Mindless Juices

Well, we're finally catching up at work. Of course, the storm last night gave us quite a fright and we did have a number of outages from which to recover. This weekend will still be a little rough, but by next week, we should be just about back to normal. That means, I actually have a few minutes to not think about work. I felt bad that I've had so much work stuff going on while Donnie was here. Still, he thought it was cool that I took care of stuff over the phone a lot of times. Sadly, he also thinks all I do is drive around and talk on the phone all day. Anyway, I'm looking forward to going bowling tonight with some YMCA'ers. Last night, I was a bit of a wet blanket... Donnie wanted to go out, but I had to move an LE 200 feet and it was quite hot yesterday. I was looking forward to a night of sitting on the couch in the AC. We watched some DVD's he had and Sabrina actually got into a CSI. It was pretty cool. Just as the story was climaxing and getting tense, the storm was rolling in. The thunder and lightning... well, it was better than my surround sound! I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, but it never fails that one of my guys will call me between 7:30am and 8:00am. Sleeping in happens so rarely for me... . I only feel bad for Sabrina can't sleep in either. Ah, sleep... it's my favorite pastime.

# posted by Steve (Oz) : 7/29/2005 12:21:00 PM  3 comments

If you haven't already discovered Dane Cook, you need to. He's hilarious! I saw him once and I was hooked. I forced Sabrina to watch him and she cracked up laughing. Now, you have to know that my wife doesn't usually enjoy stand-up comedians as much as I do, but she loves Dane. Dane is the only comedian we have supported financially... in other words, we bought his stuff. DVD/CD combos which is exactly what every comedian needs to sell. We now own two DVD/CD combos. You may have seen him in some bit parts, but his stand-up is definitely the best. I just learned that he's from Boston, Mass. He seemed very much more of a New York/Seattle/Atlanta type of guy. Boston seems a little too laid back for Dane... they would've kicked him out. Listen, his website has some clips playing. Listen for a little bit and you'll laugh. If you ever get to see him on Comedy Central or something, watch... his antics are even funnier. Yes, this was a giant Dane Cook advertisement, but we just bought his new combo and I can't wait to watch it.

So, we went putt-putting at Adventure Landing last night. It was me, Sabrina, Kelli, Nick and Donnie. I was very much looking forward to it since my short game really sucked the other day. When I was living in Florida and my dad insisted on taking me out to play, I used to be able to read greens really well and two putt all the time. In fact,t he only problem I had was getting to the green, but onceI was there, it was all good. When I played the other day, I was three putting everything. But, I was getting to three green a lot better than I ever have in the past. Last night, I started finding my putting groove, but I'm going to need to work on my chipping as I'm still having a problem with that. I know, how interesting golf is... I can only imagine how enthralled you are by my personal golf game. Anyway, at Adventure Landing, every single hole is a par 2. It's a little annoying actually. None of the holes are tremendously challenging. It makes for good practice for a golf course, but a somewhat boring time playing putt-putt. All in all, it was a good night with friends. I always like spending time with Kelli and Nick. They are incredibly nice/sweet/fun people to be with... but mostly, it's easy to hang around them. I don't feel any pressures to be funny or have a witty story or to be cool. Also, Sabrina's mom is in town. We went to see March of the Penguins yesterday. It was really good. Baby penguins are incredibly cute. Mom is leaving on Monday and Donnie is staying for another week.

No, that's not what I shot on the golf course. We played at Lakeshore off of Lumley road. The weather was supposed to get to mid-90s. We all wished our scores would get there, too. Actually, on Saturday, I shot a 115. Still, I played some good golf. Off the tee, I was hitting pretty well, with the exceptions of my mulligans (only 2). I found some rhythm or "pace" as Josh kept saying. I think I'd like to try a graphite driver now. Meanwhile, Brad was lots of fun and quite good. He shot the best at 104. Josh repeated his personal best at 107. Josh's friend Johnny could drive the ball for miles, but had no control and end up at 115, too. PS - I'm sorry about not posting this sooner. I got interrupted and I had plans to post this days ago. I'm sure there was more that I planned on blogging, but I can't remember now. Old age...

Yeah, I wish. So, I was invited by my across the street neighbor, Josh, to make a foursome for Saturday afternoon/evening. The price was right and I looked forward to meeting new people and embarrassing myself on the golf course. However, I had a wicked hook when I went out to the driving range a couple of weeks ago. I needed to fix it before I played 18 holes. Donnie wanted to go out to the driving range, so this was a good chance tofigure out what I am doing wrong and fix it. Unfortunately, I only curbed it slightly and still not enough to play 18 holes effectively. Moreover, I forgot to practice some chipping and putting. I think I need to go back, but I really don't want to spend that much money... at the same time, I want to get better. (sigh) Enter dilemma. Meanwhile, Donnie... well, I wish I could hit as consistently as he does. He "chunks" about as often as I do, but every ball he hits well goes straight or has a minor hook. Minor enough that I could play to it if I had it. So, I'm quite jealous. I was happy that with just a few small pointers, I think I helped his consistency out. He may only hit about 100-150 yards with a good balls rolling to 200, but they're straight. 150 yard drive with a good chip should get you on the green with two putts on any course. So, I have to play on Saturday and I'm not feeling very confident. I just hope I'm not a huge embarassment amongst the other guys with which I will be playing. Or, I hope I'm such a huge embarassment that it's incredibly funny and never annoying.

Perhaps our own little world, but I do love it... perhaps because it's our own little world. So, Angela blogged from her honeymoon. To which Josh commented. To which Sabrina commented in reply. To which I posted. If Angela moves it forward, the circle will be complete. I like circles.

So, tonight (if all goes well), TWC Raleigh will be digitally simulcasting all of the current analog channels (0-77). That means that if you have a digital box, your picture and sound will never be converted to analog on the TWC network. We receive most of the signals from the broadcasters digitally. Then, we downgrade them to analog and put them on the lines. We'll continue to do that for those customers who have regular cable ready TVs without a cable box. But, starting tonight, we'll also take those digital signals and send them to our digital boxes. The result is a digital picture and digital sound that should be clearer and better... better edges, better color depth. However, if you have a problem on your digital frequencies (especially on channels that you don't watch and, therefore, don't know you've got a problem), then you're gonna find out tomorrow. So, just in case there's a lot of people who have this problem, we're planning and working hard to be ready to handle the extra call volume. So, even though it means a lot of work for me and my technicians, I'm still REALLY excited about this offering. We can definitely see the difference between a digital channel and an analog channel on our 32" TV. I can only imagine how much I would dislike analog if I owned a bigger screen. Not to mention that I love my sound system (Onkyo Receiver & Polk Speakers & Sub) and I will love having digital sound. I'm sure that Sabrina's favorite part will be that we should be able to hold more shows on the Divo, our DVR. The digital channels take up less space than the analog... since they'll all be digital... Now, we're only waiting on the broadcasters to up their equipment to get better pictures and sound.

So, I needed to get my car fixed. It's needed exhaust work since last year when it barely passed inspection. Apparently, it needed a new muffler. $220. What can you do? I hate cars. They are NOT an investment. A house is an investment, you make money on a house. You do nothing but lose money on a car. Meanwhile, I convinced my beautiful wife to let me sit in her air conditioned office while I waited for them to fix it. Wireless is a beautiful thing. I can do my job from anywhere I can get Sprint PCS and Alltel service. I took care of a concerned customer and got the IT department to fix one of my technician's cell phone from a parking lot at Duke. I feel like I shouldn't have to use a Personal Day, but I guess I should. So, after taking care of everything that was blowing up at work, I started surfing the EQ2 sites and then started playing Minesweeper. Yes, I enjoy it. Sabrina noticed and menioned that she blogged. I read hers and thought I should blog to. So, viola... sad, isn't it?