June | 2008 | twodolla

Jun
29

a busted hard drive and a busted gut

I promise I always think about posting, but obviously that’s about as far as it gets.

My external hard drive is having some issues. My computer will intermittently recognize that it’s plugged in to my USB slot, but even when it knows it’s there, I can’t access it. Normally, I wouldn’t care, except guess what’s on said external hard drive? All of my music, anything I’ve ever written, and most importantly? Every last one of the digital pictures I’ve taken since 1998. I got a quote today (yes, while at Pride) for $70/hour, which wouldn’t be that big of a deal except the lady said it could also take up to 24 hours. Hi, no. Any suggestions from you fine folks? Greatly appreciated.

Also, I’ve been sick. There were three days two weeks ago where I had a fever over 101 every night when I came home. I kept drugged up on cold medicine while at work, which seemed to work. Almost immediately after the fevers stopped happening, I began having huge issues with absolutely everything I’ve tried to eat – so, that kinda sucked a lot and I’m pretty sure my stomach is the size of pea at this point. I’m slowly introducing crazy things back into my diet – like, you know, SALT, for the love of God. Right now, I think I’ve got the main part of the problem narrowed down to soda, so I haven’t had any for the last couple of days. Yay.

Today was Pride and I have some pictures, but they’re on my camera, so it might be another six days before you get to see those beauties.

Jun
23

By Wendy

the travel bug is back

Category: Travel Leave a Comment

I’m kinda jonesin’ for a vacation right about now, except A) no vacation time until November and B) a paycheck that would make me cry if it weren’t for the fact that I’m so in love with my job. And my frequent flier miles aren’t anywhere close to the number it’d take to get me somewhere for free. The only time I’ve ever been able to do that was a trip to New Jersey/New York a few years ago, and even then I had to pay a whole $5 handling fee for my free ticket. Even then it was the best value for my buck on that airline!

Gina and I rode the subway into the city for the first time, and I’m pretty sure I was like one of the special kids who doesn’t get out of the institution all that often. It wasn’t like we even needed a list of Things to do in New York City, because we pretty much made our own little to-do list. Although if I were going again, I’d probably take advantage of online travel guides when deciding what to do, especially if I were headed somewhere by myself.

For instance, when I embark on my dream vacation of driving up and down the entire coast of California, I may take advantage of having someone else make me a list of things to do in Los Angeles, because I sure as heck don’t want to miss anything awesome.

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Jun
22

By Wendy

my g-rated weekend

Category: Me Leave a Comment

After running a temp of somewhere around 101 degrees three days last week, I was really hoping that by the weekend, I’d feel better and up to doing something besides laying around in bed trying to figure out who to leave my John Kerry bobblehead to when I died of whatever mysterious disease had taken control of my body. By Friday and with the help of the pharmacist at Walgreen’s, I was healthy enough to go to my favorite drag show in the world.

There, Amelia and I met up with Desi and Kelly, and had a few drinks, including a shot called Cock Sucker. (I don’t know either.) Johnny Lightning was performing in said drag show, so I was more than excited about that, mainly because we’re moving to the “HEY! Let’s be friends!” phase, instead of the whole “OMG! I ONLY TALK TO YOU IN THE BAR!” phase. And I like friends! Then, to end the evening, a half naked man licked my ear and I pretty much got an ear boner. We stopped at Hardee’s on the way home, because nothing caps off a good night like a hot ham n’ cheese.

Saturday, we had lunch with Stephanie, who I hadn’t seen in almost three weeks, took a fantastic three hour nap, and then headed to the Lynx game, courtesy of some free tickets Erica had burning a whole in her pocket. It was my first game of the season, and it once again reminded me why I love going so much. We took the bus there and back and I’m pretty sure saved money by doing that instead of driving and parking. Look at me, all living in a big city and taking advantage of the public transportation.

This morning? EGG IN A HOLE! (Or Toad in a Hole) I’ve been kinda sick and haven’t wanted to eat since, oh, Tuesday, much in part due to some very weird stomach issues that I’m dealing with right now. And I was very excited when it actually sounded good this morning. And since the weather was so fantastic, we met up with Jenni, Matt, and Cindi to grill by the lake – I hadn’t seen them all week due to the plague of 08 that I’d been dealing with, so it was fun to get caught up with those a-holes, too.

We just watched Con Air (and watched Drop Dead Gorgeous last night, followed by Love Actually this morning), so I’m about to take Riley out and call it a night.

Hey, my life is kinda awesome right now, even if I don’t use the internet 29 hours a day anymore.

Jun
18

By Wendy

heart stuff

Category: Links Leave a Comment

Within the past few years, I’ve learned a lot about things that can go wrong with your heart. I’d rather never learn about those things and pretend they never exsist, but it doesn’t work like that. When your grandpa dies from a heart attack while at church one Sunday morning, your friend Missy celebrates her “Hey! They brought me back to life!” day, and a little guy named Sammy has had multiple heart surgeries before he’s even three years old, though, you kinda figure it must be pretty dang important to learn as much as you can.

St. Jude’s has made it pretty easy to learn as much about heart health as you possibly want to by having videos about a whole slew of things that effect the heart. I get a little creeped out thinking the doctors in the videos are looking at me when they talk, but other than that? Unbelievably helpful.

Jun
16

By Wendy

the weekend provided in bullets

Category: Lists Leave a Comment

I got out of bed early this morning. And by early I mean more than 10 minutes before I’m supposed to leave my house (8:30) in order to get to work on time. Quite honestly, I can leave my place at 8:45 and get there by 9:00, but if that happens, it involves cutting people off and running red lights through downtown Minneapolis. I’m a fan of both, but figure they’re probably not conducive to me keeping my nice, shiny driving record.

This weekend in bullet points:

Friday:

I won 3rd row tickets at Orchestra Hall in a drawing at work.
I wore fancy pants after 6pm on a Friday, complete with a jacket.
Amazing performance of Russian Spectacular: Season Finale!
Joined the crew at Jitters, for a drink and some cheese.
Called it a night.

Saturday:

Slept in.
I made breakfast.
We joined Cindi for a lunch of ice cream.
Thrift store shopping!
Other various shopping.
An attempt at going to Sonic (the brand new one in St. Paul) was thwarted by a STAGING AREA they had a couple blocks away. We had Taco Bell instead.
$50 did not fill my gas tank up. Sigh.
Joined Matt and Jenni at the Northeast Palace.
Sat 2 inches away from some crazy lady that kept staring at me. I would have said something, but she had two super drunk friends with her and she had a spider web tattoo on her arm. I didn’t want to be murdered.

Sunday:

Slept in.
Had cereal for breakfast.
Did absolutely nothing until 3p.m.
Had to go to work for a minute or two.
Cleaned out the ‘fridge, helped with dinner, watched bad TV.
Played Jeopardy on the PS2.
Called it a night.

And now it’s 11 minutes until it’s time for me to go to work, and guess who’s not dressed? Yep, that’d be me.

Jun
11

By Wendy

the big 3

Category: Riley Leave a Comment

Riley turned three yesterday. My baby puppy is so big now.

I worry about him getting old. I worry enough now when he’s just a little boy and weird things happen, but I know once he starts getting up there, every little thing he does will scare the crap out of me.

A couple of weeks ago, I left for work and he was just fine. When I came home around 6:30, he was covered in marble-sized bumps from head to toe. They were all over his hips, his legs, his belly, and even on his head. If you’ve never seen me freak out about something, this would have been a prime opportunity. I called half the people in my phone book, because I had no idea what to do. He had a ton of energy, he was eating and drinking, and he wasn’t even scratching at them.

Amelia was on her way over, and by the time she got here, I was in full on freak out mode. She looked him over and then decided to Google “dog, hives” and found this picture. That’s exactly what he looked like. Upon her suggestion, I gave him some Benadryl and an hour later, most of the hives were gone. By the next morning when he went to the vet for a comprehensive exam, they were completely gone. And I was officially over my current Riley Freak Out. They only happen about once a month nowadays. Much better from the weekly ones when I first got him.

And right now, he just made his way from my bed to the couch, where he’s adjusting himself just perfectly so he can lay in front of the window and still use a pillow. I can’t imagine not having this silly ol’ dog around.

Jun
10

By Wendy

i like telling time

Category: Me Leave a Comment

Thanks to the influence my little brother has on me, I go into these phases of thinking I need four or five watches at a time. They all have to be silver and they all have to have large faces. If I’m wearin’ a watch, I want people to know I’m wearing a watch. My current watch has a robot on it and the seconds race around the face in digital format. It’s fantastic, and it keeps both an 11 year old entertained, as well as a grown man I was interviewing today.

With my month long status of being, well, employed, I’ve started to realize I need some new things – a watch being one of them. Right now, I’m kinda in love with Seiko watches for no other reason then they’re just silver and shiny. Well, the fact that they’re made out of stainless steel and even their simplest designs (this one’s totally my favorite) look pretty dang fly also have convinced me I need one.

The other day, I left my watch at home and was just wearing a wristband. I can’t tell you how many times I glanced down trying to see what time it was from the naked mudflap girl that was on my wrist instead of my watch.

Jun
10

By Wendy

oh really, nkotb?

Category: Videos Leave a Comment

I loved New Kids on the Block back in the day. My friend Angie and I used to walk from her parents’ ceramic supply shop over to Food 4 Less and steal any issue of Bop or SuperTeen that had the New Kids on the cover. I had their posters covering my wall, and I was so intense about that I was disappointed when my grandma bought me a Kirk Cameron poster instead of a New Kids one. I even got in trouble for calling 1-900 NEW KIDS or whatever the number was back in the day. And they retired after switching their name to NKOTB and I think that was the best thing ever. It should have stayed that way.

I mean, c’mon. And you have to watch it until the end, because that’s the only time they have their standard choreographed group dancing that we all grew to love during the Hangin’ Tough phase where everyone got on the floor and did the New Kids Dance.

Joey is still the adorable one that should do all the singing and make the most appearances on camera. Jordan is still the one that needs to come out of the closet and stop pretending he’s interested in grinding up on severely underpaid models. Donnie needs to stop being jealous of Marky Mark, and realize he’s never gonna have abs like his baby brother. And Danny and Jon need to just tell the rest of these jackasses that they have better things to do than make the occasional appearance on camera just to appease the girls that think they can’t get with the other three New Kids on the Block because they’re way too fine.

And, yes, I’ll probably wind up at their damn concert when they come here.

Jun
9

By Wendy

marketing to the nascar fans

Category: Misc. Leave a Comment

Some time ago, I posted about lifelock and all the lessons it’s been teaching the world about fraud and identity theft. Since then, they’ve been in the news about several things, including someone taking out a payday loan while using the CEO’s social security number. I tried not to laugh, but c’mon, that’s funny stuff and the dude was asking for it!

I was thumbing through their press release page this morning, and it appears they’ve taken a few steps at getting their name out in the public eye a little differently. They’re taking the NASCAR sponsorship route. So far they’ve agreed to sponsor Sprint Cup Series races at Chicago and at the Michigan International Speedway. I don’t think you’ve actually made it in the NASCAR circuit until you’re sponsoring a car, but this is getting pretty close.

Also, they’re hiring now. If you’re hired and manage to give them a spectacular quote about your time as a Lifelock employee, it looks like they’ll jump at the opportunity to put your mug on their website… in Flash format even.

Jun
9

By Wendy

sweep van drivers

Category: The 3 Day '08 Leave a Comment

I haven’t been able to devote as much time to The 3 Day this year as I would have liked. There was the whole getting fired laid off, then looking for a new job, and then the cruise, looking for a new apartment, moving, still looking for a new job, and then starting the new job, etc. So, really, the six months that should have opened up a lot of time for me to come up with new and exciting ways to raise money turned out to be six months that I couldn’t really concentrate on anything but myself.

On Friday, I got a call from the guy that’s in charge of this year’s crew. I’d emailed him earlier in the week, because I was getting frustrated about not hearing what type of assignment they’d have for me while doing the crew. He and I talked during my lunch break about the type of crew positions I was interested in, and why I thought I’d be a good fit for various positions. And when it was all said and done, it just so happened that Jenni and I have landed the most exciting crew position in ALL THE LAND.

We’re going to drive a Sweep Van. For those of you that have ever done or watched or heard about The 3 Day, you’ll know how awesome this is. And for those of you not in the know, Sweep Vans drive up and down the line of hundreds of walkers all day until every last walker is back at camp. It’s our job to make sure everyone’s safe and when someone can’t walk anymore, or they just need a quick break, we get them in the van and take them to the next stop.

Having used the Sweep Van this past year, and how emotional the whole process is, I can’t wait to do it. Plus, the idea of Jenni and I being responsible for decorating and driving around a 15 passenger van is really awesome. We just have to come up with a theme!