Clean Out Your Closets And Help Others

I found this on OzarksFirst.com and I wanted to share it.

Clothing Drive for Family Violence Center
Date: Nov 26, 2007 (Monday) - Dec 20, 2007 (Thursday)
Time: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Location: Adam and Eve - 1332 E. Republic Road, Ste F & G, Springfield

Event Details: Please bring your clean, gently used items to benefit victims of abuse at the Family Violence Center in Springfield.

This donation drive will run through the first three weeks of December, in time for the holidays. If you would like to donate a gift-type item for someone at the Center, we will also take those to the Family Violence Center in December.

The items must be brought to Adam and Eve - 1332 E. Republic Road, Ste F & G, Springfield. Hours are Monday - Thursday 10am to 10pm. Friday and Saturday till 1030pm. Sunday 5p-10p.

No purchase necessary - we are doing this just to help the Family Violence Center, which assists abuse victims throughout the year. The center is often forgotten during holiday fundraisers. The drop-off runs from November 26 through December 20.

Go Tigers!

I don't normally watch college football, but that doesn't mean I don't root for certain teams. One of my favorite college football teams is USC, another is FSU. And of course, no matter what's going on in my life I manage to completely despise the Arkansas Razorbacks (and that's not just limited to football, I despise them in all areas). But now college football has become exciting to me - here's why.

Squanto

Have you ever heard the name before? Squanto? He was an important dude. I am thankful for Squanto. His real name was Tisquantum and he was a Patuxet Native American Indian. There are many variations of the story of Squanto's life. Some articles claim that as a young teenager Squanto was kidnapped by Englishmen who tried to sell him into slavery. Other information indicates that he simply made friends with some of the white settlers that moved into New Plymouth near his native village and voluntarily followed them to England to spend several years working for his new friends.

Either way, we do know that as a young man he left his tribe, left America and spent years in Europe working for the Englishmen before he finally gained passage back to the "New World" with Captain John Smith (of Pocahontas fame). As he was making his way back to his village, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Spain. Luckily, he fell into the hands of a group of friars at a Catholic Monestary. They taught him their religion and he became a Christian. The friars were able to get Squanto passage to England where he spent several years working as a servant.

Squanto was gone an approximate total of 10 years from his family and tribe before he finally arrived in North America again. Sadly, when he returned to his village he discovered that all of his people had died of a disease (accidentally brought to them by the English settlers) the previous year. He then befriended the settlers who lived near his old village. These settlers were the Pilgrims and they soon realized that Squanto was an invaluable friend. He helped them survive the winter by showing them how to build warm houses. He also taught them how and when to plant corn and showed the women how to cook the corn so that there was enough food for everyone. Most importantly, he acted as interpreter between the Pilgrims and their Indian neighbors. He advised them on how best to maintain a peaceful relationship with the Indians and made the first Thanksgiving possible.

After all the "white-man" had done to him and his people, he cared about human life enough to help the Pilgrims. Thank you, Squanto, for caring.

Consumer Alert: Plastic Bag Shortage

Keep all the times you've seen Wal-Mart bags littering the parking lots and highways in mind when you read the following:

This morning I stopped by Wal-Mart on my way to work because a friend who's in the hospital needed a few small items and I volunteered to bring them to her. While I was there I picked up a couple of things that I needed for the house. Of course, all of these items fit easily into one plastic Wal-Mart bag. However, I needed the bag to carry the items for my friend into the hospital. Which would mean that the stuff I purchased for myself would be rolling around my car seat on my ride home tonight. Silly me, I decided to ask the cashier if I could have an extra bag.

She was a fairly young girl and as soon as the words were out of my mouth she began to panic. Oh, the horror! Someone wants to steal a plastic bag from her! She started stuttering while at the same time began swiveling her head from side to side like she was expecting someone to jump on her if she let me out of the store with a stolen bag. She mumbled something about "we're not really supposed to let people take those". It was the strangest thing.

Obviously there is a shortage of Wal-Mart bags!

One Artist, One City, 9 Times

That's what the back of my new t-shirt says. The t-shirt I bought at the Garth Brooks concert I went to last week. That's right, I'm bragging. We had awesome seats, the concert was amazing. I don't listen to much country music but Garth Brooks is the bomb. I've included a few pictures below. If you want to see them all you can click HERE

re·turn (r-tûrn)
noun
1. a. The act or condition of going, coming, bringing, or sending back.
b. The act of bringing or sending something back to a previous place, condition, or owner.

2. a. Something brought or sent back.
b. returns Merchandise returned, as to a retailer by a consumer or to a wholesaler by a retailer.
c. Something that goes or comes back.

3. A recurrence, as of a periodic occasion or event: the return of spring.


That's right homies - I'm back! I apologize to the small number (4 at the most) of people who actually read this blog. I simply haven't felt well at all lately and it has resulted in a complete lack of energy and interest. I also have not played Runescape since before Halloween, so you can't blame my lack of posting on my game addiction. But, I am starting to feel a bit better and I'm hoping that if I start becoming more active again my energy will return. Other than wanting to sleep all the time (and a slight bladder infection) I have not been sick in any way. There's no snot, no headaches, no fevers, no aches and pains. I really don't know why I have been so drained. And no, I have not gone to the doctor. And yes, I realize that I should. It's just that they're such a waste of time and money. Unless I'm seriously ill, of course. Then I would go to the doctor. But I'm not seriously ill. I simply want to sleep 20 out of every 24 hours. No. Big. Deal. Besides, I'm busy pretending to myself that I have energy and I feel better so that my body will be tricked into thinking that it's not tired all the time.

No, I Am Not An Atheist & I Do Not Worship Satan

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the costumes and the blood and the television specials about hauntings. I love the crisp fall air and carving jack-o-lanterns and going to corn mazes. I love everything about Halloween. But this year, Halloween fever didn't really affect me the way it normally does. It sucks because none of my co-workers care about the holiday at all, so except for a few things in my cube there are no decorations. And I didn't get to decorate like I normally would because all of my really cool decorations are still in storage in Seligman. Plus, for the last 4 years or so I have always helped Charlie and Jessica get their costumes together and then I take off work, pick them up early at school and make sure we're at the front of the line for the "trick-or-treat around the square" which is like the major Halloween event in the area I come from.

This year, I didn't think about taking the day off so I will be missing out on taking Charlie and Jessica around the square. To make matters worse, since I'm not available, they aren't going to get to go and because they're not going to get to go they didn't get any costumes this year. That makes me sad. Also, I have no reason to wear a costume, no reason to buy fake blood, no reason to color my hair. I don't know anyone who wants to go to a haunted house with me, no one who will go see a scary movie. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is being presented at midnight at the Shrine Mosque and I won't be there. It just all sucks.

If you don't feel any sympathy for me, think of it this way. It's how you would feel if Christmas day were tomorrow and not only did it not snow, but you have no christmas tree. The majority of people list Christmas as their fave holiday, so that should be a fairly general analogy.

I am trying to make the best of it though. I do have a plastic pumpkin full of candy on my desk at work which everyone seems to enjoy. And tomorrow I'm bringing in some Halloween cupcakes as a treat for my co-workers. Also, there's some good TV tomorrow night I can watch, including a show on the Sci Fi Channel called "Children of the Grave" which will be featuring our own local landmark Pythian Castle. I'm excited about that one. And hopefully I will get some trick-or-treaters at the house.

Ooh, that reminds me....I need to replace the front porch light tonight.

Playing Runescape - Do Not Disturb

Thought I should post a quick note just to let you guys know that I am still alive and well. I have a lot of things I want to post about, such as:
- my trip to the Mt. Vernon Apple-Butter Makin Days
- my trip to the crafts fairs in NorthWest Arkansas
- the awesome painting I bought at a crafts fair that I am so proud of
- what I found on the internet which made me not so proud of my awesome painting
- what happened to my pretty new car over the weekend
- I signed up for a Flickr membership, so all my photos are now online
- etc., etc., etc.


Unfortunately, I have gotten a little side-tracked by my latest addiction. It's an online game called Runescape. It's a cheesy, Java-based online RPG that one of my co-workers has been talking about constantly. She was having so much fun and telling me so many stories that I had to check it out. And for now, I am hooked. So, that's what I've been doing with most of my online time.

Now, it is true that 90% of my blog posts are made while I'm at work. And I cannot play Runescape at work (the game engine won't load through our network's firewall), so theoretically I should still have time to update my blog. But no, instead I am spending all my time at work looking up information about Runescape so that I will know how to make money faster and what items I should buy.

Hopefully, I will get this out of my system soon. I'll keep you posted - maybe.

My Lucky Bamboo Plant...

...sure does look cute, but has nothing to do with this post whatsoever. Now that we have clarified that issue, let's move on.

For the second week in a row, I am taking a vacation day on a Friday. It's rather nice being a slacker. I don't even really have anything else to say. Just thought I would brag about having Friday off work.

Plus, I get to go here

Why Can't A Sandwich Always Be A Sandwich?

The cafeteria where I work has great food. And because we get an employee discount when we wear our badges, it is a cheap place to grab some lunch. At least most of the time it is. Sometimes, I come away from the cash register with visions of poking my fork in the cashiers eye and pouring my drink over her head. Because apparently the price of food items in the cafeteria varies from day to day depending on what color of shirt you are wearing and whether or not the cashier has to pee.

Okay, maybe those aren't the reasons - but there is something wrong with whatever pricing system they do or do not have in place. Last week, I ran upstairs and grabbed a bottle of Red Diamond Sweet Tea (best drink in the world), went to the sandwich bar and ordered a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, and picked up a small bag of chips. I get to the register and the woman glances at my employee badge, charges me $1.60 and I'm on my way. That's a great lunch. And that is typically the price I pay for those items.

On another day last week, I went to the salad bar, rounded my paper plate over with a huge salad, grabbed a Red Diamond tea and headed over to pay. When you make your own salad, it has to be weighed to determine the price so I placed it on the scale. She glanced at my badge, read the scale, entered the tea and I was charged $2.30. Again, another great price for such a large salad and a drink.

But today, for whatever reason, prices were not so great. Today I picked up a "pre-packaged sandwich" out of the refrigerator (usually left from the night before, so they are a discounted price) and a pre-packaged salad which comes in a plastic container about the size of a McDonald's Fillet-O-Fish box. Not really that big. For a drink, I opted for a bottle of Crystal Light and stepped up to the cash register proudly wearing my employee badge. The old lady sitting at the register did appear to glance at my badge, I heard her say "sandwich, salad, juice" and then she turned to me and said "$5.00 please."

What? How the hell is this $5? I asked her "did you get my discount" and flipped my badge towards her.
"Yep", she replied.
"Well," I said, "how much is the Crystal Light? I normally get tea and it's only a dollar"
"The Crystal Light is a dollar also"
And of course, they do not print receipts. So unless I want to start making a much larger scene and continue holding up the line of people that was growing behind me, I just had to walk off and wonder exactly what the hell did I pay for this day old sandwich and minuscule salad?

And this is not the first time I have had this issue. I don't normally eat a great variety of foods there mainly because nothing is priced (isn't that convenient?) so I kind of stick with what I know is cheap, because my money is needed in places much more important than buying food. So, I've noticed before that a drink and a PB & J sandwich ranges from $1.25 to $1.90 or so depending on who is checking me out. But, it's such a great price either way that I've never really worried about it.

But today's lunch was ridiculous. Back to bringing home-made PB & J sandwiches for me - at least for the rest of the week. I've spent my $5 lunch allowance all in one trip. Bastards.

Mad World

"Mad World"

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me

It's All About The Fun, Not The Score

I have been to Arrowhead Stadium to watch the KC Chiefs play football at least 10 times over the years and every trip is just as spectacular as the very first one. This past weekend, I got to go again after a 4 year absence and my Chiefs addiction has been revived. I don't care if you have been to other NFL stadiums, or if you hate the Chiefs, or even if you don't like football at all - there's nothing like the Arrowhead experience. You have simply got to check it out. I have pictures below, just keep in mind it was sprinkling and overcast all day so the pictures are not as good as they could have been.

First of all - it's the loudest stadium in the NFL. And they ain't kidding.



Second of all - the stadium and field are breathtakingly beautiful. (which may be true of other stadiums)

Here's the view at field level.



Here's the view from my seat.



All of my trips to Arrowhead have always been fun. The tailgating in the parking lot is enough to entertain you even if you don't have a ticket to the game. But this trip had an extra added bonus. I got the tickets through my cousin Shawn and his wife Crystal who went to the game with us also. They have recently met and befriended the KC Superfans. In fact, Shawn is working on a costume so that he can become a KC Superfan and help with the charity events they donate their time to.

Because we were there with Shawn, Scott and I got to meet The X Factor & Red Xtreme. In fact, we went up Saturday night and stayed at Red Roof Inn and Red Xtreme and his wife came over to visit at the hotel. These people are really cool and they do amazing things for charities. It was awesome walking through the parking lot with them. They are treated just like celebrities. It takes forever to get anywhere because someone is always wanting a picture with them. And these guys are so sweet, they never turn anyone down.

Here's The X Factor on the left and Red Xtreme on the right.



Here's a rare glimpse of me with Red Xtreme (notice the stadium in background).



We also got to go over to where the family and friends of Chiefs player Boomer Grigsby (#46) were having their tailgate party and hang out with them. Everyone was very kind even though I was a stranger. We were told we could come back after the game to meet Boomer and get autographs, but unfortunately the massive downpour of rain at the end of the 4th quarter made us run for the car and head home.

Here is the tailgate party.



Here is Boomer warming up before the game.



And here he is with some of his fans.



With about 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter, with the Chiefs down 17 - 0, the rain started falling and Scott and I decided to pack it in for the day. So, we actually missed the touchdown that KC scored in the closing seconds of the game. But, we did get to see our team sack the QB several times.



Here's how we knew the rain was going to be bad.



And this is what it looked like as we waited in traffic and shivered in our wet clothes.



It sure was a great trip despite the rain and the loss. I had forgotten how pumped up that place actually gets me. In fact, if any of you would be interested in just going up and partying in the parking lot during a home game, let me know. I might not be able to afford tickets to multiple games a year, but I would love to go up and tailgate.

Too Bad I Don’t Have Any Friends

The Loyal Friend
Others see you as sensible, cautious, careful & practical. They see you as clever, gifted, or talented, but modest. Not a person who makes friends too quickly or easily, but someone who's extremely loyal to friends you do make and who expects the same loyalty in return. Those who really get to know you realize it takes a lot to shake your trust in your friends, but equally that it takes you a long time to get over if that trust is ever broken.

Wanna take the Dr. Phil personality quiz? Click Here

You Know You’re A Dork When….

….you leave for work 30 minutes early so that on your drive you can search for street sofas. The good news is I’m the current leader in the contest thanks to my adventures this morning. Of course, there is no prize for winning this thing, unless you count street cred. But hey, I’m single and don’t really know anyone outside of my co-workers, so I gotta kill time somehow.

Mid Week Meditation

Take a few moments to sit back and enjoy some beautiful scenery and relaxing music

glumbert - Beautiful Patagonia

Guess What I'm Having For Dinner

This past weekend, while I was away, some of the boys came over to the house to hang with Scott and "nerd out" by playing computer games for 3 days straight. This goes hand in hand with pigging out on junk food. By the time I got home late Sunday night, they had gone through two thousand pizza rolls, 17 lbs of Velveeta and Rotel, 9 gallons of salsa, 35 bags of chips, 300 oreo cookies, and an assortment of beer and soda. They actually picked up after themselves pretty good, but it's gonna take me a few hours to lick all that cheese dip off of the table.

It's All About The Free Tickets

l. to r. - Joshua Stevens, David St. Romain, Angela Hacker, Zac Hacker

Aside from a few random episodes back in 2005, I do not watch the tv show "Nashville Star". I had no idea who the 4 people in the above picture were and I couldn't tell you the name of this years winner - until last night. Now I know that the winner was Angela Hacker and that she has an absolutely amazing voice. I also know that it was her brother Zac Hacker who came in second behind his big sister.

Why the sudden influx of information about Nashville Star? Because I got to see the above group in concert last night. I didn't even have to pay for my ticket. My cousin and her mom were on their way up to the show and had an extra ticket because their third person wasn't able to make it at the last minute. Since I was already in Springfield, they thought of me and gave me a call. Now, I'm not someone who will turn down an activity very often. I love to go and do things, no matter what they may be. So even though I didn't know any of the performers I was more than willing to go to the concert.

It was in the Juanita K. Hammonds Center and our seats were 3rd row orchestra - awesome seats! I am so glad I got the opportunity to go and hear these guys. They were all amazing. I do have to say that I enjoyed David St. Romain the most because he has such a wonderful rich voice and plenty of breath to back it with. Plus, there was something about him that just made you all hyper. Of course, Angela was the same way. She has an enormous amount of energy and one of the best female voices I've ever heard.

Josh Stevens could make any girl swoon with his romantic innocence and Zac Hacker should be playing rock and roll - cause he rocked. After the show all 4 artists were available for pictures and autographs. Of course I'm a moron and did not bring my camera because I didn't realize I was going to enjoy the show. But, I did get a shirt autographed by all of them and my Aunt took some pictures with her old-fashioned 35 mm camera. When she gets the hard copy of those she's gonna share them with me.

It was such a great experience I am going to make an attempt to watch the next season and I will definitely be attending the next tour if they come back my way. What a great concert that I didn't have to pay for. That was in addition to spending all day Saturday at Celebration City at a private company picnic eating free food, playing free games, riding free rides. We got free ice cream, cotton candy and kettle corn on top of everything else. I have had a great couple of days.

This Is Embarrassing.....

Want to hear something about me that is sad? I normally consider myself a person of "a-bit-better-than-average" intelligence, but today as I was browsing through the news I came across the following sentence - "YANGON (AFP) — Myanmar's junta slapped dusk-till-dawn curfews on the country's two largest cities....."

That is part of the opening sentence of a news story and I have to admit I didn't know the words "Yangon" "Myanmar" or "junta". I have looked them up since then, of course, but that's not the point. I didn't know that the nation of Burma had changed it's name to Myanmar in 1989. Wow. That's pretty weak of me!

The Return Of The King

See this nicely dressed gentleman above? He’s an ass. I love him. You will too. Tonight is the season premiere of House and I cannot wait. This is the beginning of the fourth season and (just like every other season) it promises to be a great one. Everybody should watch it. Those are my orders. Or else all your base are belong to us.

Drool....

1968 Convertible Camaro SS - WANT!


Concept 2009 Camaro - WANT!


Whatver the hell this is - DO NOT WANT!