED ON. Yay whiskey!

Considering the state I left the bathroom in, I wonder what I looked like when we left the house. Did I even curl my hair? Did I reapply my makeup? I have no idea. I was probably nothing short of a hot mess.

Stacey drove, and when we got there we were delightfully surprised to find out that there was free valet parking. The valet parking guys were delighted by us as well. First, we made a big scene getting out of the car and yelling about putting things in the trunk. Then we walked into the bar, realized we still had our coats on, and turned around to go harass the valet guy some more. He walked us over to the heated garage in the back and we threw our coats in the car. Then, the real trouble began.

A bouncer sat at the door taking money and handing out bracelets. Don't Call Me Francis apparently rates a $10 cover. I thought nothing of this at the time because I had a wad of twenties in my hand, but the guy in front of us in line was very distressed. He was arguing with the bouncer about the outrageous cover charge, and trying to convince him that he knew "Frank." The bouncer was not impressed.

"I don't know any Frank," the bouncer told the cheap man ahead of us in line. "I know Francis."

I got bored of this scene very quickly and shoved a twenty dollar bill at the bouncer. "You won't have any problems from us!" I told him, pushing the cheap man and his girlfriend aside. The bouncer looked relieved for the intervention and handed us bracelets. We left the cheap couple there to fend for themselves.

Now, from here on in I have no real recollection of anything I was saying. Stacey could probably tell you better than I can. What I do know is that I was a ranting, whiskey-drunk asshole and that no one was safe from my scathing judgments. I was screaming at top volume all night long about this fat girl and her shiny shirt, and some dude with a watch. I made fun of the singer, the band members, and basically anyone that entered my field of vision. Stacey did not know what to do with me at all. She alternated between telling me to "Rein it in, Dana! Rein it in!" and falling on the floor convulsing with laughter.

She told me in the morning some of the things I was saying about these poor people, and I'm honestly surprised that I didn't get either kicked out of the bar or beaten up by that fat girl in the shiny shirt. Then again, Stacey kept telling me to knock it off and I would scream at her, "NO! I'll fucking fight that bitch if she has a problem with it! I'm not going to be quiet! Fuck her!" So I guess anyone in their right mind would've known better than to provoke me any further. It's not like the entire bar couldn't hear every word I was saying.

The fat girl in the shiny shirt was ridiculed for not only her weight and her clothing, but also because she was drinking a glass of wine. The guy she was there with got ridiculed just for being there with her. I believe Stacey told me I acted out a conversation between the two of them which had her laughing so hard she couldn't breathe, and then one of the fat girl's friends showed up and I yelled out, "Oh my God! Look at her FUCKING FRIEND!!"

The friend heard this and looked at me curiously. I turned back to Stacey and said, "Oh, shit. I think she heard me!" It was at this point that I finally let her drag me away from there, but it didn't take long for me to find someone new to yell about. "Look at those fat girls next to us! They should be in the corner or something!" I yelled, much to Stacey's dismay. Then, the fat girls decided to take a seat in a corner booth and I was overjoyed. "Oh look! They know they belong in the corner! Look at them go!" Beyond the Fat Girl Corner, I spotted a private party in the back room and said, "They look like they're all from West Virginia. Or Gloucester City. One of those." (O'Malley's is in Gloucester City, FYI)

I got dragged away again, and we went to go stand by the juke box. This was where Watch Boy and his friend Pink Shirt came into the picture. They asked us to scoot over a little so they could pick some songs on the jukebox. I told them it would be no problem for us to get out of their way, but that we were going to stand right next to them and ridicule all of their song choices. And we so did. I also decided that they must be dating each other, because who else would want them? And then I threw out an Eddie Murphy line from earlier. "I'm gonna bend over, and when I do, START FUCKING!"

Finally the band came on and I was distracted, at least temporarily, by the music. We danced for a bit, and I remained quiet until I noticed the girl dancing in front of me. "What is with her and those leggings?" I asked Stacey. "Is she serious?"

I really wish I could remember more of what I said. And it's not really like I have blank spots in my memory other than the actual words that were coming out of my mouth. I remember all of the images vividly. I remember the party of West Virginians, the shiny shirt girl with her glass of wine, the boys by the juke box. I remember every moment, I just have no idea what I was saying the entire time. This was a night when I REALLY could have used the tape recorder. It's a shame I didn't bring it with me.

Maybe if you're lucky, Stacey will rehash some of the finer points for you in the comments section.

If anybody out there is all depressed that the Phillies didn't win the World Series, I would like to point out that the Eagles are number one in the NFC East right now. So welcome to football season. Goodbye baseball. I don't want to hear about it anymore.

Yes, that's right. We're on top of the division, over the Cowboys and the Giants. The Giants are now third, after we kicked the crap out of them last week, and the Cowboys are coming to town on Sunday. I can't wait.

But that's not what I came here to talk about today. I came to talk about the draft Halloween pictures. There are actually two sets of them, one from Friday night at the Mummer's Museum and one from Saturday night at the house. For that party, as you may or may not know, we came up with the wacky idea to all dress as kid's characters turned into zombies. We had punch, of course, and handed out prizes for the costume contest. It seemed like everyone had a good time and it was a nice night with no drama or craziness. The party on Friday night had enough craziness to last me the whole weekend anyway. We decided not to do the whole zombie makeup thing for the first party, because we knew it would probably ruin our outfits. And I totally did get fake blood and zombie makeup all over mine, so that was definitely a good call.

Here are some highlights, starting with our costume contest prize winners showing off their prizes:


Best Costume - Andrea as Zombie Alice



Scariest Costume - Wil as Zombie Pee Wee Herman



Most Original Costume - Mike as a Shoobie



Funniest Costume - Joe Vincent as Zombie Plankton



This guy was literally crying over all the beer spilled on the dance floor



Damn, I'm pretty hot with black hair, right? Bonus Pop Tart Girl in the background



Doing the Time Warp



Doing the Time Warp, AGAIN



The eyeballs are not edible! Don't eat the eyeballs!



Looking hot even as a zombie

Welcome to November my friends. I hope you voted today. I will have Halloween pictures for you soon, I promise. In the meantime I do have pictures from my birthday, which was over a month ago. The delay is not entirely my fault. I didn't bring my camera and Mojo just now got around to putting these pictures up that he took with his camera. I totally stole them off his facebook page (I can't believe I just typed that) and fixed my red eyes and then uploaded them to flickr.

There aren't very many of them, but my hair looks fantastic in all the ones of me. The Eagles won that day, and I had a great time with my friends. It was a good birthday.

We were talking about this story recently, I think possibly at Lygia's surprise birthday party, and in order to assuage my guilt over not making time to write a real entry, I'm re-posting an old one yet again. This one is not from as long ago, it is only from last year, September 2, 2008:

I eventually found out what happened to Stacey. Around 9 30 Friday night I got a phone call from Ralfie. He said, "I'm drunk and I'm dialing you! How do you like that?" I asked him if Stacey was with him and he said, "What's it to you?" I told him I just wanted to make sure she was okay since she never came home from work. He assured me she was fine and with him and they were going to the Pufferbelly. I told him that I hate the Pufferbelly. They are liars and false advertisers. They still owe me a prize for the bartending contest. Plus, they kicked us out that one time. I am not pleased with the Pufferbelly.

Somehow or other Ralfie convinced me to come meet them there anyway. I warned him that I had no money to spend at the bar and he told me he would buy me drinks. I told him that I was waiting for my mother to come pick up the baby and I didn't know how long I would be. That warning did not stop him from calling me back two more times to find out where I was and if I was on my way yet. I could tell that I would have a lot of catching up to do when I got there. Ariana told me to punch him in the gut for her when I saw him.

When I got to the Pufferbelly there was a DJ playing and the bar was pretty empty. Ralfie bought me a beer and a shot of tequila and told me there was supposed to be karaoke, but there were no songbooks, no slips and no pencils. See what I mean about the false fucking advertising and the lying? I hate them. As soon as I finished my beer we left and I drove us to another bar. Stacey and Ralfie had walked there from his house and didn't even have a car there. Since I was lagging way behind their drunkenness I was completely fine to drive. We decided to go to Villari's.

The first thing I saw when we walked in there was a guy wearing a Dallas jersey. I immediately started yelling at him. "Dallas sucks!" A guy sitting near me turned around and said something like, "I hope you two are married!" I looked at the guy in the Dallas jersey, looked back at the guy that made such a ridiculous comment and said, "No way in hell would I ever marry that guy." Then I noticed there was someone in a Giants jersey across the bar. I told Ralfie and Stacey that we better not stay here long or I'd end up getting in a lot of trouble.

We had another shot and another beer. I think Stacey was actually only having beers at this point but Ralfie was doing shots of tequila with me. We moved out onto the dance floor although we didn't really intend to dance. This didn't stop the DJ from turning on the fog machine and the flashy lights. I gave Ralfie a good roundhouse kick to the face. Actually I was wearing tight jeans and I couldn't get my leg up that high, it came more to his shoulder. But the same guy that asked if I was married to the Dallas fan had something to say about this. He started yelling about, "Did you see that? She totally kicked you in the face!" Ralfie went over and explained to him that this kind of thing happens all the time, and I started telling the guy how bad an example that was for one of my infamous roundhouse kicks to Ralfie's face.

Then we danced our way out of the bar and moved on to the next one. I drove us to Weaver's, which used to be called Meat's Pub. We walked in and I thought we had been magically transported to The Dresden from Swingers with Marty and Elayne playing. I ran into the bathroom and left Stacey and Ralfie to fend for themselves. When I came back out there was some guy with a hula skirt dancing around and Stacey and Ralfie were freaking out and told me we had to get the hell out of there. So we left without even ordering a beer and a shot.

Then I drove us up to Stone Grille. I believe we made Ralfie call and confirm their dress code before we went up there, because the last time I tried to go in that place they wouldn't let us in because someone was wearing a hat or boots or something like that. Stacey and I were both in flip flops (Oh, I learned how to say that in Spanish this weekend. Chancletas.) so I was afraid we would not meet their stupid dress code again. Apparently the Stone Grille has gotten less strict about such things because when Ralfie called they told him it was no problem. When we walked in there was pretty much nobody in the place. I guess that explains why they toned down the dress code. We headed to the deck out back where Stacey announced that every guy there was gay.

I looked around and had to disagree. There was one guy in striped shorts and a patterned shirt who couldn't possibly be gay. And another couple of guys just looked like Magic: The Gathering losers rather than actually being butt buddies. I conceded that probably 50% of the guys there were gay, but not ALL of them. We argued about it for a while, probably loud enough for all these guys to hear. Ralfie and I did another shot of tequila and had another beer and I decided I was done drinking for the night since I still had to drive us all home. Then we were off again.

The last bar of the night was, of course, the Roadhouse. That's where we always end up. Ralfie had to pay a cover but Stacey and I got in for free. He didn't have any cash though, so Stacey and I went in to hit the ATM and she paid for him to get in the door. The bouncer we know wasn't there or we probably could have gotten him in for free. I immediately sent Ralfie to the bar for water. I think he had another drink for himself but he got water for me and Stacey. Someone bumped into Stacey and spilled her water all over her pants. I very seriously asked her if she wanted me to go kick someone's ass. She told me not to worry about it.

I let Ralfie know way in advance that no boys are allowed on the stage at the Roadhouse. This did not stop him from getting up on the stage no less than three times. Each time he tried it the bouncers would pull him off and tell him he was not allowed up there. Ralfie had definitely reached the Inappropriately Drunk stage. One of the times he got pulled off the stage he wandered over and started dancing with some random girl. Visions of Downey's on St. Patrick's Day danced in my head.

The DJ fucked with me, just like they always do. I went over and requested Spin Spin Sugar. I figured this was a normal enough song to ask for, but as usual the DJ was a fucking asshole about it. He said he would play it and I went back up on the stage to dance. I heard the beat and one line of the song, just "spin, spin sugar" one time, and then he switched it to another song. I went over to ask him what the fuck that was about. He said, "What? I played it for a minute and twenty-nine seconds!" After that I decided it was time to go. I wanted to go to a diner and get something to eat because all of those tequila shots were fucking with me pretty severely.

We went to Phily Diner and I got all old school and ordered a grilled ham and cheese with tomato. Stacey and I kept having to restrain Ralfie and stop him from harassing the waitress and the other patrons at the tables around us. He ordered eggs benedict and then wore half of it. He wanted to help the 17-year-old kid at the table next to us who was there with two girls. Ralfie was all ready to give the kid some pointers about how to hook up with both of them. He also wanted to turn around and talk to the table behind us but we put a stop to that. He was just really out of control. It reminded me a lot of the night that he was flipping out over Bill Cosby and I kept yelling at him to lay down and shut up.

After we finished eating I drove us all back to Ralfie's. As he was unlocking the front door Stacey looked down and noticed that his pants were around his ankles and pointed that fact out to him. He said he had no idea how that happened. Neither do I. As soon as we got inside he completed the process of getting naked and we had to yell at him to seal up his robe. Stacey got on the computer trying to get instant messenger up and running because she was trying to get the Soul Man to send her some files. She doesn't have a screen name so she used mine, but we couldn't get the thing working properly so she decided to go home. I was in no mood to drive anywhere else at this point and just passed out on the couch.

This confused the whole household the next morning when they woke up to find me there and Stacey gone. See, when Wil and Lygia went to bed Stacey's car was outside. Then when they woke up her car was gone and mine was there. They didn't know what the fuck happened. But Wil cooked us a nice breakfast and then we all went to the Berlin Mart. Well, by "all" I mean me and Lygia and Wil. Ralfie has a serious WoW addiction problem and didn't leave his computer all day. The three of us who did leave the house had a good time at the Mart and then went for ice cream. Lygia got two awesome Nintendo games, Dr. Mario and Maniac Mansion. When we got back to the house I challenged her to a game of Dr. Mario and we got sucked into that for a while. Then I decided it was time for me to go home and take a shower because I was still wearing the same clothes from the day before and I felt really dirty.

As a follow up to my last entry, especially the part where I said "there are more of us than there are of them," I wanted to share something else with you guys. Yesterday I saw a headline on digg that attracted my attention for obvious reasons: U.S. Support for Legalizing Marijuana Reaches New High.

Now, while their numbers don't exactly back me up on there being more of us, they do show that there are an awful fucking LOT of us. Check out this graph:



A couple more percentage points, and I will be right. And have evidence to back it up. And according to this report from Gallup, "If public support were to continue growing at a rate of 1% to 2% per year, as it has since 2000, the majority of Americans could favor legalization of the drug in as little as four years."

Sounds like this could be a major issue in the next presidential election, don't you think?

Okay, for those of you who do not live in New Jersey and have no interest in our upcoming gubernatorial election, please ignore this. For those of you who do live in Jersey, I took the liberty of doing some research on our candidates running for governor, especially in regards to their stance on marijuana. I was just trying to figure out who I wanted to vote for, but since I went to all the trouble I thought I should share my findings with you guys in case you are also planning to exercise your right to vote in a couple of weeks. Here's what I found:

The three big candidates are Corzine, the current governor running for re-election, Christie, the Republican, and Daggett who is an Independent. All three of those guys have said they would sign a medical marijuana bill, but I have some additional information about what they actually said.

Corzine said he will sign the bill, but he also said he doesn't want it to allow "back-door access to recreational marijuana." Approving medical marijuana is a step in the right direction, but I don't really like his attitude about it.

Christie, on the other hand, is just a total dickhead. He said he doesn't want us to be like California where "people are not really using it for serious illnesses." He also said he wants MORE restrictions than are in the current version of the bill, specifically he said he would only sign it after making sure it has "all the right constraints" - whatever that is supposed to mean. He thinks the current bill is "weak" and needs to be "tightened up a little bit." Another quote from WCBS had him saying "There have to be sufficient safeguards so that we don't turn into California where everybody with a headache is going out getting high."

To that sir, I would like to quote Phish and ask you "Didn't you ever wonder why getting high's a crime?"

Incidentally, after that comment Corzine's rebuttal was "If you have a headache, it probably should be excluded from the reasons why people get medical marijuana." This statement makes me really angry. Headaches are a medical problem that are currently treated with all kinds of prescription drugs right now, from acetaminophen which causes liver damage and ibuprofen which can give you ulcers, to even stronger narcotics or migraine medications like Imitrex. Those medications have been approved by the FDA to treat headaches. But according to these two schmucks, treating your headache with marijuana means you are just "getting high."

After reading that I decided I'm not voting for either of these motherfuckers. I started looking into the independents instead. First up is the one who is actually getting media coverage, Chris Dagget. During the debate he admitted that he doesn't have a clue what the current bill even looks like. He claims he will support medical marijuana but his quote made him sound like a typical wishy-washy politician talking out of both sides of his mouth. I have no confidence in him whatsoever.

Researching the unknown guys proved quite interesting and sometimes rather amusing. Here's what I found out about all of them:

Greg Pason - He doesn't mention marijuana on his website, however he is for socialized healthcare and same-sex marriage rights.

Jason Cullen - His website is full of spelling errors and weird characters that replaced all the apostrophes or quote marks. He looks like he is about 19 years old. The site does not mention anything about marijuana, but it does say that he wants to make vaccinations for children optional because he is one of those people who believe mercury in vaccines is causing autism and other problems. In my opinion he sounds like a wacko and he desperately needs someone to proofread his site.

Joshua Leinsdorf - His website is even worse than Cullen's. It looks like something from 1996 when people first started learning html and that you could use it to make the text different colors. He isn't even from New Jersey, he is originally from NY. Instead of talking about the issues, his website just gives a very colorful biography of the candidate (and I mean that quite literally), and a lot of links to news articles. This guy is a total joke.

Alvin Lindsay Jr. - This guy apparently lives in my town, but he has no campaign website. That's not very smart. This is 2009, sir. Get with the times. How else do you expect anyone to learn anything about you, especially considering that the media is completely ignoring you?

David Meiswinkle - This guy seems like he might be a 9/11 conspiracy theorist. His number one issue is that he wants a new 9/11 commission. He also wants to start voter initiatives, referendums and recalls, which is a good thing, but there is absolutely no mention of marijuana on his website.

Kostas Petris - About the only good thing I can say about this guy is that he also wants referendums. There is also no mention of marijuana on his website.

Gary T. Steele - Once again there is no mention of marijuana on this site. However, he also wants initiatives and referendums which could get us where we want to be in another way. I believe this is how California got their bill passed in the first place, but Jersey doesn't have a similar function right now. Everything has to be done through the legislature. I agree that the people should have the power to decide, so I like that there is so much support for getting initiatives and referendums on our ballots. But that's not enough to make me vote for any of these guys.

Gary Stein - This guy's website is mostly a rant on immigration reform with a couple of links to youtube videos. There are constant changes in the font face, size, and colors, which makes him seem schizophrenic. I couldn't find anything else he cared about, and I don't think you can seriously run for governor on a platform with just one issue. I find it hard to take this guy seriously.

Angela Lariscy - She is listed as a communist, but also has no website. The most information I could find on her is that her previous occupation is "sewing machine operator" - not very confidence-inspiring.

And finally, I saved the best for last:

Ken Kaplan - He thinks adults should be able to make their own choices and the government should only regulate drugs in order to protect children. Oh and by the way, he also supports allowing same-sex couples to marry in New Jersey. This guy is definitely getting my vote.

You don't have to vote, I mean no one is going to hold a gun to your head and force you, and if you do you don't have to vote the same way as me. But I do encourage you to vote if you can because, despite popular belief, your vote does count and it does matter! I am well aware that the guy I want to vote for has a really slim chance of actually getting elected, but if I vote for someone else just because I think this guy doesn't have a chance, then I am part of the problem instead of part of the solution. If enough people who think like me start exercising their right to vote, and do their homework and make informed decisions, we could see some real change. It's not impossible! There are more of us than there are of them. I truly, truly believe that and I think we need to stop being the SILENT majority and start speaking up. Use your vote as your voice!

I feel like I'm under so much pressure. It's coming from all directions, and this is just one of them. Even though it's been silent here, it still takes up a lot of headspace. It hangs over me like a cloud of guilt. I don't keep up with the livejournal enough. I don't write enough. I don't write at all anymore. That sucks more than any of the rest of it. I blame it on being busy and stressed, but I think there's more to it than that.

Maybe I'm just being too hard on myself though. I have so much going on right now that I can barely keep it together. I won't bore you with the details of what's going on at work, but it's brutal right now. I was here until six last night and I'm probably going to make it a late night tomorrow too if I can't get the formulary finished up by then. I would stay late tonight except that Ariana has a doctor's appointment at 5 15.

Plus it's the last week of classes and that means finals and finishing up all the work I have to turn in before the end of class, including a 4-5 page paper that I haven't even started that is due on Saturday. Once I finish all of that up I will have barely a week to take a breather and then new classes start up on the 26th. Those are going to be a blast too, let me tell you. Ethics of Information Technology Management and Production & Operations Analysis. Fun stuff, right?

Tuesday was the 3-year anniversary of bodycounters.com. That's exciting, but it's also putting pressure on me because the anniversary of starting the site means it was time to renew the domain name and hosting and I wanted to switch to a new provider because I want to update the site and I need ASP and SQL databases and shit like that. That's probably like a foreign language to most of you, and I only sort of know what I'm talking about when I say it too. So I've got the old domain registrar giving me shit about releasing the domain, the new one taking forever to take it over, and I'm just thanking my lucky stars right now that the site isn't down altogether. Then I have to figure out how to actually code in ASP and make a SQL database work. Or figure out how to use the Access database instead. I don't know yet. I'm reading tutorials online and source files for other pages and trying to piece it together. I downloaded a free software program from Microsoft that is going to be my saving grace. I was a little shocked that Microsoft was giving something away for free, but it seems to be true. I'm still figuring out how to use it, but from what I can tell already it is like a fancier kind of Frontpage that is made especially for the kind of stuff I'm trying to do. It's called Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, and I highly recommend it if you happen to need software to design a website with.

I have it almost doing what I want on the test page I set up at home. Before I can go much further I have to clean up my data. That's going to be a long and boring project, but it will be worth it in the end. Once I get that done I can finish building the test page and then I have to figure out how to make that work for real on the live internet instead of just on my own computer.

The good news is, I really think I can do it. It's not beyond my capabilities, I just need to learn it. The bad news is, all this stuff is taking up so much of my time and I feel like I'm being stretched so thin. We had so much planned for October and we haven't done any of it. I still need to get a Halloween costume and stuff for the party too. And I need my hair done soon, and the car needs some tender loving care before I can get it inspected. And don't even get me started on all the work that needs to be done on the house.

I need a vacation. A real vacation this time, one where I don't have to do anything or plan a schedule for each day or fight with crowds of sweaty people. I need a break. I need to relax. I'm going crazy!

I am now the proud relieved owner of a 1997 Ford Thunderbird. It is about the same age and has about the same mileage as my old car. I paid cash for it so I still have no car payment. In a way I guess it's like an upgrade because this car is an automatic, has power locks, power windows, and power steering. It also has a sunroof. These are all good things. It has an expired inspection sticker and I apparently can't take it to get it inspected until I get my new insurance card in the mail. That's not a very good thing but hopefully I won't get pulled over before I can get that taken care of, and hopefully it won't have any problems passing inspection. They did give me a 3 month warranty that covers all the major stuff, so I'm not too worried about it dying on me completely. I figured that if I spend less a year on repairs than I was going to on a car payment, I still win. It would take an awful lot of repairs to go over that amount, so I think I made the right choice.

Now I can get back to worrying about all the other things in my life and stop stressing about the car situation. Like all the homework I have to do and all the parental responsibilities that just don't stop. Tonight there is a mandatory meeting at the school about her Junior class trip to Williamsburg to go to Busch Gardens. She told me this morning that she doesn't even want to go on the trip. I told her she better take some time to seriously think about that before the meeting tonight because I don't think she is going to be able to change her mind in the spring when they are ready to go if she doesn't go to this meeting and pay the deposit tonight. So we'll see what she says. I wouldn't mind saving the money, but I also don't want her to regret missing out on the trip if she does want to go.

I also need to make her a doctor's appointment because she is applying for the scholarship to study in Japan again this year. The paperwork has to be signed by the doctor after they give her a physical and I think we only have a week to get that done before the deadline. She's killing me with this stuff.

We had a camping trip planned for this weekend but between the weather report and all the homework that various people have to do, it is getting rescheduled for sometime in the spring. I think there will be some movies in store for us this weekend instead. Which is good because we have about 20 to count before we can have the 500th party that is supposed to be happening in a couple weeks. It's also coming up on the anniversary of the site, which means I have to get the domain and hosting renewed or moved. And then redesign the page and update the code. As if I don't have enough to do.

Speaking of which, I have a staff meeting starting soon. The fun never stops around here.

They finally looked at my car yesterday. The accident happened on 9/2. Because I didn't get the other guy's insurance information until after Labor Day I didn't actually talk to the claims adjuster on his policy until 9/8, but even so that's over 2 weeks that it took them to get out there to look at my car. Now that he did finally look at it he is telling me that it's totalled and it's only worth about $1,900. They extended my rental out to the 30th which will make it 20 days I've had the rental car. 20 days times $18 a day is $360. If Geico doesn't call me back and tell me they are paying that $360 I'm taking them to court over it.

In the meantime I have to go get all of my personal belongings out of my old car tonight. On Monday morning I have to go meet the damage adjuster and give him the title to the car and then he will give me a check. By Thursday of next week I need to have a new car or I won't have any way to get to work. I don't want a car payment, so I am hoping I can find some kind of used car for around $1,500. I guess if I look at the bright side, hopefully I'll be able to find an automatic for that cheap and it will be a bit of an upgrade from driving the stick. I don't know how else to spin this in a positive light. It sucks that my car didn't make it a couple more years until I was going to get rid of it on my own anyway. It sucks that Geico took so long to do their fucking jobs and that I might possibly have to sue them for $360. It sucks that this accident and all of the drama that went along with it lasted for the whole month of September.

As most of you are aware, the bodycounting theme for this year is 007 in 009. Our goal is to count all of the James Bond films this year. We're doing pretty well so far, and we've now counted 13 of the official 22 films. We're also going to count the unofficial Never Say Never Again, mostly just because I miss Sean Connery as Bond. That one's coming up soon, but first we have to get through the last of Roger Moore.

Netflix actually screwed us up by sending me some of the Bond movies out of order. This meant we ended up watching For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy before Moonraker. We finally got that situation straightened out so I could post all those counts, and I just have one thing to say about it. I am getting really sick of Roger Moore. He was all right in the beginning, but now I think he is like the Brett Favre of James Bond. Just fucking retire already! Fortunately we only have one Roger Moore movie left before we can watch the unofficial Sean Connery one and then move on to Timothy Dalton. I don't know how I'll feel about him as Bond, but I'm just ready for it to be anyone else besides Roger Moore. I'm so done with him. At least we have Christopher Walken as a villain in the next one. I might end up rooting for him instead of Bond.

I signed up for both a Twitter account and a Facebook account for bodycounters. Although some people are congratulating me on finally catching up to the technology of 2006, I did not sign up for either of these things for personal reasons. I did it purely to promote the site. Everything I "tweet" about and everything I post on Facebook is going to be about counting bodies. I'm trying to transition my myspace page to go along the same lines, but it seems like myspace is dying anyway so I'm not too worried about that one.

All those links will be over there on the right from now on if you are interested in following me or friending me. It will be a nice way to find out about bodycounters updates and you'll be the first to know when I post new counts.

My plan right now is that when I get paid on Thursday I'm going to buy some new hosting that will allow ASP or PHP and try to get the page set up to run straight off the database instead of the manual updates I'm doing now. If I can get it to work the way I want it to there will be a search feature and sorting so that I don't have to have 3 separate pages for each way you want to sort it. The body shop is also going to get a facelift sooner or later, but that is going to require more of a financial investment so that is not happening right away. Once I get the searching & sorting thing working though I think I will add a links and/or testimonials page so I can link to other people or to the twitter and facebook pages. It would also be nice to have an archive of all the emails we got from Danny Draven and the guys from Spain who said they loved our "joyous approach to the subject matter."