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.

Y8 D163

I am so off this morning. I didn't wake up until 6:50. WTF? I did wake up once at about 3 but decided to go back to sleep. Apparently my body wanted some extra sleep. That's like 8 hours for me. That's crazy.

My day was so odd yesterday. I taught two classes. One from 8:30 - 12:30 and the second from 1:30 - 5:30. I didn't finish my day until almost 6pm. I was so tired and out of synch it was crazy. While I was doing all that teaching, B went to the store and found us a new Christmas tree. 6' with lights for only $80. Guess how I spent my night after class? Yep. Rearranging furniture and setting up a tree. It's the first week of November, the Halloween decorations are still out, but we have a tree up. Nuts.

I was so out of it yesterday I forgot to take something out for dinner. Ended up ordering a pizza. Watched Humans while eating. It started it second season recently and we wanted to watch the first one to refresh our brains.

Went to bed around 11. We are having a serious problem with the cat right now. She is too hyper and it's causing B not to be able to sleep. From door scratching to fighting, we are at wits end with a solution. She is at the point where she wants to get rid of her. I know it's extreme but when you don't get a good night's sleep night after night, extreme solutions become the only answer.

Speaking of extremes, don't forget to vote Tuesday and set your clocks back tonight.

Y8 D162

Yesterday turned into quite an adventure on the work front. First off, I sat through two separate webinars, one by our company and one by a 3rd party firm. Both them annoyed me. I did learn a few things in the first one, but in both cases the amount of sales crap that gets put into these things is crazy. I don't know how customers sit through this. But that wasn't the rough spot. Those were okay. Again, I did learn some stuff and am not complaining. It was the emails received during the webinars that irked me. I wasn't supposed to have a class today and now I have two. An 8:30 - 12:30 session then a 1:30-5:30 session. The instructor who was supposed to teach today can't because they are doing demolition and construction work in her building. Lovely. Now I have to be last minute ready for two sessions. The first morning session isn't horrible and has five people. It's the afternoon one that's bugging me. Two people and now I am stuck working until 5:30 on a Friday. Whee. On top of all that, the UK folks responded. Not the way we'd like. They want more changes before the classes go live the week of Thanksgiving. Only problem is I now have two days total to make any changes and the source data isn't ready. The longer there's a delay on the source data, the more it puts these deliveries in danger. I keep trying to tell the PM that and he is like "well that's this client". No, that's not how it works. Get shit done or I won't be able to deliver the class asshole. While doing all of this, I was also dealing with walking through the installation and configuration of a new instance for our new class I have been working on all week. Needless to say, it was a crazy day.

Finished around 4:30 and B wanted Mexican. Okay. Off to our cheap place we like. After we went to Home Goods and Kohls to wander around. B found two new glass jars for the kitchen and I got a Christmas sweater that she wanted me to have. She is not one of those women who tells their husband what to wear or how to dress so if on the rare occasion she sees something she wants me in, I have no problem buying it. It's a purple sweater with a reindeer head. It's not horrible.

Got back home around 8, watched a little tv, played some video games, went to bed around 11. Just got to get through today. Got paid today and need to do bills. Going grocery shopping tomorrow. We get an extra hour this weekend. Yay? I am ambivalent to the time changes. I am more scared about Tuesday and the thought of President Trump. Even the words are scary. Sigh, what a wonderful time to be alive.

Y8 D161

No response yet from my client in the UK with details about what they want me to teach in three weeks. Good job. More importantly, what TIME they want me to teach. If they were a US company I wouldn't be stressing so much. But with UK they could want a 1am start time again. I need to know people.

Worked on my docs yesterday. I have almost 1000 pages of material to sift through and break apart to make a two day class. It all feels important but I can't put everything in or it will be a week class. I need to go through and cherry pick the stuff that's REALLY important. Not an easy task. Worked on this the majority of the day.

Made stuffed chicken for dinner. Watched another episode of Timeless. B likes it, I am on the fence. It's okay. I need it to be less preachy. I will give it time. It got picked up for a whole season so it must be doing something right.

We rearranged some furniture yesterday in preparation for Christmas. Made room for a tree. We currently have a 4.5 foot one but are debating a larger one for this year. No decision has been made yet. Regardless, we are ready.

That's about it. Boring ass day. Can I go on the road yet please?

Y8 D160

Woke up to annoying emails from the UK folks. They want to block out two days at the end of this month to do the follow up training but they failed to elaborate on what they want to do and what times. You know, logical things like that. Now I have to wait until they respond but it's already 2pm for them. Let's see if I get a response today.

Worked on a new class yesterday. Didn't get as much done as I would have hoped, but got some stuff done. I need to buckle down today and get a good chunk of the class completed. I want it done by Friday but that will require some diligence on my part. It's so much easier when I teach. My day is clear cut and I know what's expected of me. Open ended days are harder for me because I get distracted easily. Oh well.

I started putting together a Christmas shopping list. As of right now I have $600 in Amazon gift cards. With roughly 41 gifts in the list the total comes out to about $730. $130 out of pocket for Christmas is not bad. That also includes about $80 for gifts for B's family and one of her friends. For gifts for us I am only $50 over the budget. Most people spend hundreds out of pocket on Christmas for a dozen gifts or less. I am very lucky that I can spend a couple hundred and end up with 40+ gifts under the tree. I am not complaining one bit.

B's cousin did it again. Another bad decision in my mind. First off, they live in a one bedroom apartment with a loft. They already had two ferrets and a dog who pees on everything. So what did they decide was a smart move? They got a cat! Fucking idiots. It's these kind of choices that just make me shake my head. These are the kind of people who in six months will be starting a gofundme looking for help because they can't afford to keep feeding and treating four pets. Plus they just threw the cat into all of this. No separation period, no adjustment. Just here's your new home, deal with all this crazy in this small space. I am not taking that cat in when it gets tough. How are they getting this many pets in an apartment? Well, they are also the kind of people who take advantage and exploit 'service animal' laws. Don't tell me your fucking dog is a service animal when it can't sit still, when it jumps on people, when it pees all over. You're just using that term to get around having so many animals. She actually has the dog and the ferrets listed as service animals. Such bullshit. I am not going to go over there and walk their animals when they are off climbing some stupid mountain. I have made my share of bad decisions, but this is getting crazy. Not my concern. Until it becomes my concern.

Played some wow, watched some tv, had leftovers for dinner. We started watching a new show, Timeless. B liked it. I am on the fence still. There's five episodes so far and we thought we would check it out. It's not bad, but it feels like it's been done before. Let's see where it goes.

Still no reply from the UK. Let's go work on docs.

Y8 D159

Happy Christmas 1st! Only 54 days until Christmas! Wooo! But what about Thanksgiving you ask? You know by now I am not a fan. Useless day. Hallmark holiday celebrating the slaughter of a race of people. Bah humbug to that. Let's go straight to Christmas people.

Man that was bad just now. Not feeling well in the old stomach area. Been in the bathroom for a while. Ugh. Didn't eat anything crazy. Huh.

Spent yesterday working on some new class stuff. I have this week to finish a new class. I think I can do it. B had a doctor's appointment. She is finally seeing someone about her anxiety. I didn't go with her or push her on what they discussed as to me this is private stuff. She shared with me some of it and that's her right. Share what you're comfortable with sharing.

We went out for dinner to avoid being home if kids came to the door. We didn't expect any but you never know. Got back home around 7 and no one came to the door the rest of the night. We watched the Great Pumpkin and the Halloween Tree (by Ray Bradbury).

I got a special delivery yesterday. A signed copy of Chuck's new book Bait. I had it pre-ordered on Amazon but then he posted on his twitter feed if you order from one of the small shops he supports, he will sign it. Score! Unfortunately it arrived with a ding in the corner but it's okay. It's signed and it's mine. So there.

Watched the rest of season 3 of Black Mirror. Man that show is intense. Episode 4 made me cry like a baby, episode 5 was a bit too heavy handed for my tastes, and six was good and thought provoking. I can't wait another year for season 4.

Today is more document writing and that's about it. Starting next week I have back to back classes for three weeks including a trip to NJ. The calm before the storm.