I blog posted about thinking about bringing in my parents' minivan to look at exhaust that appears to be coming out of the passenger side.  Well, I have driven it a few times since, including this morning, when I used to drive to the bank and then to get my face shaved, and after the initial start, I don't see any exhaust coming out of any place it ain't supposed to.  When I got home, I left the vehicle on while I got out, and while I saw smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe (I just checked; it's 19 degrees now), I didn't see it seeping out of the side of the car.

Maybe I don't have to bring it in.  Maybe I will bring it in and ask the mechanic if he sees something, and maybe I'll pay for repairs other than the exhaust system that may or may not need repair.  Who knows?

New Hat Rack

So just after the New Year I bought on Amazon a new hat rack.  The one I have, which Father helped nail onto the wall, kind of looks like a ladder.  There are hooks that you hang on each "slat" of this rack, and the pincers at the end of each hook is where the folded cap gets attached and hangs on the rack.

Two problems with this.  One, I have bought and got so many ballcaps (I want to say I have at least 50) that there was no more room on the rack.  And two, the hooks have gotten so worn out that they no longer pinch the caps in place.  I try putting them back, and just when I think the hook has a hat in its grasp, the hat falls to the ground.  I have had to throw away many hooks that have worn out.

My Father, in the midst of going through my shit and fucking invading my privacy, did come up with an ingenious way to get all my hats on the rack by putting them on those clothes hangers with hooks on each end, then hanging those clothes hangers on the rack.  But I wound up relaxing in my bed, watching my TV and seeing, over to the left, this ugly mass of hats and a metastatic tumor of clothes hangers squeezing next to and piling on top of one another just so they can stay on the rack.  I normally don't give a fuck about how things look so long as they do the job, but even I couldn't stand seeing that monstrosity every day.  (I have to admit that, as clever as he is, seeing that semi-organized mess was a reminder that My Fucking Father went through my things and acted as if he knew what was best for me, and I rebelled against that, albeit subconsciously.)

I thought I needed a second hat rack to handle the overflow of the first hat rack, but in time I thought I should just get something that could handle all of my hats.  Eventually, I something that fit the bill and bought it on Amazon.  It is a series of five cubby holes on a vertical rack that can hang on doors because there are hooks and grommets on the top.  I installed it on the inside of my bedroom door and, frankly, it's a godsend.  All the hats that crowded my plastic rack I can just fold and place in one of the shelves, and I have two shelves left over.  In fact, assuming I don't buy any more ballcaps (and that could happen), this new rack really could take all the hats I have.  I don't necessarily need my first, old one anymore.  The only thing I'm scared of, and this might just be my paranoia talking, is that the hats on this new, second rack might weigh down my door so much it'll start to pry the door off its hinge.  Hope not; this door has been where it's been as long as I can remember it.

All in all, I'm glad I made this purchase.

Simple Syrup Is Seeping

I thought putting the full cup of simple syrup, which I made by boiling a cup of sugar in a cup of water, into a smaller plastic container instead of the larger one, would suffice.  All of the simple syrup fit, but when I put the lid on, I could see the syrup push up against the bottom of the lid, you know what I mean?

I put it in the fridge and didn't think anything more of it.  But when I opened up the refrigerator door later to get something to drink, I saw that there were droplets on the side and all around the container.  The syrup was seeping out.  I don't think the container was leaking, but I surmised that the lid pushed the syrup through any opening between the lid and the container, and if it didn't drip over the side of the container it was, um, solid enough that it could travel to the lip of the lid and then drop onto the glass shelf.

Darn.  I'm not one to clean the fridge, and now it's all sticky.  I actually poured out a little simple syrup so it wouldn't push up against the lid.  I also used, like, 15 mL of it on a, I think, gimlet.  But it continues to leak out.  I have put a paper towel underneath the collect the drops, but that's too late for the simple syrup that had dropped onto the shelf.  Meanwhile, I thought I would have used more of the syrup by now, but it doesn't look like I'll be using it at all this weekend.  So the simple syrup will continue to seep.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

Positive Numbers: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: 0).  Before I begin, I have to note that this Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey is bereft of pro teams.  The Wild and the NHL aren't playing because the Winter Olympics are going on now, and the Timberwolves last played last Wednesday (the last day of last Week's WMNSS) and the NBA is coming back from their All-Star break tonight/Thursday night.  So this survey is all-University of Minnesota.  I swear this must've happened before, but I don't remember when.

With that said, the story in Twin Cities sports should be the University of Minnesota women's basketball team.  As good as they've become in the past Month, I didn't give them any chance of upsetting tenth-ranked Ohio St. last/Wednesday night, even if it was at The Barn, even if the Golden Gophers finally got ranked at #23.  They trailed at Halftime by three.  But they blew the Game wide open in the Third Quarter, outscoring Ohio St. 27-13 on their way to a convincing 74-61 Win over the Buckeyes in the university's annual Pink Game, beating them for the first time since 2016 (a span of 14 Games).  It's their second victory over an AP Top 10 team this Year, matching their Win at then-tenth-ranked Iowa back on the 5th.

Last/Wednesday night capped off a 3-0 Week, started with wallopings of Nebraska at home and Wisconsin on the road.  And Minnesota is now on a nine-Game winning streak.  Forget my misgivings back around the New Year wondering if they'll miss The Big Dance again; not only are they in, they are rocketing up the bracketology projections.  In fact, they are now fighting for a Top-Four Seed and the right to host the first two Rounds of the NCAAs.  Wow, what a turnaround.  Is there any reason why these women shouldn't be in Positive Numbers, let alone topping the WMNSS, this Week?

And after three Games in seven Days, they can relax with only one Game this screening Week, even though it's a big one: At home to 18th-ranked Michigan St. early Sunday night.

#0: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -3).  Finished the regular season crushing Michigan St. Sunday afternoon at the Sports Pavilion, 37-6.  That rout is nice, but by itself that isn't zero-worthy.  Honestly, I put the grapplers here because 1) they are the only other team this Week to go undefeated and 2) I do not skip over numbers, and since the Gopher hooping women more than deserve Positive Numbers, I had to put some squad above negative numbers.  So -- ta-da!

Unless they pull off a miracle and win other the conference or NCAA Tournament, they're off the survey until March 26, where they will get eulogized (again) for the end of the season.

#-1: Gopher baseball (NEW SEASON!!).  The Big Ten Conference has become such a behemoth that I believe it's expected that all schools in the league will attend to growing and improving their baseball programs.  They're not on a league with the SEC or ACC.  In fact, I still think that the B1G is a mid-major when it comes to college baseball.  But the ambition is there, despite the drawbacks living in the northern part of the U. S. (besides the two Los Angeles colleges).

I don't know if that ambition is there in Dinkytown.  Minnesota lags in NIL compared to most BcS schools, and since this isn't football or men's basketball, so the Gopher Nine probably will still have trouble squaring up against UCLA, Indiana and Nebraska.

The season started off well, though.  They were in Deland, Fla., for a tournament that doesn't have a name -- but they won it!  They beat Stetson Friday, 11-5, then shut out St. John's Saturday morning, 8-0 -- impressive.  They followed that up with another 8-0 blanking Sunday morning, this time of Ball St.  But Florida Gulf Coast put an end to the Gophers' hot start, nipping them on Wednesday, 6-5, last/Wednesday night in Fort Myers.

Ft. Myers is where they will remain.  They have an Exhibition with the Twins (Ft. Myers is their Spring Training headquarters) Friday, then have a two-Game series there versus Northeastern.  They then begin a four-Game series vs. Kansas at U. S. Bank Stadium on Wednesday that will skip Thursday.  Weird.

#-2: Gopher softball (Last Week: -2).  You know, El Paso was kind of dingy and I got my parents' work truck stolen which made me so scared to move out of the house, but I still miss those days when I was down there for six months ... wow, a quarter-century ago.  Damn.  Anyway, they swept The Dr. Diana Natalicio Memorial Tournament (one Day only) in El Paso by beating Idaho St. and host Texas-El Paso Friday afternoon, then headed west on I-10 to reach Las Cruces, N. M., and participate in The Troy Cox Classic over the weekend.  They faced The Face Of Top-Flight College Softball, current-#4 Oklahoma Saturday morning ... and got Mercy-Ruled in five Innings, 12-2.  The Gophs rebounded in the afternoon to beat host New Mexico St., 11-4, but in the rematch late Sunday morning, the Aggies got them back, 5-3.

So a 3-2 screening Week.  But hey, they now get to travel home (er, it's at U. S. Bank Stadium) to host their own non-conference tournament, The Gopher Indoor Classic, this weekend.  They face Long Island, Iowa St., Central Michigan twice, and North Dakota St.  

#-3: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -4).  A twelve-Point defeat at Washington followed by a 17-Point victory at an Oregon team that's fallen on black days under Dana Altman.  And that, my friends, is all I have so say about this club.  Well, this Week they host Rutgers and visit current-#1 Michigan.

#-4: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -5).  A Shootout Win and a defeat at Notre Dame.  It's jarring to look at the NCAA Power Index (NPI), which has replaced the PairWise as the sole determinant in selecting the at-large field for the NCAA Tournament, and see that Minnesota is not only so low (as of press time they are 41st), but that St. Thomas, the other Twin Cities school playing top-flight college hockey, is not only higher but 13th, aka on the bubble.  When Tommies sports officially started top-flight play several Years ago, I mused how and even whether I would incorporate St. Thomas schools into the WMNSS.  I thought I promised then I would reach a decision by the time they were eligible for postseason play.  I have not, but that hockey team might force my hand in a Month.

Anyway, the Gophers ain't makin' it.  And they have a bye this weekend.

#-5: Gopher women's hockey (whoops I forgot).  I swear I looked up this team's results a Week ago while constructing last Week's Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey -- which consisted of a regulation Win over St. Thomas Friday afternoon at Anderson Arena and a Shootout Win over the Tommies at Ridder Saturday afternoon -- but I apparently did not put them in. Unfortunately, because of my oversight, I have to roll in this past Week's Games also, which are a pair of two-Goal Losses at second-ranked Ohio St., and I have decided the female icers bring up the rear.  As I have said about this program for upwards of a Decade now, the U. is chasing the Buckeyes and Wisconsin for women's top-flight college hockey supremacy, so only results against those two schools matter.  And they got swept.

They finish the regular season hosting Minnesota-Duluth for a two-Game series Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.

I am charging my cellphone for the second time today.  Maybe the second time I have ever done that.  I guess that's what I do when I have the day off and decide to spend the Chinese/Lunar New Year doing close to nothing important: I use my phone so much I have to charge it twice in a day.

Still, I am not liking the health of this battery.  It has plagued me since I got it that Easter, and even if I use it a lot, I still don't like it.  Not "get a new phone ASAP" hate it, but, well, kind of.

Got done with a Teams with two financial advisors for one of my investment portfolios.  I hope having this meeting on Chinese/Lunar New Year does not bring me bad luck.  I don't think it is.

It was kind of embarrassing to admit to these advisors that my investments with them are one of three I have total.  It's more embarrassing to confess that I haven't looked very close at any of them to see if they're making money the way I want them to.  But I should, so I will look at those other portfolios now ... if I remember how to login.

Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year!

It feels as if the older I get, the more I hew to Chinese/Lunar New Year superstitions, as cockamamie they may be.  As I have gathered on the Internet, these are things one is not supposed to do and the time periods in which you cannot do them:

• For the first three days of the Chinese/Lunar New Year: Do not sweep, clean the house, shower or wash your hair
• For the first five days of the Chinese/Lunar New Year: Do not clean the dishes or do the laundry
• For the first 15 days of the Chinese/Lunar New Year: Do not take your car in for maintenance and/or repairs or use sharp objects
• For the first 30 days of the Chinese/Lunar New Year: Do not go to the doctor or dentist

That all seems silly, I know.  But I cleaned out the garbage, did the dishes, showered and trimmed my nails before midnight.  I also avoided meat and instead ate Culver's two-piece walleye dinner, bones and all.  Then again, I just realized that I used a knife to slice open oranges so I could make myself a tequila sunrise that I am drinking right now.  Welp, I guess I just damned myself to a year of bad luck.  Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year!!!

Putting Two And Two Together

My hand is hurting again -- right hand, at the base, right on the thumb side.  I was wondering why I've been getting shooting pain there all night, and then I realized that I used a knife to eat an andouille sausage tonight/Sunday night.  I have the same damn pain after I cut open packages of piss at work.  So the muscles I use when I use a knife hurt whether I'm cutting open packages or cutting through a sausage.

Which means ... well, I shouldn't use a knife anymore.  Man, it hurts!

Thought I was going into work today.  There was a lot of work my bosses were anticipating for the weekend, and so on Friday they asked me to come in today.  But this morning I got a text from one of my bosses saying my services were no longer needed because they in fact finished.

I'm OK with that, but.  For one thing, I got the impression on Friday that there would be work today.  If that wasn't the case and there was a possibility I would not come in, I wish it would've been couched that way, something like, "I assume there will be work, but there won't, so if there isn't, we'll let you know."  Something like that, you know?

The other thing is, even though I put in overtime last week, I could've gotten a little more had I stayed late on Friday.  Even though my main responsibility that day was The Fourth Department, there was enough data entry work that afternoon that my boss told the people who work out there to stay, I think, an extra half-hour.  This may not be the policy, but I believe that means that I could stay an extra half-hour.  I actually could've stayed more than half an hour, come to think of it.  But I left after eight hours.  Why?  Well, all the work in The Fourth Department got done.  And ... I left.  I guess it didn't occur to me that I could've stayed at least an extra 30 minutes to key.  And I didn't have to get home to watch a sport on TV or anything, either.  Dang it, I now regret not staying later on Friday.

My All-Time Favorite Nourishes Me ... With Food!

Because it was Valentine's Day, I did what any romantic would do and visited my ATF at My Favorite Stripclub (Cover Division) to rain money on her.  I texted her if she was working last/Saturday night; after initially thinking she might not, earlier in the week she confirmed that she was.

In our text exchange, she asked me if I like chocolate.  I love chocolate!  And after she got back down from stage -- we saw each other, we got to do table dances, then she had to go onstage, but then we did more table dances once she was done with her set -- she gave me Ghirardelli chocolates that she bought.  Did she buy them for me?  Maybe, maybe not.  But I don't care -- she thought of me enough to buy me chocolates for Valentine's Day!

I don't think I blog posted about this: When I saw her last, about a month ago, she surprised me with cookies she apparently baked from home.  I was freaking the fuck out about this siege this fuckin' Republican government put on us, but I really wanted to see her now that my parents have gone.  She was trying to calm me down, and so I think she thought the way she could do that is to feed me.  And trust me, the cookies were delicious.  The flour she used was so fluffy, yet so buttery.  I ate them up at work.

I have a new appreciation for her.  It may not be a grand gesture, but making and buying food for a customer is a signal that she's feeding me, that she's looking out for me, and that, dare I say it, she cares about me.  I ... love that she did that for me.

I Want To Fight Over Pennies, But Can't

Yeah, I hear that the country would be saving money if we did away with the penny.  I still don't like the idea that we no longer have a denomination of "1," you know?  I think there has to be a currency that counts off one.  Because if now the smallest amount of coin is five, why do we have the number one itself?  (I may not make any sense, or cents, but it makes sense/cents to me.)  And I will do my goddamnedest not to agree with any fucking decision this installed government makes.

But these guys have ended minting the penny, and so stores are beginning to make decisions on what to do if change requires pennies.  Some stores I've been to are going to round the total of purchases I make down to the nearest nickel, which is nice.  But just now I went to the discount food store near me for some stuff, my change was supposed to be $X.XX.X1, and she gave me all the money I was owed except for one penny.  Don't know if she rounds, or is told to round, up to the nearest nickel or round to the nearest nickel, period.  But I'm still miffed.  And before, I swear I would've pitched a fit demanding my fucking penny.  But now, considering this death of the penny, I don't know if I can fight it.  Ah, well.  This is a discount food store; I think I'm getting stuff there for dirt cheap, so maybe the thinking is I shouldn't be fighting over a single penny.  Hrmph.

RIP, Fast Food Points

So once in a while I go through all my fast food apps, for which I have a lot.  I need to check on these from time to time.  Sometimes I do it just to look at any new foods or deals they may have.  Sometimes I do it as a way of climbing out of the rabbit hole I dive into while doomscrolling while not being able to pry my eyes away from my cellphone.  And sometimes I check the number of points I have on each application to make sure I haven't lost them.

A couple weeks ago (I think), I got an offer for free food from Chipotle.  Chipotle sends those offers from time to time.  This time around I got, I think, free guacamole.  I haven't had them in a while, so I ordered online and ate the quesadilla there; I went home to eat the chips and guac.  Later that night, I went to the Chipotle app to check that the points were there.  They were, but all the points I accumulated up to that point were gone.  At that point I had to look through all my other applications because I apparently didn't take that good of a look into them.  And I saw that I lost all my points at Popeyes, another fast food place I like.

Bummed, I am.  But I don't think there's anything I can do about them.  Obviously, if my parents scooted on out of here in the late summer/early fall like they usually do, I would have eaten at Chipotle and Popeyes before whatever six-month period or so that made my points expire, but they stuck around till after the New Year, and that is what probably killed off my points.

I have noted in the past (although I may not have discussed this on Wailing And Failing) that fast food chains have differing policies when it comes to when your points expire.  Some places say that you lose your points six months after you get those points.  Other places say that you lose all your points if there has been no activity (and that includes using points as well as accruing them) after a certain period.  I like the former scenario because if you do lapse, you only lose those points.  However, with the latter scenario, as long as you do something with that restaurant, you can keep points even if you earned them more than six months ago.  Of course, the best thing is for those points to never expire, but I don't think any of the applications I have are that generous.

While the permanent loss of what I spent so much to gain is awful, I have to admit there is a certain bit of ... freedom I feel.  Yes, circumstances forced me to fail, so to speak.  But that also means that I no longer feel obligated to go to Chipotle or Popeyes just to keep the points that I have ... er, had.  In fact, even though I like eating at both places, because I am back to zero with both of them, I don't know if I want to go back because I don't want to start getting points again with either place.  I've been scarred by how bad I feel losing them, you see.  Well, I did get points at Chipotle, but that was after I realized I lost all the points I gained before my order.  I might let those points die on the vine.

Maybe the lesson is, eat at every fast food restaurant you have an app for at least once every six months.

Venmo Trouble

So I sent ****e* her money not too long ago.  I usually pay her in cash, but since I wasn't planning on using any cash yesterday/Thursday, and since the money I took out Wednesday thinking I was going to spend it on some sexytime with a stripper (which fell through) I am going to use at My Favorite Stripclub (Cover Version) tomorrow/Saturday instead, I was going to pay her through the "fake money" of Venmo.

I actually left last/Thursday night to attend a concert while ****e* was still working on my house.  She was gone by the time I came back, and, like she said before I left, she would request I pay her through Venmo.  I think there was a bit of a miscommunication; I asked for her username, but she thought I could just pay through the app, and I told her I never put money apps on my phone because someone might get in there and steal all my money.  I was able to find her username after I clicked on her request, so all is right with the world.

I have used Venmo a lot, so much so that I need to replenish it more often than I want to.  So after paying off ****e*, I tried to transfer money from my bank to my Venmo.  But I can't.  First, I tried to find the page where I can do the transfer, but there wasn't one.  I swear I've done it before, but I don't know where the hell the page is.  I look up instructions on Google, but first I only saw ways to add money through the app, and then I was told that I had to go to the "Me" tab, but there isn't one.

Finally, I stumbled on a Business Insider article that tells you how to do it.  I saw a URL.  I cut-and-pasted it, and that's when I finally saw the (unfamiliar) page whereby I can send money from my bank into my Venmo.  But then I tried it, several times, but I got an error message.  So I logged out.

Like I said, I haven't quite encountered the trouble putting money into my Venmo like I did last/Thursday night, but I have encountered the occasional trouble from this stupid application.  That thing is difficult to use, yet everyone swears by it.  I don't get it.

Just A Surveyor? Can't Be Too Careful These Days ... Maybe?

I am taking today/Thursday off.  I was intending to sleep in before ****e* comes over in the afternoon.  But around 10:30 I was woken up by a doorbell.

At first I thought it was someone selling roof repair or garbage services or something, so naturally, I waited him out.  But he rang again, and again, and then he knocked on the door.  That got me scared.  Are they coming to take me away, a-ha?

I finally got up and looked out my bathroom window.  I see a white truck with "USIC" across the street.  I got my phone, got ready to throw a punch if needed, then walked down to my front door ... but I didn't open it.

Through the door I asked him what he wanted.  This big guy in a highlighted vest asked to get access to the gas meter so he can mark the gas lines underneath the front yard in order to remove the tree stump there.  The tree was removed Christmas Week and when I came home to see it gone, it shocked the hell out of me.  But I thought the stump was going to stay.  I guess it's not ... but on whose say-so?

When I opened the front door I saw a second truck, one with the decal of the city on its driver's-side door.  Call me a fool, but I figured that these guys were legitimate, so I opened the side door that led to the gas meter so that this guy could attach his, um, meter thingy.  And then this same guy and this other guy driving the city truck could take these huge wands on their left hands, swing them around while walking all over the snowy front yard, and mark where the gas lines are with these huge wands on their right hands that sprayed paint.  The guy with the city left shortly thereafter.  The guy who hooked up his machine to the gas meter unplugged that meter, dumped his stuff in his car, came back out with flags, fired these flags into the ground like he was playing lawn darts, and then left.

OK.  So I assume that if these guys were kidnappers, they wouldn't go out of their way to dress as city surveyors and buy all this equipment.  It looked as though they knew what they were doing.  With that said, and with urging by ****e*, who got here this afternoon, I left a message with the city asking if they know this is going on.

It's no big deal.  Right?

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#0: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -2).  OK, what this team is doing is really good.  I gave this squad no chance to go into Iowa City and defeat the then-tenth-ranked Hawkeyes, but Thursday evening they shot an all-time best 71.4% (ten-of-14) for Three-Point range and rode hot shooting in the middle two Quarters and held them off, 91-85.  (Both the Gopher men's and women's b-ball teams notched upsets of the then-tenth-ranked teams in the country on back-to-back Days.)  It was the first time Iowa lost at Carver-Hawkeye Arena this Year.  It was the Gophers' first Win over a club ranked in the Top 10 since 2018.  It was the first time they beat the Hawkeyes on the road since 2007.  And it was the first time the U. beat a Top 10 opponent on their home floor since 2003.

And they suffered no let-down (not like the Gopher wrestling and men's basketball and men's hockey teams did, see below), comfortably beating Rutgers in Piscataway, 63-52.  That gives Minnesota a six-Game winning streak and some notoriety as a tough out.  I've said it before but I'll say it again -- these ladies are going to the NCAA Tournament, y'all.  That's why I have put these ballers above negative numbers.  I can't put the team in Positive Numbers, however, because the rest of the local outfits did not have good Weeks.

A busy Week ahead for this club, though: Home to Nebraska tonight/Thursday night, at Wisconsin early Sunday evening, then a home tussle versus eighth-ranked Ohio St. at The Barn Wednesday.

#-1: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3).  Was finally able to take up my friend on his offer and went to a Timberwolves Game for the first time this season on Monday.  The Woofs were fresh off two awful home Losses, a squeaker to The Bastard Charlotte Hornets and a blowout defeat to The Bastard Buffalo Braves/San Diego Clippers.  What I saw is the Timberwolves team fans now expect, a sure-shooting, ball-hawking, smart-playing group that overwhelms inferior foes like The Bastard St. Louis Hawks.  Unfortunately, I saw several instances when the players were indifferent when it came to playing Defense.  But Julius Randle notched a Triple-Double, Jaden McDaniels was engaged in the affair and made two thrillingly nasty dunks (that young man has hops), and Minnesota won going away, 138-116.

They followed up that get-right Win with another 133-109 wipeout of Portland at Target Center last/Wednesday night, their final Match before this weekend's All-Star Break (which Anthony Edwards is participating in as a member of one of two Teams USA).  And for all their stumbles, they should be worse than fifth place in the West, which is where they sit for now.  It may be dumb luck, but it appears as if the universe is giving this team every reason to get their shit together.  Will they, or will they remain a confounding mystery?

#-2: Gopher softball (NEW SEASON!!).  And this new season has already started with a thud, as the softballers leave the SDSU Season Kickoff in San Diego over the weekend 1-4, their lone victory an 8-0 shellacking of Loyola-Chicago Saturday afternoon.  They got Mercy-Ruled by Kentucky 8-0 in five Innings Sunday afternoon.  And they got lost two Games to, of all schools, Miami of Ohio.  Women's sports is big in Minnesota, but this program simply hasn't been pulling its weight for the last decade.

This team is going to the El Paso-Las Cruces area this weekend, a place I remember fondly from my time working as an intern there.  Oddly enough, it appears as though they are playing two tournaments: The Dr. Diana Natalicio (who?) Memorial Tournament in El Paso just on Friday, when they play Idaho St. at noon and then hosts Texas-El Paso at 3; then The Troy Cox (who?) Classic in Las Cruces, when they play fourth--ranked Oklahoma late Saturday morning and then hosts New Mexico St. late Saturday afternoon and late Sunday morning.

#-3: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: 0).  I feel as though this screening Week is the opposite of last Week's Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey.  Last Week, all the teams won at least one Game, and several teams had a legitimate case to be on top.  This Week, several local teams fell on their faces and would have been at the foot of the table if it were most other screening Weeks.

Case in point are the Gopher grapplers.  They burned through all the currency they accrued after their awesome upset Win over then-fourth-ranked Iowa (at Iowa City, no less) by going to Rutgers Friday night and getting upset by the then-15th-ranked Scarlet Knights, 23-15.  Like the Win over Iowa, the Dual turned on the Matches at 149 and 157 lbs.  Drew Roberts and Charlie Millard, both of whom notched the upsets that made the team victory possible on January 30, had the tables turned on them and got upset themselves, Roberts (ranked #17 at 149) to 29th-ranked Andrew Clark, 5-1, and Millard (ranked #19 at 157) to also 29th-ranked Anthony White, 4-1 in Sudden Victory.  If those two Matches went according to seed, the U. ekes out a team Win.

The squad rebounded by pounding Maryland on the road Sunday afternoon, 37-6, but the reputational damage has been done.  They finish the regular season hosting Michigan St. Sunday afternoon.

#-4: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -4).  And fresh off their thrilling upset of then-tenth-ranked Michigan St., this Gophers club proceeded to piss away all their goodwill by allowing Maryland to score the final seven Points in the final 53 Seconds of their Game to go from a two-Point lead to a five-Point margin of defeat Sunday afternoon at Williams Arena.  Yeah, it's still Niko Medved's first season, but that chokejob is fucking inexcusable.  They play at the PNW schools Saturday (Washington) and Tuesday (Oregon).

#-5: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -1).  And fresh off their home sweep of then-eighth-or-seventh-ranked Wisconsin at Mariucci, then hosted unranked Ohio St. and completely capitulated to the Buckeyes, losing Friday 6-2 (ugh) and Saturday 2-1.  Young team that can't regulate their highs, I guess.  At Notre Dame Friday and Saturday.

So late last/Tuesday night I went out to dump pizza boxes somewhere.  We stopped trash service, so I have to find public places to throw my trash away.

I used the minivan to drive because it needed to be turned on.  But I saw that it was cold enough for frost to build up on the windshield, so I had to get out and use the ice scraper.  Maybe that's a blessing in disguise, I thought, because that would give an extra minute for the engine to warm up, and since it'll be a short ride to find a garbage can big enough to dump two pizza boxes (at least I hoped, but I found a spot close by), the minivan should be as hot as can be.

I moved from scraping the driver's side of the windshield to the passenger's side.  When I got done, I noticed that smoke was billowing out of the tailpipe.  That makes sense to me; the temperature is hovering around freezing and the car hasn't been turned on in a few days, so dark smoke coming out of the tailpipe isn't anything to freak out over.

But then I noticed that similar exhaust was coming out of the passenger side of the van.  Like underneath, like there's a hole in the muffler.  Holy shit, I've never seen that before.  And dammit, I got freaked out that the minivan, for some reason, wasn't going to make even the short ride to a garbage can and back.

I made it just fine, but now I have to look if there's a hole in the muffler, which is the simplest explanation for what I saw.  Regardless of what's going on, I feel the urgent need to fix it.  And I have no friggin' clue how much the repair will set me back, let alone what needs fixing.  But seeing exhaust smoke come out of the side of the minivan -- yeah, something's wrong.

Two Changes Of Plans

So I was plotting out which days I would eat out and which I would stay in and eat leftovers.  Specifically, because I wanted to finally pay for limes and lemons for the cocktails I am going to make this weekend, and since they're discounted on Tuesdays, I would eat out today/Tuesday and, to make up for it, eat in tomorrow/Wednesday.

But those plans blew up.  While at work, I got this text from ****e saying that she and ***i* are having a party tomorrow/Wednesday.  Then, she texted ominously, "Last chance."  Last chance for what?  Will I not be invited anymore if I don't come?  Are they hanging up the wanking lifestyle?  Is one of the two women going to die soon?  I don't know what she meant by that, but it has been a long, long time since I got serviced by either babe, so I decided I am going to this house party on tomorrow/Wednesday.  And since I'm spending money then, I might as well eat out then, too.

Then, I got another text, this time from my aunt.  She wanted to know when I was going to be home because she made food for me.  Then I remembered that around the Chinese/Lunar New Year, she has always come over to give me food she made for the holiday.  Very sweet of her, and it allows me to eat in several days over the next week.  And it would make sense, then, that one of those days would be today/Tuesday.  It's a lot of food, and I should get on it in an effort to eat it all before it goes bad.  And yes, this blows up my idea of getting citrus for my cocktails, but hey, I can make cocktails without lemon or lime juice, and besides, there's a good chance I will be out both days this weekend.

So, to sum up, I went from eating out tonight/Tuesday night to staying in, and I went from staying in tomorrow/Wednesday night to eating out.  And for once, these changes aren't frustrating to me.  It just necessitates a change of plans -- two changes of plans, in fact.

Hottest Babe In The Hooters Calendar: January 2026

Almost the first full month where I have the Hooters calendar back up on my wall so I can see it every day.  So I think I can say with some authority that ... this may be one of the worst months I have ever seen.  Again, I'm not saying that all the servers for this month or ghastly to look at.  But I can only pick out two of the dozen women here for special recognition, and frankly, the babe in second I am pointing out based on a guess.  The other pictures don't do anything for me, sorry to say.

The waitress in second place is Madison, from Weston, Fla.  Wavy dark blonde hair that ends at the bottom of her chest.  Her attire makes her look like a company girl.  She has orange bikini bottoms and is wearing a black Hooters crop top. It's the kind I used to see on Hooters women way back in the day, where it cuts off high on the waist so it shows off the Hooters girl's midriff.  That would be sexy as fuck to see in the restaurant, but for swimwear it looks a bit overdressed.  I am taking it on faith, however, that she is not wearing anything underneath the crop, which kind of makes up for size of the top.

And in first place is Emily, of Hampton, Va.  Wavyer dark blonde hair that reaches belly height, she is wearing a black-and-yellow two-piece.  Posing almost fully at the camera, she places her left hand against a stood-up surfboard while her right hand pulls up on her bikini bottom.  She's got a nice body, and I love her wide smile.  She's fucking gorgeous.

And, that's it.  So congratulations to Emily for winning.  And no worries -- I have already masturbated to these two!

Super-Specific Predictions For Super Bowl LX

I am having a hard time really digging into this Game.  I think it's a product of not devoting enough time to it, but I can also see an array of outcomes, from a Seattle Seahawks blowout to a New England Patriots Win at the buzzer.  And I guess it's a testament to how good this contest could be ... or, could not.

I believe the consensus (and I think there's a consensus) that this will be a low-scoring affair.  The Seahawks' Defense is elite, probably an all-time unit, while the Patriots apparently are rounding into form.  New England, according to writers breaking this team down, are rounding into form on Offense as well, but I still am skeptical because of two reasons: Drake Maye is in just his second Year as a pro, and the left side of the Pats' Offensive Line (in particular Left Tackle Will Campbell) appears to be the biggest liability of any unit or sub-unit in the Super Bowl.  (I still believe that New England's easy schedule in the Regular Season is indicative that they've been lucky to get this far, but analytics people, using recency bias, shows that they have played well in the playoffs, where obviously the teams are all good, so maybe I should drop that).

And yet, and this might be my Vikings fandom talking, I don't know if Sam Darnold is going to have a good game.  The interior of the Seahawks' Offensive Line is somewhat suspect as well (in particular Right Guard Anthony Bradford), and the Patriots probably will find a way to exploit that and make Darnold look vulnerable.  Finally, New England Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels is a mastermind, and given two Weeks to engineer a game plan, I have to believe he's going to get his Offense going and scoring.  How much?  I don't know.

With all that being said, I have super-specific predictions I am obligated to give:

1) Darnold won't have a good Game.  He'll throw for, oh, 225 Yards, even though he will score two Touchdowns -- one to Jaxson Smith-Njigba, one to ... you know, I'm going to pass up first-string Tight End A. J. Barner and say that backup TE Elijah Arroyo receives the other TD.

2) I am not sure if Seattle will rely on its run Game, even though the Offense is predicated on it.  The injury to Zach Charbonnet might drag down the Seahawks' Offense.  Still, I think Seattle will rush for 75 Yards.

3) As much as I think the Patriots will try and double him, I think Jaxson Smith-Njigba has a productive night.  He'll catch for over 100 Yards and get that Touchdown, and those statistics will pop in what I think will be a cagey affair.

4) Over on the other side, I raise one final wrinkle that makes me lean in one direction: Drake Maye is working with a hurt throwing shoulder.  He's off the injury report for Super Bowl LX, but I still think it's going to be an issue.  He'll throw an Interception.  He will also throw for 250 Yards and throw for one Touchdown.

5) I also think New England relies on its running Game.  The Seahawks "Dark Side" Defense has been so good because they have been able to rush the Quarterback without committing more than four players, thus giving them plenty of tacklers in the back in case an offensive player gets loose.  To counter that, and to give Maye time to grow into the Game, McDaniels will have the Patriots running the ball.  And I think they'll have some success: 100 Yards and a Touchdown by TreVeyon Henderson.

6) This will be a tight affair.  In fact, it could be a slog, especially in the First Half.  Both Offenses have feasted on the big play, and so both Ds will do their damndest to prevent that from happening.  Expect a lot of runs and checkdowns, on both sides.  And still, most likely when it comes to third-and-longs, both Defenses will get to both Darnold and Maye.  I expect, in total, ten Sacks.

7) I also expect that because of fatigue and the desperation to win the Game, things will open up.  There will be way more Yards gained in the Second Half than in the First.  Logic dictates that there will be more Points scored after Halftime, too.  But what I will say the pivot point of the Super Bowl is an Interception thrown by ... Drake Maye, and it'll be returned all the way for a Touchdown.  That will happen at some point in the Second Half.

That's all I got.  I was hoping to read more breakdowns of the Super Bowl, and I really want to be an aficionado, but I couldn't get through Bill Barnwell's behemoth on ESPN.com, and I stopped halfway through.  Like I said, I'm busy.  But if you have time, read it.  The Xs and Os are wonderful.

But, with the information I can process now, my prediction for Super Bowl LX is: Seattle 24, New England 19.  If I were a betting man, I would wager on the Under of 45 1/2.  (I have seen Seattle -4 1/2 pretty much since both teams won their Championship Games.)  Smith-Njigba wins MVP.  And the football team of a city I really like gets its second football title.

Those Motherfuckers

Today I woke up around 11:30.  I think my body told me I only needed six hours of sleep.  But, I think I was trying to loll around my bed to get more shuteye anyway.

I couldn't.  I was woken up by a car horn being honked incessantly.  I think they say that when you hear a horn getting honked repeatedly, that means that those people are not only around, but they're about to take someone.

Those sons-of-bitches are still here, goddammit, and they might finally be reaching our street.

---

Not too long ago, my phone blew up.  Emergency text.  Some kid is missing.  But this is no Amber Alert, at least I don't think.  The missing child is a Latino boy.

I saw on the tracker website that an observer saw activity at an address close to the one given on the alert.  Poor boy made a run for it, I reckon.  I don't know how he's going to survive because this is the one cold night we'll have for at least the next couple weeks.  But if there are gods, let him run free.

Bored Me Napping, Then Shopping For Big-Ticket Items

Braced myself for another long day at work yesterday/Friday ... but it wasn't; it was actually tame, and very tame compared to Thursday ... and yet I have to brace myself for today/Saturday, because my bosses said that today/Saturday could bring in a bunch of work which I don't understand why it couldn't have come yesterday/Friday, and so I'm coming in to work as soon as I wake up.

So my plan of staying in today/Saturday has blown up, but hey, I am getting beaucoup overtime this week, so I'm not too upset.  Still, I wondered what I would do once I got home (on-time, which I did not expect) yesterday/Friday.  I thought I would be awake enough to start on the leftover pizza that I had decided I would eat, but the setting sun convinced me to take a nap first.  If I wasn't tired, I'd pop up early, and work on the pizza before the sports Games I wanted to watch would start at 7.

I crawled into bed before 6.  I woke up a couple minutes past 9.  Didn't expect to do that.  I thought I didn't have time to eat pizza and should pivot to spaghetti, which I planned to eat today/Saturday, but I am getting Pizza Hut to watch for the Super Bowl, so I went through with the pizza.

Yeah, nothing exciting.  So, in my bored state, I was reading up on the latest on how these assholes continue to plague and besiege our state.  One person believes that the announcement earlier this week that they're withdrawing troops was just a way to get people in the state and the national news media off their backs.  Then, the next step is for the remaining pricks to go hard not necessarily after non-Whites but observers that have made their loud objections to what is going on here a state-wide issue.  Intriguing, and I can see that that works, and is working now.

And then I clicked on a link recommending the best gas masks to buy.  If I have to physically commit to this struggle, I'll probably get tear-gassed, so I might as well prepare, right?  I looked through not one but two websites dedicated to the best gas masks, and me being a thoroughly-researching consumer, I think I settled upon one.  And, to make things even more tantalizing, the gas mask is on sale.  (I'm not going to link the websites that reviewed the masks or the company that sells the one that appears to be the top-rated one, just in case they're snooping around here.)  I think maybe I'm sounding too paranoid, but dammit, the thing's on sale.  I'll wait till tomorrow/Sunday; if I remember, and if it's still on sale then, I think I'll buy one.

What I did pull the trigger on is a new robe.  After seeing the two website review gas masks, I went to the website that does nothing but review consumer products (to think gas masks are a consumer product -- what a world we live in), The Wirecutter.  And bored me went down another rabbit hole, to their review of robes.  Now, I have thought about buying a robe for the past, oh, few years.  On the one hand I didn't think I needed one; either I would wrap myself in a towel and just hang out on my bed in the nude, or, if I'm alone in the house, I'd just waltz around naked.  But there is a limbo state where you are not totally dry but still want to putz around in the house without your man bits hanging out -- well, unless you want to open up your robe to thrust out your dick.  I'd reserve that occasion when I want to surprise one of my stripper girlfriends.

Anyway, the main obstacle to buying a robe, believe it or not, is price.  The ones The Wirecutter recommends are routinely in the triple digits.  One hundred dollars for a damn robe?!  I may have seen one for $90, but even that's expensive.  However, when I am bored, I am weak.  And thus I was ripe for the picking when I saw one of the recommended robes being sold for about 30% off if I use a promo code tied in with the website.  At $65 ... well, it's still expensive, but it'll be as cheap as these robes will ever get.  Also, I didn't plan on spending any money tonight, but the company said I could pay through PayPal, and my stupid brain has convinced myself into thinking that is not real money, so I bought it under the illusion that I haven't really paid anything today.

So I threw my sleep pattern off last night, I bought a robe, and tomorrow/Sunday I think I'll be buying a gas mask.  This is what bored me does.  Now, off to bed.

First really bad day in The Fourth Department in a long, long while.  I don't quite know what happened.  We may or may not be backed up at work, but I thought that because Wednesday was bad, yesterday/Thursday would be better.  It was not; it was way worse.  I had double the forms I had to deal with, and I was beset as soon as the day started.

I spent eleven hours at work, and I still didn't complete all the work I wanted to.  But I had to call it quits at some point, plus I planned on picking up Jimmy John's on my way home to watch NFL Honors, and I already set up a pick-up time.  I'm just glad I got home to watch the whole awards show which, to be honest, was kind of shambolic.

You know, I had arranged a wank sesh with *****y last/Thursday night.  Work would have prevented me from getting back home in time to see her.  But like she has done on occasion, she asked for a delay.  She seems to have somewhat outlandish reasons to postpone, and this time around she said her son got rear-ended in his car.  Sure, whatever.  But I'm actually glad we didn't have any sexytime because then I could stay and work.  If I didn't stay late, I'd have to do it all in the morning, and who knows what other work would come today/Friday for which I too would have to stay late for.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

Positive Numbers: Wild (Last Week: -3).  This has been as great a sporting Week for local sports in a long, long time, and maybe ever.  It's a shame any team has to bring up the rear in this Week's survey.  And it's incredibly difficult to decide who should lead the WMNSS because, seriously, the top three and even four squads have had screening Weeks that deserve Positive Numbers, let alone the top spot.

I decided that the Wild gets to be on top because of quantity and where this run puts them.  The club ran the table this Week, winning all four of their Games.  Yes, their last two went to Overtime, but they have an overall winning streak of five Games, they are keeping ahead of The Bastard North Stars for second place in the Central, and even though The Bastard Quebec Nordiques have the most Points in the National Hockey League, as of press time, Minnesota has the second-most, and they are only five Points behind Colorado.  It's kind of a shame, in fact, that they have to sit for the next three Weeks due to the Olympic break.  And remember that the Wild have eight players playing in Milan-Cortina, four for Sweden (most notably Joel Eriksson Ek), three for the U. S. (most notably Matt Boldy, who had a Hat Trick in last/Wednesday's OT Win in Nashville ... in The First Period), and Nico Sturm for Germany.  The Wild's fortunes could change if one of two of these guys come back injured.

By the way, the squad's first two Games coming back from the break are at The Bastard Quebec Nordiques and at The Bastard Winnipeg Jets-by-way-of-Phoenix Coyotes.  No easing back into the resumption of their schedule.

#0: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -5).  Again, the Wild winning five in a row and being the second-best team in the NHL were the deciding factors for the local hockey team taking the top spot.  But (and this will sound quite hokey) I am very, very proud of what the then-seventh-ranked Gopher wrestling team did Friday: Go to Iowa and upset their historic rivals, the then-fourth-ranked Hawkeyes, 21-16.  It was the first time the U. has beaten Iowa in twelve Matches, and it's also the first time the Gopher grapplers have beaten them in Iowa City since 2014.

This was a haymaker of a Dual.  Six of the ten Matches were not Decisions, meaning the winner got more than three Points for their school.  The deciding factors came at 149 lbs., where 24th-ranked Drew Roberts upset the Hawkeye's Ryder Block, who was ranked 16th at that weight, 4-2, and then at 157, where Minnesota's Charlie Millard, ranked 21st, pulled off a Major Decision on #12 Jordan Williams, 13-3.  That gave the Gophers seven Points when they should not have expected any.  Truly, this is the first positive unexpected result I have seen from these young men since Brandon Eggum became Head Coach.

Yes, the upset Loss at home to South Dakota St. still stings.  But that was before Thanksgiving.  Is this a sign that these players are rounding into form in time for the NCAAs?  Road tests against the East Coast colleges (#15 Rutgers Friday, Maryland Sunday afternoon) should serve as a good barometer.

#-1: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -7).  The results don't matter since the U. is still buried in the thirties in the NPI (in case you don't know, the PairWise is dead starting this season, long live the PairWise, replaced by the NCAA Percentage Index, or NPI).  But in a long and humbling Year as this, and especially in a gauntlet where the Golden Gophers were playing ranked Big Ten team after ranked Big Ten team, they finally stood up over the weekend and said, "We don't plan on you doing that to us."  "You" being then-seventh-or-eighth-ranked Wisconsin, whom Minnesota swept mercilessly at Mariucci, 4-1 Friday and, egad, 8-4 on Saturday.  Rivalry juices may have been flowing, but otherwise I cannot explain how in the hell did this young and inexperienced team just rise up and flog the ever-loving shit out of the Badgers.  It's great, but it's also inexplicable as all get-out.

And the gauntlet of playing eight Games against four conference teams ranked in the Top 10 is now over.  They host Ohio St. for a pair this weekend.

#-2: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -1).  I can't see how this club doesn't make The Big Dance.  They walloped a team that they should beat, Purdue, by 33 at Williams Sunday afternoon.  That's four in a row, and the last three were won by more than 20 Points.

Thursday's tilt at tenth-ranked Iowa might be a tall order.  Early Sunday afternoon's contest at Rutgers should not be.

#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -4).  Sometimes I don't get this team.  They went 3-1 this Week, but their lone Loss, a 137-128 defeat at Memphis on Monday that was the second of a two-Game series, happened because they came out flat and never got up off the mat.  Yet on the bright side: They throttled The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies by 17 Saturday; they defeated The Bastard Seattle SuperSonics, 123-111, beating the defending champs for the second time this season; and last/Wednesday night, they came back from a ten-Point deficit to begin the Fourth Quarter to defeat the Raptors in Toronto for the first time in 2004.

That is a lot of notable victories.  And whaddaya know, Minnesota is currently fifth in The Western Conference, only a half-Game ahead of seventh, but only a Game behind third.  They continue to give diehard pessimists like me reason to doubt they can get back to The Western Conference Finals for the third Year in a row, yet they are capable of momentous Wins and pulling a championship run.

Well, maybe a championship run.  Rumor has it that Tim Connelly, Basketball Operations President for the Wolves, is burning up the phone lines trying to land a big fish -- namely Giannis Antetokounmpo, the superstar who got The Milwaukee Bucks an NBA Championship but appears resigned to leaving the team that drafted him.  The T-Wolves dealt away Mike Conley, Jr., who once was the man who filled a weakness the team has to fill, Point Guard, which Conley could no longer fill because he's old and decrepit, so the club could get the cap space to possibly trade for Antetokounmpo so he could fill another weakness the team has to fill, scoring.  (By the way, Conley was traded to Chicago, who then traded him to Charlotte, and the Hornets appear willing to buy him out.  I don't get the rule, but since he got traded twice within a certain period, Conley could come back to Minnesota on a veteran's minimum contract.)  Unfortunately, the Bucks appear to be playing hardball.  They want draft picks, which the Timberwolves don't have, and it seems like they also want Jaden McDaniels, who may finally be rounding into form as the two-way monster the Wolves always imagined he would be.  Will the franchise push in all their chips to grab the brass ring this year?  If so, will it backfire on them?

One final Week before the All-Star break.  The Wolves face The Bastard Charlotte Hornets, The Bastard Buffalo Braves, The Bastard St. Louis Hawks, and Portland.  Fortunately, they face all four opponents at Target Center.

#-4: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -6).  Kayden Mingo's spin-around, underhanded Lay-Up with one Second left in the Game broke a Tie and broke the Gophers' hearts as Penn St. won Sunday afternoon, 77-75.  Hey, what can you do?  Well, instead of writing themselves off in the face of tenth-ranked Michigan St., they came home to The Barn, took control early, and staved off one final Spartans run to notch a shock upset last/Wednesday night, 76-73!  This Win ultimately won't matter, but it's a nice feather in the cap, and I also think it's a sign that Niko Medved can coach.

Only one Game this screening Week: At home, vs. Maryland, Super Bowl Sunday afternoon.  This is a winnable Game.

#-5: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2).  And I feel bad because in some Weeks, getting a split versus a national blueblood is enough to put a team in the top spot of a Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey.  This is definitely not one of those Weeks, however.  And so I had to get picky about results.  Yes, the Gophers beat the top-ranked team in the country, Wisconsin, on Friday, but it was in Overtime, 3-2.  The Badgers came back the next afternoon and crushed the U. by a score of 6-1.  Compared to every other team in the Twin Cities who played, and the female icers had the least-impressive screening Week.  But beating the #1 is still a hell of an accomplishment.

And the Gophers are third in the country, behind Wisconsin (still #1) and Ohio St., of course.  This Week they do a second home-and-home with St. Thomas.  And like with the previous home-and-home in early December, they are playing Friday afternoon (there) and Saturday afternoon (here).

Well, Thanks For Telling Me, Amazon!

No joke, I spent a lot of the last 24 hours thinking about what I would do after work last/Tuesday night.  Combining my principles (or OCD) of trying to use only cash or credit cards a day and not making four trips in my car a day (three is fine, five is fine, four is not because four is an unlucky number), I was figuring out whether I should immediately drive home after work or go out and get groceries.

Beyond the OCD principles above, the thing that factored into my decision was that the measuring cup I bought that I was going to use as my jigger for cocktails.  Amazon said it'd arrive Monday, but it didn't.  If it had, I would have gone grocery shopping yesterday/Tuesday at the discount food store close by to pick up a lemon and a lime.  I would only go there yesterday/Tuesday because on Tuesdays everything is an extra 10% off.  And since I would have gone there, I would have gone to the ATM to pick up cash, probably get gasoline for my car, maybe get some fast food to eat both last/Tuesday night and a future day, and, oh yeah, buy more cocktail items like ginger ale and ginger beer.

But yet, I got to thinking at work.  Why buy a lemon and lime if I don't have the measuring cup?  What I do is slice one of them in half and squeeze them into the cup.  That does two things.  One, I can see how much juice I squeeze, and that dictates which cocktail I would make for myself.  Two, I hear that you leave out lemon and lime juice sitting out because it tastes better about four to ten hours after you squeeze it.  It's a waste buying them without getting the jigger first, especially since this is (I think) the second time Amazon moved the delivery date of the cup.  Amazon said that instead of Monday, it would arrive Friday, and in fact, if it didn't arrive on Friday, I could ask for a refund.

So why am I doing all this stuff yesterday/Tuesday?  I could do it, say, today/Wednesday.  I get out of work early because I'm cutting.  For fast food, I could go to the last Godfather's Pizza in the state, which is going to close on Saturday.  Assuming I leave early enough (and that may be in jeopardy because we have been asked to work overtime because the shipments are still playing catch-up), traffic both on the road and at the restaurant will be easier to deal with.  Meanwhile, I took out a rack of leftover ribs from the freezer to the refrigerator on Sunday.  I see on the Internet that leftovers in the fridge are good for about four days before they should be thrown away.  Why chance it and just eat the ribs yesterday/Tuesday when, by the way, I can watch an NBA Game on NBC?

So just going home it is!  And then, once I get home, I check the mailbox and see a package.  I was able to push my thumb into its middle, so it was the measuring cup.  It was supposed to come last week, then Monday, then Friday, and then for some dumb reason it came yesterday/Tuesday.  I thought I should check Amazon before I started my car at work, just in case, but I still blame Amazon for not getting the precise delivery date right.

But I stuck to my guns and went inside to eat ribs and watch basketball.  My plan on doing everything I thought I would do yesterday/Tuesday today/Wednesday after work is still mostly intact.  Well, besides getting the lemon and the lime, since it's not Tuesday anymore.  And I guess I can make do with the alcohol I have now, so the ginger beer and ale can wait.  I just hope nothing goes wrong, like me falling asleep at the wheel or getting detained on my way home.

Doesn't Take Much For My Fucking Mother To Push My Buttons

I needed to talk to her last/Monday night about bills that came in.  I thought everything was done.  But she called back.  First of all, she called back during the weather forecast I wanted to watch, so that perturbed me.  Second of all, she worried about some stupid detail that she told me to take care of, namely writing checks instead of going online and paying herself.  And finally, she insulted me by explaining something to me that I already know and was also not what I was talking about.  That is probably due to the language barrier, but also because this happens all the time, I naturally get defensive about her condescension.

And I was being a good boy food-wise up till then.  I didn't drink any coffee at work; instead, I had a hot cocoa (given to me by my former supervisor two or three years ago) in the morning and tea in the afternoon.  After shoveling the driveway, I went out to use a gift card at a really nice brewery for chicken wings and two 5-ounce glass of different beers (plus a half-filled 5-ounce glass for free ... er, double free!!)  I thought I controlled my eating yesterday/Monday.  And then My Fucking Mother talks down to me and I'm wolfing down Dot's BBQ pretzel sticks to fill the hole she punched into my gut, and I feel all fat again.  Goddamn her.

She wants me to write and send out the checks in the morning.  I'll do it later tonight instead.  Because she can fuck all the way off.

The Downside To Having A Neighbor Who's Looking Out For You

As I have told all of you, my sister's childhood best friend lives a couple houses down from me/us with her wife and their baby.  We text from time to time, but we have been in touch more since her mom passed in December.  I wanted to give her me and my family's sympathies, and then I wished her Happy Holidays, and then this fucking occupation from our goddamn Republican government began, and that is when I really started to text/bug her about sightings and, if need be, having each other's backs if the shit hits the fan.

She has a background in security, plus she has always been observant, so in the days when I got really scared about them patrolling our neighborhood and even our street, I felt, and feel, good that she will at the very least let me know if she sees something scary.  I have not been one to reach out and be friendly to neighbors, but if and when the time comes to band together, that is when it's beneficial, if not vital, to know who the people who live next and close to you are.

With all that said ... a man has needs, and for the first time since my parents finally skedaddled, I asked one of my stripper girlfriends, ******e, to come over and play with me.  She was late, of course, and this was when I came home from downtown watching the EPL after waking up early enough to see some soccer.  My body, with the help of the Bloody Mary I had, told me to rest while I waited for her.

I woke up to both a knock on the door and a buzz from my phone.  Naturally, I checked my phone first.  There was a text -- not from ******e, whom I asked to let me know when she was close, but from my sister's best friend.  She said she saw a car pull up to the driveway, and did I expect it.  And this is what I feared: Her doing the neighborly thing all too well.

I have, or had, kept to myself because I didn't want anybody peeping on my business, especially my illicit one.  And yes, I have known her for a long, long time, so it's possible that she has seen cars come up to my house before.  But I haven't asked her to watch over me in case people are taking me away until now.  And now I know for sure that she has been looking.

So I race down the door to open it and invite ******e in.  That's when I had to think of a reply, so I just said, "Yeah, I was expecting company," and then for some goddamn reason I went, "Don't tell anyone!"  Great, now I have given her reason to think I am doing something my parents don't know I'm doing.

Look, I don't think she'd tell my folks.  After all, my parents refused to attend her mother's funeral, even though they were home and the service was virtually down the street.  My folks made her mom egg rolls, and she loved them.  That's a connection that should be celebrated, or at least memorialized, as she was laid to rest.  But they declined to go, and Mother's knee is a bullshit excuse, even though Mother never raised it (and no, I didn't ask why they didn't want to go).

So that makes me think that there's no way my sister's best friend would just blurt out one day to them that I had a chick come over.  But, would she tell my sister?  Maybe.  And that's what scares me.  I hope she plays it cool and understand I'm an adult.  And I don't think I can now ask her not to look when a suspicious car drives up to my house; these assholes are still around.  But I don't think I am going to stop asking my stripper girlfriends to come over, either.  In fact, I think I am going to ask *****y to drop by, and then, hopefully, ****e* will have time the following week to clean my house.  Will she suspect something if she sees a pattern of cars drive up to the house?  And if so, will she tell?

It's weird to think that she might be thinking I'm having sex workers at my house, I'll tell you that much.

This Work Is MINE!!!

I will admit that I'm not completely sorry I did what I did at work yesterday.  But did I make a fool of myself?  Definitely.

This story starts back on Friday.  I was supposed to be in The Fourth Department, but my bosses told me that I should do data entry instead.  So once I keyed as long as I was expected to key, I went back to The Fourth Department.  However, I didn't finish the work.  I stayed till 6:30, but I wanted to see college basketball on the TV, and I thought ten hours was more than enough.  In particular, there were forms that came in on Friday that I didn't get to.  I was told during the workday that that stuff could wait till the next day (Saturday).  So I thought I could come in the next day, yesterday, and finish up that work and, hopefully, get started on the work that came in that day for The Fourth Department.  I was anticipating a lot of stuff was coming in, and I didn't want all that stuff to sit till tomorrow, especially if I was assigned to that position tomorrow.  Besides, the department needed help catching up on work, and while I liked having surprise days off, it was eating into the time off I had built up; working yesterday means I get to take some of that paid time off back.

I thought the mid-South was up and running, seeing as we got monster shipments Thursday and Friday.  However, when I woke up yesterday morning, I was told that morning's shipment was late, so we should come in an hour later than scheduled.  (Also, I have a Facebook friend who said that, beyond, like, half a day, her neighborhood in East Nashville has been without power for eight days.  Maybe they don't have everything back up and running like I thought.)  Two of my co-workers, however, appeared to have either not gotten that text or ignored it, because they were at their desks by the time I got in.  Moreover, one of them was doing the work I left over.

This is not an excuse, but how I felt was: Why are you taking my work from me?!  I know that I have done this in the past, and I know that I'm not strong enough not to feel that way in the future.  This red mist of control descended on me, like it has so many times before, and so I asked her, "What are you doing?"

"I am just finding work.  Do you want this back?" she said.

"Yes, please," I answered.  (These might not be the exact words she and I said, and any tone you might take from these two quotes may not be as sinister, or as courteous, as it actually was.)

I regretted my words as soon as I sat down on my desk.  And any doubt as to how she reacted to my "taking back what's mine" temper tantrum probably was dispelled when she said, "Here's the cart," and shoved the cart into which we put the work in my direction with a force I have never, never seen her give.  She is a steady rock.  And frankly, since my supervisor left for a work-from-home position in the summer, she is the one I have relied on whenever I'm fuzzy about what to do next.  In other words, I don't want to get on her bad side.  And I think I did with that move, and it's probably going to cause a rift in our relationship that will never be repaired.

And the upshot of the hissy fit I threw is that it really didn't matter.  I got Friday's work done, but then my boss and my boss' boss told me to go scan documents all day instead.  We got done before eight hours, so I was able to do (or availed myself with) some Fourth Department stuff to make up the rest of the time.  But yesterday was clearly an all-hands-on-deck day, and while I knew that, honestly, I really didn't want to do that.

I shouldn't have reacted how I did.  But it felt like she was taking my work from me.  Moreover, she was ruining my plans.  "I got this under control, don't mess this up for me," -- that's what I was thinking.  And no, like I said, that's not an excuse.  But shit, what's done is done.  I should get off my butt and start updating my resume.  Because I acted like an ass!

The Sleep Reset I Didn't Know I Needed

I didn't think I would pass out at 10 p.m., but I did.  My body told me I was real tired, so I listened to it, and I woke up around 5:30 and I feel good, even though I also feel a bit out of phase.  I back down to Day 1/10% bonus in Zynga Poker, but for a good night's sleep, I'll take it.

I really, really want to watch the EPL downtown.  I was going to do that yesterday/Saturday morning, but work called.  Also, I don't want to go to the bar on a day when a club whose supporters gather at this pub are playing.  That's most weekends when there is more than one Match going on (and on principle I don't usually don't go on a weekend when there is only one Match going on at a time), but yesterday/Saturday was one of those few times.  The next Saturday, I think I saw, was in mid-March.  However, there are three Matches going on this/Sunday morning, and none of them involve a club that meets there.  I didn't even think of going today/Sunday because they all kick off at 8.  But I'm awake now, so I can go!

But wait -- how about those damn people?  They had a goddamn checkpoint set up yesterday morning.  I don't see one now, so I hope there won't be one when I get back.

One other factor: The snow.  Only an inch fell, but it'd be just my luck if I get into a crash this morning.