Today was one of the longer travel days I've experienced in recent memory. We finished up our audit in Tulsa today by 2:30 and went to the airport to catch our 4:30 flight. Well, that got delayed until 5, which was fine because our connecting flight in Houston would still be good. Problem is, we got out onto the tarmac and hey, guess what? Houston has grounded all flights and won't let any flights coming there take off. So we sit on the runway for an hour and half until we can depart. Connection in Houston? Not looking good.
Once we were finally airborne and to Houston, I had a good feeling we might still make our connection. Why? Well, logic told me that everyone going in and out of Houston was delayed also, so our connection might still be good. We get off the plane and find a Continental representative. She tells us our flight leaves in 12 minutes. Crap! Houston is a huge airport and if it's in another terminal, we're screwed. Sure, we could take the next flight, but the problem is, the Orange County airport will not accept flights that arrive after 11pm because of local noise ordinances. That means we'd be rerouted to LA or San Diego and shuttled to Orange County. Ew.
Anyways, so we have 12 minutes. The gate for our Orange County flight is C12. We just got off the plane at C11. Money. We made it.
I was lucky enough to bill 5 hours for fieldwork and 10.5 for travel today. Woohoo! Now I get to go into the office tomorrow and pack for next week because I leave Sunday morning at 8:30 for San Francisco. So much for a weekend.
Is it summer yet?
Just Take Me Home!
Tulsa, Oklahoma: I'm Having a Good Time
The only thing I really know about Tulsa is that it’s where Chandler accidentally took a promotion on a later season of ‘Friends’ and only saw Monica on weekends. Useful info.
We’re heading towards the home stretch at Almich & Associates. We’ve pretty much wrapped up one of the big jobs, one is in the midst of finishing, and I have this week and next week before I’m freed up for awhile. Sure, something else will probably be scheduled, but for now, my first busy season is almost complete. Wasn’t I just home for Christmas? Seems like it.
Nicole and I got to Tulsa late Sunday night. Our rental car was out of stock, so we got upgraded to a Jeep Grand Cherokee with leather interior, satellite radio, and a backup camera!! I’m driving in luxury. It’s making me rethink the whole Toyota Yaris for $10,500 once Mable dies. Of course, I’d never ever buy a Chrysler/Ford/Dodge whatever family Jeep is from, but it sure is nice to have for a week.
Speaking of Mable, she’s being taken care of by my landlord Stephen this week. His car is in the shop and I’m out of town, so it worked out good for both of us. His Honda is having its first major repairs in almost 10 years. He calls it bad luck. I call it being lucky. That’s a long time to go without a big car repair bill. Anyways, his commute to work this week will put Mable into the 293,000 range. We’re almost there!!
As Nicole and I got back from lunch yesterday, we were pulling up to our parking spot. I noticed a car backing out in my peripheral vision. I sort of thought it looked like he was going to back into a car parked perpendicular to his. Sure enough. Slow and soft, but definitely crunched. The owner of the hit vehicle comes running out of the school lobby and is furious. It really wasn’t that bad. Although he couldn’t open his door up all the way because of it. Sucks. It was just interesting to watch the whole thing go down, even without hearing what they were saying. I don’t know why I am telling you this.
Last night we went to the local Indian casino. It was lovely. The buffet was sub par, the air was nasty and the winnings were non-existent. I maxed out at $5. Nicole spotted me another $10, which I proceeded to lose. She ended up winning $300 on penny slots, only after I came over and sat by her. She forgave my $10 gambling debt. Thank goodness. I didn’t want her to send her goons after me to break my knees for not paying her back. I still don’t get the whole fascination with gambling.
Vegas casinos are so much nicer. Duh. But the clientele is also completely different in Vegas compared to the Cherokee Casino. I feel like I fit in more when I’m in say…Planet Hollywood or the Bellagio. This place, not so much. I needed to add 50-75 pounds, grow out my hair (in the back), drink some Pabst Blue Ribbon and smoke whatever the cheapest cigarettes are.
I’m just sayin’.
I Golf. I'm a Golfer.
One of my goals since I decided to be an accountant was to learn to golf. Well folks, I can grab the pencil to cross it off my list (but lets not cross it off quite yet).
I went to the driving range with my landlord, Stephen, last night and it turns out I'm not as bad as either of us thought. The cash register wasn't working, so they let us each take a free bucket of balls. Nice! We had a good time.
I told Don to bring his clubs to work today so that we could go afterwards. Over lunch I picked up a glove; I've found a new hobby.
Tonight I was a little sore, but I was more consistent than last night. I actually did pretty good. Stephen let me borrow his dead neighbors clubs which he acquired. It turns out they belonged to a John R. Fox, at least that's what the tag says. I'm using a dead dudes golf clubs. Creepy, right?
I think Don and I are going to go once more this week because we're both going to be out of town for awhile. Stephen and I will probably go this weekend, too. Hey, I only spent $5 tonight and had an hour of entertainment. You just can't beat that.
Happy Easter!
I know I'm a day early, but the weather is so nice today (bordering on h-o-t) that I just had to say....
Happy Easter!
No. 2 Thief, Part II
Before you read this, read Part I below.
Today I was in one of the accounting clerk's office and he was writing something out for me. The No. 2 Thief came in to ask me a question. She needed to make a note about it on her notepad. She left.
Accounting Clerk is about to continue what he was telling me...
"Where did my pen go? I always seem to be losing them."
"I think D**** [the No. 2 Thief] took it."
"I swear, she's a klepto. She's always taking my pens."
I laughed to myself as I walked away and though, "she struck again!" I took comfort in knowing I wasn't the only victim.
As I was in her office later this morning, I noticed it right there, sitting on her desk, the pencil she stole from me on Monday. While she was going on about something, all I could do is stare at my pencil. I had to let it go though. It's over. Left there in Oakland while I'm back here in Orange County.
Like I said, I'm over it.
No. 2 Thief
The accounting manager at the client Don and I are at this week in Oakland asked to borrow my pencil on Monday morning. She took it with her. I didn't see it the rest of the day.
Tuesday, she's in the room talking to Partner Joe, and Don motions to said accounting manager, then points to his hair and makes a writing gesture.
It's in her hair. My pencil is in her hair.
I don't even want it back now.
Today she comes in our room and starts to write on something with it.
Does she not wonder where she got this pencil from? I usually notice when I'm using a writing instrument that's not mine. And it's not like it's just another yellow pencil; it's a mechanical one. A red one at that.
I'm over it.
Survivor
So remember way back when CBS and Mark Burnett announced the production of "Survivor"? Well, obviously most of you are familiar with the concept of the show now. But back when the first news of this show was released, I genuinely thought it was going to be taken literal. I remember thinking, "wow, so people are really going to risk their lives for $1 million?"
I thought that the winner would be the only one who survives...literally. How messed up is that? Thankfully (?) it's not true, although I don't think it's outside of the real of possibility for a show to exist like that some day. Maybe on Pay Per View or something. If releases are signed waiving liability, what's illegal about it? Certainly something.
Anyways...back to studying.
My First Financial Statements
The main purpose of auditing companies is to express an opinion on their financial statements as to whether they are free of material misstatement and are in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America.
You got that?
I recently had an opportunity to draft my first financial statements. Now normally, as a rookie accountant, you wouldn't get to do this for 2-3 years -- maybe more. But because our firm is short staffed and handling a lot of clients, I got the chance to gain some awesome experience.
The cool part is that we audit post-secondary institutions: trade schools, medical/health training schools, etc,. and these auditor's reports end up in the hands of the U.S. Department of Education. So they're kind of important. If the school doesn't get a favorable opinion from us, they could potentially lose their funding from the Fed and that would pretty much be the end of them. As far as I know though, our firm rarely if ever has to issue anything but an unqualified opinion.
We have a template that we use and we just plug in the final numbers. The footnotes to the financials need to be modified for each client, but we just roll that forward from the previous years financials and make any applicable changes. It's not too difficult, but like I said, in general, staff auditors would never ever get to do this at larger firms. Kinda nice. More pressure, but worth it in the end.
Anyways, my draft made it through two Partner reviews and is about to be issued next week.
After I've done this a few more times, I'm sure I'll be over it and wish I could go back to no responsibility.
Gimme a Brake!
In efforts to save myself some buck$, I had my boss/friend Ryan do my brakes last night. I sort of half-asked if he knew anyone who could help me out, and as a matter of fact, he could. From that point on, I sort of didn't want to bug him about it, but a couple of days later, he asked when we were going to do them, so I figured he was wanting to do it - not offering out of kindness.
What he thought would take only a couple of hours ended up taking closer to five. Just what everyone wants to do on a Monday night. The objective of the evening was to get my rotors turned and install new brake pads. Easy enough. Well, since Mable is in her golden years, some of her nuts and bolts are a little hard to jimmy loose. I bet Ryan literally spent 30 some minutes trying to get one of those suckers off. He attached a long metal pole to his wrench to get some leverage, and the wrench snapped and broke. Craftsman!
Just before giving up and calling it a night, he managed to get that thing loose. Blah, blah, blah....we got the rotors turned at Pep Boys, saw the loser service supervisor turn down replacing a granny's battery ("sorry, my car needs a battery, too. that's how busy we are" he says. boo.), went to Bill's Burgers for some burgers, blah blah and everything turned out fine.
There was more than a few times where I wished I had just gone to the mechanic, but after spending only $55 to have some good as new brakes, it was worth it. Best part is, it sounds like we're going to replace the front calipers next, then tackle the rears. I consider myself lucky. I'm going to save close to $1,000 when all is said and done.
Somehow I didn't think I needed a change of clothes after work; somehow I managed to help out and not get one smudge on my khakis. High five!
I Fought the Law (Still Am!)
Growing up male, middle-class, and white, I do have it pretty easy (studies show). I guess I can admit that that's true. However, I can't help but think that I still am being kept down by The Man in some ways just like everyone else. So when I have the opportunity to fight back, I take it.
Chew on this: I have two reasons for the CHiPs to pull me over. And for those of you who don't know who the CHiPs are, it's a television show from a long time ago, but also the California Highway Patrol. Anyways, these guys are all over the place on their bikes. Motor bikes. Now, back to my reasons.
I was pulled over last fall for some ridiculous reason. I was heading East when a police office heading West passed me, made a u-turn and pulled up behind me at a red light. We proceeded through 2-3 more intersections and traveled about 2 miles when he finally decides to turn on his cherries and stop me. His reason? My middle brake light is out.
But before we get to that conclusion, he asks me whose car I'm driving, what I'm doing in California (I have MN plates) if I've ever been arrested, and if I've ever been in jail. Not sure how any of that was relevant, but I like to humor these guys. When he realizes he's got nothing on me, he just tells me to fix my light. Okay, sure.
As time passes and I can't find the bulb I need, I decide I'm going to defy The Man and not get it fixed. No siree. I want to see if this particular cop was just being a turd cause he had nothing better to do, or if they actually do waste their time pulling people over for stupid stuff like that.
So check this out. I'm in downtown Los Angeles at a late hour in a desolate area driving an old(er) car with out of state plates and a cop pulls up behind me at a red light. The light turns green. We come to the next red light and sit there again. He has plenty of time to think about busting me for my brake light. My supposed lack of safety is staring at him straight in the face. Well, as we get going again, he turns on his lights and whizzes past me. As I finally catch up with him, he's stopped at some shady bar to back-up his fellow man on the force who's got a guy on the ground at gun point.
Since then, I've had numerous police peoples sitting right behind me at stoplights or just following behind me. Every time I brake with my lack of the middle brake light, I get nervous. But guess what? Nothing. No one has pulled me over. I bet it's been 6-8 times I've been followed with no resulting consequences.
My conclusion: the guy that pulled me over was being a tool.
Reason two to pull me over: My registration tags on my license plates expired in December. The rear one isn't even visible. Sure, I have the most current registration tags. My car is registered. I just haven't bothered to display them yet. I'm actually pretty surprised nothing has resulted from it; I would think that I draw extra attention being one of the few without California plates on.
So there you have it. My way of silent protest. I may not tag walls with graffiti, do illegal drugs, or even eat grapes at the supermarket without paying for them, but I am a bad___. I am sticking it to The Man. It may be only a matter of time before I suffer the consequences, or is it? I've already gone many months. In fact, a cop was tailing me for 6 blocks on the way home from work tonight. Nothing.
Some may say at this point, "knock on wood," but I don't believe in those old cliches.
Hopefully I have no updates to this story for a long time. Godspeed be unto me.
If you'd like to support my quest of fighting The Man, click on the Google Ad in the left pane. It may earn me $0.01.
Larry Norman (1947-2008)
It saddens me to report that a week ago today, Larry Norman, the Father of Christian Rock, passed away of heart failure.
Many/most of you have probably never heard of Larry Norman. He started his career back in the 1960s in San Francisco, California as part of the "Jesus Movement" while signed to Capitol Records and later MGM.
"[In] 1971, TIME magazine was reporting on the growth of the Jesus Movement, and while Larry Norman took some steps to distance himself from it, he had become the most popular musician among its followers. TIME Magazine reported that Eric Clapton had become a 'convert of the Jesus Movement,' and a 1971 cover article also named members of Peter, Paul, and Mary and Fleetwood Mac within its sphere of influence. Johnny Cash was also named."
Larry was also a huge influence in helping musicians break their drug habits. He started a Bible study called "The Vineyard" in the 1970s that was attended by actors and musicians. Most notably: Bob Dylan.
By the end of the '70s, Larry left the major labels and pursued a career as an independent artist. Throughout his career, his work has appeared on over 90 albums. Van Morrison as well as John Mellencamp have claimed to be fans of Larry and over 300 artists have covered his songs, including Sammy Davis, Jr.
Larry's had problems with his heart for decades. Surgery after surgery have been performed, although it was usually just a struggle to even get into the operating room. Costly operations are difficult to pay for when you're an independent musician with no health insurance. Larry had to rely primarily on the financial support of his fans to cover his medical expenses.
I was introduced to Larry Norman's music back in 1995 or so. My sister Krysti was dating my now brother-in-law Marc, who was also my youth pastor at the time. Marc had been a fan of Larry's music for years and was quite eager to share that fanaticism with a new generation (me).
In May of 1996, Marc and I journeyed to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, just outside of Toronto, to see Larry. It was my first time, Marc's too, if I recall. We drove over 13 hours overnight to get there. We arrived at the venue about 4 hours before the show and were pretty much the only attendees around. The promotor heard how far we'd traveled, and reserved two seats front and center just for us. It was a pretty amazing experience considering the history and influence of Larry's message and his music. It was also a reminder of how fragile his health was, even then. Forty-eight at the time, he already had had major heart surgery more than once. He had to stop the concert halfway through due to a bout of coughing and to go take some heart meds. After thirty or so minutes, though, he came back out and finished his set.
Marc and I had the opportunity to meet him afterwards. I don't remember much about it, being 15ish at the time, but I do remember that Larry was very low-key and happy just to be able to talk to his fans about what's going on in their lives, his music, or anything really. It was quite an experience. Something I'll never forget.
I'm not sure the timeline, but maybe a year later, Larry was performing in Iowa somewhere. Marc and I badly wanted to see him again, and knowing how (un)healthy he was, knew we'd better take the chance when we had it. This time we brought along my sister, Marc's wife, so she could experience the magic. She wasn't the hugest fan of Larry's before she saw him live; most people aren't. He doesn't have the most radio-friendly voice or anything. But after she saw him in person, she came to appreciate the artist that Larry truly is: goofy at times, but at his core, a genuine human being who had the gift of influencing people with his message and music.
When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to pick a song to present to my english class. We were looking at music and the meaning behind the words in the songs. I chose Larry Norman's "America." It was the perfect chance to present Larry to people who likely hadn't heard of him before. I'm not sure if I converted any fans, but it was pretty cool for me.
In the ten years since I've seen Larry live, he's had a stroke and other ailments, disallowing him to even play the guitar for a couple years earlier this decade. I've often wanted to see him one last time, as I'm older and more in tune with myself and the world. Seeing him perform was very limited in occurrence and distant in location; it just never really worked out. I'm very thankful and blessed that I was able to see him when I did.
Larry, thank you for the gift of your music, for the blessing of your message, and the convictions of your heart. You will be missed, but never forgotten.
Now that I've been a little lax in tracking down your albums, I suppose that those vinyl records going for $400 awhile back on eBay will be even harder to track down.
Here's a classic video of Larry, likely from the '80s:
At the time of his death, Norman had been working on a new project with Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock and Pixies frontman Frank Black, who cites Norman as a major influence. That music will be released later this year (Reuters).
Source: Wikipedia
Lunch Money
Last year when our firm was auditing our client in Alabama, they had lunch catered in every day. When we were back there for preliminary work in December, there was no catering. There was a change in management from the year before, so we can chalk it up to that. However, yesterday, when we were finishing up our year end work, I mentioned to one of the VP's of something that we weren't sure if we were going to have time for lunch because we had quite a bit to do before leaving for our late afternoon flight.
Without hesitation, she says that she'd get us a menu to a local deli and order it for us and have one of the girls go pick it up. So ok, I'm thinking "Yes! They're buying lunch for us!" Well, then Don is all, "are you supposed to give her your credit card...?" And I'm all, "no, man, she said she'd order it for us."
The more I got to thinking, I thought maybe that didn't necessarily mean she was paying for it. Well, when I went back to this VP's office with our order, I offered her my credit card fully expecting her to decline it. We didn't even do the whole "no, that's okay, I got it" "ohhh, are you sure?" exchange. Nope. She took my credit card and $20 later, I bought the audit team's lunch.
What the heck?
Stuff White People Like; Mable; Foo Fighters
I'm going to combine a few totally unrelated items into one blog. I can do that, right? Of course I can.
Let's start with this great new blog I found called Stuff White People Like. It's basically a social commentary on...well, the title says it all. Here's an excerpt from #71 Being the Only White Person Around:Many white people will look into the window of an ethnic restaurant to see if there are other white people in there. It is determined to be an acceptable restaurant if the white people in there are accompanied by ethnic friends. But if there is a table occupied entirely by white people, it is deemed unacceptable.
How true is that?
Moving on...
Mable is fast approaching 300,000 miles. Logically, her end is near, but realistically, she's running as good as she did years ago. I'm going in for a tuneup in a week and fully expect everything to check out fine. Thing is, I need to hedge the risk and prepare myself for the day she moves on to rustier pastures. I've briefly entertained the thought of buying the exact same car. I searched cars.com and the closest 1995 Grand Prixses (?) for sale is 548 miles away. That's pretty amazing considering the population in Southern California. Kind of sad, too. 131,000 miles for $2400. Not bad?
Sure, I want a newer better car as much as the next person. But I'm trying to make the most financially sound choice. No, I probably wouldn't drive 548 miles to pick up an old car with who knows how much life left in it. It would be pretty adventurous though.
Let's say that I get a newer car, though. The average car payment is what? $300? So if I spend $2400 on a used 1995 Grand Prix, it's only got to last me eight months to make it worth it. Anything longer than that is cake. That may be a pretty big risk, though. I have to assume those other Prixs haven't been taken as good of care of as mine.
The more likely plan is to put $5000 down on a $10,000 car. Likely a Toyota. Even likelier a Toyota Yaris. Yes, it's the cheapest car they make, yes I could probably afford better, but I really don't want to. I want to have that thing paid off in 6 months. Plus, it's a Toyota; it will last me a long time. I intend on it being the last economy car I buy.
Sorry folks. I don't want a car payment. I had two new cars before I was 21. I'm so over that.
Finally...
I got an email from the pastor of my church today talking about the weekend services and what not. He mentioned how one of our worship team drummers, Drew Hester won a Grammy a couple of weeks ago. So I'm thinking, that is pretty awesome. Then he goes onto say that Drew ALSO is the drummer for the FOO FIGHTERS who won a Grammy for Rock Album of the Year. So, apparently the drummer at the church I go to has been moonlighting with the Foo Fighters this whole time and won two Grammys and I had no idea. Okay, if you know me and you know the Foo Fighters, that is pretty stinkin' cool. I just watched them on Letterman the other night, so B.A.
I'm leaving for Birmingham, Alabama tomorrow where I'll be working until Friday. I hope to blog at least once while I'm there, but if not, I hope this ties/tides you over. You choose.
Thai One On Me
My buddy/co-worker Don and I were eating lunch today at Thai Basil, a Thai restaurant, duh, when there was just curry left in the bowl of chicken and curry. I said to him, "what will you give me if I drink the rest of that?" Cause you see, I'm classy like that.
He said... "You finish that, I'll pay for your lunch, and for FroYo sometime this week."
He didn't really say "FroYo," I'm saying that in hopes that it will catch on. FroYo = frozen yogurt.
I debated it for a few minutes. Took a couple sips of the curry. Not too spicy. But this will tear me up, right? Not tear like cry (well maybe that, too) but tear as in rip my stomach apart.
But I'm going to save $9 on lunch and $4 on FroYo! So I did it. I drank the rest of the curry. He was all excited in anticipation of my afternoon in the bathroom.
Lunch = free.
Then he challenges me to finish the rest of the rice and the pad thai. That would equal free FroYo or Jamba Juice every day the rest of the week. Well, I couldn't do it. I had to draw the line somewhere, right?
So I was anticipating an interesting afternoon, but my stomach totally stepped up to the plate and took that curry like a (Thai)man! I felt fine all afternoon. I felt bad that I didn't feel bad. I feel like Don didn't get his money's worth. Well, I sure did. Free lunch. You can't beat that.
I'm a winner.
Lazy Sunday
Well I don't want the title of this blog to lead you to think of the SNL Digital Short, because you will be disappointed. It really is a lazy Sunday.
I went into the office to prepare for this week. I went in for a tune-up on my car and got brushed off until next weekend. I did some laundry. I cleaned my bathroom. And...yeah not much else.
I plan on watching the tube the rest of the day. Now that I have a DVR like the rest of the country, I need to make sure it doesn't get too full. It's usually not a problem, but when I'm gone for a week at a time and only home on the weekend, stuff piles up. Priorities, people!
I better enjoy it while I can. I'm buying my CPA review course this week and it should be here by the weekend. That means less TV time for yours truly. Boo-hoo, waaah-waaah. Right?
It will be worth it in the end, of course. And I like the fact that I'm forced into no social life right now because I'm 100% focused on paying my credit card debt off. It's going well.
Also, what's this thing Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul are always doing on American Idol? When a contestant is waiting for the judges "yea" or "nay" it's always one of them, or both, who say "1000% yes!" then the next person has to top that, usually Paula, who says "one-million-trillion% yes!" Ohhhh that bugs me so much. I'm pretty sure you can't be more than 100% certain of something. No. 110%-150% is acceptable, because it's unavoidable in everyday conversation, but not 1000% or one million thousand percent. Bah.
Good Eats in San Francisco
I’m sitting in my hotel room in San Francisco writing this. The internet is $4.95 per day, so I’ll have to type this in Word for now, and just post it later.
I haven’t been here since September, and let me say, I’ve missed it and I didn’t even know it. Like New York City, but in a completely different way, there’s just something about it. Maybe it’s just the whole urban living type thing. The smell of urine, people begging for money, public transportation…you just can’t beat it.
But seriously, it’s just a blast to be staying in a nice hotel that I’m not paying for and to be able to step outside the front door and be within blocks of things to do. And now that I’ve been here before, we hop on the subway from the airport and don’t have to think twice about what we’re doing or where we’re going.
Tonight I went back to the best food court I’ve been to in my life. It’s just a higher class food court or something. No fast food joints, but Italian, Mexican, seafood, Japanese, Korean BBQ, Gourmet Thai, burgers, gelato, a cream puff place called the Beard Papa or something. Yes, Beard.…Amaaazing! I was walking down the street eating this thing out of the bag sort of, trying to make sure a bum didn’t see me porking in front of him/her, and the cream was dripping all over my hands and on my face. Good thing it was dark, although I’m not sure that mattered. It was so good, though.
So while we had some down time before dinner, I decided to hit up a couple of these spots beforehand so I made sure to get them in. Last time I was here I didn’t get any gelato, so yeah, I went. I had my dessert before my dinner and I loved it. Then I had a chocolate covered éclair with vanilla cream in the middle. Holy cow. Mmm.
I’m wondering if I’ll run into the homeless guy who rapped for me last time. We talked for 20-30 minutes and he told me he could rap about any topic, so I challenged him, and he did, and it wasn’t half bad. He had a pretty good story and everything, he was a newly homeless guy; his clothes were still clean and he didn’t smell or look scruffy or anything. Heck, he may have been hustling me, but anyways… I had some extra per diem left over for the week, so I gave him a little more than most people probably do. Point is…if he runs into me this week he’ll probably remember me as the sucker who bought into his crap and will try and hit me up again.
Either that or his story was true and the temp job worked out into a permanent job and he turned things around, thanks in part to my contribution. I’d like to think so.
In other news, when I was in the bathroom stall in between the gelato and the éclair, this guy comes into the stall next to me and is talking on his cell phone. He proceeds to give the person on the other line his cell phone number, so I’m sitting there (sorry if this is TMI), with my cell out already, playing pinball, and so I punch in his number. I hit dial. He says to the person he’s talking to, “hold on, I have another call…Hello? (Silence) HELLO??...Hey, sorry man, they hung up on me..” and I’m there trying not to laugh.
I didn’t really do that. I entered the number into my phone, but couldn’t go through with it. Maybe next time.
Neighborhood Band
It seems I live in the neighborhood of not one, but two garage bands. Well, the kid up the street I just hear playing his drums. The kid(s) down the street, though, have a guitar and bass in the mix. I'm kind of surprised the neighbors put up with it, but they do. I'm all for these kids pursuing their dreams, but you have to admit, most garage bands stink.
However, this afternoon, I was watching the teevee and I overheard the lick from Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and it didn't suck. Maybe that's not saying much, and I was on the other end of the block, so distance may have distorted my perception.
That's all I have to say about that.
Is anyone watching Breaking Bad on AMC? It's about this chemistry teacher who learns he is dying of lung cancer so he decides to team up with a former student and cook crystal meth in an RV. It's pretty interesting/entertaining/funny. I didn't think I'd really like it at first. I mean, the lead is the dad from Malcolm in the Middle for Pete's sake. (Yeah, Pete.) If I would have known that I may not have even bothered watching it. Thank goodness he's nothing at all like that character. He's good.
I'm off to San Francisco for the week. I leave the house at 5:15AM tomorrow morning and should be back Friday night early evening. It should be kinda fun. I'm going to the same place and with the same team as back in September. I'm looking forward to ordering "The Chairman" at Specialties Deli and getting a blonde lager from 21st Amendment Bar & Grill. I'm not looking forward to missing out on the awesome weather SoCal is having right now. Sure, it's still warm(er) in San Fran than it is in MN, but it's still gonna be jacket weather in the morning. Boo.
I'm starting to wonder, too, who I'm writing this blog for. Some topics I'd like to blog about I just don't because I figure my constituents won't care about. And I don't want people skipping posts because they're uninteresting. If there are too many of them, I might lose readers. At the same time, I kind of want to talk about other things from time to time. Like the aforementioned Breaking Bad. Maybe the key is to marry it with other topics and not spend too much time on it. And, why do you care about how and what I decide to blog about? You don't.
Winter in California
I don't meant to complain or anything, but it's kind of hot out today. Yeah; 80. I looked at the temperature back home in MN, and it said 0. That's kind of a large difference. I'm trying to relate that difference to other things to put it in to perspective. That's eighty times warmer than zero. But 80 x 0 = 0, so I'm not sure how that works.
On days like today, I feel kind of bad for sitting inside all day. But then I think, too, that if I felt bad every time it was nice outside, I'd be outside 350 days of the year or be pretty depressed, so then I just open the window and don't feel so bad.
I did go to the bank and pick up my dry-cleaning though, so that was nice.
I also took a couple pictures of the view from my new abode:
This is from my bedroom.
This is from the backyard. The house sits on a little cliff type hill, so it's kinda cool. That's Saddleback Mountain in the distance. The same one you could see from my last place, just farther away.
Queer Eye for the Blog Guy
My shirt and tie inventory is low and in heavy rotation. I need to add a couple more combos as I start going to more clients in the next few months. My favorite men's store is the Knight's Chamber in my hometown of St. Cloud, Minnesota. Why? Because the last two combos picked out by Chris Bitzen, son of the owner, have been stellar. I've gotten so many compliments on them. I decided I might as well stick with what works.
The problem is, of course, I live in California. I had this idea that my mom could go to the store and take pictures of some killer combos that Chris picks out, then email me the pictures. I can then pick what I want and have them shipped to me. Another great thing about the Knight's Chamber is that they will lengthen my ties for free. This is a must, because I tie my ties in the double-windsor knot, and with my height...well, just trust me.
So my mom just sent me a few combinations and I want y'all's help picking out my next outfit. I intend on buying 1-2 shirts/ties this go round. They are $30 each, so I can't go crazy. Also, if we're not too crazy about these, I can have more options given to me. So here goes...
1
2
3
4
So that's it. Vote 1-4 from your most favorite to your least. I don't expect many comments on my website, cause I don't get many to begin with, but you MySpace folks, I'm expecting a lot from you.
So, comment or e-mail me.
Free Hugs at Target!
Well, maybe just my Target.
Yesterday, I was walking out of Target and noticed the sign that said something to the effect that Target doesn't allow solicitors in front of their stores regardless of the cause. I like this. I'm sure most customers like this. I cannot stand to go to the grocery store when kids are selling cookies or old men in white suits are collecting change in a tin can. I do, however, give a free pass to the Salvation Army folks at Christmas, because they generally just ring their bell and don't actually solicit/elicit a response from me.
So right, the sign, no solicitors.
It just so happens that the very next day, I'm at Target again (hey, it's right by the office, I'm on my lunch break, I can't eat lunch at home anymore, I have time to kill) and what do I see? Solicitors.
Two of them.
One is holding a sign that says "FREE HUGS" while the other guy is holding a sign that says "HUGS: $10." As I approach I think to myself "there's no avoiding this" so I didn't even try. "You want a free hug or do you want to pay this guy $10?"
"I'll hug ya on the way out, man."
So on my way out... crap. He's still there. The $10 hugger left. Apparently, he cut his rate to $5 and still had no takers and just decided to give up and leave. I don't buy this story, because I was only in Target to drop off a prescription and this couldn't have gone down that fast. Regardless. I hugged the guy. Or he hugged me. I'm not really sure. All I know is that a random hugging occurred outside Target.
So to make this less weird, there was a film crew across the way filming what was going on. As in, this wasn't some pedophile who just wanted to hug little kids with unsuspecting mothers, or twentysomething accountants on their lunch breaks.
As I was sitting in my car in the parking lot, eating my sangwich, reading Nick Hornby's High Fidelityand waiting for my prescription to be filled, I decided that I'd had enough hugs from strangers for the day, and I'd go back tomorrow to pick it up.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this was for some piece a local church was shooting related to an upcoming message to be shown during the service. I'd even go further and say it was for my church. They would do something like that. Cause, really, who else would do something like that?
Who doesn't like a hug, right? But in the end, I'm a little upset because Target allowed this shenanigan (that's exactly what it was) to go on a few yards away from signage that expressly prohibits it.
It's only a matter of time before little Suzie Q and Johnny Boy Scout are peddling their mint chocolate chip cookies outside my local Target. And then, pffft, I might as well just go back to shopping at Wal-Mart. At least I expect it there. Along with low prices.
Just Take Me Home!
Today was one of the longer travel days I've experienced in recent memory. We finished up our audit in Tulsa today by 2:30 and went to the airport to catch our 4:30 flight. Well, that got delayed until 5, which was fine because our connecting flight in Houston would still be good. Problem is, we got out onto the tarmac and hey, guess what? Houston has grounded all flights and won't let any flights coming there take off. So we sit on the runway for an hour and half until we can depart. Connection in Houston? Not looking good.
Once we were finally airborne and to Houston, I had a good feeling we might still make our connection. Why? Well, logic told me that everyone going in and out of Houston was delayed also, so our connection might still be good. We get off the plane and find a Continental representative. She tells us our flight leaves in 12 minutes. Crap! Houston is a huge airport and if it's in another terminal, we're screwed. Sure, we could take the next flight, but the problem is, the Orange County airport will not accept flights that arrive after 11pm because of local noise ordinances. That means we'd be rerouted to LA or San Diego and shuttled to Orange County. Ew.
Anyways, so we have 12 minutes. The gate for our Orange County flight is C12. We just got off the plane at C11. Money. We made it.
I was lucky enough to bill 5 hours for fieldwork and 10.5 for travel today. Woohoo! Now I get to go into the office tomorrow and pack for next week because I leave Sunday morning at 8:30 for San Francisco. So much for a weekend.
Is it summer yet?
Tulsa, Oklahoma: I'm Having a Good Time
The only thing I really know about Tulsa is that it’s where Chandler accidentally took a promotion on a later season of ‘Friends’ and only saw Monica on weekends. Useful info.
We’re heading towards the home stretch at Almich & Associates. We’ve pretty much wrapped up one of the big jobs, one is in the midst of finishing, and I have this week and next week before I’m freed up for awhile. Sure, something else will probably be scheduled, but for now, my first busy season is almost complete. Wasn’t I just home for Christmas? Seems like it.
Nicole and I got to Tulsa late Sunday night. Our rental car was out of stock, so we got upgraded to a Jeep Grand Cherokee with leather interior, satellite radio, and a backup camera!! I’m driving in luxury. It’s making me rethink the whole Toyota Yaris for $10,500 once Mable dies. Of course, I’d never ever buy a Chrysler/Ford/Dodge whatever family Jeep is from, but it sure is nice to have for a week.
Speaking of Mable, she’s being taken care of by my landlord Stephen this week. His car is in the shop and I’m out of town, so it worked out good for both of us. His Honda is having its first major repairs in almost 10 years. He calls it bad luck. I call it being lucky. That’s a long time to go without a big car repair bill. Anyways, his commute to work this week will put Mable into the 293,000 range. We’re almost there!!
As Nicole and I got back from lunch yesterday, we were pulling up to our parking spot. I noticed a car backing out in my peripheral vision. I sort of thought it looked like he was going to back into a car parked perpendicular to his. Sure enough. Slow and soft, but definitely crunched. The owner of the hit vehicle comes running out of the school lobby and is furious. It really wasn’t that bad. Although he couldn’t open his door up all the way because of it. Sucks. It was just interesting to watch the whole thing go down, even without hearing what they were saying. I don’t know why I am telling you this.
Last night we went to the local Indian casino. It was lovely. The buffet was sub par, the air was nasty and the winnings were non-existent. I maxed out at $5. Nicole spotted me another $10, which I proceeded to lose. She ended up winning $300 on penny slots, only after I came over and sat by her. She forgave my $10 gambling debt. Thank goodness. I didn’t want her to send her goons after me to break my knees for not paying her back. I still don’t get the whole fascination with gambling.
Vegas casinos are so much nicer. Duh. But the clientele is also completely different in Vegas compared to the Cherokee Casino. I feel like I fit in more when I’m in say…Planet Hollywood or the Bellagio. This place, not so much. I needed to add 50-75 pounds, grow out my hair (in the back), drink some Pabst Blue Ribbon and smoke whatever the cheapest cigarettes are.
I’m just sayin’.
I Golf. I'm a Golfer.
One of my goals since I decided to be an accountant was to learn to golf. Well folks, I can grab the pencil to cross it off my list (but lets not cross it off quite yet).
I went to the driving range with my landlord, Stephen, last night and it turns out I'm not as bad as either of us thought. The cash register wasn't working, so they let us each take a free bucket of balls. Nice! We had a good time.
I told Don to bring his clubs to work today so that we could go afterwards. Over lunch I picked up a glove; I've found a new hobby.
Tonight I was a little sore, but I was more consistent than last night. I actually did pretty good. Stephen let me borrow his dead neighbors clubs which he acquired. It turns out they belonged to a John R. Fox, at least that's what the tag says. I'm using a dead dudes golf clubs. Creepy, right?
I think Don and I are going to go once more this week because we're both going to be out of town for awhile. Stephen and I will probably go this weekend, too. Hey, I only spent $5 tonight and had an hour of entertainment. You just can't beat that.
Happy Easter!
I know I'm a day early, but the weather is so nice today (bordering on h-o-t) that I just had to say....
Happy Easter!
No. 2 Thief, Part II
Before you read this, read Part I below.
Today I was in one of the accounting clerk's office and he was writing something out for me. The No. 2 Thief came in to ask me a question. She needed to make a note about it on her notepad. She left.
Accounting Clerk is about to continue what he was telling me...
"Where did my pen go? I always seem to be losing them."
"I think D**** [the No. 2 Thief] took it."
"I swear, she's a klepto. She's always taking my pens."
I laughed to myself as I walked away and though, "she struck again!" I took comfort in knowing I wasn't the only victim.
As I was in her office later this morning, I noticed it right there, sitting on her desk, the pencil she stole from me on Monday. While she was going on about something, all I could do is stare at my pencil. I had to let it go though. It's over. Left there in Oakland while I'm back here in Orange County.
Like I said, I'm over it.
No. 2 Thief
The accounting manager at the client Don and I are at this week in Oakland asked to borrow my pencil on Monday morning. She took it with her. I didn't see it the rest of the day.
Tuesday, she's in the room talking to Partner Joe, and Don motions to said accounting manager, then points to his hair and makes a writing gesture.
It's in her hair. My pencil is in her hair.
I don't even want it back now.
Today she comes in our room and starts to write on something with it.
Does she not wonder where she got this pencil from? I usually notice when I'm using a writing instrument that's not mine. And it's not like it's just another yellow pencil; it's a mechanical one. A red one at that.
I'm over it.
Survivor
So remember way back when CBS and Mark Burnett announced the production of "Survivor"? Well, obviously most of you are familiar with the concept of the show now. But back when the first news of this show was released, I genuinely thought it was going to be taken literal. I remember thinking, "wow, so people are really going to risk their lives for $1 million?"
I thought that the winner would be the only one who survives...literally. How messed up is that? Thankfully (?) it's not true, although I don't think it's outside of the real of possibility for a show to exist like that some day. Maybe on Pay Per View or something. If releases are signed waiving liability, what's illegal about it? Certainly something.
Anyways...back to studying.
My First Financial Statements
The main purpose of auditing companies is to express an opinion on their financial statements as to whether they are free of material misstatement and are in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America.
You got that?
I recently had an opportunity to draft my first financial statements. Now normally, as a rookie accountant, you wouldn't get to do this for 2-3 years -- maybe more. But because our firm is short staffed and handling a lot of clients, I got the chance to gain some awesome experience.
The cool part is that we audit post-secondary institutions: trade schools, medical/health training schools, etc,. and these auditor's reports end up in the hands of the U.S. Department of Education. So they're kind of important. If the school doesn't get a favorable opinion from us, they could potentially lose their funding from the Fed and that would pretty much be the end of them. As far as I know though, our firm rarely if ever has to issue anything but an unqualified opinion.
We have a template that we use and we just plug in the final numbers. The footnotes to the financials need to be modified for each client, but we just roll that forward from the previous years financials and make any applicable changes. It's not too difficult, but like I said, in general, staff auditors would never ever get to do this at larger firms. Kinda nice. More pressure, but worth it in the end.
Anyways, my draft made it through two Partner reviews and is about to be issued next week.
After I've done this a few more times, I'm sure I'll be over it and wish I could go back to no responsibility.
Gimme a Brake!
In efforts to save myself some buck$, I had my boss/friend Ryan do my brakes last night. I sort of half-asked if he knew anyone who could help me out, and as a matter of fact, he could. From that point on, I sort of didn't want to bug him about it, but a couple of days later, he asked when we were going to do them, so I figured he was wanting to do it - not offering out of kindness.
What he thought would take only a couple of hours ended up taking closer to five. Just what everyone wants to do on a Monday night. The objective of the evening was to get my rotors turned and install new brake pads. Easy enough. Well, since Mable is in her golden years, some of her nuts and bolts are a little hard to jimmy loose. I bet Ryan literally spent 30 some minutes trying to get one of those suckers off. He attached a long metal pole to his wrench to get some leverage, and the wrench snapped and broke. Craftsman!
Just before giving up and calling it a night, he managed to get that thing loose. Blah, blah, blah....we got the rotors turned at Pep Boys, saw the loser service supervisor turn down replacing a granny's battery ("sorry, my car needs a battery, too. that's how busy we are" he says. boo.), went to Bill's Burgers for some burgers, blah blah and everything turned out fine.
There was more than a few times where I wished I had just gone to the mechanic, but after spending only $55 to have some good as new brakes, it was worth it. Best part is, it sounds like we're going to replace the front calipers next, then tackle the rears. I consider myself lucky. I'm going to save close to $1,000 when all is said and done.
Somehow I didn't think I needed a change of clothes after work; somehow I managed to help out and not get one smudge on my khakis. High five!
I Fought the Law (Still Am!)
Growing up male, middle-class, and white, I do have it pretty easy (studies show). I guess I can admit that that's true. However, I can't help but think that I still am being kept down by The Man in some ways just like everyone else. So when I have the opportunity to fight back, I take it.
Chew on this: I have two reasons for the CHiPs to pull me over. And for those of you who don't know who the CHiPs are, it's a television show from a long time ago, but also the California Highway Patrol. Anyways, these guys are all over the place on their bikes. Motor bikes. Now, back to my reasons.
I was pulled over last fall for some ridiculous reason. I was heading East when a police office heading West passed me, made a u-turn and pulled up behind me at a red light. We proceeded through 2-3 more intersections and traveled about 2 miles when he finally decides to turn on his cherries and stop me. His reason? My middle brake light is out.
But before we get to that conclusion, he asks me whose car I'm driving, what I'm doing in California (I have MN plates) if I've ever been arrested, and if I've ever been in jail. Not sure how any of that was relevant, but I like to humor these guys. When he realizes he's got nothing on me, he just tells me to fix my light. Okay, sure.
As time passes and I can't find the bulb I need, I decide I'm going to defy The Man and not get it fixed. No siree. I want to see if this particular cop was just being a turd cause he had nothing better to do, or if they actually do waste their time pulling people over for stupid stuff like that.
So check this out. I'm in downtown Los Angeles at a late hour in a desolate area driving an old(er) car with out of state plates and a cop pulls up behind me at a red light. The light turns green. We come to the next red light and sit there again. He has plenty of time to think about busting me for my brake light. My supposed lack of safety is staring at him straight in the face. Well, as we get going again, he turns on his lights and whizzes past me. As I finally catch up with him, he's stopped at some shady bar to back-up his fellow man on the force who's got a guy on the ground at gun point.
Since then, I've had numerous police peoples sitting right behind me at stoplights or just following behind me. Every time I brake with my lack of the middle brake light, I get nervous. But guess what? Nothing. No one has pulled me over. I bet it's been 6-8 times I've been followed with no resulting consequences.
My conclusion: the guy that pulled me over was being a tool.
Reason two to pull me over: My registration tags on my license plates expired in December. The rear one isn't even visible. Sure, I have the most current registration tags. My car is registered. I just haven't bothered to display them yet. I'm actually pretty surprised nothing has resulted from it; I would think that I draw extra attention being one of the few without California plates on.
So there you have it. My way of silent protest. I may not tag walls with graffiti, do illegal drugs, or even eat grapes at the supermarket without paying for them, but I am a bad___. I am sticking it to The Man. It may be only a matter of time before I suffer the consequences, or is it? I've already gone many months. In fact, a cop was tailing me for 6 blocks on the way home from work tonight. Nothing.
Some may say at this point, "knock on wood," but I don't believe in those old cliches.
Hopefully I have no updates to this story for a long time. Godspeed be unto me.
If you'd like to support my quest of fighting The Man, click on the Google Ad in the left pane. It may earn me $0.01.
Larry Norman (1947-2008)
It saddens me to report that a week ago today, Larry Norman, the Father of Christian Rock, passed away of heart failure.
Many/most of you have probably never heard of Larry Norman. He started his career back in the 1960s in San Francisco, California as part of the "Jesus Movement" while signed to Capitol Records and later MGM.
"[In] 1971, TIME magazine was reporting on the growth of the Jesus Movement, and while Larry Norman took some steps to distance himself from it, he had become the most popular musician among its followers. TIME Magazine reported that Eric Clapton had become a 'convert of the Jesus Movement,' and a 1971 cover article also named members of Peter, Paul, and Mary and Fleetwood Mac within its sphere of influence. Johnny Cash was also named."
Larry was also a huge influence in helping musicians break their drug habits. He started a Bible study called "The Vineyard" in the 1970s that was attended by actors and musicians. Most notably: Bob Dylan.
By the end of the '70s, Larry left the major labels and pursued a career as an independent artist. Throughout his career, his work has appeared on over 90 albums. Van Morrison as well as John Mellencamp have claimed to be fans of Larry and over 300 artists have covered his songs, including Sammy Davis, Jr.
Larry's had problems with his heart for decades. Surgery after surgery have been performed, although it was usually just a struggle to even get into the operating room. Costly operations are difficult to pay for when you're an independent musician with no health insurance. Larry had to rely primarily on the financial support of his fans to cover his medical expenses.
I was introduced to Larry Norman's music back in 1995 or so. My sister Krysti was dating my now brother-in-law Marc, who was also my youth pastor at the time. Marc had been a fan of Larry's music for years and was quite eager to share that fanaticism with a new generation (me).
In May of 1996, Marc and I journeyed to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, just outside of Toronto, to see Larry. It was my first time, Marc's too, if I recall. We drove over 13 hours overnight to get there. We arrived at the venue about 4 hours before the show and were pretty much the only attendees around. The promotor heard how far we'd traveled, and reserved two seats front and center just for us. It was a pretty amazing experience considering the history and influence of Larry's message and his music. It was also a reminder of how fragile his health was, even then. Forty-eight at the time, he already had had major heart surgery more than once. He had to stop the concert halfway through due to a bout of coughing and to go take some heart meds. After thirty or so minutes, though, he came back out and finished his set.
Marc and I had the opportunity to meet him afterwards. I don't remember much about it, being 15ish at the time, but I do remember that Larry was very low-key and happy just to be able to talk to his fans about what's going on in their lives, his music, or anything really. It was quite an experience. Something I'll never forget.
I'm not sure the timeline, but maybe a year later, Larry was performing in Iowa somewhere. Marc and I badly wanted to see him again, and knowing how (un)healthy he was, knew we'd better take the chance when we had it. This time we brought along my sister, Marc's wife, so she could experience the magic. She wasn't the hugest fan of Larry's before she saw him live; most people aren't. He doesn't have the most radio-friendly voice or anything. But after she saw him in person, she came to appreciate the artist that Larry truly is: goofy at times, but at his core, a genuine human being who had the gift of influencing people with his message and music.
When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to pick a song to present to my english class. We were looking at music and the meaning behind the words in the songs. I chose Larry Norman's "America." It was the perfect chance to present Larry to people who likely hadn't heard of him before. I'm not sure if I converted any fans, but it was pretty cool for me.
In the ten years since I've seen Larry live, he's had a stroke and other ailments, disallowing him to even play the guitar for a couple years earlier this decade. I've often wanted to see him one last time, as I'm older and more in tune with myself and the world. Seeing him perform was very limited in occurrence and distant in location; it just never really worked out. I'm very thankful and blessed that I was able to see him when I did.
Larry, thank you for the gift of your music, for the blessing of your message, and the convictions of your heart. You will be missed, but never forgotten.
Now that I've been a little lax in tracking down your albums, I suppose that those vinyl records going for $400 awhile back on eBay will be even harder to track down.
Here's a classic video of Larry, likely from the '80s:
At the time of his death, Norman had been working on a new project with Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock and Pixies frontman Frank Black, who cites Norman as a major influence. That music will be released later this year (Reuters).
Source: Wikipedia
Lunch Money
Last year when our firm was auditing our client in Alabama, they had lunch catered in every day. When we were back there for preliminary work in December, there was no catering. There was a change in management from the year before, so we can chalk it up to that. However, yesterday, when we were finishing up our year end work, I mentioned to one of the VP's of something that we weren't sure if we were going to have time for lunch because we had quite a bit to do before leaving for our late afternoon flight.
Without hesitation, she says that she'd get us a menu to a local deli and order it for us and have one of the girls go pick it up. So ok, I'm thinking "Yes! They're buying lunch for us!" Well, then Don is all, "are you supposed to give her your credit card...?" And I'm all, "no, man, she said she'd order it for us."
The more I got to thinking, I thought maybe that didn't necessarily mean she was paying for it. Well, when I went back to this VP's office with our order, I offered her my credit card fully expecting her to decline it. We didn't even do the whole "no, that's okay, I got it" "ohhh, are you sure?" exchange. Nope. She took my credit card and $20 later, I bought the audit team's lunch.
What the heck?
Stuff White People Like; Mable; Foo Fighters
I'm going to combine a few totally unrelated items into one blog. I can do that, right? Of course I can.
Let's start with this great new blog I found called Stuff White People Like. It's basically a social commentary on...well, the title says it all. Here's an excerpt from #71 Being the Only White Person Around:Many white people will look into the window of an ethnic restaurant to see if there are other white people in there. It is determined to be an acceptable restaurant if the white people in there are accompanied by ethnic friends. But if there is a table occupied entirely by white people, it is deemed unacceptable.
How true is that?
Moving on...
Mable is fast approaching 300,000 miles. Logically, her end is near, but realistically, she's running as good as she did years ago. I'm going in for a tuneup in a week and fully expect everything to check out fine. Thing is, I need to hedge the risk and prepare myself for the day she moves on to rustier pastures. I've briefly entertained the thought of buying the exact same car. I searched cars.com and the closest 1995 Grand Prixses (?) for sale is 548 miles away. That's pretty amazing considering the population in Southern California. Kind of sad, too. 131,000 miles for $2400. Not bad?
Sure, I want a newer better car as much as the next person. But I'm trying to make the most financially sound choice. No, I probably wouldn't drive 548 miles to pick up an old car with who knows how much life left in it. It would be pretty adventurous though.
Let's say that I get a newer car, though. The average car payment is what? $300? So if I spend $2400 on a used 1995 Grand Prix, it's only got to last me eight months to make it worth it. Anything longer than that is cake. That may be a pretty big risk, though. I have to assume those other Prixs haven't been taken as good of care of as mine.
The more likely plan is to put $5000 down on a $10,000 car. Likely a Toyota. Even likelier a Toyota Yaris. Yes, it's the cheapest car they make, yes I could probably afford better, but I really don't want to. I want to have that thing paid off in 6 months. Plus, it's a Toyota; it will last me a long time. I intend on it being the last economy car I buy.
Sorry folks. I don't want a car payment. I had two new cars before I was 21. I'm so over that.
Finally...
I got an email from the pastor of my church today talking about the weekend services and what not. He mentioned how one of our worship team drummers, Drew Hester won a Grammy a couple of weeks ago. So I'm thinking, that is pretty awesome. Then he goes onto say that Drew ALSO is the drummer for the FOO FIGHTERS who won a Grammy for Rock Album of the Year. So, apparently the drummer at the church I go to has been moonlighting with the Foo Fighters this whole time and won two Grammys and I had no idea. Okay, if you know me and you know the Foo Fighters, that is pretty stinkin' cool. I just watched them on Letterman the other night, so B.A.
I'm leaving for Birmingham, Alabama tomorrow where I'll be working until Friday. I hope to blog at least once while I'm there, but if not, I hope this ties/tides you over. You choose.
Thai One On Me
My buddy/co-worker Don and I were eating lunch today at Thai Basil, a Thai restaurant, duh, when there was just curry left in the bowl of chicken and curry. I said to him, "what will you give me if I drink the rest of that?" Cause you see, I'm classy like that.
He said... "You finish that, I'll pay for your lunch, and for FroYo sometime this week."
He didn't really say "FroYo," I'm saying that in hopes that it will catch on. FroYo = frozen yogurt.
I debated it for a few minutes. Took a couple sips of the curry. Not too spicy. But this will tear me up, right? Not tear like cry (well maybe that, too) but tear as in rip my stomach apart.
But I'm going to save $9 on lunch and $4 on FroYo! So I did it. I drank the rest of the curry. He was all excited in anticipation of my afternoon in the bathroom.
Lunch = free.
Then he challenges me to finish the rest of the rice and the pad thai. That would equal free FroYo or Jamba Juice every day the rest of the week. Well, I couldn't do it. I had to draw the line somewhere, right?
So I was anticipating an interesting afternoon, but my stomach totally stepped up to the plate and took that curry like a (Thai)man! I felt fine all afternoon. I felt bad that I didn't feel bad. I feel like Don didn't get his money's worth. Well, I sure did. Free lunch. You can't beat that.
I'm a winner.
Lazy Sunday
Well I don't want the title of this blog to lead you to think of the SNL Digital Short, because you will be disappointed. It really is a lazy Sunday.
I went into the office to prepare for this week. I went in for a tune-up on my car and got brushed off until next weekend. I did some laundry. I cleaned my bathroom. And...yeah not much else.
I plan on watching the tube the rest of the day. Now that I have a DVR like the rest of the country, I need to make sure it doesn't get too full. It's usually not a problem, but when I'm gone for a week at a time and only home on the weekend, stuff piles up. Priorities, people!
I better enjoy it while I can. I'm buying my CPA review course this week and it should be here by the weekend. That means less TV time for yours truly. Boo-hoo, waaah-waaah. Right?
It will be worth it in the end, of course. And I like the fact that I'm forced into no social life right now because I'm 100% focused on paying my credit card debt off. It's going well.
Also, what's this thing Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul are always doing on American Idol? When a contestant is waiting for the judges "yea" or "nay" it's always one of them, or both, who say "1000% yes!" then the next person has to top that, usually Paula, who says "one-million-trillion% yes!" Ohhhh that bugs me so much. I'm pretty sure you can't be more than 100% certain of something. No. 110%-150% is acceptable, because it's unavoidable in everyday conversation, but not 1000% or one million thousand percent. Bah.
Good Eats in San Francisco
I’m sitting in my hotel room in San Francisco writing this. The internet is $4.95 per day, so I’ll have to type this in Word for now, and just post it later.
I haven’t been here since September, and let me say, I’ve missed it and I didn’t even know it. Like New York City, but in a completely different way, there’s just something about it. Maybe it’s just the whole urban living type thing. The smell of urine, people begging for money, public transportation…you just can’t beat it.
But seriously, it’s just a blast to be staying in a nice hotel that I’m not paying for and to be able to step outside the front door and be within blocks of things to do. And now that I’ve been here before, we hop on the subway from the airport and don’t have to think twice about what we’re doing or where we’re going.
Tonight I went back to the best food court I’ve been to in my life. It’s just a higher class food court or something. No fast food joints, but Italian, Mexican, seafood, Japanese, Korean BBQ, Gourmet Thai, burgers, gelato, a cream puff place called the Beard Papa or something. Yes, Beard.…Amaaazing! I was walking down the street eating this thing out of the bag sort of, trying to make sure a bum didn’t see me porking in front of him/her, and the cream was dripping all over my hands and on my face. Good thing it was dark, although I’m not sure that mattered. It was so good, though.
So while we had some down time before dinner, I decided to hit up a couple of these spots beforehand so I made sure to get them in. Last time I was here I didn’t get any gelato, so yeah, I went. I had my dessert before my dinner and I loved it. Then I had a chocolate covered éclair with vanilla cream in the middle. Holy cow. Mmm.
I’m wondering if I’ll run into the homeless guy who rapped for me last time. We talked for 20-30 minutes and he told me he could rap about any topic, so I challenged him, and he did, and it wasn’t half bad. He had a pretty good story and everything, he was a newly homeless guy; his clothes were still clean and he didn’t smell or look scruffy or anything. Heck, he may have been hustling me, but anyways… I had some extra per diem left over for the week, so I gave him a little more than most people probably do. Point is…if he runs into me this week he’ll probably remember me as the sucker who bought into his crap and will try and hit me up again.
Either that or his story was true and the temp job worked out into a permanent job and he turned things around, thanks in part to my contribution. I’d like to think so.
In other news, when I was in the bathroom stall in between the gelato and the éclair, this guy comes into the stall next to me and is talking on his cell phone. He proceeds to give the person on the other line his cell phone number, so I’m sitting there (sorry if this is TMI), with my cell out already, playing pinball, and so I punch in his number. I hit dial. He says to the person he’s talking to, “hold on, I have another call…Hello? (Silence) HELLO??...Hey, sorry man, they hung up on me..” and I’m there trying not to laugh.
I didn’t really do that. I entered the number into my phone, but couldn’t go through with it. Maybe next time.
Neighborhood Band
It seems I live in the neighborhood of not one, but two garage bands. Well, the kid up the street I just hear playing his drums. The kid(s) down the street, though, have a guitar and bass in the mix. I'm kind of surprised the neighbors put up with it, but they do. I'm all for these kids pursuing their dreams, but you have to admit, most garage bands stink.
However, this afternoon, I was watching the teevee and I overheard the lick from Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and it didn't suck. Maybe that's not saying much, and I was on the other end of the block, so distance may have distorted my perception.
That's all I have to say about that.
Is anyone watching Breaking Bad on AMC? It's about this chemistry teacher who learns he is dying of lung cancer so he decides to team up with a former student and cook crystal meth in an RV. It's pretty interesting/entertaining/funny. I didn't think I'd really like it at first. I mean, the lead is the dad from Malcolm in the Middle for Pete's sake. (Yeah, Pete.) If I would have known that I may not have even bothered watching it. Thank goodness he's nothing at all like that character. He's good.
I'm off to San Francisco for the week. I leave the house at 5:15AM tomorrow morning and should be back Friday night early evening. It should be kinda fun. I'm going to the same place and with the same team as back in September. I'm looking forward to ordering "The Chairman" at Specialties Deli and getting a blonde lager from 21st Amendment Bar & Grill. I'm not looking forward to missing out on the awesome weather SoCal is having right now. Sure, it's still warm(er) in San Fran than it is in MN, but it's still gonna be jacket weather in the morning. Boo.
I'm starting to wonder, too, who I'm writing this blog for. Some topics I'd like to blog about I just don't because I figure my constituents won't care about. And I don't want people skipping posts because they're uninteresting. If there are too many of them, I might lose readers. At the same time, I kind of want to talk about other things from time to time. Like the aforementioned Breaking Bad. Maybe the key is to marry it with other topics and not spend too much time on it. And, why do you care about how and what I decide to blog about? You don't.
Winter in California
I don't meant to complain or anything, but it's kind of hot out today. Yeah; 80. I looked at the temperature back home in MN, and it said 0. That's kind of a large difference. I'm trying to relate that difference to other things to put it in to perspective. That's eighty times warmer than zero. But 80 x 0 = 0, so I'm not sure how that works.
On days like today, I feel kind of bad for sitting inside all day. But then I think, too, that if I felt bad every time it was nice outside, I'd be outside 350 days of the year or be pretty depressed, so then I just open the window and don't feel so bad.
I did go to the bank and pick up my dry-cleaning though, so that was nice.
I also took a couple pictures of the view from my new abode:
This is from my bedroom.
This is from the backyard. The house sits on a little cliff type hill, so it's kinda cool. That's Saddleback Mountain in the distance. The same one you could see from my last place, just farther away.
Queer Eye for the Blog Guy
My shirt and tie inventory is low and in heavy rotation. I need to add a couple more combos as I start going to more clients in the next few months. My favorite men's store is the Knight's Chamber in my hometown of St. Cloud, Minnesota. Why? Because the last two combos picked out by Chris Bitzen, son of the owner, have been stellar. I've gotten so many compliments on them. I decided I might as well stick with what works.
The problem is, of course, I live in California. I had this idea that my mom could go to the store and take pictures of some killer combos that Chris picks out, then email me the pictures. I can then pick what I want and have them shipped to me. Another great thing about the Knight's Chamber is that they will lengthen my ties for free. This is a must, because I tie my ties in the double-windsor knot, and with my height...well, just trust me.
So my mom just sent me a few combinations and I want y'all's help picking out my next outfit. I intend on buying 1-2 shirts/ties this go round. They are $30 each, so I can't go crazy. Also, if we're not too crazy about these, I can have more options given to me. So here goes...
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So that's it. Vote 1-4 from your most favorite to your least. I don't expect many comments on my website, cause I don't get many to begin with, but you MySpace folks, I'm expecting a lot from you.
So, comment or e-mail me.
Free Hugs at Target!
Well, maybe just my Target.
Yesterday, I was walking out of Target and noticed the sign that said something to the effect that Target doesn't allow solicitors in front of their stores regardless of the cause. I like this. I'm sure most customers like this. I cannot stand to go to the grocery store when kids are selling cookies or old men in white suits are collecting change in a tin can. I do, however, give a free pass to the Salvation Army folks at Christmas, because they generally just ring their bell and don't actually solicit/elicit a response from me.
So right, the sign, no solicitors.
It just so happens that the very next day, I'm at Target again (hey, it's right by the office, I'm on my lunch break, I can't eat lunch at home anymore, I have time to kill) and what do I see? Solicitors.
Two of them.
One is holding a sign that says "FREE HUGS" while the other guy is holding a sign that says "HUGS: $10." As I approach I think to myself "there's no avoiding this" so I didn't even try. "You want a free hug or do you want to pay this guy $10?"
"I'll hug ya on the way out, man."
So on my way out... crap. He's still there. The $10 hugger left. Apparently, he cut his rate to $5 and still had no takers and just decided to give up and leave. I don't buy this story, because I was only in Target to drop off a prescription and this couldn't have gone down that fast. Regardless. I hugged the guy. Or he hugged me. I'm not really sure. All I know is that a random hugging occurred outside Target.
So to make this less weird, there was a film crew across the way filming what was going on. As in, this wasn't some pedophile who just wanted to hug little kids with unsuspecting mothers, or twentysomething accountants on their lunch breaks.
As I was sitting in my car in the parking lot, eating my sangwich, reading Nick Hornby's High Fidelityand waiting for my prescription to be filled, I decided that I'd had enough hugs from strangers for the day, and I'd go back tomorrow to pick it up.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this was for some piece a local church was shooting related to an upcoming message to be shown during the service. I'd even go further and say it was for my church. They would do something like that. Cause, really, who else would do something like that?
Who doesn't like a hug, right? But in the end, I'm a little upset because Target allowed this shenanigan (that's exactly what it was) to go on a few yards away from signage that expressly prohibits it.
It's only a matter of time before little Suzie Q and Johnny Boy Scout are peddling their mint chocolate chip cookies outside my local Target. And then, pffft, I might as well just go back to shopping at Wal-Mart. At least I expect it there. Along with low prices.
