Saturday had an early breakfast with my parents. Then we went over to Jen's parent's house to hang out with David for his b- day party. We hung out there for a few hours and then headed home to relax.
Sunday was the long day. For some reason i got up at 8. I still am kicking myself in the ass for getting up this early. Jen and I sat around and ate bagels on the couch. We didn't do a whole lot of anything til the lakers game. So then at 12:30 the game was on. BUT thanks to ABC, we had to watch nearly 15 minutes of commercials before the game actually started. Before the game even started i was screaming at the TV, and then the game itself KEPT me screaming at the TV. Will is a firm believer that game 1 decided the series, but i still think if the Lakers can take away one game on the Spurs home court that they can win the series. (thats really the completely obvious, cause the HAVE to win 1 on the spurs court in order to win the series) I just think they have to win one of the first 2. They lost game one and i jumped in the shower to get ready to go out. Jen had left and hour before to go hang out at her parents. She showed up after the game with David, and we headed out to Hollywood. We went to Greenblats to grab some food and screwed around for a little while. Then we headed to the Pantages to see Mama Mia. I thought it was going to be MUCH worse than it was, but still... any ABBA is too much ABBA. We headed home after the show and promptly got working on worksheets for Jen's class today.
Today just as i was about to leave Jen called and asked me if she had left all the worksheets on the table. Hopefully the pdf's i emailed her will work, but i'm not counting on Acrobat being installed on her computers.
i have a need for cerveza already. There is a case of Corona waiting for me in my fridge at home, a couple limes, and a Lakers game that needs to be won. I can't wait to get home.
well back to work
this one is going to take awhile
Jen and I are in the kitchen cooking dinner. There are things on the stove and we're getting down to the point where everything is coming together. BANG BANG BANG on the door. Notice, not Knock Knock. BUT BANG BANG BANG. Jen and I both open our eyes wide and look at the clock. I peer through the peephole, but its too late. Our patio door is open and Linda from across the hall knows i'm standing there next to the door. So she starts talking before i even open the door. As soon as i get the door open i find a box of chocolate shoved in my face and she says something like, "here! FRECH chocolate! I just got back from france!!!". At this point here mood is "bouncy", I reply with something like, "Oh, how was it? did you have a good time?" she says something at this point that was unintelligible, but i know its going downhill. She frowns for an instant then goes back into bouncy mode. She blathers something about her hearing Jen and I fighting, and then it HITS! Full red face tears running down. AND THIS HAPPENS IN LESS THAT TWO SECONDS!!!! She says that a lawyer knocked on her door today and told her that her X-Husband (and i don't mean eXtreme) was murdered and he left everything to her. She goes NUTS for 2 seconds, then its all gone. Back into Bouncy mode. I can't even remember what she said after that, but she was off and saying goodbye, so i wasn't going to complain or argue with her. Bye Bye.
So i walk back into the kitchen in shock. Jen asks what the fuck that was all about. I can't talk out in the open, cause i know that she's sitting in her kitchen 4 feet away, listening. I just mouth the words "fucking PSYCHO" and make the little hand motion like Minnie Driver in Grosse Pointe Blank. Jen looks puzzled, but we sit down to dinner and i start to explain quietly. We finish eating and now for the real show. Friends is about to fuckin END! Huzzah!!! So i've watched enough of these shows over the years that i figure i'd sit and watch the CHEEZY END. But the real show was about to begin.
BANG BANG BANG on the door again. Jen bolts for the kitchen and what she thinks is safety. I open the door and Linda is now in Bouncy mode again. Now she has a t-shirt! Guess where she got it. Thats right. FROM FRANCE. (i feel like the coneheads for some reason) Anyway... She asks if my Wife is here and i'm not about to be greedy and keep all the French presents for myself. I call Jen out from the kitchen and all i see if Jen's eyes looking that look of death. She comes to the door and accepts the French tourist tee. Then it happens. I don't know exactly how, but she makes it inside. And she brings her own booze!!! I always have to give a good cheer to people who drink cheap ass wine from the big bottles, but drinking alone from the big bottle... that deserves a HUGE CHEER. So only problem is she needs a glass. Jen grabs her one from out kitchen and we all plop down on the couch where i am just waiting for something to happen. My life is entirely too boring, but this is not exactly what i needed. anyway... back to the fun. She just talks and talks and talks and talks. Friends is on mute and its a surreal backdrop for the conversation about all the guys that Linda has met online. She claims at one point there have been 45 men in 1 year. The short ones,... she doesn't like to have sex with. I don't know why i needed to know this, but now i do. She's going to be with a man with weekend in Ventura and they are going kayaking. He's a little short. So now you know what that means too. Blah blah blah.... conversation keeps going. I think i'm starting to wander in and our of sleep. Friends is still on mute. Then she says something about our Landlord. She claims that he called her at work today and asked about OUR whereabouts. I am puzzled. I never hear shit from the landlord, so this is weird. I excuse myself and leave Jen alone for a moment in the living room. hhahahahah. I check my online banking and sure enough the rent check has not been cashed. The thing is... Jen and i dropped it in his mailbox ourselves on the 1st like we do most of the time. He's been trying to get ahold of us, but Jen and I never check out answering machine. Jen gets on the phone right then and calls him. Meanwhile Linda is blathering about something else. Then suddenly my brother comes into conversation, and i didn't bring him up. Linda saw him ONCE with his shirt off when i was moving in. He was helping move crap for me. In that one encounter she joined the long list of people that want to fuck my brother. So she starts asking about him. My only response is... well, sorry... he's getting married. Now you'd think that would end the conversation. NOPE. remember we're talking about a woman who's been married a few times and is over 40. Being married doesn't matter. Blah blah blah. more conversation. Friends is still on mute, but i can sort of follow what's going on in the episode. Twins show up and then something about a duck and a chick. anyway. I then get a little more information about Linda's employment and her business and a few other things that were literally so forgetful that i already forgot them. Somehow by the miracle of some unknown power, she decides to leave. And with our wine glass! Well i guess we made off better with the deal... we got trinkets from France.
So you'd think that THAT was the end.
Jen starts to bitch me out about the rent check. She starts complaining about how she doesn't have any time to run the check over to our landlords house tomorrow (even though shes 5 minutes away from his house every day) blah blah blah. Loud talking about how this sucks and i'll fuckin take it over there right now. i get my shoes on and i jump in the car.
So while i'm gone Linda pounds on the door again and tells Jen that she sorry about our marriage being bad and something about men being assholes. I'll make Jen write a little more about that later.
Anyway, we check the answering machine and there are 3 messages from the landlord with a few threatening about papers and legal action and... OMFG could the night get any better. The SECOND rent check is sitting in his mailbox. i should have taken a picture of it just to be sure.
I am so glad that i'm making a regular pay check now, and we'll be out of this dump soon. (sorry john, i don't mean to say that the place you lived for years is a dump but... its a fuckin dump)
thanks to Jason for the link
Bumper to bumper where you usually can go 60mph.
thanks to nomisnoj for dragging my ass out there for lunch. Well not exactly dragging... its walking distance from the office.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Patricia Bermingham (Patty)
A Sparkle and Shine Girl
Beloved wife and partner of Bob Bermingham, and mother of Jennifer Riegler of South Pasadena and David of Arcadia, passed away late in the evening on May 13th at the age of 59 after a long fight with cancer.
Born Patricia Ruth Cowan in Long Beach, California on Eater Sunday, April 1, 1945 she was the only child of Marjorie and Pat Cowan. She graduated from Millikan High School and was awarded a BS in Education from USC in 1967 where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority.
After her marriage to Bob in 1967 she began to teach and spent most of her career as an elementary teacher at Marengo School in South Pasadena where she built a reputation as a caring, professional educator. She was the teacher parents and students wanted to get.
A stunning blue-eyed blond, she always had a smile on her face and a sparkle in her eyes. She loved everyone, and her love was returned many times over. Funeral services will be held Monday May 17, 2004 at 4:00PM at the Church of the Good Shepard, 400 West Duarte Road, Arcadia California. Burial will take place Tuesday morning, May 18th at Hillside Memorial Park, Redlands, California, at 11:00AM
thats it. Numb. well maybe burnt too.
Also check out Jay's article on the subject
protocols that i've seen that are effected are:
help
disk
telnet
I've got all mine set now to "stickies" :)
Dinner was quite an event. Jen's father had his birthday last week and we never really got to sit down and celebrate properly with everything that was going on. So.... we went down to Azure Point and had an incredible meal. Azure Point is upstairs in the Lowele's Coronado resort and has a perfect view of the Coronado Bridge and all of Downtown San Diego. So again, beautiful view, eat and drink.
The next morning we all popped up and got a buffet breakfast at the Sheerwater on the beach at the Del. At this point Jen and I had not gotten a graduation present for Rachel, but we knew exactly what we wanted to get. We took a EXTREMELY FAST trip to a mall just across the bridge and were in and out of Nordstrom's about 36 seconds. We checked out of the hotel and dumped all our stuff in the car. Then proceeded to sit outside the Sheerwater and order a few drinks. At this point we had about an hour and a half before everybody showed up for the lunch at the Sheerwater. So again, beautiful view and drink and eat. Everybody shows up and we move about 50 feet, and again view, eat, drink.
After lunch we headed out (at about 4PM) and made our way back to San Clemente. Back to Dick's house for a incredible BBQ. We grilled up steaks and as always Pooh does a great job stuffing us with food. Watched the Lakers get destroyed and then got back on the road and headed home.
I woke up today so early, but i have to admit with all the running around all weekend, i felt better than i have in a long time. Jen and I really needed this weekend.
Now here comes the funny part.
I never bounce mail.
Most people are vindictive and figure if somebody is spamming them.... WELL FUCK THEM, i'm gonna bounce this piece of shit mail back at them. Sorry, the bounce usually never gets where is really should go, and most often will hit a innocent box that's just being spoofed. SO... i don't bounce, and because i don't bounce, all email that comes to my domains appears to be have delivered successfully. People who sell mailing lists have become aware of this. In the last few weeks i've seen a HUGE increase in random names @iriggs.com. The people selling the lists are padding their lists with fake email addresses that never existed. And the people sending the spam are none the wiser. They're just getting a increasingly more shitty product for their money. AND the spammer who thinks they are contacting 100 or 1000 or even more people is just sending mail to ME. And i'm not listening.
I think this is the answer to spam. Make the numbers so astronomical that the spammer is only contacting 1 out of every trillion spams they send. This way their operating costs and time spent is no longer cost effective. Its illegal, but the option of selling HUGE lists of fake emails suddenly becomes the solution to the problem. Over saturate the spamming community with addresses so they can't distinguish between valid emails and non valid emails. And give them no feedback as to the delivery status of mail, thus keeping them from verifying ANYTHING.
just a thought.
So following up Will's post about Napoleon Dynamite... i checked out the site yesterday before i left work. There's a screening in old town pasadena on Saturday, so we RSVP'ed for it. Happy to say they emailed me to say the RSVP is confirmed and if i show up in time might get a free T-shirt. I'm really hoping for a Unicorn Crossing.
So Sunday we went down to San Clemente to see Anne and Darren at their new house. We hung out drinking for awhile in the morning and then head down to the beach after everybody had shown up. Kim, Russell, Lindsay and Keith all headed down with us. So we sat on the beach for a few hours. And all the time dipshit Dave didn't use anything about the sun. I spend awhile in the water and during that time i really got burned. I didnt know it yet, but i still went walking down the beach. It wasn't til i got back to Anne's house that i realized how badly burned i was. I sat for a few hours trying to stay awake, but eventually i felt like such crap i really just wanted to go home. So i pissed Jen off cause she was expecting to spend the night. I feel like shit that i sort of ruined the night, but i got Jen to drive me home. By the time i got home at about midnight i crashed and we both slept til about 11 today.
Today was a real break. We didn't do ANYTHING. When we finally got up late, we headed to In N Out for lunch. We sat around most of the day just realaxing. Then watched the Lakers defeat the Timberwolves and head to the NBA finals for the 4th time in 5 years. We cooked a little dinner then walked down the street to blockbuster to grab Return of the King. Jen's already in bed and i'm sitting here watching the movie now.
So a few pictures from the weekend.
