From 12-18-02:
Travis’ Airport Shuttle Service

About a week ago, one of the Labor Relations secretaries asked if I could pick her up from the airport today. She said that her flight would come in around noon and I would only need to take her back to the office because she’d leave her car there. No problem, I told her and I confirmed that she was going to have luggage small enough to fit into my car.

Fast-forward to today. I left the office around 11:30 to make my way down to the airport. It was raining off and on for the duration of the drive, but that didn’t seem to slow down traffic. The airport wasn’t too crowded and I was able to find her on the curb without any problems. I stop the car and get out to see her standing there with an enormous suitcase. Damn, I think to myself, there is no way that’s going to fit in the trunk. Naturally, it starts to rain as I humor myself by trying to shove the suitcase into the trunk. Not even close. I sit there for a minute, trying to figure out what to do, when I notice a bungee cord in the trunk. I wrestle the monstrosity into the trunk as best I can and secure the trunk lid with the bungee cord. Good enough. We both get into the car and she says, “I don’t have a car at work, so you’ll have to drop me off at home.” Great, it’s nice that ‘home’ is in Cardiff! I don’t mind doing an airport run on my lunch break, and it only adds to my enjoyment to drive an extra 30 miles out of my way!

I attended the office holiday party yesterday. Like last year, it took place at Rock Bottom. Naturally, the minute I got there, I ordered up a pitcher for myself and a couple other people. This pretty much set the tone for the entire party. I spent the majority of my time throwing back beers and shooting pool with the “younger” crowd. When the party ended around 5 o’clock, my BAC was a bit too high for me to drive. Fortunately, Michelle was able to come by on her way home from work and take me home. The party was a bit tamer than last year (I remember it being a lot more lively), but I [obviously] still had a good time. I also won a pair of movie tickets in the raffle. Despite my valiant efforts, I didn’t manage to make too much of an ass of myself. Perhaps if we’d been there longer…

Life Lesson # 6728

When replacing paper towel or toilet paper rolls, always make sure to orient the new roll so that the paper comes over the front side of the roll.

Another quick entry today. ‘Tis the season for free meals, er, celebrations! Last Wednesday was our appreciation luncheon hosted by the Business Affairs department. Along with a free lunch, I also received a nice Polo shirt. At lunch there was a raffle, and the grand prize was a copy of Microsoft Office XP, which I happened to win. The next free meal was the annual campus pancake breakfast. I was late to that, but still got plenty of food. Upcoming events include crashing this afternoon’s ACS holiday party, an HR breakfast sponsored by the department managers next Monday and our holiday party later in the week.

As for the weekend, it looks to be pretty full already. I’m dropping Michelle off at the airport in the morning so that she can go up to San Francisco for work. I’ll probably hit up the gym afterwards and then hopefully wash my car (which, is in serious need of a bath). It sounds like I may have a slight exhaust leak as well, so I’ll check that out while I’m at it. My family, including my grandmother, is coming down in the afternoon to celebrate my grandmother’s 87th birthday. We’re going to Morton’s in downtown for dinner. On Sunday, it will probably be bowling in the morning and then I have a hockey game in the afternoon. It feels like it’s been a really long time since the last time I played, so I’m sure I’ll be in for a world of hurt. Other than that, I just need to attend to a bunch of tasks around the house and start getting ready for the holidays.

I’m a little short on time today, but I’m going to try to get an entry out, none-the-less. The past week has been fairly smooth around here. I went up to Hemet over the weekend to attend a gala event with my parents. The event was held at the roller skating rink in Hemet, a change-up from last year when it was held in a gymnasium. However, it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds. Whoever was on the decorating committee did an amazing job in transforming the rink and it actually looked very nice. Everyone was dressed to impress, with the majority of the attendees sporting tuxes and evening gowns. The dinner was surprisingly good as well. I spent much of the evening chatting with family friends and perusing the items displayed for the silent auction. Unlike last year, I didn’t do much in the way of bidding. For those who don’t know, I won a lovely picnic basket ensemble at last year’s event. Although, it has come in quite handy on a few occasions. Last year’s event was also fun because I had Christine with me and we both consumed copious amounts of wine. Which, in turn, led to a short-lived relationship, but that’s another story for another time.

On Sunday, Michelle joined me in a relentless search for shoes. My athletic shoes badly in need of replacement, combined with a sizable discount coupon for Foot Locker inspired the trip. Unfortunately, the selection of shoes wasn’t quite as exciting and by the end of the trip I was still wearing the same pair of shoes that I started in. Michelle, on the other hand, was able to take full advantage of the coupon and cleaned out Lady Foot Locker.

I think that’s all I’m going to have time for now, but here are a ton of links that I’ve been stockpiling (sorry for the lack of descriptions):

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=440466
http://www.hubcapcreatures.com/
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/11/22/health.laptop.reut/index.html
http://www.news24.com/News24/Backpage/0,5583,2-1343_1279332,00.html
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/localupdates/MGBAKCYET8D.html
http://www.carlscoolkids.com/cmd/carls/secret_word_surprise.html
http://www.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11/23/testing.company.ap/index.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2002/11/25/urbananimal.DTL
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1124porn24.html
http://www.pjstar.com/news/luciano/g137071a.html
http://www.fresnobee.com/24hour/weird/story/655854p-4927234c.html
http://img.ranchoweb.com/images/yunapee/dearsailors.jpg
http://cluephone.net/fatbabe.swf
http://www.trnonline.com/stories/12082002/local_news/35637.shtml/
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/12092002_bb_gumballbandit.html
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/09/1039379776174.html
http://www.aande.com/tv/shows/cleavage/
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/1826382/detail.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/newstmpl=story2&cid=816&ncid=816&e=1&u=/ap/20021208/ap_on_re_us/homeless_freshman
http://www.marineturbine.com/superbike/
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/gomiata/gomhapcartee.html
http://www.icyhotstunta.com/?
http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=1036939&nav=0hBECjb7
http://brokennewz.com/usnews/ebonics.asp
http://www.ihumpthings.com/
http://www.liquidgeneration.com/karaoke/karaoke_winona.asp
http://beermachine.com/files/special.html

Haven’t written anything in a while; I guess I just haven’t felt like writing lately. Maybe it’s because I’m tired of writing “played hockey last night, blah, blah blah,” or “went bowling, just like I do every friggin’ Monday.” Or, it could be that, like everything else in my life, I put it off for as long as possible and when I’m finally ready to compose something, someone around here does something stupid and by the time the issue is resolved, it’s time to go home.

Thanksgiving was a nice break from my routine. I left for Hemet late Thursday morning and got into town around 1:00 or so. I was pretty exhausted, so I ended up falling asleep before dinner. I felt like my head had barely hit the pillow before I was summoned for dinner. All the food was wonderful; had my fill of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, etc. After dinner, I still felt tired, so I went to sleep shortly thereafter.

Friday, I started my day by helping my parents assemble their new bed, which was some sort of new-fangled air mattress. Of course, everyone had an opinion about how the whole contraption should be assembled. The only way I could maintain my sanity throughout the ordeal was to keep asking my mother for glasses of water so that she would leave the room. After the bed was completely put together, the rest of the day was family day, as the four of us headed over to Palm Springs for lunch and a movie.

We had a quick lunch at a little seafood restaurant and then went to see the new James Bond flick. I thought the movie was pretty good, save for one totally outrageous scene. It was definitely better than the last one, though. After the movie, it was back to Hemet for the night. With nothing to do, I went to bed soon after we got home.

On Saturday, Alexis and I came back to San Diego in the morning and ran some errands together and went to RIMAC. In the evening, we headed downtown for dinner. It took us a while to finally decide on a restaurant, but we ended up at Aubergine. While the service was painfully slow (read: almost two and a half hours for dinner), the food was quite good. After we finally finished eating, we had a drink at the bar while we waited for Randy and his friends to arrive downtown.

We met up with them at Dublin Square for a drink. We stuck around there for about an hour or so. By the time we were ready to head to the next bar, Alexis and I were feeling pretty wiped out, so we decided to call it a night.

Sunday morning, Kevin, Al and I went to the bowling alley for a bit. Then the three of us picked Alexis up at UTC and went over to Cozymel’s for lunch. After eating, I dropped Alexis off at the airport and headed over to Michelle’s for a bit.

Monday: Bowling, blah, blah, hockey, blah, blah, blah.