Y8 D219

Want to feel old for a minute? Happy 20th(!!) Anniversary Diablo!! Yep. It was 20 years ago today that Blizzard released the very first Diablo. I remember playing it with X2 side by side in our office at the time as we both reached Diablo together and team killed him. I can't believe it's been that long. Crazy huh?

In other news, happy NYE. Get through today and we put 2016 behind us. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad. We settled in here. Got ahead on some bills. Really settled in to being married and being together. For celebrities? Man did it suck. Hold on, let's check... ok no one died last night. Good.

Yesterday I worked for a good long time. I finished the last of the three classes. MAJOR changes to it which I am really proud of to be honest. Next week I am going to see if I can implement some new feature discussions into the three classes. The first part this last week was updating the classes to reflect the new version of the product. No new feature discussions yet. But I got it all done around 4:30. Made us some dinner, relaxed, ate, and then after making sure we weren't hungry, we headed to the grocery store. It was about 7 when we went out and the store wasn't too bad. Got some good stuff.

Came back and we both were a bit too tired and gassy for anything but sitting on the couch and playing video games. Go us. I got a quest line done that's been alluding me and B found a new area and some new pets. I went to bed around 11:30.

Today we aren't planning on leaving the house. Maybe for a little while, but no parties or crazy shit tonight. I am worried about idiots and fireworks. B is prepared though. Noise machine and big headphones.

Come on new year. Let's do this.

Y8 D218

My sister texted me last night. She got a weird Christmas card from someone named Steve. Who lives in this area. Who knows their names and is glad they are friends. Oh and he is looking forward to visiting them soon. Except... they know no one named Steve who lives in this area. She wondered if it was from me. Um, no. Not only do I not send cards, I certainly wouldn't play a joke like that. Bizarre.

Something is irking me this morning. On a friend's social media page, they were commenting on how their kid was in trouble so they told him no video games. He then went outside and played on the river. She was lamenting how she "won" because he was now outside and her punishment was useless. Some old bitch had to comment about how GOOD this was because she NEVER bought her kids "that nintendo stuff" and "made them go outside". And that's why your kid is now a blue collar worker making minimum wage. I know that's an over exaggeration but I always get irked when people over 50 get all ruffled about "those damn computers and video games". Bitch please. Without people like me who sit in inside all day, you'd have none of the things you enjoy so much. Fire bad! Thomas Edison was a witch!

Worked hard on my stuff yesterday. I am making significant changes to this third class I am working on. I got about 30% done because of the changes. I am hoping to make up a good chunk today and while I probably won't finish it I hope to come close. No update on my 2017 negotiations. Sigh. Time to start considering other options.

Had leftovers for dinner. Watched some tv. Three day weekend on the horizon. This year finally over. Thank god. Just double checked. No one died yet today of any significance. That's good. Need to go pay bills now. Because the world doesn't stop. Ever.

Y8 D217

I know it make sense. It doesn't make it any more pleasant. If my child died I would probably want to be right behind them too. But to take Debbie Reynolds the day after her daughter? Man, what a rotten world. I've mentioned the theory about Satan already I am sure, but here with three days remaining it doesn't seem so crazy any more.

I worked hard yesterday. Got the second of three classes completed. Finished around 2:30. We then took the incredible cake B made to her cousin. Man I hate going over there and this time it was even worse. In addition to their dog, cat, and two ferrets, they are watching a co-worker's dog and her 4 puppies. Nine animals in an 800 square foot place. The place stunk of animal and pot. Plus it was a mess. I described it to B as children who don't have a mother around any more telling them to put their shit away. It's just so incredibly cluttered. Junk everywhere. The furniture layout is horrible. I can't take it over there.

On the way home we stopped at the store for some stuff for dinner. They baby lobster tails on sale for $7 each and we picked up a couple. Had those with some nice pasta for dinner. Watched some TV, relaxed, and played some games. I am almost back to full health and things are looking good for some weekend fun. Get a three day weekend I just remembered. NYE is such a weird thing. Yeah I guess it's cool and all but without the show or living in a more exciting area, it's just another night.

Went to bed around 10:30. One more class to work on today and tomorrow. It's the largest of the three. Once I have the existing stuff completed then I have to go back and see where I can insert new material. That's going to be a real challenge. But it's real work that has to be done. Still waiting on 2017 salary negotiations. Not happy about that. Maybe today I will get some resolution.

Y8 D216

I am usually not bothered by celebrity deaths, but Carrie Fisher is really hitting me hard. So much love from everyone. All the posts and comments are what is making this difficult for me. Seeing how much her life meant to people who never even got to meet her personally. I have followed her on twitter for a while and see how open and honest she was about her life and it touches people. She was everybody's and she knew it. She embraced it.The world is a worse off place without her in it.

Worked on docs yesterday. Went back and forth with my boss about 2017 salary negotiations. It's not going well. They are cheap and I am stubborn. I may have to make some decisions in the next couple of weeks. Might be time to pursue other pastures. Notice I didn't say greener. I am not stupid enough to think things will magically be better somewhere else. I will give up a lot of freedom and autonomy but I can also stand to dramatically increase my salary. Hard choices to make.

B finished her first cake last night. I was blown away. This looks like something from a bakery. The piping is perfect. She made it for her cousin whose birthday was the other day. We are bringing it over this afternoon.

The impressive part is she made this cake even with her mother in the hospital. Yep, her mom was in the hospital for a good part of yesterday with an upper respiratory infection, sinus infection, and elevated blood pressure. They let her go late in the day but it was worrisome around her.

My cold is finally starting to dissipate thank goodness. I am at about 90% right now. Not quite all the way to healthy but one more day should do it.

Y8 D215

Got over 7 hours of sleep last night. Mostly due to drugs. I had an alarm set, but it was set for Monday, because today's monday, right? This is going to be one of those screwy weeks.

I got up and took the car to the dealer. I had two recall notices on it and they were able to take care of one right now. Still waiting on the parts for the other. Stopped at the store on the way home for dinner stuff. Read until B woke up. She got up late and wanted to go to Target. That was loads of fun. The best part was when we got to the register and I realized I forgot my wallet. Fuck. We put our stuff to the side, drove all the way back home, then when we got back, our stuff had been touched. We were buying a bin for her new cake stuff and we had some other little things inside it. People had started using it to dump other stuff in. And they took out two of our things. Whatever.

Got back home and my cold kicked in hard. I ended up napping for an hour. Got up, read, then B made a giant pot of chicken soup (which helped a lot) and then she made her first cake with her new stuff. It's amazing the difference professional equipment makes. This is something she is interested in possibly doing as a career believe it or not. Today she is going to work on her piping and frosting techniques. She was really nervous but man it came out great.

Went to bed around 10:30 but didn't fall asleep until 11. Then I woke up at 12:30 thanks to a bad dream. I got stuck in a crazy elevator, my car got towed, and people were trying to kill me. I just woke up from a second bad dream where some redneck was showing us his house. That one was just bizarre and weird. He was going to eat us, I know it.

Today I am working on updating documents for 2017. Kind of looking forward to it actually. The ones I am working on this week are pretty straight-forward and this shouldn't be too hard. I am also hoping to hear back from my boss on something for 2017. Let's see how today goes. It could be boring, annoying, or really good.

Y8 D214

SO much going on I don't know where to start. First off I am typing this on a new keyboard. Not sure how I feel about it. It's a logitech gaming keyboard. It's not the super fancy ones and I think that's the problem. I went for the lower end one and while it has some features I like, I am not in love with it. I have been using mac keyboards for so long now part of it is just getting used to this again.

Next up, how about George Michael dying? 53. What's up with that?? Heart failure they said last night. If there's an update not heard anything yet as I literally just got up. But for real he's dead? I saw him on the 25th anniversary tour. He looked and sounded great.

Here, let me go check and see if anyone else died last night...

Okay no one else dead, yet. Why am I up so early for a day after Christmas you might ask? I have a service appointment for the car. I can't believe their open, but they are. I will be taking it in shortly.

We had a good Christmas. Lots of practical presents with only the occasional random thing. I got multiple books, this keyboard, some clothes, a life size stuffed BB-8, a new desk lamp I really like, and Amazon Echo. We used it quite a bit yesterday. We need to look into which 'skills' will really give us the bang for the buck, but so far we are finding it practical and useful.

B got all of her cake decorating stuff she wanted, Hermoine's wand directly from Olivander's in England, a portable vacuum, clothes, and some books.

My cold isn't that much better which did make for a rough day. I slept for a while after taking meds to try and make it better. We went out for Chinese food around 5:30. Crazy town. I am used to my old Chinese place which knows how to handle crowds on Christmas. This place did not. While the food was good, the service was horrible. I was really peeved.

Got home, B got overwhelmed from dinner and went off to read. I went to bed around 10:30 after taking more meds. I am really hoping to kick this thing today. Other than the car appointment, I need to stop at the store for ingredients for chicken soup. Mostly to kick this cold dammit.

Now nobody else fucking die this week, okay?

Y8 D213

MERRY CHRISTMAS BITCHES!!

Sigh, that never gets old. Yes, it's that time of year again. The Yule is upon us. Went to bed at midnight and now I am up at 5:15am. Because it's Christmas! Presents and mistletoe and ho ho ho.We had a nice quiet day inside yesterday. Vacuumed, cleaned, did laundry (including sheets!), and just prepped for today. We setup a Christmas playlist that we started around 7. The usual - Rudolph, Grinch, Charlie Brown, Die Hard.

Hell yeah it's a Christmas movie.

That's about it. B said I could wake her at 7 today. I might be nice and give her until 8. It is Christmas after all.

Y8 D212

Hey guess what I got for Christmas? A fucking cold. Thanks for bringing your sick fucking children on that airplane Wednesday night. Small metal tube multiple sick children. Fucking lovely. I can't breathe. My throat is sore. Just dandy.

Second issue of the day - I swear this year better not try to take fucking Carrie Fisher away from us too. I am just so done with this year. It needs to stop. You have 7 days left, try not to kill anyone okay? Sweet jeebus.

Took B to an eye doctor appointment. She needed to be dilated. It was at Costco. Or as I like to call it on Dec 23rd at 11am, the final ring of hell. I had to park three million blocks away on a side street, then we waited an hour after her appointment time for her to be seen. Got back home at 1pm. What a pain.

We stopped at the store for a couple of dinner things on the way home. B took a nap and I cleaned. Once she woke up I vacuumed. Needed it severely.

Made pork chops for dinner and we watched the last two episodes of Runway. She was disappointed, I was apathetic about it. We called the final four on the first episode and it was going to be one of two choices. It wasn't all that shocking to me.

Played some games, went to bed around 10 to try and fight this cold. Yeah, that didn't work. It's Christmas Eve and I don't plan on leaving the house today. Let's see how I do on that.

Y8 D211

I forgot to tell you about something that we saw on the way home from the airport the other night. As we got near our place we saw a car on the street with the driver window broken. The glass was still there as this must have happened recently. We both thought oh no, someone was broken into. But then we got closer. The tires were slashed. The windshield was shattered with what were clearly baseball bat marks. Side view mirrors - smashed. Headlights - smashed. Some body done fuck somebody over. The car was trashed. It's still out there right now because I don't think they can do anything about it yet. Lovely eye sore. If it is still there in a couple of days, police get called. But man, you must have fucked up good to have that happen.

Spent the majority of the day inside. I did work for the first part of the day. Managed to solve the problem I was having for the client. That made me and them happy. Sent them off an example they can use. I also decided to introduce this example as a demo in our material. It's pretty useful stuff. While I was doing that, there was a huge discussion about my christmas party expenses. I don't feel like rehashing it but needless to say I am not happy. I am also not happy with the proposed wage increase they are trying to give me. It's ridiculous.

B and I went to the store and I thought it was for one thing. Turned out she added a whole bunch of stuff to the list. Not a big deal, just the store was crowded and had I known that much was on there, I would have gone earlier.

Made pasta with chicken for dinner. Played some games, watched some tv. I went to bed around 11. Only two more days until Christmas!! Today I am off. B has a doctor appointment (eye) and then we may go to the movies. That's about it.

Y8 D210

Slept in until 6am today. Whee! Went to bed at 12:30am though. Why so late? Because I didn't get home until 11:15pm. No more of this same day travel stuff. I will pay out of pocket to stay the extra night from now on. Much less stressful for me. I spent 7 hours sitting in an airport lounge doing nothing. Here's how the day went:

Got up, went to the client. Worked on their stuff with them from 9 until about noon. Headed out. Sat in traffic and got to the airport around 1:15. NO earlier flights. Go to the lounge. Sit in the lounge from 1:30 until 8 when my flight boards. There it is. There's my day.

Ate food in the lounge. Had noodles at least. I am also impressed and proud of B for driving to the airport all on her own. That's a huge step for her. She did arrive an hour earlier than she needed to be there but whatever works. Now that she's done it once, we can see if she can do it more often. Baby steps.

Got home, unpacked, went over some bills, went to bed. Today is the last day of work until next Tuesday. I have a customer issue to work on, expense reports, time sheets, and then I am done. Let's do it!

66 hours until Christmas.

Y8 D209

I slept like a log last night. And I slept for a full 8 hours. I got really tried around 8:30 and laid down on the bed. That was it. I was gone. I had massive amounts of dreams too. I only woke up once at 12:30 but managed to fall right back to sleep until just a little while ago. That's the nice thing about being on the road. No one can tell you that going to bed early is a problem. If you want to sleep, sleep.

Got through day two yesterday. We did some much more advanced stuff and the majority of the group handled it. Some were way out of their depths and it's okay. This isn't the kind of stuff you should be taking back to back anyway. With practice I think they will all be okay. We'll put that to the test in today's half day class when we work with their data. I have stressed to them that I have a hard cut off at noon. Let's see if they pay attention. I got out of there around 5:13 and got to the hotel at 5:30. MUCH better this time. Traffic was still heavy on the freeway but at least I was able to get where I needed to be.

That's about it. Watched a little netflix, packed up stuff I could pack, checked in for my flight, and fell asleep.

Today is going to be long. If I can't get on an early flight, I won't land until 10:15pm tonight. Fuck this same day travel crud.

Y8 D208

Overslept this morning. Alarm went off at 4:30 and I turned it off and promptly fell back to sleep. Lovely. It's because I had a rough sleep night. Like in the past in this area, I can't fucking breathe because it's way too dry. My throat is killing me right now. It's not the end of the world time wise, but it's throwing me off. I hate this feeling.

Yesterday was okay. I got onsite around 7:15 and waited until almost 8:15 for my client to show up. The room is functional but not perfect. We did alright. As usual with this client we had two major issues in the morning. First off, over half the class of 11 students were late. "Oh it's traffic". Bitch please. I lived in this area longer than you have been alive. THERE'S ALWAYS traffic. Leave the fucking house earlier. Then the standard network issues. Their network sucks and blocks so much shit it's not even funny. We lost a good 1/2 hour dealing with that shit.

Once we got everything situated the rest of the day went fine. We are still trying to do way too much in too short a time, but we managed. Finished just around 5 on the dot. That's when I got to deal with traffic. An hour to go four miles. I was livid by the time I got back to the hotel. Luckily I had food in the room and didn't need to go back out. I soaked in the tub to calm down. Watched some tv because the network connection was awful, read for a while, went to bed around 10.

Day two of this shit today. Need to check in for my flight tonight. Soon I will be home and done for the year. I can't wait.

Y8 D207

Had a decent travel day yesterday. There were plenty of stupid people to contend with at the airport, but luckily they didn't interfere with my day too much. The funniest was the guy who tried to check a bag at one gate then got into the boarding line of the gate one over. He was heading to DFW but his luggage almost ended up in SFO. It would have been 100% his fault, but he would have bitched anyway.

Left the house around 3:20 and thanks to snow and ice got to the airport at 4:10. I am glad I had the driver pick me up early. It was not nice out for sure. Got my upgrade before leaving the house which was nice. My flight was already delayed even before I got to the airport but whatever. I was supposed to leave at 7:10 but that got pushed to 8. Then it got pushed back to 7:30. With three gate changes in between. I got to my gate and was the only in 1st for a good ten minutes. This was a nice empty flight. So empty that one of the flight attendants ended up moving his girlfriend up into first. So empty that the pilot came out to chit chat with us in first while we waited. I even had a flight attendant come sit down and chit chat with me. Everyone was in a good mood and we even managed to make up some of the lost time. Landed around 9:30. Got my car and headed towards the hotel. 

Met up with a friend for lunch at 11:30. We had BJs and I ordered a pizza to make it last me all week. Smart move. I had lunch and dinner with enough leftover fro lunch and dinner today too. Four meals out of one purchase. No one will be able to bitch at me about expenses. Got to the hotel at 1 and my room was ready. Score. Took a nap, ironed, and did pretty much nothing the rest of the day.

The next couple of days are going to be interesting. As many times in the past, this client thinks they are special and wants to do a custom pick and choose class. But I need to gauge the audience first before I agree to just jump around with things. Then they want to use their data. Yeah right. That too will be a bitch and a half. Point is I am not looking forward to the next three days. But as always I will get through it and get home. Just got to make it until Wednesday.

Y8 D206

Travel day. Have a little under 2 hours until my car is here. Need to shower, throw in toiletries. I am not looking forward to traveling in December. Tourists. Rookies. Children. Last one of the year. I get through this and I am done thankfully. I can do it.

We did a whole lot of nothing yesterday. I went out in the morning and did grocery shopping but other than that, it was a quiet day. I did have an adventure in the morning while I was shopping. I wrote about it on the social medias and thought I would just repost it here:

What to know what white privilege is? Sit back and listen to a tale...

I just went into a grocery store (roughly 6am on a Saturday). I am the only one in there. I'm wearing a big coat and a hat covering the front part of my face.

As I walk through the door, the security sensor went off. I looked around and the employee nearest the door (older white male) looked up at me. I realized I had something in my pocket from another store that might have a tag on it. I said this to him and he laughed. His response:

"Well I wasn't too worried about it anyway."

This. This is white privilege.

I did my shopping and approached the register. The white woman at the register joked with me about it going off and that it would probably do it when I left. Not "did I have anything in my pockets", not a wary eyed silent treatment. No instead it was joking and smiling that the security alarm was about to go off again when I left.

If my skin color had been any different this would have played out much differently. MUCH different. This wouldn't have been a funny light hearted experience. I would have been followed around the store. I would have been stopped on my way out. I got a wave and a come back again.

Whether you want to acknowledge it or not - if you're white like me, you have this privilege. You have the ability to take things like security alarms going off for granted. Not everyone does. Remember that. We need to work together to do what we can to make sure everyone has this kind of experience. They need to come home from the store with a funny story and not in handcuffs. Or worse, a body bag.

(Note - if any of you think I am exaggerating at how this could have played out for other races, you have serious white privilege and really need to check it. Leave your bubble and recognize what's going on around you.)

So yeah, that happened. B made peppers for dinner. Haven't had those in a while. I went to bed around 8:30, fell asleep around 9. Now time to shower.

Y8 D205

Important news first: NIN HAS A NEW ALBUM! Available for download next week, pre-ordered yesterday. Called Not the Actual Events. I can't wait to be able to download it in a few days. The most exciting news of 2016!!

Oh yeah, and the kid graduated from college. I know, I'm a stinker. She finished her last class yesterday around noon. Barring any weirdness, she's done. She is now a college graduate. I am so goddamn proud of her. She did what neither of her parents or grandparents could do. Amazed. When did she grow up? When did everyone get so old? Life happens when you're not looking.

Got through day 3 of my class. Finished around 3. B went out for a while. She has been in the house all week and she needed to get out. I totally understand and respect that. She went over to the library and just read for a while and took a break from being here. I get that totally. It's like me going out to the crazy store in a little while. A bit of alone time. When you look at the same walls over and over, it gets hard.

We relaxed for a while and then around 6 went out to grab some dinner. We grabbed mexican. Was pretty good. Stopped in a local furniture store for whom we received a flyer recently. I am looking for a dresser for this room. Ended up finding a couch we liked instead. Didn't get it, but we're thinking about it.

Got back home, watched some tv, then she had a video call with her friend in Australia. I went off to bed around 10 as I was really tired. Today is groceries, packing, and going to bed early. Tomorrow is a travel day.

Y8 D204

I slept pretty well last night. Woke up once around 3:30 and said fuck it, I am going back to sleep even if it is only for 45 more minutes. Smart decision. Taught my class yesterday and we went over a little bit. I knew the people who were struggling just a small amount on Wednesday would have a seriously bad time yesterday and I was right. I got them through it, but I don't think they're models are right where they need to be. I think there will be issues today. Sigh.

After class I went and grabbed mail. One of the two final presents arrived!! The one from China. Man that skews my average shipping time calculation on my spreadsheet, but at least it arrived. The snow was still on the ground a little bit. Nothing like the morning though. I know it's dumb, but I am really hoping for snow on Christmas. Just once in my life I would like to experience that. I don't know. It seems fun to me. Last year we had the weird Christmas in MI. Wow, that was last year wasn't it? No wonder my Christmas radar is all out of whack. We did it late last year. Only 211 hours to go!!

Did laundry so I can pack for my trip. Had way more than normal because of last weekend. Got that all done. Now I just need to actually pack.

Next week's client sent me an email which annoyed me. He wanted to totally change up the agenda, and he wanted me to review their files before Monday. I as politely as I could told him NO on both accounts. The one that really got me was the review his files. He sends this shit at 4pm on Thursday. Um, I have other people besides you buddy. I fucking hate these people.

Made wild rice stuffed chicken breasts for dinner. They came out pretty good. I was happy with them as I made up the recipe. We watched some TV together. We still like Big Bang. We don't care what other people think.

We both played, then I went to bed around 9:45. A little early for the first time this week. Felt good. Last day of class. Payday so I need to do some bills. I might go grocery shopping after class tonight. Get it out of the way then I won't have to go early tomorrow. We'll see.

Y8 D203

This time it really did snow.  Like stick on the ground make snowmen snow. It started around noon and was still going when I went to bed at 10. I haven't been outside yet this morning but not looking forward to taking the cat poop out in a little while. Crunch crunch crunch. Yes, I admit, it's a novelty to me because I don't have to go out in it. If I actually had to drive or commute in it, I would hate it. Luckily I have the advantage of sitting here in my warm house and looking at it wistfully.

Taught my class yesterday. 5 of the 6 students are okay. One of them is lagging a little bit but I think they should be okay. Today is the hard day and if I lose them it will be this afternoon. Day two is usually where I get impatient.

Just got distracted by something on my desk. I have received two recall notices on my car recently and booked the appointment for them. Going in 12/26. Surprised they are open, but don't care, going to take advantage of that fact.

Anyway, finished class around 2:30 and then had an hour long session with another customer about some problems he is having with his model. I helped walk him through some SQL issues he is dealing with on it. While he is taking a bit of advantage of my willingness to help, it was satisfying getting him through the problem.

We watched some TV last night. Specifically we watched Hulu. Yes, I finally caved in and added Hulu to our available options. B was wanting to watch something particular and I didn't want to take the time to find it. I saw it was on there and said screw it. $12 a month is not going to kill us. Between that and Netflix, $21 a month is WAY better than what most people pay for cable. Plus it gives me more options when I am on the road and want to watch something.

She ended up watching the first season of Murder in the First and together we watched Top Chef Season 2 (not all of it). I wanted to show her that the show has changed in 10 years. At least it had in my memory and I was right. Back then you could be on the show as a Line Cook or just a damn good sous chef. Now it's "I have six restaurants, 3 James Beard nominations, and feed orphans from my pop-up shop". Blah blah blah. It was more about the food than the contestants.

We both played some WoW. I introduced B to the concept of going back into old areas to catch up on missed achievements. She has been enjoying it. I too am doing that and now have 85 battle pets. Rock on.

That's about it. I keep wondering how my sister is doing. I sent her an email recently but no response. Oh well.

Y8 D202

Moving slow this morning. My ear is still bugging me. I hate ear infections. They suck.

I realized I haven't complained about cheeto hitler in a while. I think because I have been so overwhelmed by the list of unethical, illegal, immoral, and ridiculous things he has done so far that I don't know where to begin. From Russian influence to putting a man in charge of a department he couldn't remember the name of, to blocking citizens on twitter, and of course USING TWITTER LIKE A TEENAGE GIRL, it becomes too much. Remember - THIS IS NOT NORMAL. DO NOT NORMALIZE THIS.

Fucking idiot is what he is.

Taught an early class of 15 yesterday. Made for a long day. We got through it. I now start a 3 day six student class. It may be a little rough. I am familiar with a couple of the students on the attendee list and let's say they're not the sharpest crayons in the box. I am already stressing.

Finished class, opted to not nap because I wanted to sleep well. Smart decision. B made potato soup for dinner. She also made fudge brownies. Not a huge brownie -- FUCK STOP RUNNING UP AND DOWN THE STAIRS AT 5AM YOU ASSHOLES -- sorry, can't take these fucking neighbors any more. I blame the office. 4 out of the 5 units on our side are filled with fucking families. Noisy, annoying families.

DAMMIT. Thinking about this makes me so angry and frustrated with myself. I shouldn't be in a damn apartment. I should be in even a small condo or house. Fuck my life. Now I am in a depressed and angry mood all at the same time. Whatever. Everything is useless.

Supposed to snow today. 2-5 inches. Why not. Blanket everything and smother me.

Y8 D201

I had a dream last night I stole a Range Rover. For whatever reason it was okay that I stole it. Like it was for some pre-approved task and this was the car I was supposed to take. If money were no object, that is definitely a car I wouldn't mind having. There's something about the Rover - the real one, not the BS Discovery or baby ones - that is just real luxury. Not like these fake luxury car lines. For shits and grins I just priced one out. $103,000. Yeah, not this week kids. Nice to dream though.

Had a half day session with Pru yesterday. Another full day with them today from 6-2. I am really hoping it ends early for a quick nap. Yesterday I finished around 11 but I started at 6 as well. Did my expense report. Spent $800 on this trip to the holiday party. Not too bad. It was all real stuff too, hotel, air, etc. If anyone complains they can kiss my ass. It's a write-off for the company.

B had an eye doctor appointment yesterday. She is right on the border of needing glasses. Primarily for reading, but a little bit of far-sightedness too. She has to go back in a few days for a dilation test. They found some blob on her eye that may be scar tissue. Hopefully it's nothing. I have my eye appointment coming up in January. I always wait on mine so I can order contacts at the same time.

Watched some tv including Top Chef. We're both disappointed in this new season so far. They brought back 8 old chefs going up against 8 new chefs and it's been very 'reality tv' versus cooking show so far this season. I think we're going to watch some old seasons to see if we're being stupid or if the show has changed as much as it feels like it has.

Speaking of food, made chicken with wild rice for dinner. The second to last Christmas present arrived yesterday. Only one more and it looks like it finally made it out of China and might get here on time. Excited to be done.

I have an ear infection going on in my right ear which is making things rough. It's that lovely muted sound happening. I am hoping it clears up before I have to fly on Sunday.

Played some game, went to bed around 10:30. B went to bed around 9 to read. She had a bit of a migraine. They've been happening more frequently and it has me worried. Blobs on her eyes, migraines. Nobody got time for you to be sick woman. Get it together!

15 students today confirmed. This is going to be a long day.

Y8 D200

My ears are killing me this morning. I've had a low grade ear infection hovering around for the past few days and while I have been putting drops in, it wasn't enough. They're both stopped up this morning and hurt. If their not better in the next couple of days, I will make a doctor appointment. My new insurance kicked in on the 1st so no issue there.

Yesterday was travel day done right. Was up early as usual. Got to the airport around 4:15, dropped the car off, and headed to the terminal. I really do love the international terminal. It's big, but in a good way, clean, well laid out, etc. Got our boarding passes, and went in security. There was no as it was 4:50 when we got in line and it opens at 5. Everyone though was so nice and happy. They even offered to let us wait the 5 minutes. They were like, just hold on for a few if you want. We'll just move you over. No it's okay. Now, in the past I have not gone into the lounges in international as I know there is no American or Alaska club. Since we still had 2.5 hours to kill, I decided to see if British Airways would let us in as they are a One World partner. We walked down to their lounge and it doesn't open until 1pm. BUT they had a sign on the door that said Alaska uses Cathay Pacific Lounge. Okie dokie. Off we went. Best decision ever. I like it when B can experience some of the nice travel things I tell her about, like international lounges. She was impressed with the size, the amenities, the seats, the showers, etc. They have a wonderful spread in the Cathay lounge. I will definitely be going back in there again. We stayed there until about 7:30 and headed to our gate. When we got to the gate I noticed it was dead and that there were no names on the upgrade list. Fuck it, let's try. BOOM, two upgrades thank you. We boarded and the plane was like 20% full. Beautiful. Everyone was happy, plenty of overhead space, even extra 1st class seats. One of the best flights all year. We had a nice breakfast and landed 15 minutes early. All in all, a good travel experience.

Took the train, got home around 11:45. Unpacked, B took a nap, I tried and failed. Instead I did my timesheet, prepped for the week. After she got up we went to the store. We decided to add a second layer of curtain to the windows in the bedroom. It's really cold and with the new bed we don't have a headboard blocking the cold. I think they made a big difference. We'll see when B gets up what she thought.

Ordered a pizza for dinner, watched some tv and then she was still exhausted and went to read around 7:30. She was out by 8. I was no better and laid down around 9:30 and was done for the day.

Full training for me this. 5 full days. 8 today, 15 tomorrow, 6 the rest of the week. Get a good chunk of money in before the quarter ends. Time to get ready.

Y8 D199

There were some really good parts to yesterday and some that showed us people's maturity level and their priority level. The morning started off great. We went down for breakfast where everyone was happy and polite. I realized last night that out of all the pleasant Hilton brand experience I have, there's all at Doubletree properties. Consistently I enjoy myself, have a good room, and any interaction I have with the staff is pleasant. Here, Victoria, St. Louis, Anaheim, Ohio - all Doubletree properties. We came on back to the room and hung out for a little while. After we went to B's old work where we saw cats and people. But mostly cats. She got a t-shirt. We then headed to lunch to meet the kid. We got there early but we were both happy to sit in the car and watch the rain.

Went in, had a good lunch, enjoyed talking with the kid. I am so damn proud of her it's not even funny. She has her shit together so much. Went back to the hotel, took a nap, had a little afternoon delight if you know what I mean wink wink nudge nudge, then got ready for the evening. We decided to have an early dinner at the hotel to avoid spending a ton of money at the pub. Smart idea. I had a wonderful steak and eggs. Served on a brioche with blue cheese and chimchurri. So good.

We headed out, grabbed the kid, and went to the pub. I was happily surprised to run into some old friends who came by just to say hi. Was very nice to see them and catch up a bit. They had to leave due to babysitter issues, but it felt really good that they came by. Made me feel very liked.

As they were leaving cast folks started showing up. Here's where the 'children' showed their true colors. There's been some cast drama happening, which frankly I am glad we're not part of, and it caused some people to not show up. It was a light crowd and it's because there's some attempt to change leadership of the cast. This caused some people to decide they didn't want to be around the current directors. If you're not able to show your face after making certain decisions, then you're a fucking coward and maybe shouldn't be in power. Then to have the nerve to text us at 10pm to say you're having a side party? WTF? You know we have to be at the airport early. Grow the hell up. Stop spending your life getting high and living in your parent's house. Child.

We got back to the hotel around 11 and I managed to get about 3.5 hours sleep. We are headed out to the airport in about 20 minutes. Should get home by 11:30 where we can nap and relax. Been a busy weekend.

Y8 D198

Oh boy, yesterday was some long crazy shit. Got up at 4 to leave at 7. B also woke up at 4. She tried to lay there and not do anything but the stress got to her and she was up and out of bed at 5. We both were pacing a bit, waiting for our driver to get there. Like us, he was nervous about the weather. He ended up being 15 minutes early which made us happy.

We got to the airport about 7:40. My ticket didn't have my pre on it for some reason and we ended up having to wait in line to talk to an agent. Not too much of a wait luckily. Now if I had to stand in normal people line? NO WAY. That was wrapped around and down a hall. Screw that. And it's only going to get worse when I travel on the 18th. Our flight was scheduled for 10 with a boarding time of 9:30. No problem. It's 8, let's go relax. Sitting in the lounge, having a snack, we start to see all the other flights getting canceled and delayed due to weather on our end and on the other end. Ours starts getting delayed. 10:15. 10:30. 10:50. At 10:15 we went over to the gate and they actually started boarding about 10:20. Okay. First gets one. We get on. And then I noticed no one else is getting on the place. It's about 20 of us on the plane tops.

We got delayed again so they halted boarding. What a joke. We sat there until 11:15. They restarted boarding and everyone was on by about 11:45. Except we had no clearance on the other end. Dammit. All this time I have been getting emails and texts from folks confirming we are coming, what time to pick us up, etc. Our ride was going to be at the hotel at 4:30. At the rate we were going we were worried we wouldn't make it.

We FINALLY leave at 12:30, land at 2, find the rental, drive in traffic to the hotel, and get in the room at 3:30. We have one hour to do everything and get ready for this party. GO! Of course we did it. 4:35 we were out the door and ready to go. My co-worker drover and thank goodness. I would have been losing my shit in that traffic. It took us over an hour to get up there. We're talking 15 miles on the map. We got to a parking garage, parked, and walked to the club. The party was at the Town and Country Club. A very old, very white, very pretentious ladies club. It is just a random door on a building. If you didn't know it was there, forget. I have probably passed that door a thousand times and never noticed it.

We go inside after the maid (yes, in uniform, and there were many of them all night) lets us in. All in all we had fun. B was a bit nervous because of the environment, but once she saw that the people were not as pretentious as the place, she relaxed. Dinner was good, not great. Wedding food. Nothing special. The butternut squash soup was the best part. We did awards. Yes, I got one. Most compliments from customers. Seriously. Most praise from our clients all year. Okay. I'll take that.

We headed out around 10, traffic wasn't too bad once we got out of the city. Some street closures and crowds made the first part a challenge but we did it. Got back to the hotel around 10:45, crashed around 11:30.

Today we see the kid and friends. It's going to be a rough, long day because of an early flight tomorrow, but we do want to see people. It will be worth it. I probably will not sleep tonight. Whee. Right now, let's get B up soon for some breakfast!

Y8 D197

Travel day! We have a sort of late flight so we're not leaving here until 7. Going to stress me out for sure, but it is what it is.

So many things happened yesterday. Let's see if I can remember all of them.

First off, sitting in the office in the morning and I am hearing the banging from downstairs. Just doesn't stop. It finally hits me, it's not inside. It's their patio door. We all have storage on our patios and the doors have no stoppers on them and they bang against the metal railing when left open. At first break I went outside to look and yep, there it is. Banging away. I pounded on their door and after five minutes the girl (9? maybe 10?) opens up. I told her what was going on and she apologized and said she'd close it. Whew. Hearing that any longer would have driven me crazy.

Had a private class yesterday. 3 out of the 4 students were awesome. The other was a potato. Seriously. Come to think of it, a potato would have probably done better than him. He didn't belong in this class. Got through it, finished at 2:40.

While I was teaching, SNOW!! Yep, it actually snowed for a while and left about a 1/2 inch on the ground. Neat. I am sure it's all gone by now. We are supposed to get more next week. We shall see. As long as I don't have to drive in it, I don't care.

After class, packed, helped B, and went to the mail. Hey guess what? Yep, another fucking package where the contents were broken. Something I waited 9 days for and it was ruined. I am so tired of these carriers throwing shit around. Let's see if I hear back from the vendor today. They are not the best at responding and don't have a voice customer service line.

Was going to get greek for dinner, walked over, they were closed due to snow. Oh come on, it wasn't that bad. I have driven in way worse. Fine. Walked back home, made angel hair with meat sauce instead.

B and I both went to bed around 9:30. She is up right now too. Let's get this weekend going!

Y8 D196

Tired. Like super tired and groggy. I went to bed at a decent time, but not early enough to make my body happy. Sucks.

Taught my class yesterday. It was okay. A couple of people didn't belong. Same company who sends me problem students all the time. I honestly don't know how anything gets accomplished with employees like they send me. They can't follow instructions and seem to be lacking even the most basic computer skills.

I swear to god I hear the downstairs neighbors banging around already. WTF are they doing at 4:15am??

Two more presents arrived yesterday. Only 2 to go. It would have been 1 but unfortunately one of the presents arrived broken. I am really getting tired of UPS/FedEx not respecting "Fragile" labels. That's the second thing this season that's arrived broken.

Wrapped my presents. Made stuffed chicken for dinner. Packed for tomorrow. Watched some tv, went to bed.

Need to log in for my flight this morning. Hoping for upgrades, not expecting them. It's a 90 minute flight not the end of the world if we don't get them.

Private class today. Four students. I hope to finish early.

Y8 D195

There must have been a massive pressure change last night. I woke up with such a splitting headache, stopped up nose, and am extremely groggy right now. I don't know what's what. It's supposed to snow tonight through tomorrow morning (1-3 inches) and I think the impending weather is fucking with me.

Did my two sessions yesterday. Man that was exhausting. Twenty one students total. 8 in the morning, 13 in the afternoon. Some of them were not getting the whole mute thing. A few of them are back for today's intermediate class. I am not looking forward to it.

After class checked mail, between mail and UPS delivery two of the final presents arrived. Six more outstanding but most of them are supposed to be here today. I just want everything here before we leave. Still haven't secured a ride to the party yet. It looked like I had a line on one but no response came back. I may be too out of their way.

Watched some tv, had chicken farfelle for dinner, went to bed. Couple more days and we will be on an adventure. Hurry up and get here.

Y8 D194

Some times I think of really witty and useful things to post on here, but it's usually as I am falling asleep and of course when I wake up six hours later, POOF, gone from my brain. I've got a brain like a sieve. I do remember one thing. I was thinking about Christmas presents when I went to bed and how I have kept a very close spreadsheet on everything this year. I know every single present under the tree, how much it was, how I paid for it, if I used a CC is it paid off already, etc. It's similar to how I approach my bills these days. I was thinking how ironic it is that this is what X2 was striving for all those years and I couldn't get it through my thick skull. But to get to this point, I had to go through all that hell. Amusing in a screwed up sort of way.

One of my friends got some bad news last night. There was a bad fire in a warehouse the other night and one of his former students was listed amongst the missing. They found her body in the wreckage. Very sad indeed.

I took the day off yesterday and had a marathon WoW session. Made it to 101, finished a couple of big quest lines, and got some cool stuff in return. I just didn't feel like doing nothing all day but yet pretending it was stuff that was important. Some days I wish I was a contractor and only had to worry about things when I am scheduled to teach. The document days are the worst. Hard to motivate me.

In more important news IT SNOWED! For like 20 minutes and it didn't stick, but it was fun to watch from inside with the heater on. I haven't looked outside yet, but there was some prediction of a little overnight snow. If there is anything I am sure it isn't sticking, but it's fun to imagine. The upside of not having to commute or worry about being outside.

We didn't feel like cooking last night and went out for sushi. Spent a little more than I would have liked, but it was good. Got back, relaxed, watched some tv together, and I went to bed around 10. Slept okay. Tossed a little bit.

I have a BIG class today. Two sessions, 9 and 12 now. All with remote desktop connections. It's going to be a rough day.

I just thought about how I haven't written about my mental health lately. I guess because it's okay. I am not severely depressed. I am not stressed out too bad. Not beyond that of my ability to handle. That's a good thing. I am okay. And you're okay too. Yeah, I'm a smart ass.

Y8 D193

This was my last chance to sleep in for a while so I took it. Starting tomorrow and for the next couple of weeks, I am up early every single day. Including a travel day on Friday and Sunday. Take that extra hour of sleep while I can.

I had a hard time falling asleep last night too which is weird. I was tired, I was relaxed, I was just awake. I also woke up first at 4 and decided not to stay up.

B and I have found our groove again for intimacy. It's been rough this year,  mostly because of my schedule. I am the one who is tired at 9pm and just wants to go to bed. We have agreed to make it more of a priority and it's helping. Some may argue that planning and being aware of your sexual behavior takes the spontaneity out of it, but who cares? I would rather it be important enough that as a couple we discuss and plan than not at all.

As for the rest of the day, we didn't leave the house. Yay! Watched some tv, played some games, made tacos for dinner. Okay, not 100% true. I left the house early and went to the grocery store. I got just enough groceries to last the week. We can do bigger shopping when we get home. This was enough to hold us.

Today I am not sure what I am doing. I am still pissed off at my boss and have no energy to work on his bullshit stuff. I may send an email saying I have an emergency and need to take PTO. I don't know. We will see. The rest of the week I am packed. I have a two part class tomorrow - two half day sessions. Part one has 7, part two has 13. Then I have 9 on Wednesday, and 5 on Thursday. Finish up the year with some full classes.

Y8 D192

My ear is bleeding. It was itchy this morning and I scratched at it and must have pulled a scab off something. Happy Sunday morning to me.

We had an adventure out yesterday. We went off to a mall a bit farther away but with a larger store selection than the one closer to us. We had two goals - Hei hei the chicken, and a new shirt for me for the Christmas party. We managed to achieve both goals without buying anything else. Good job! We did get lunch at CPK which was so big it became dinner as well. The only thing we didn't find was that I was hoping for a new blazer. Mine is 2 1/2 years old and I wear it everywhere. I needed something that fit a little better. We didn't find anything during the day, but around 7:30 I suggested we go back out because we were both falling asleep like old people on the couch. We ended up going to six different stores including the mall. Finally found one for $100. I don't need anything fancy given how much I travel and how often I wear one on the road. I need something durable, not expensive.

Got back home around 10, B wanted to read. She got in bed and I followed suit around 12:30. Not a bad Saturday. Today, no plans.

Y8 D191

Man I slept in. I went to bed around 11:30 and just woke up at 7. Some solid ass sleep. I credit a lot of that to two things - our bed and the blackout curtains. This bed has been worth every penny. I sleep so well it's amazing.

Taught day two of my class, finished around 2:45. We went to the store to pick up a couple of things. Nothing major, just some immediate need stuff. We also stopped at the goodwill. We are looking for a magazine holder. Not for magazines though. We need it for B's multiple laptops she keeps in the front room. I almost killed myself tripping over a cord yesterday morning. I almost wrote that as chord. Technically they both are right. A chord can be "something that connects to points of an arc". So there.

We didn't find one unfortunately. Got back, made chicken lo mein for dinner. We watched Runway and the first episode in season 14 of Top Chef! Wooo it's back!

Played some games, went to bed. We had a couple of presents arrive yesterday. 5 or 6 are still out in the void. Hopefully everything will come before we leave next Friday. This time next week we will be back in our area for the company christmas party. I am NOT looking forward to this especially after the exchange I had with my boss yesterday. For 2017 his new rule is on 1/2 days I am to come home that same day. Well fuck you. Now I am going to be stressed and get home at 1 in the morning. Hope you happy dickhead.

Today we are off to the mall to find me a shirt to where to aforementioned shitfest. I paid bills yesterday including giving the kid money for her flight here in Jan, money in B's account, and money in savings. Not too shabby. I have three bills I want to aggressively pay in Q1. I think I can eliminate them if I do this right. Got rid of a few last year. On the path. On the path.

Y8 D190

I started writing this one yesterday because I didn't want to forget a couple of things I had read. Let's start with cheeto's choices of late:

- A warmonger secretary of defense who once used the codename "Chaos" on an operation. This man truly believes we should be wiping people away. Excellent

- A secretary of education who doesn't support public schools, has publicly stated she believes in child labor, and has been sued by her home state for her inability to do her job there for education

- A treasury secretary who is a home stealing, company moving, Wall Street billionaire. You know, the ones he vowed to protect you against.

Nah, this decision won't impact anyone. Not like:

- a doctor in a school posting on facebook that Michelle Obama is a "monkey face who speaks ebonics, but I'm not racist". Or that Michelle's Princeton and Harvard degrees are bullshit next to hers from Nebraska

- oh don't forget Texas now wanting a law stating aborted fetuses need to be buried and have a funeral even if the mother doesn't want that.

Nice duh-merica. Good fucking job.  This is a direct quote from one cheeto voter who is recognizing their mistake:

“I just wish that I had not voted,” said Colebrook, 59. “I have no faith in our government anymore at all. They all promise you the world at the end of a stick and take it away once they get in.”

You all think I am kidding, but I am very serious when I say if you voted for this stupid ass piece of shit or threw your vote away, I am done with you. Look at his manipulation of the media. THIS PRESIDENCY IS NOT NORMAL. NEVER FORGET THAT.

Side note - if you think Standing Rock is normal - hmm. A corporation using the US military to steal land from native people. Oh yea, perfectly normal. Just another day in shitville.

Taught my class yesterday. Six students. Most are okay. We finished around 2:30. I made a corned beef for dinner. We watched tv, played games, went to bed. Where I can hide from the idiocy outside my windows.

Y8 D189

Stupid FedEx. Delivered a package yesterday that looked like an elephant had sat on it without even an apology. Luckily all that was inside was a couple of items of clothing but it's the principle. I was really upset about it. Took to the social medias to bitch them out.

Taught a private class yesterday. Started butt early and was done by 11. Took a nap. Worked on some docs afterwards. Made pork for dinner. Watched some TV. Wrapped the presents that came. Only 8 more and everything will be here. One is stuck in China. I really tried to order from places that could get me stuff in 7-10 days max, but one item snuck through. It's stuck somewhere in a China facility. Hopefully it will come in time.

Sent out messages that we will be in the area on Dec 10th. Let's see who shows up to hang out with us. I don't expect a big crowd, but a few people would be nice. We also planned lunch for that day. Again, if people show, great, if not, whatever.

Went to bed around 10:30. Two days of six students to round out my week. Tomorrow is payday and that means bills and rent need to get paid. Only 23 full days left until Christmas. Hurry up and get here!

Y8 D188

I almost typed Y98 up in the title. If I am doing this in 90 more years, we all have issues. I would be very old. The oldest person celebrated their 117th birthday yesterday. Can you imagine that?

Worked on a new class yesterday. B had a doctor appointment and went out for a while. Then she napped. I finished around 3, played some video games, then we had dinner, watched some tv, and went to bed around 10:30.

Today I have a private class from 6:30 - 10:30. Just a half day. I hate this time of year. But then again, tomorrow and Friday I have six students. Makes it a $7000 week for the company so I earned my money.

Tired by the way. Just not all here right now. Want to sleep more. Have an ear infection in one ear, a cut on the other, my back hurts. Fuck living to 117. If I feel this way now I can't imagine how horrible I would feel then.

Y8 D187

Hei hei the chicken is the greatest Disney character ever. If you haven't seen Moana yet, I strongly encourage you. Just for the damn chicken. So good.

As you might have guessed, we went to the movies last night. Actually around 4, but close enough. We decided in the morning to go and we looked at the 4:10 showing and EVERY seat was available. Literally every single seat. Fuck yeah I want to go to that showing. We picked the perfect seats. When we got there, it ended up being a woman with two kids next to us a couple over and two women with three kids a row behind and over. In total, besides us there were 8 other people in the theater. Made for a pleasant experience. We were almost late thanks to Costco. B called in a prescription at 10am. They told her noon. She went at 3. Oh sorry, not ready yet. MOTHERFU.... They do this every time there. Unless you stand and watch them, they dick around. Luckily she made it back in time and we got to the movie with 5 minutes to spare.

The rest of the day leading up to the movie wasn't very exciting. I ordered a couple of "Cyber Monday" things from Amazon. Basically stuff I was ordering anyway at some point which happened to be on sale. I also ordered a new comforter that was 45% off. It was a good deal. Oh and I sat around waiting for work. I did do more in my learning python series. I can now open, read, write, and close a file in python while taking command line arguments and passing them to the system. Yay me.

After the movie we went to Old Spaghetti Factory. The last time I went there was a seriously unpleasant experience. However, as B pointed out, it may have been more the night, the company, etc. She was right and I gave it a fair shake. Turns out, I am not a fan of their food. Bland, mid-west Italian. She loved it of course. Sigh. I love my wife, hate her tastebuds.

Got home around 8:30, wrapped a couple presents that had arrived, cuddled for a while, then went to bed around 11. Nothing on the horizon this morning so I went to bed a little later. Tomorrow is a 6am NJ class and I will have to be to bed early. Then Thurs and Fri, normal class time, 5 students. Not sure what next week looks like. I should probably check.

Y8 D186

I went to bed super early last night for no other reason than I was tired. Around 9:30 I just got super tired and collapsed on the bed. I slept like a log too.

We didn't do a whole lot of anything yesterday. Stayed in the house with the exception of going to the store for some sliced cheese. B wasn't feeling well and spent the day with the heating pad and the couch. We watched a little tv, ate as much leftovers as we could, and chilled.

Work day today but I don't teach until Wednesday. I don't know what my boss has on tap for me the next two days but I am up and ready for it.

Sorry for the short post. Not out of any reason other than I didn't do anything yesterday, nothing of excitement happened, and there's not much to say.

This is my world.

Y8 D185

Slept in sort of. Went to bed around 1, so is it sleeping in if I still only get 5 hours of sleep?

Was up early yesterday. Started prepping for our dinner last night at 5am. Prepped potatoes, prepped yams, baked a pie, did all the dishes. Got everything all set up. When B got up we went out for a little while. Didn't go to a big mall, but instead went to the little outdoor one that has a baby Powell's and some other stores. Got a couple of books for Xmas. A cookbook for me and a signed copy of S E Hinton's the Outsiders for B. That's one of her favorite authors. We also got the kid one more thing. She now has at least four presents under the tree for when she gets here in Jan. We plan to take her shopping but also want there to be something already wrapped. Plus she has to get this stuff back home and it has to be able to fit in suitcases.

B's cousin and fiancee came over around 5:30. We had a good dinner with them. They left around 8. We spent the next hour or so cleaning the kitchen and re-cleaning the house. Nothing major, quick wipe down of crumbs and a quick vac. After all that we decided to watch a movie and settled in to watch Kubo and the Two Strings. Good, but not Laika's best work. It was lacking the heart of box trolls and the story of Coraline. It was well done and a vision to watch, just not quite as good as their other movies.

After neither of us was tired so we logged in for a little while. I have my panda up to 91. I am finishing EVERY single quest on Pandaria even if I get no XP. It's principle at this point. I want the Loremaster achievement and I shall have it. I am getting close.

No plans for today. I am starting to get confused as to what day it is. Too many off in a row. I think it's Sunday, right?

Y8 D184

Weird dreams last night. Including running into X2. Who apparently was pregnant. With twins. Which physically is not possible. Forget the fact that she is almost 50. It's kind of impossible for her to get pregnant. Weird shit man. It wasn't an unpleasant dream, just odd.

I did sleep well. Went to bed around 11:15, the neighbors were stomping around at 11:40 and woke me up. They are so fucking rude. I wanted to go down and beat them.

We didn't do a whole lot of anything yesterday. We went to the grocery store in the midday to get stuff for our dinner tonight. Then when we got back B cleaned. I stayed out of her way. Made chicken for dinner. After dinner we did go to Target as she needed to buy me one gift, then to Freddie's to get some lights for the patio. She wanted them, so we got them. That was a fun time hanging those. I hate big lights. They are cumbersome and annoying to work with. She wanted big lights. Sigh.

Otherwise we avoided the outside world. Both stores we went to were actually pretty dead. Not a whole lot of craziness here. Yay us.

Tonight her cousin and fiancee are coming over for dinner. Busy day in the kitchen for us. Loads of fun. The only issue I have is they aren't coming over until 7pm. I will be starving by then. Whatever. I am old. Leave me be.

Y8 D183

The only place that I want to be
Is watching you sweet dream in bed right next to me
The only sound that I want to hear
Is the rain against my window as I pull you near
- Everclear, Portland Rain

Ah Thanksgiving. I know what I'm thankful for. Boom shakalaka boom. Yeah baby. Trust me, I needed last night. We both did.

So, what did we do yesterday? Not leave the house for starters. At least not until dinner time. I spent the day working on rearranging the office. Believe me, that took all day. I completely cleaned and moved everything around. I still have a little bit to do today because I decided I don't like where one thing is. But it should only take me like 10 minutes to do this last part. It's not a big deal. It does involve shutting down one machine which is why I didn't do it last night.

I did post an unpopular opinion on the social medias about how I really feel about Thanksgiving. I don't know why it bothers me so much. I think it's more today that bothers me. Or maybe it's the combination of the two days which start with typical American over-eating followed by American over-spending and killing each other. Maybe because it starts the rookie shopping season. I hate this time of year. You can't just go to the mall. It's over crowded, packed with idiots, and all around noisy. More traffic. More noise. Fuck that.

I just read Mrs. Brady died. Sad. Farewell Florence Henderson.

We went out around 5:30 and had some of the best Chinese food ever. The restaurant was moderately crowded. We didn't wait for a table and the service was good despite the number of people. This place has authentic asian dishes on the menu as well as traditional American/Chinese stuff. Both B and I were happy. She had sesame chicken and I had roast duck with wonton. We shared a plate of sticky rice cake and some shrimp balls. Really good food.

Got back around 7, watched some TV, and decided to go give thanks our way. Oh yeah. I was pretty tried after around 10 and crashed.

Today, I may leave the house. I know I am a hypocrite, but the vape shop is having a good sale. They are open at 10 though. No stupid crazy hours. If there's more than five people in there I am leaving. I won't be part of any stupidness.

Happy Friday all.

Y8 D182

FINALLY got a full night's sleep. It was glorious. Even better is the fact that I now am in the clear for the next four days. Nothing on the agenda, no work needing to be done, no emails. I am free for a while. Technically my freedom started at 9am yesterday morning. I was up at midnight, started class at 1, finished at about 8:30. I did take a brief nap from 8:30 to 10. At 5 when I was on 'lunch', I started a stew in the slow cooker. We were going to try and go the zoo last night for zoo lights (an annual affair where the whole zoo is lit up) and I wanted to make sure we didn't leave a crockpot going while we weren't home. Hence, I started dinner at 5am, knew it would be done by 2, then if we went to the zoo I could just leave it in the pot and heat it up when we got back. We ended up not going because of the rain unfortunately. At 4 the rain was coming down pretty good and it was colder than shit outside and we said nope. Let's stay in. Sadly though we were both so hungry we ate dinner at 4:30pm.

I do think I could adjust to a life of graveyard like that, but only if I was single. It's too hard to make everyone else in the house do the same kind of hours. I would also start going to bed at like 6pm if this were a regular thing. Sleep from 6-12, work until 9, rest of the day mine. It would be weird but I could do it. LUCKILY I am done with these people. I have made it very clear that any additional work will be done onsite. No questions asked. No more of this. It's too hard to work with them remotely given the time difference. If we lived on the east coast, maybe, but not 8 hours difference. It's rough.

That honestly is about it. Tonight is Chinese food and Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Let the fake holiday begin. Yes, it's fake. You know it, I know it. Ironically as most of Duh-merica celebrates a made up bullshit day, we have the federal government hosing Native Americans with ice water to steal their land once more. Don't know what I am talking about? Go read about Standing Rock. Welcome to the fucked up State of the Union.

I was going to hit publish, but before I do, let me ruminate on something. I complain about this country and there are plenty of people who would say "well just leave". I have considered it. I would rather help fix it. But I truly don't know what to do. I don't feel that most of the protests that happen work. I can't quit my job and go off to standing rock. I have made calls and emails to my reps complaining about the current administration, but what else can I do? We are too big and too cog like for small changes to have a great impact. All the protests aren't going to stop Trump. Look at how he blinded everyone with the Hamilton bullshit. Paying a 25 million dollar lawsuit while distracting everyone with a musical. Shady. This guy is making Nixon look like a saint and we're all swallowing it whole. But how? How do we make a difference? Especially without hurting our families and our livelihood? Answers are more than welcome. Let's see if you have any good ones.

Y8 D181

I am so tired right now I can't even see straight. I am functioning on about 4.5 hours after being up for nearly 20. And now to do it again. So I got up at midnight, started the session for class at 1am. At 1:30 we officially started class. And right out of the gate there were problems. My network login wasn't working. Their wifi wasn't working. Two of the students didn't have the right access. By 2 we had it all sorted though and we plugged onward. At 5, we took lunch and at 9 we were done. I wish however I could have slept but I wasn't done. I had received a bunch of emails, including one from my boss wanting me to scope out travel costs to Nigeria. For real. Lagos, Nigeria. I told him if I did this, there would be rules - business class only, 5 star hotel, driver, etc. He said scope it out. So I did. 15,000 for the ticket. 36 hours of travel. $200 a night for the hotel. We are talking almost $17,000 in travel costs and they said we will consider it. WTF? That worries both me and B. That's almost as much as the training itself. What are you going to do with me if you're willing to pay that much in travel? I don't like this. It smells fishy to me.

By this point it was 10:30. I did dishes. B got up. She wanted 5 guys for lunch and needed to go to the store. Fuck it, I am awake. I then stayed awake the rest of the day. No use in sleeping. Did have one package show up and I was pissed off about. There was no bubble wrap in the big outer box and the baking dish I bought B was sliding all over. When I opened the box, it was in a million pieces. They immediately gave me a refund. That was good.

Made meatloaf for dinner, went to bed around 7:30.

Same thing today except when this class is over, I am done with this client. Bye bye. No mas. I can't wait until 9am.

Y8 D180

Ah graveyard shift. Nothing like working through the night. If I am up at this time normally it's because I am off to an airport. Not this time. Standard teaching. Fun stuff. 1:30 - 9:30 class. I am going to be so discombobulated tomorrow. Er, today. See?

Didn't do much of anything Monday. Caught up on some paperwork type stuff like timesheets and expense report stuff. Answered a few emails. Played WoW, made dinner (pork chops), went to bed at 7.

Just two more days of this and then I have my freedom for a while. I did decide to get a car while we are down there for the company Christmas party. At first I hadn't rented one because there didn't seem to be reason, but B keeps wanting to go to certain places and I am just tired of the "let's go here, we have no car, oh yeah" conversation. It's not like I am paying for it. Although 33% of the charge was fucking airport taxes. Such bullshit. I am still going to try and get us a ride to the party though. This way if I choose to drink, I won't have to worry about things.

Time to prep for class. 9am can't come soon enough.

Y8 D179

I am up early today for two reasons: first off because I want to be tired at a decent time so I can get some sleep before doing my graveyard shift tonight and second because I want to go to the grocery store and the earlier I do that this week the better. In a couple of days we will begin avoiding leaving the house. Rookie shopping season begins. No thanks. I want us to have enough food in here to last us a while.

Did laundry, had a decent lunch out, played video games, relaxed. What Sundays were meant for, right? We were going to go to the store but decided against it. Talked with the kid. She has confirmed her visit in January. It will be a combination Christmas and grad celebration all in one. I can't believe she is graduating from college. Amazing. Now if she can land a job in her field, she will be one of the lucky ones. I have faith in her. At least she picked a practical major.

I made it to level 85 yesterday on my panda. Am seeing all new stuff. Kind of cool.

That's about it. Nothing else. I slept well. Off to the store soon. End transmission.

Y8 D178

I slept so soundly last night it's not even funny. Solid as a rock. I am very happy about this. Had bizarre dreams, but don't care because dreaming means I went REM and that is good.

We saw Fantastic Beasts yesterday. Before I tell you what I think of the movie, let me fill you in on the adventure we had first. The theater we went to for Finding Dory we really liked and decided we would go back to again. They have big comfy reclining chairs and more importantly, assigned seating. That's the part I like. You don't have to get there crazy early and it's all good. On Friday night we bought our tickets. Now when you buy the tickets you pick your seat. Depending on the auditorium the film is being shown in, there are rows A-G or A-F. We picked an A-G time. Online it doesn't look as close as it is in person. We had C9 & C10 at 10:50. We got there at about 10:30 and sat down. Immediately B had problems. She asked me to go see if there were different seats. There weren't. At 10:51 she decides we should leave and exchange the tickets for later. Sigh. I was a bit snappy because you couldn't have told me this before the lights went down? We went to the box office and made the poor guy go through every floor plan for the next four seatings until she found one that worked for her in row F, 4 & 5. This was in a smaller theater with only A-F rows. At 4:50. Ugh. We now had 6 hours to kill.

Went back home, she took a nap, we did some cleaning, and went back out at 4:30. Much happier with the new seats. She was. I wasn't. I hate watching movies at an angle. Drives me nuts. But whatever. Now, as for the movie itself? EXCELLENT. Well done. Worth your time and money. Just a great movie overall. Way too many previews and commercials before hand, but the movie itself was awesome. I highly recommend it.

We stopped at KFC for a late dinner as we didn't get out of there until almost 8pm. The movie itself didn't start until almost 5:20 thanks to literally a half hour of previews and commercials. Two hours and 15 minute run time followed by 10 minutes of bathroom lines. See why I wanted to go to a 10:50? Anyway, we stopped at KFC, not happy with the service or the food, but it's our own fault for picking there.

Got home around 9, watched Runway and Criminal Minds and we both went to bed around 11. No plans for today other than grocery shopping. Which I may push to tomorrow. We'll see.

Y8 D177

17 hours of travel yesterday to get home. The whole time I felt like death warmed over. I even had two airport employees at Newark asking if I was okay. I must have looked as horrible as I felt. I do feel better this morning. I got a full 8 hours of sleep thanks to my old friend NyQuil. Nothing like a classic NyQuil coma.

Got through security at EWR, sat in the admirals club until 5:40, boarded at 5:50, landed at DFW at 9:40. Sat in the Admirals club there until 11:40. Boarded at 11:55. Got to PDX at 2:50, took the train, got to the station at 5.

Unpacked, got some dinner, wrapped Christmas presents, cuddled and snuggled, went to bed at 10. I plan on taking it easy this weekend. We did buy tickets to Fantastic Beasts and will be seeing that at 11 today. Other than that, no plans on the horizon for us.

Y8 D176

It's finally after midnight at home and I can post this. It's 3:10am here. Only 15 hours until I get home give or take. Whee.

Class went long yesterday. I didn't get out of there until almost 5:30. Onsite at 7:30. Nothing like a 10 hour day to get you going.

Got back to the hotel, ate leftover donuts for dinner. Yeah, I know. I just was so exhausted. I tried laying down around 7:30 since I knew I had to be up by two at the latest. Spent the next five hours doing the 60/90 game. Every hour to hour and a half I would "wake" up to see what time it was. I use that in quotes because I never really got to deep sleep. It was all surface sleep. Some asshole called my room at 8:30 which was fun. I didn't answer because by the time I realized what was going on, they were gone. Finally got up at 12:20 and said fuck it.

I just want to get home and take a bath and go to bed early. But I have to be awake and functional for B. She will be in a clingy mode. Only positive to look forward to is next week I have the two UK classes then I am done for 5 days. I know I am repeating myself but that's how excited I am about this.

48 minutes until security opens and then another 30 until the club opens. 2.5 hours until I board. FML.

Y8 D175

I can't remember if I mentioned this, but for the last few days I have been having some tooth/gum pain in the lower right of my mouth. When I told B before I left she of course went to worst possible scenario and claimed I need a root canal. I kept insisting that it was something stuck in my gum back where my wisdom teeth were. She used a mirror and felt around around said there was nothing there. I KNEW there was something there though. On Tuesday the pain had subsided and I couldn't feel anything any more. I figured I finally got it out through brushing and poking. Well yesterday after lunch the pain came back like crazy. And there it was. I could feel something again. Whatever had gotten stuck must have moved so I wasn't feeling it but eating brought it back to the surface. While I hated having to dig in my mouth during class, it was bothering me when I talked and I had to get it out. Finally at the end of class I managed to get it. I took a picture of it to prove I wasn't nuts. It looks like something calcified in there and was just stuck. I realized too why she couldn't feel it. I kept saying it was in the back but it was more to the side which is also why it bugged me when I was talking. My tongue kept rubbing against it. Man, I have never been happier to get something OUT of my mouth before. The pain is gone. All gone.

That my friends, is my biggest adventure this week. Whee.

Taught my class. 9 students. Left the hotel around 7:30, got there at 7:45, and started at 9. Long day. We didn't finish until almost 4:45. Got back to the hotel a little after 5pm. Grabbed a sandwich from subway again. Look, it's on the way back to the hotel, it's cheap, and I am lazy. I will do the same thing tonight. Whatever. It works for me.

Watched some TV. I am catching up on Dirk Gently. If you like things that make no sense and seem random while being all connected and are hard to follow, you'll love it. Otherwise, stay away. B for example would hate it. It's one of those very British shows. Seeing as it's based on the book by Douglas Adams, this should be no surprise.

Played a little wow and went bed around 10. Slept really well too. No complaints there. Need to check in for my flight this morning, then off to the client for a repeat of yesterday. Early bed tonight as I need to get to the airport in the morning. Travel day tomorrow. Then next week is a weird one. UK classes followed by 5 glorious days off.

Y8 D174

Left for the airport at around 4am. Got there at 4:30, boarded at 5:30 on the dot. I like the first flight of the day. It tends to be efficient. While I had my first class seat, I was in 6A and by the time they got to me they were out of breakfast sandwiches. Ended up having a damn plate of fruit and that was it. That sucked balls. Landed at 11:40 and was supposed to leave at 12:45. Didn't leave until 1:45 thanks to weather issues in NJ. Finally got to the hotel around 6:45 only to find my room wasn't available because the entire 10th floor had flooded. They stuck me in a room on the 8th floor. Same room, but just two floors down. Whatever. I am here for 3 nights. I can deal. Went to subway, got something for dinner. Came back and their internet was sucking hard. Just gave up and went to bed around 10.

I did send my boss an email reminding him of our conversation in October regarding a 2017 increase in salary. I cc'd B on it and she said it sounded professional, highlighted my accomplishments for the year, and was good. Okay. That's what I was shooting for with it. I am asking for two different pay options, one with a bonus plan, one without. Both come out to about a 14,000 increase in salary. Based on the fact I am about 22,000 below where I should be per experience and job position, I am not being greedy. Let's see what happens.

Nine students the next two days. Luckily the rain is gone and I shouldn't have any issues walking over to the client. Need to shower in about 30 minutes so I can go eat my free breakfast and grab some stuff for lunch. Fun times on the road.

Y8 D173

Ah 2am. Must be a travel day. Nothing like waking up to an upgrade notice. That makes me happy. At least I will get fed this morning and be able to sleep for a while. No info on my second flight, but one is not a bad way to start. I will take it.

Spent the first half of my day doing the final final changes to the UK material. There is no more time left, this is what it is. Then I packed and got ready for today. Boarding passes and the like. Went to the store for a couple of things. B and I played some WoW. Watched some GBBO together. We both love that show so much. It's so damn wholesome. I went to bed around 9.

That's about it. Off to NJ now.

Y8 D172

Back up at a normal time for me. Need to get my head back into early morning mindset. About to get up at 2am tomorrow and wanted to be somewhat ready for it. Plus I have final UK stuff to work on today and the earlier I have it done, the better. I am more likely to get some kind of response if I can submit things by 4pm their time. That gives me about 3.5 hours to get things done. Lastly I have to check in for my flight in 90 minutes. So much to do this morning.

Unlike yesterday which was a whole lot of nothing. Presents came. Wrapped presents. Went to the store. Made a pork roast for dinner. Not much else. It was a quiet Sunday. I really am struggling to remember what we did yesterday. That's how little excitement there was.

I don't know how to improve this situation. I need some more interesting stuff in our life. But we live too far from downtown, we have no friends, we have very few interests. Fuck me. Just waste away here like a dying balloon. Shrivel up, fade away, and be no more.

Y8 D171

Took a ride to another state yesterday. That sounds so much more impressive than it really is, doesn't it? Seeing as we are all of 20 miles from the state border it's not that big of a deal. A friend of mine was selling tamales. I ordered a dozen and offered to come pick them up. It would be a nice trip and time out of the house. We left here around 9 and got back home around noon. It was nice seeing them as I haven't seen them since we moved up here. They live out on the river in WA. Their place isn't the greatest as it's a converted boat house on the parents property, but they live mortgage free and it's a really beautiful place. They have chickens and a river right outside their window. Envious. On the way home we stopped at Target for a few things to go with the tamales for dinner. When we got home we decided it was time to bring out Christmas. That meant first putting away Fall and cleaning. There goes the next few hours.

After dinner we unpacked Christmas stuff, figured what we were out of or missing, went to Jo-anns, came back, and decorated. One of five amazon shipments arrived. We have more coming today, Tuesday, and Wednesday. That will be pretty much it for presents. All done and wrapped. I spent a while wrapping presents, we setup all the stuff, and around 9:30 collapsed on the couch. We decided to watch a movie and watched Ant-Man. Underrated movie in our opinion.

Went to bed around 11. Today there is nothing on the agenda. I need to pack and do my timesheet but that's about it. I will be done with all of that before 9am. From there? Unknown.

Y8 D170

Taught my class. Three students. Went okay. Finished at 2:45. Took a nap. Made dinner. Watched TV. Went to bed. My life.

Y8 D169

I want to buy a #notmypresident t-shirt and wear it on this next trip. But something tells me I would get the shit beat out of me on my layover in Dallas. Fear. That's what this country is about now even more than ever. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the brown man. Fear of the woman. Don't believe me? Day two antics:

- student in NC being outed by her professor who then proceeded to tell the school she is "one of them ISIS" people. She received 19 death threats in one day. Administration does nothing.

- woman in MN accosted in a Best Buy parking lot told 'bitches shouldn't be out at night alone'.

- Leonard Cohen died.

Okay, that last one might have happened regardless, but it's still sad. Maybe he didn't want to be in this world anymore and just gave up.

One of the arguments I keep hearing from drumpf people is "now we get our jobs back!". No, you don't. There are many reasons jobs left this country. Specifically that blue collar manufacturing job you so desperately want to believe is coming back. Let's start with a simple one; we don't have the resources. We have mined, plucked, and cajoled the natural resources in this country down to a bare minimum. We just don't have the parts. Where we do, it costs more to obtain them. Why? For the same reason it costs more to manufacture here. None of you will work for $1.50 an hour in unsafe conditions. Unions, living wages, medical insurance, vacation benefits - these things don't exist in the countries where are stuff is being made. Workers regularly put in 16-18 hour days 6-7 days a week. You won't tolerate that. The cost of goods will increase. This isn't partisan, it's basic economic supply laws. It's not opinion, it's fact. Jobs aren't coming back. Just admit you're a racist piece of shit and we can move on.

I taught day two of my class. Everyone arrived on time. As a result we got through all of the material by 2:45. Not too shabby. I was blessed with a good group these last two days. We shall see how today's group stacks up in comparison. Three people, one day class. I am at a mid-level confidence right now with them.

After class, guess what arrived? My final Amazon gift cards! This year's number? $635. BAM. $50 of that went to B's sisters as their Xmas present. The rest went to us. I spent $800 total for an out of pocket of $220 for 43 presents. Not too shabby in my mind. Much of it will be here by the middle of next week. When I get home I will have everything wrapped and ready to go. Honestly I have about another $150 in gifts from other sites I want to get which will bring the entire Xmas budget to about $400, but I am okay with that. We're at the end of the year where SS taxes are gone and I am getting $350 or so more per check. In total I will make about $1400 extra. Most of that will go to bills and debt, but if I earmark a couple hundred, so be it.

Took care of laundry after dinner. Need clothes for next week's travel. B made chicken masala last night. MUCH better than mine to be honest. She took her time and followed the recipe perfectly. I adlib a bit and hers was spot on. Well done. We watched some TV and then played WoW. We both have toons we only play together which is kind of fun. We have separate ones for doing solo stuff, but she has her gnome and I have a death knight we play together. Talk about a mismatched pair.

Went to bed around 10:30. One more day, then the weekend. Whee?

Y8 D168

"Nothing will change, everyone is over reacting." Sure, if you're a straight white person. I had two separate instances in two different states conveyed to me yesterday. One where a young black female friend was called nigger by a group of men and told "now we can send you all back to Africa", and second a gay asian friend who was called faggot directly to his face by someone who had prior never said anything like this.

Welcome to the world you chose. When they come for you, who will be left?

Taught my class. Decent group. I was mistaken about one of the students. They were originally from a red state but left because they hated it so much. Points for you. We finished up a little after 2 because one had to leave and we were at a decent stopping point anyway. B and I did some cleaning then went out for dinner because the whole house was clean. Got back around 7, watched some tv, played some WoW together, went to bed.

My co-worker woke me up at 4:25 because she stressing needlessly about something. It's all good, relax. Two more days of teaching, then I have one day of more UK changes (which came through at 4am yesterday and not on Tuesday when I asked for them), and then I am off to NJ. That trip can't get here soon enough. The week following are the UK classes then I am done with them for good. Unless they agree to onsite, I am not doing shit for them in 2017. Nope.

Y8 D167

First and foremost this morning, if you voted for donald drumpf, FUCK YOU. Get off my blog, get out of my life, go away. The hashtag #notmypresident is trending well this morning and I second it. This is Gore/Bush all over again. She won the popular vote. I can't believe I now live in a country where homophobia, racism, and misogyny are the accepted norm. You should all be disgusted with yourselves. The fact that he even got as fas as he did is wrong. And don't give me the bullshit of "she was just as bad". He is a fucking criminal. He has RAPE CHARGES pending. Did you read his speech? It's a 3rd grader speaking. We have a 5 year old in charge of this country. People I know WILL DIE because of this. My friend's son has Crohn's disease. He only has insurance thanks to the AHCA. If that is repealed he will be unable to get insurance and has two choices; face a lifetime of crippling debt, or die. Literally. Oh and the AHCA? That's "obamacare" you fucking morons. Call it by its real name. I know gay couples who are scared of their marriages being made invalid. People afraid to travel or walk the streets because of this. There are gay young adults right now who are scared to death of having to go through conversion therapy which your new vice-president fully supports and wants to make law. These people will die. And while I don't talk about it much, never forget I AM GENDER FLUID. I spent my whole fucking life hiding and now because of old, homophobic, racist, white men, here we go again. Expect a whole lot of the word 'god' in politics. Where it doesn't belong let me remind you. Did you know WORLD MARKETS DIPPED AS MUCH AS 8% LAST NIGHT. That's how much confidence the rest of the world has in him. Contrarily when it looked like Hillary might go back ahead there was a 200+ point surge in the markets. Shows you how confident people are, doesn't it? There will be no manufacturing jobs brought back here. America won't be "great" again. It will be a shit hole. "Well if you don't like it leave!". Don't worry, we are. We are seriously looking at renouncing our citizenship and moving to Canada. Will it be better? Probably not. But I would rather be up there than be associated with this mess any longer. I also support a west coast secession. Wexit.

In other news, I spent the day waiting for changes which didn't come until 30 minutes ago. Too bad I can't touch them until the 14th. Too bad you sent them so late. You'll get what I give you.

Made pork stir fry for dinner. Watched my wife sob and throw up from the election results. Made a madeira cake to try and take my mind off things. Didn't work. Couldn't sleep until almost midnight. Listened to old white idiots light off fireworks.

I have four students the next two days, three of whom are from red states. I will be tasting blood all day from biting my tongue. Fuck you. Fuck all of you who did this to us.

Y8 D166

I spent my whole day waiting and then my whole night in the bathroom. It was a really lousy day yesterday which is why I am not awake until 7:45 in the morning. I don't want to talk about yesterday. At all.

Go vote.

May the universe not fuck us over.

Y8 D165

I am having serious stomach issues this morning. I have been up for 20 minutes and more than half of that has been spent in the bathroom. Lovely way to start a week.

We did quite a bit yesterday. Went to the mall and got all the holiday scents for our wallflower air freshener things. Got a couple of christmas presents which are wrapped and under the tree. Yes, the tree is 100% up. No ornaments on it except the three we bought yesterday. But the tree skirt is there which means the presents can go there. 11 is the current count. Only 47 days to go until Christmas! Leave me be. I enjoy this time of year. I also stopped into the new Amazon store. Ah the sweet irony of a brick and mortar Amazon store. I did talk to the guy about the Amazon echo and dot. I thought the dot required the echo but it turns out the dot is just a baby echo with a smaller speaker. You're basically paying $120 for a bluetooth speaker. Well, not only is the speaker on the dot fine for a place our size, I can easily get a cheaper BT speaker if I want. I may be adding a dot to the Xmas list. We shall see. We had a nice lunch out, looked for a winter coat for me and found nothing, came back and worked on the house. I wrapped presents, B decorated a little mini tree she bought, and we put away Halloween finally.

I dealt with a couple of work emails. My biggest issue was making sure that we were in synch for today as the next two days are going to be spent working on UK stuff. They just did their time change and with ours yesterday I wanted to make sure we all knew the time differences currently. I also made my car reservation for next Tuesday. One more week and I am back on the road thank goodness. I am ready. Let's go.

Made a steak for dinner for me and B had left over corned beef. I need to take something out for dinner tonight. Maybe. We have a bunch of leftovers in there I want us to eat first.Make some room in that darn fridge.

Watched some tv and played some games. Went to bed around 11. Oddly enough you'd think I would be tired earlier from the time change but nope. I stayed up later than normal. Whatever.

Now today I wait. I wait until I hear back from the UK on what needs to change. Then I have three days of public classes. A full week at least. Hurry up UK.

Y8 D164

Oh boy, time changes. This time I don't mind though. I was able to sleep in and as a result it's still only 6:15. Yesterday I slept roughly until the same time and felt rushed because it was already 7. Amazing sometimes the difference an hour can make both good and bad. We bitch about it in the spring but then relish it in the fall. Go figure.

Went to the grocery store in the morning, came back, put things away, then waited for B to get up. Once she got up we went and ran the rest of our errands. It became overwhelming for her by the third store. This is one of the reasons I tend to do so much before she gets up. We went to Target, Jo-anns, and New Seasons. The crowds and people got to her by the time we hit New Seasons. But we had to go to each of those stores. We did get a new wreath for the front door as well as some additional Christmas ornaments. Target was playing nice and for those of us who are early shoppers, it was 20% off Christmas stuff. Expired yesterday too. Our timing was good.

It was almost 1 by the time we got back. Luckily I wasn't worried about dinner because at 9 I had put a corned beef in the slow cooker. B ended up taking a nap. Once she woke up we did some of the decorations. Not all yet. She is still stubbornly holding on to Halloween. I am hoping today to convince her they need to go. Ate dinner and then caught up on Humans. We are now through the first episode of season 2.

Played some WoW, talked to my sister in game. I do wish she was on the same server as us. Heck, I wish we had friends who played on the same server. Whatever. People are over rated, right? Yeah, just keep telling yourself that.

Today I need to make a car reservation for my next trip but otherwise no plans. It was raining all day yesterday but it looks like it has stopped for now. Only three days until the election. I have never been so worried about an election. Please go vote if you haven't already. Make some noise. Save this poor country from making a huge mistake.