Hey, cool.

I was out in the yard this morning (and it was actually the morning), talking to my neighbors, when I looked over at my flower garden. There in the sunlight, I saw this thing buzzing around one of my Maltese Cross flowers. At first I thought it was a locust (I had gotten up minutes before, pardon my stupidity), but then it started flying and I knew right away that it was a HUMMINGBIRD!

Probably few of you share in my enthusiasm, but you have to understand that I've never seen a hummingbird in my own garden or at my own bird feeders in my whole life. So this was exciting. The hummingbird went from the Maltese Cross to my Mexican Sunflowers and spent a good five minutes at those flowers, sipping away. It was so cool. I may put my packed-away hummingbird feeder out on Monday just because of this. Because if I can keep him/her coming back, it will be cool. :)

Otherwise, today is a busy day. I have a fantasy football draft at 4 o'clock down in Frankfort and I have some phone calls to make for work. But now, I'm going to get lunch.

All right. I'm sitting here with my venti passion tea lemonade, easy ice with three pumps of valencia syrup. (Most of you thought you'd never hear a sentence like that come from me.)

My thoughts: Solid. Could be colder--I'd get more ice next time. Doesn't really taste sweet at all. More sour than anything, but not bad sour, tasty sour. It almost tastes cinnamon flavored. It's good, and I'd get it again, but probably not continuously. Thanks Christine! :)

Otherwise, I haven't done too much today other than edit a handful of stuff. I'm going to finish putting in my teams' depth charts and make my phone calls for my teams...I don't have much time left in the afternoon, I just realized. But if I'm efficient, hard-working and lucky, I can get it all done and get out of here by six, maybe. That would be good.

well, I'm home...I've sat here watching the Sox game, and surfing the Web. I just realized, hey, it's 9:45 and I haven't eaten dinner yet. Yet, I'm not hungry...though I give me 2 minutes before my stomach starts growling now that I've thought of it.

I went to check the mail, and saw our resident bat in the front yard flitting about. Then I saw a dragonfly over me, and the bat came and snatched him right out of the air, just as soundlessly as he flies around! It was cool. When I came back to the house from the mailbox, I noticed the bat flying around the backyard, but there were two others with him/her. That's awesome! I think bats are pretty damned cool to have around. They're the small ones and it's awesome how perfectly silently they fly. It's awesome.

Meanwhile, Gerard's gone for the weekend. How I'd love to have a way to take advantage of the empty house, but I guess there aren't any options, really. Can't have a party, because it's too short notice and my apartment (and his) is super messy. Eh, who knows. I guess I can just blast my music and any TV I watch and that's about it. Though I was always taught to be able to hear my surroundings...so I'll probably avoid that. :)

Now I'm sitting here wondering how I got home without any "homework" from work. Maybe I'll do some workshop work. I need to finish Troy and Eulalia's wedding present for good so I can deliver it soon and start in on my next project(s). Once I get these 2-3 things out of the way and take pictures, I can have Barb and Pete "promote" me to their new neighbors at their new house when they move in. It should be cool, and some nice extra money. But we'll see...T&E's nightstand came out far, far better than I thought it would (pun not intended), and if Barb's bookcases or whatever come out as well, then I'll be set, so long as it is fun for me. Because I'm not doing it if it's not fun.

Oh yeah, and I should mention that I'm proud of myself for saving money. There are three "entertainment" things I want to buy right now but haven't and may not for a while. Madden 2004 for PS2, the "Chicago" DVD and the Shinedown album (the song I talked about a couple days ago). That's impressive. Really, it is. So, yeah...whatever.

I just went to Starbucks...got an iced Carmel Macchiatto. Christine and Barb, you'll appreciate that...now my stomach hurts. I think too much caffeine too fast. Whatever, just thought I'd share...given the presence of Starbucks drinkers/workers reading this.

Whatever...

FINALLY, the barrage of viruses has stopped. What a pain in the ass. those numbers earlier weren't exaggerated either.

Oh well. Back to work I go.

OK...this is ridiculous. I've gotten 188 freakin' virus messages in the past HALF HOUR at work here. That on top of 830 overnight. So, for those of you who read this and have my work email, don't email me there. First of all, I shut it down. I'll delete en masse later. Secondly, I'm just highlighting and deleting, so your message will be lost.

This isn't helping my recent frustrated mood any. Where is the tech support around here? Why is it taking so long...this is Day Three. Shouldn't it have been fixed by now? I mean, we haven't even heard anything about progress. Is there any way to fix it even? I don't know, but I wish I did.

"Goodnight, Moon. Goodnight, Moon. Goodnight, cow, jumpin', ovah da moon. Children, skootch (sp) closah. Don't make me tell you again, about the skootching. You in the red, chop chop."

This is what I hate about supremely busy work weeks. I have no motivation. It's like, I want to type out some emails to people, but it's just like, screw it, I've been typing and reading and typing and reading all day long. I even spent my evening typing and reading for work. But I do have to type out at least one message tonight about Ghetto Bowl.

I don't know where everyone is, as I thought I might get some emails or phone calls tonight, but I only heard from really one person for a conversation of more than 1 minute long. Strange...usually I hear from a couple people when I'm home. I had to ask Troy if I had done something to piss people off or something...knowing I hadn't, of course. Ah well... :)

I guess I'll go to bed here soon. I edited about five of the eight stories I brought home. I'll go into work early tomorrow and edit the last three.

Who wants to play floor hockey, dammit? Laz, move here. We need people. Inquire within.

Man, these damned viruses are driving me nuts. I went to do a mock draft for about an hour and got 45 messages. They roll in every minute or so. It sucks. I hope that I haven't spread it to anyone myself, but I fear that I have, simply because I can't not use my work email.

Craziness. Pure craziness. But not as crazy as the stack of stuff I have to edit. Damn Kickoff Issue.

Ah well...more later, maybe.
Andy

Has anyone else out there heard this new song by a band called Shine Down? It's called "Fly From the Inside." It completely and totally blows me away every time I hear it. I love it. I love the music, the lyrics. I love the mood it puts me in and the "tone" of the chorus. It's such a rejoiceful (word?) song to me and I love it for that. I just love it. It rocks. It's so damn good. Did I mention how good it is? It's damn good. It sounds similar to, but very different from a lot of the "stuff" out there nowadays too, which is key. Here's the hook:

I am focused on what I am after
The key to the next open chapter.
'Cause I found a way
To steal the sun from the sky. (I love that line sooooo much...it's like, kiss my ass, I figured out the impossible, baby!)
Long live that day
That I decided to fly
From the inside.

It just kicks ass. And I'm not an idiot. :) In news, I went to Magee's on Webster for 10-cent wings with my cousin, his girlfriend and his roommate and his girlfriend. That was cool. I haven't been to Magee's in a while. I told them to ask their landlords if they had anywhere in the city I could live with my dog, so they're going to do a little asking around for me. But now I have to work...probably will stay up working for a while. Damn work. :)

Is today the end of email as we know it?

I've gotten no less than 77 virus-containing automated messages (and counting) today since about 7:30am. Though these things cannot hurt Macs, apparently, it's freakin' annoying to hear the damn email ding that I have a new message only to find out it's a virus again. And I'm actually waiting for stories via email, so it's not like I can shut it off or anything like that.

I think I heard our tech guy say we have to ride this out, that there's nothing that can be done. I don't know. All I know is the constant messages are going to get really annoying really fast.

Quick break from what has become "Pure Hell Week" at work...it's our kickoff issue, which means endless amounts of work.

Anyway, I've been seriously thinking the last couple days of getting another job at a steakhouse right by my work or the restaurants (Panera Bread, specifically) they're opening nearby. I just have to decide if my evenings are worth "throwing away" to make more money. Plus, they'll have to cater to my wishes, such as, I play hockey X night of the week...I want that night off. As a coworker called it, it's a "fuck you job," where if I don't like it, I can simply say, "Fuck you," and leave.

But we'll see. I don't know how much I like the idea yet...I'll have to think about it. Could be good money.

I'm sleepy.
So I will sleep.

Damn. Now I wish I had my P.M. Dawn albums in the car. I shoulda known this would happen...when I quote a song, I should be prepared to feel the need to hear the song over and over.

Instead, I'm listening at work here to Econoline Crush's latest album, released last year. It's pretty solid, even at the low decibel level my office atmosphere forces me to listen, because I'm too cheap and forgetful to buy headphones. :)

All right, well, the dentist was painless as usual. Hopefully as the novocaine wears off it will remain so.

I wish I didn't have to go to work now, because, really, I have a bunch of stuff I need to do that I could have done today. I need to inform people of things, like my annual barbecue and fantasy football things, I need to mail out some bills. I haven't even fully unpacked everything from the camping trip last week. I wanted to take Kazak to Petsmart to get him bathed and his nails clipped, but that's down the drain now. It'll have to wait til next week now. Ah well...one more thing I get to put off. Plus, Eddie leaves for NIU tomorrow, so I wanted to stop by the house and wish him good luck and remind him not to fuck up like I did. Or something... :) And, finally, I need to find time to deliver this Saturday's Sox tickets to Kim and Nick sometime. Damn, I hate living 30 miles outside the city and having to work stupid-ass hours.

Oh well...in the not-so-immortal-to-anyone-but-me words of P.M. Dawn, "That's the way it goes, I guess."

So, I was surprised to see that I had 115 hits during the week I spent in Wisconsin. 115 hits without even posting a damn thing? Wow...it makes me wonder just who's coming by here and why and how often. I wish there was a way to know...just out of curiosity. Of course, whoever comes by can feel free to make comments, whether you know me or not. Instead of peering into my life all the time without offering your thoughts, that is. ;)

Well, as I feared, they've asked us to come in and work tomorrow now, too. That sucks, but not as badly as if it weren't expected by myself. So I'll go to the dentist in the morning and then head to work. Hopefully the dentist doesn't go berserk on my mouth this time like he did last time...I'll have to tell him to take it easy or no more free magazines. :)

Otherwise, i guess I'm kind of just floating through things. I feel very distant from a lot of things and people right now. Luis and I washed my car at his place yesterday evening, inside and out, and then we went to Hawkeye's. I was at Hawkeye's last night and just got the overwhelming urge to leave after a while.

I feel very far away from a lot of folks--my family, many of my friends, etc. Almost as though I'm not here anymore. It's a weird feeling. There's so many things I'd like to do but I have no motivation to do them, it seems.

So I guess I'll just float a little more and see what happens. I wish I could just stay home and mope around all day. I know that's not proactive, but for whatever reason, I don't feel like being proactive, because recently, being proactive has gotten me nothing but bad results. Ah well, back to work I go. :)