Yeah so I got up late again. Oh well.

The interesting topic, that's really from like tuesday is so I was watching news coverage of the conventions, when Annete (trainer person) makes small talk about the election. The issue is that for whatever reason she doesn't 'trust' Kerry to run the country, and thus defaults to Bush. I'm torn, feeling that I should at least get her to ponder the logic of that statement, since Ohio actually matters, every vote should do something or other positive, not just 'well, maybe Bush'

And now I need to leave.

So to continue when lawyers baffle you. I was reading the rules of the fitness center, which include basic stuff like singing a release form. But the best rule I think is that one should wear 'reasonable and customary workout attire' I can't think of anyone who uses the term reasonable and customary besides lawyers, and when they do, I'm sure it has some specific meaning. Probably not meaning relating to the type of shorts you're supposed to be wearing. At least I'd hope not.

Other then that, its wednesday, so its the middle of the week. I got some desk accesories that I ordered a while ago. But ran out of time to put them in. I need to do that first thing, since I had to leave (late even) and left them all over my desk. There's no room for my cereal bowl even.

Yesterday was another one of those wake up 10 minutes before I need to leave days. Oops.

Fortunately my boss wasn't in the office, and no one really cares if I'm two or three minutes late. They'd probably make a big deal if I was half an hour late regularly, so I won't do that. Seems like the best plan.

The informative clevelandfact of the day is that Vita-mix is in Cleveland. Who knew? Well I know some people knew, but most people didn't.

All of the koziol stuff is at the organization store. Which is like 3 stores down from trader joes, but we hadn't been there essentially since it opened 9 months ago. They didn't have koziol when they opened. They also aparently don't like to pack q-tip holders that you purchased in the bag, so I'm not sure if that's encouragement to go back. At least it was only like $5.

Besides that, I think its time to go to work again. Today is earnings release day. Which mostly means that I listen to a webcast from my desk and attempt to figure out what is happening on the other side of the building. Mostly a time killing excercise, but occasionally interesting.

The only other thing that got taken not by the city (at least that seems to be the case) was the VCR. How unexciting.

Other then that, nothing too exciting. It was the hopefully last mowing of the lawn yesterday with the old lawnmower. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but it has issues with starting and is otherwise very cranky. We'll be getting a new one next week from Atlanta, which has prevented just buying one, so there's been lots of annoyance trying to get it started and other fun stuff.

THankfully its supposed to be in the 70s today and for the rest of the weekend. I think the biggest issue with the 7 is that it doesn't have air conditioning, it gets hot as hell and never really cools down. Though at least it has cloth seats, I couldn't imagine trying to sit down on leather. or vinyl. Just need to wait 2 weeks or so...

The few '05s that have made it to the US haven't been released to dealers. Is it right to be slightly happy that mine which got delayed due to some options I picked and then got put on the world's slowest ship won't be that far behind them then? Of course it might get delayed, but it seems the delay is related to the model year change, not that things are slow.

so at last check, (after coming back from krispy kreme to get some donuts and the new original glazed frozen thingy, which is odd and has a weird chemical aftertaste, it might be better with coffee, but who wants it with coffee at 10pm?) the only thing taken was the vcr. I haven't checked this morning yet, I guess a little suspense is good.

So the other half (1/8th? whatever) of the training thing at work is diet. Which I don't care about at all, however I was scolded yesterday for eating lucky charms, due to some flakey logic that they don't have anything good for you. It was suggested I eat wheaties instead, because they have vitamins. I pointed out none of those are natural, so its no better then eating a normal cereal (at least one like lucky charms with no fat) and taking a vitamin pill. I don't go back until monday, or tuesday, depending on how I schedule next week, so I'm not sure of the continued reaction, but I have very little effort planned to stop eating whatever damn cereal i want.

Its wednesday, so its garbage day again. Since you may recall last week the beat up and useless for anything except scrap filing cabinet left in about half an hour to a random passerby, I'm wondering what will go this.

The theory is that if I put things out early (so at like 6, when I get home) there's more time for things to dissapear, and thus by morning, the lawn won't be filled with crap, and ultimately more things get thrown out, making everyone happy. The theoretically things to throw out this week are:

a few more pieces of the desk
an old probably not working 13" tv
a similar vcr
the 2nd row and rear seats from old rusty

of course there's other stuff to throw out as well, but I don't anticipate any of that being pilfered. Its sort of like a competition, to see how long it takes things to dissapear. I'll try and report back tomorrow on what happened. Well I guess technically friday, since the actual garbage gets picked up after I've left.

Well so yesterday I for whatever reason woke up 10 minutes before I was supposed to leave. That didn't exactly lend itself to lots of time for computer stuff. I was actually happy that I managed to get dressed and leave only a minute or two late.

So in exciting things, its appears the now complete MINI is on a challenger for the world's slowest ship, and will be arriving in Charleston SC on August 1st. Why it takes 15 days to get from Southampton to there, I have no idea, nor do I have any idea why its shipped to a port 730 miles away, when NY is 500. Probably something to do with evening out the distribution of cars, and just basically getting screwed by MINI.

Besides that, we're into the second week of the excercise plan, where I got some nagging (she really is more of a nagger then a trainer) on what I was eating. Aparently I should be eating hamburgers with no bun, and brown rice. I'm not sure how I'm going to break it to her that there's no way in hell I'm eating like some messed up atkins-veagan crossbreed something or other. We'll work on that today I guess, but it should be an interesting conversation.

2 bottles of FIJI in the last case tasted like tap water. I called them and left a message on Saturday and they got back to me. Suposedly I should be getting some coupons for new bottles, and 'literature' since that's really what I need, paperwork telling me how wonderful the water is. I bet it will be significantly more exciting then the fluff I could read myself on the web page as well. Whatever.

Anyway, so off to work, another exciting day ahead, though at least we have a 2 hour presentation on STERIS values. I'm not sure if this is to be feared or not, but its at least something to do, and probably won't be too boring.

I already had an entry called been a while, so I need to keep it all organized.

Anyway, so at midnight I got my first paycheck with a raise. It sorta offsets the 401K deductions that started the previous paycheck. I also had the actual annual review yesterday, (mostly to get it explained before my paycheck...) which at least made me feel like I'm making progress. My rating was 3, which is achieves (4 is better, 5 is even better, but I don't remember what those stand for) however when I saw the actual review, it was actual 3.63 or something, but in STERIS rounding land, you need a .75 to round up. Oh well, the things I got 3s on where mostly 'need more experience' so I guess the logic of that is that I can continue to work hard and get a 4 next year. Or get screwed, we'll see. And the raise was half (due to only working 6 months) of a 3.25% raise.

In other news, I can't think of anything too exciting. My MINI is finished being built, its waiting for transporation, but there seems to be a bit of a backup with finding spots on ships, so it should leave I think on the 24th (unless it gets bumped off the ship its booked on) and get here on the 4th of august.. I think. Yes, I just checked. Anyway, so a tight squeeze and unlikely to get here by that weekend for the mini meet it seems. Oh well. Other then that, its off to work, so I guess I need to get going.

Happy birthday to Walter though.

So we've started the excercise/personal trainer routine. Which isn't as fun as you would think, though I'm not sure why you'd think it was fun. Its a bit more of a personal nagger. Go in, and if you don't go, she nags you to make you in theory want to go back. Oh well.

Oddly, after the fitness test thing last thursday I hurt a lot, but I don't today. I don't know if I'll end up hurting later, but maybe I'll just be sore. Perhaps having a trainer prevents you from doing odd things like attempting to see how much you can life during a fitness test. I guess that's helpful.

Oh well, the other downside of the fitness thing is that I need to keep packing a gym bag, which takes an extra few minutes every morning, and thus cuts into the time I'm awake and have for blogging. I could get up earlier, but have not started to feel the extra energy or other stuff from working out, so maybe that will happen in a few weeks and I won't constantly be tempted to sleep for ever longer.

So my boss, who I never really see or talk to (even though his office is like 20 feet from my desk) aparently decided that I deserved/needed/whatever a raise (annual revies happen for everyone around July 1st, companywide).. Anyway, so I got a raise of 1.625%, which seems small to me, but upon further discussion, it isn'r bad for working a bit less then 6 months, and its still a raise, so I shouldn't complain. I guess that makes sense. Anyway, its extra money to put towards something or other useful. And it makes up for the 401K deductions that started July 1st as well.

In other news, I got a replacement phone since the old one kept being impossible to hear. It looks like it works well, but I have to see. I also need to mail the old one back... so I should hurry up and remember to do that today or tomorrow.

That's about it from the excitement work. I start the 'fitness assesment' today, for the 30 day program that starts next week at work. (There's a fitness center with 2 full-time trainers at work, I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that) hopefully it should be productive, and make it worth spending the extra time before coming home...

So there was a guy trolling for people to fill out a survey for fast company (just a dumb magazine) so they can award some or other for customer service for companies. The only interesting part is the amount of companies that I seem to have done business with over the past 12 months as they ask. Its rather funny, though I'm not sure exactly how it relates, since theres so many companies I as a good capitalist have done business with, maybe its not news. Anyway, here's the list: http://www.foreseeresults.com/survey/Clients/FastCo/companyList.html if you're interested, and I'm off to work. Its namita's last day due to her visa troubles, she should be back in october... I don't know if anyone's going to sit where she sat, as its rather boring without her I suspect.

Right, so we did the fireworks thing, which involved the locals of mulletville setting off bottle rockets from their hands, and lighting roman candles in the street. very amusing, and especially when people spend $300 each (at least every 4th or 5th house) on about 50 fireworks that they spend several hours shooting off. It makes it an interesting night, not to mention a bit of a pain to clean up the morning after. Having fireworks legal really does make it more of a competition to outdo your neighbors as far as shooting things off, and maybe even blowing things up. I'm sure its a highlight in all the little mullet's calendar.

Besides that, its back to work. Boo, it was a nice long weekend, but I guess there's logic in it having to end. not sure what that is.

The car is in production, and should be finished July 14th. There's a boat scheduled for the 18th, so we'll hope it gets on that, and then sometime maybe early august. Of course who really besides me wants to keep track of all the little details, so I won't update too much.

I think that's about it, I should probably go pick out a new cereal for the week, special K red berries seems likely, since there's a few boxes of that, and I need to point out that I do like it, I just get bored of it.

Well I didn't do anything yesterday, since I couldn't access the site, and today I'm totally running late because I only woke up at 6:30... That leaves not very much time to get everything else done before I leave.

However in good news, there isn't all that much going on, so sanity has returned after the trip. Fortunately or unfortunately, that also means there isn't much to do, except for the house... It was a wednesday, so garbage night and all that other fun things.

Oh well, have to get going, I'll put the picture up hopefully tonight, but some of them are with actual film cameras, which will involve going and getting them developed, so don't hbld your breath on that.