Well, I was up at 7:30 this morning...And can you believe, it started SNOWING while I was driving to the vet?! I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since it's into November...but the first snow always surprises me. I love snow. :) Love it. Anyway, I had to take Kazak to get his rabies vaccination and wanted to try to beat the "rush" on Saturday...and for once, that strategy worked. It cost me $35 to get his shot and have him get a general exam. He's lost five pounds since last I weighed him, which is good. He's now a fleet-footed 74.2 pounds. :)

Now, I'm going to head to Target and spend my housewarming gift from Alphacharliebravo...thanks alpha. :) I'll buy something cool and useful to make my place look better. (I'm actually not sure yet...but there's plenty this apartment needs.)

I also need some "breakfast" since I got up earlier than normal. But, I need to be able to hold out on food until 6pm or so, so I might suck it up and see if I can last longer so I don't have to snack between the wedding ceremony (at 3) and the reception (at 6). We'll see.

Anyway, it's going to, no doubt, be a great time tonight. Steve is the first person of my group of lifelong friends that's getting married, so it's going to be a celebration of epic proportions, I'm sure. Plus, most of these guys and gals have not seen "wedding reception Andy," who is a good time. :) So I'm sure there will be stories living on after this. :)

I get to meet Eddie's obstetrician/model girlfriend, which ought to be interesting. Not that it wouldn't be interesting otherwise. So we'll see...if she hasn't gone insane already, staying with my family and all.

There is one thing that I absolutely HAVE to do though...just for posterity's sake...I have to polka with my Mom once. See, my grandma on my mom's side is who taught me how to polka, and then I never got to polka with her at anything, because there were no weddings or anything, and then she died. So we'll see if I can drag my Mom onto the dance floor for a polka. It would be great... :) But I get the feeling she won't want to go out there. Whatever. :)

Ah well, off to run these errands and then to get ready for the wedding...I'm picking Gina up at 1:45, and then we're off to the South Side... :)

Well, softball is finally over. It's sad, but I'm happy too, because, damn, it's too cold to play 16-inch softball, let me tell you. That's right, we lost yesterday, 13-12, but it was a valiant effort. We had a 3-run lead with two innings left. They cut it to a one-run lead heading into their last raps (the top of the 7th). They scored five runs to take a 13-9 lead. We came up in the bottom of the 7th, and cut the lead to one. I was the tying run on first, but was forced out on a weak grounder to short. Then, our final batter popped out, leaving the tying run stranded at first. It was a great, great game though, and personally, it was my best of the year. I went 4-for-4 with a double and three singles, scored two runs and drove in one. My defense was spectacular (and I'm paying for it today). I actually pitched in the first inning and did OK, despite giving up a three-run homer. I then went back to 1B in the second inning b/c our regular pitcher showed up. I had three great stretches for throws at first--and my groin muscles and quadriceps are really letting me know that they didn't like it too much. I didn't do the splits or anything silly like that, but I certainly stretched my feet a lot farther than ever before. Thank God I had my cleats to hold me up. :) On one, I crossed my left leg over and across my right leg and body to stretch far to my right, caught the ball on one hop and kept my back foot on the bag, getting the out. It was (and it looked) painful, but it was a great stretch for a throw that was quite a bit up the line. But, it's playoff softball, and you gotta suck it up, baby!

Afterward, Basia stopped by after her test and we went to visit with the Starbux Princess at work. Then the three of us walked over to Bar Louie and had a drink (or two, for some of us). Probably though, that'll be the last time I hear from Christine for a while, since she never emails or calls. She hates me. :) Oh, and Christine, my coworker really appreciates the Chai Tea mix...I knew he would--he loves the stuff. :) So thanks...

Anyway, my supervisor isn't in today, but I have loads of work that I'd like to get through, seeing as I'll be busy all day tomorrow with Steve and Kelly's wedding...I also have to decide what shirt and tie I'm going to wear with my black suit. My options are plain-Jane white with whatever tie peaks my interest (blah), gray (but a nice gray, with a bit of a sheen to it) with a dark-blue-and-silver-patterned tie, or a light olive shirt with a matching tie. I'm leaning toward the olive getup right now. We'll see though.

This evening, though, I'm gonna head to my cousin Will's place and catch up on "24," which I missed this week because my cable is gone. He has (Laz...) TiVo...so I succumb to using someone else's TiVo... :) I'll still never get it myself though--well, not in the near future anyway. :)

I've never been one to take for granted my job. It's pretty damned cushy, no doubt about it. Sure, I bitch and moan and complain about it. But in the atmosphere I was raised, that was par for the course. My dad, who LOVES cars and LOVES working on them, always hated his job (mechanic) and bitched about it all the time. He hated it so much that he prevented my brothers and I from spending time in our formulative years in the garage with him, because he didn't want us getting interested in it. I never had to say, "I don't want...your lahf!" about my father. That was a nice luxury...and honestly, I've always respected and tried to model myself after him. Anyone who has met my father and talked to him can see that I'm very similar in thought, action and principle, if he opens up to you. All the men in my immediate family are very similar in that sense.

Anyway, tangent there...what I was going to say was, two things happened that have helped me realize in the past 12 hours or so just how nice my job is, really. First, it was pointed out to me that I can email all day long replies and things...if a friend needs an answer quickly, I can typically give it. Not because I don't have work to do, but because I do my work well and can "slack" at times to address personal needs. Also, the flexible hours of "stay until you get it done" help a lot too. Second, last night I went to help Gina enter grades into a computer and grade papers, because she's way behind. I realized that, really, take-home work doesn't exist that much for me...also, I'm not nearly as tired as so many people at the end of the day. Poor Gina was falling asleep while grading the papers...and I felt bad, because I was still going strong at 1am. Now, granted, that's because I don't have to be at work until 10am, so my wake-up time is different, but still, that's a luxury too, I guess.

Anyway, when you hear me bitch about work, understand that I know I have it good, and that, although it's a fantastic place to work, I grew up in a bitch-about-work environment and that there are some real negatives about it. But I'm not stupid enough to think that I could have it so much better somewhere else. Ya know? :)

More search engine updates to the left...some really strange ones, including one that I decided to leave off, just because...I'll say this, apparently, some dude (or chick, I don't know) out there was looking for Suzy Kolber porn... Hey, good luck with that...whatever works for him/her. There are some other weird ones over there though...but that's the point and part of the fun, I guess. :) I am amused by someone searching for "shitband." What the hell could they have been looking for? And I know why I had it...because I referred to AT&T Broadband as "Shitband," so that's funny...

By the way, I'm still stewing a bit inside about this morning, but not that badly. Eh...

Am I wrong?

What the hell is wrong with people? (Warning: This is going to be a profanity-laced, very pissed off blog...) This morning, I take Kazak out to walk him. I have him, law-abidingly, on a leash--even all the way through my yard, because of the neighbors' dogs (but that's another story). I open my gate, and across the street there is this lady with her dog OFF THE FUCKING LEASH. I did not notice this until the gate had closed. The dog across the street runs up to us to visit with Kazak (nearly getting hit by a car in the process). I'm just like, "God dammit..." I'm trying to fish my keys out now, to back away into the yard, but I didn't get them out quickly enough...so the dogs are standing there, psuedo-sniffing each other. At this point, I decide to forget about the keys and keep a very close eye on my dog. I just say to the lady, "Could you please get your dog away from mine, since yours is NOT on a leash?" She basically ignores me or doesn't hear me (or doesn't speak English, who knows?). She has NO CONTROL over the dog, and she's barely even trying to grab her dog and keep it away from Kazak. I'm about ready to push the damn thing away and get between Kazak and the dog, which, up to now, there was no problem. HOWEVER, Kazak is NOT wagging his tail, and the hair on the back of his neck is not flat. At this point, Kazak barks at the dog, and the dog runs away to a tree to pee (I think it was a puppy, whatever)...the owner is completely oblivious to anything, and is trying to get her dog to stop running around and not listen. At some point, she gets the dog to follow her across the street, and I yell, "Put the DAMN DOG on a leash...it's a LAW, you know? I'm tired of this shit." We then walk away while the woman continues to basically ignore or not understand me.

So then I get to work and I ask my coworker who lives nearby and walks his dog if there's a number or something I can call--because obviously, the cops are not going to come to ticket some person with a dog off a leash--it's a non-emergency, clearly. And I wouldn't call 911 for that, for Christ's sake. So I'm going to track down my alderman and call them and ask them to crack down on these idiots. I'm tired of it. But the kicker is, one of my coworkers then tells me (not joking), that I must be a dickhead to live around. And I said, what? You're gonna call the cops because someone has their dog off the leash? That's pretty shitty dude. Well, I damn near went off on this guy, and I'm still pretty fucking pissed. I said, well, No. 1, I'm NOT calling the cops, but something has to be done about this, because, No. 2, my dog has been attacked by a dog off the leash while my dog was abiding by the rules by being ON a leash, and I'm NOT going through that bullshit again.

Man, am I hot right now. There isn't much that pisses me off, but this is certainly one thing...

This is not to mention that I need to write out a letter to my neighbors laying down some ground rules for all of us as far as dogs are concerned. I don't want any trouble with these other dogs...but I know I'm going to come across as a dick. So I need to pick and choose things carefully when it comes to that.

Back to your regularly scheduled program.

Ah, I'm waiting now on the last page of the night. Once I get that, I can read it and then get the heck out of here. That's typically what happens at this time though...lots of waiting, little doing.

I still feel good about the party on Friday...the guys were pretty talkative about it today at work. So they had a good time, and that's key. Not that I felt I had to "prove" anything, but it's nice when someone comes to something you're hosting and enjoys themselves...

Well, I thought I had a bunch to say, but really, now I'm just tired and want to go home, which I should get to do very soon. Goodnight all, though many of you are close to getting up for Monday. :)

I find myself hating my upstairs front neighbor (not the directly upstairs neighbor) already, and I haven't even met him yet. He's got two dogs, and I think I cleaned up their dogshit in the yard yesterday. In fact, I know that one pile was NOT my dog's remains...if I have to do it again, I will talk to this guy, and chances are he won't like me, since that will be the first time I talk to him. Butch and I clean up after Kazak in the yard IMMEDIATELY after Kazak is done. This guy had better start doing the same. Plus, I'm just flat out nervous about this guy's dogs...one is a german shepherd, I've been told, and the other is a little dog of some sort. Kazak does not have a good history with German shepherds...and, who's to say the thing is friendly to humans too? What happens if I open my back door to go outside and this dog is in the yard? And God forbid if I'm taking Kazak out there with me. I don't like being "restricted" in my own apartment/deck/yard. That's not right. Then, my room is directly under the back end of his apartment, I assume the kitchen...I've discovered already that he's a "heel walker," meaning he walks heavily on the back of his heels instead of the balls of his feet...he was pounding around this morning. Now, that I can't do anything about, and it didn't really annoy me...but it's just one more thing to hate him already for. ;)

I did meet the woman living across the way from me yesterday, as well as her dog. They both seem friendly enough. I asked if we had kept her up Friday night, and that if we're ever too loud over here, to just knock and ask us to tone it down, and we will. She said, no, I just closed my bedroom door and that was fine. Plus, it was Halloween, so I expected there to be some parties or something. I said, well, don't worry, we're not gonna be partying like, once a week or even once a month probably...so it's not like this will happen a lot. And she was apologizing for her dog barking all the time. I told her, no, that's OK, because Kazak doesn't bark much, so I was happy to hear some dog being a watchdog-type. :)

I can't introduce Kazak to these other dogs yet anyway, because he's behind on his rabies shot. I need to set that up soon...I also need to get my city sticker for the car and dog tag for him, after he gets his shot.

Otherwise, I stayed in last night, watched "The Hudsucker Proxy" and then talked to my little bro on IM for a while. Today, you guessed it, work. But hey, that's the way it goes. :) At least I know this much: I'll be really, really busy, because we've got a couple people out, so I'll have extra work to do--on Sundays, that's good, because it helps time fly.

Now, I need to figure out if I want to head out to Bolingbrook tomorrow during the day and get more of my packing done...I really should. But we'll see.