I’m hoping this weekend I’ll be able to put up some of the stories I’ve been working on. Hoping. I’ll also be talking about my new lawn mower
Blog
New Bosses suck sometimes
It always amazes that when new people come in, they seem to go out of their way to not listen to the people who have been around for a long time. New ideas and outlooks are always good. They’re great! but at the same time those of us who have been here a while know some ins and outs that should be appreciated. Instead we’re treated like morons who can’t appreciate the way things work or “the process”
Frustrating sometimes.
Some Haiku Action
A little Haiku action before bed.
First one coat, then two
Even strokes; up, down, up, down
Makes an old room new
Thick trunk, strong branches
Watching the years pass her by
The Oak doesn’t care
A weekend in Big Bear
Saturay – 4.28.2005
Started the morning with the traditional Alpenhorn Bed and Breakfast four course breakfast
- Fresh Fruit (as opposed to the old stale stuff)
- Homemade granola and yogurt. This trip we bought a bag of granola to take home. Who’d a thought ground up stuff could be so tasty.
- Banana oatmeal broulee. I don’t like oatmeal much but how can anything with caramelized sugar on top be bad?
- Main Course – Eggs Alpenhorn with a mushroom gravey. Basically a poached egg on top of an english muffin with gravey on top. Worth the price of admission on it’s own.
Since our last visit was spent almost entirely in our room or the main living room area this time we decided to get out and see Big Bear. Thinking a hike would be fun we headed to the Discovery Center. After taking one look at our shoes the old mountain man outside the center says,
“The Cougar Crest Trail will be just right for you I think.”
Vans, sneakers, no hats, hiking sticks or shorts, must have been a dead give away that we weren’t quite prepared. Don’t get me wrong. We’ve both hiked before, Nicole more recently than I. But niether of us thought about hiking in the packing of bags for this trip. Not that it would have mattered as I have no hiking gear anymore. I said I had been hiking before, just not how recently.
The Cougar Crest trail was a very good hike. Lots of very nice scenary, very few people. Aside from the obligatory, “hi, hello” exchange when passing other hikers, it was just Nicole, the trail, wilderness, and I. Very nice. Oh yeah and the sun, which mercilessly broiled our necks and faces.
Cougar Crest trail is 1.9 miles long. Clearly they were measuring basd not on how the crow flies or the tired hiker walks, but on something like how the mole digs or something. I can do 1.9 miles on the treadmill in not too long. This took for-freaking-ever. Again, I was wearing vans, Nicole, sneakers. That had a lot to do with our pace.
At the end of Cougar Crest Trail we hit the Pacific Crest Trail which lead to Bertha Peak. “You’ll know it by the radio transmitting gear all over the top” the discovery Center guide book said.
From the end of Cougar Crest to Bertha Peak was only .6 miles. The most uphill, and difficult .6 miles I’ve travelled in…. my whole life I think. Perhaps I’m a wuss, but damn if it didn’t kick my ass.
At the top, the view was bitchin’ very very bitchin’. After found a place to “water the flora” we headed back down. Anyone who says down is easier than up should be choked. Down is just as damn hard, maybe more so.
After such a long hike (took us about 4.5 hours) we did what I’m sure all outdoorsy types do… headed to the local pizza joint for a large pepperoni and pitcher of beer.
What’s not to like about monkeys?
Nicole and I went to see David Sedaris at the Barclay theatre at UCI. This dude is just damn funny. I’m not sure if he’s as funny to read as he is to listen to. His voice and tone just makes his stories so much more hilarious.
I haven’t laughed that hard in a really long time. It was a great experience. Particularly hearing him explain how he writes. what his “process” is. Very informative.
I’ve got Me Talk Pretty One Day on my iPod. gotta start listenning to it. Can’t wait.
Coutrtesy Desk, not brain trust desk
The courtesy desk is in theory the first line of defence for the department associates. Turning away the truly lame people trying to return things with KMart or target price tags still on them.
They’re not supposed to (at least when I was there) make decisions without consulting the electronics department associates. I was one of those.
One night I go up to get our returns and find a small box. THe kind bracelets come in or a pair of ear rings. The little cardboard jobs with a lid. Well I open it up and inside are 6 little computer chips. The kind you’d solder on to a logic board somewhere. No idea what they did.
“what’re these?”
“Computer memory.” the courtesy clerk replies.
“Perhaps for a Radio Shack computer project or a really old, big calculator. Not for anything we sell.”
“they said each one was 1mb of computer memory.”
“well they lied.”
“Can you do anything with them? Put them on the shelf with a UPC?”
“Uh, no”
Blank stare………
“I’ll figure out how to claims them. THanks.”
That wasn’t the only time something like this happenned, that’s a different entry. In the end we just put the little ear ring box of computer chips under the register hoping it’d get lost at some point. We couldn’t claim it, since a claim goes back to the vendor, they’d immediately see that these six little whatevers were not PNY 1mb RAM sticks. By the way, at this time, a 1mb stick of RAM sold for about 50 bucks. Good thing the loss went against the electronics department, we weren’t high shrink or anything