first good snow

We saw about 20 mile of ice on the way back from t-day outside pendleton.
this morning we get up to about 1.5" of snow on our driveway, but find that is sufficient to really ice over the roads. i drive faster then alodia would and go about 30 to the main road. we get there to see cars sliding down the hill, almost into eachother (inches). We were at a T, and a school bus stopped in front of us going through the T and then slid backwards and into the other lane only to get out and find the chains. we could have sat there for an hour watching cars almost slide into eachother and off the road. I must say, i was happy for the abs brakes and AWD.
Even on the freeway we saw a surburban slide toward the concrete median and stop - only to back up a bit and then pass everyone. I guess he has not reached the learning phase of his life and the rest of us will have to make room for him.

chiropractor

alodia met a cool chirpractor and i decided i could not let him keep his hands off me. 30 visits ayear at 80% coverage from insurance is a no brainer.
turns out he likes talking about christianity, and he told me about his mission trip for a year to south america (mormon)
this guy is so cool, and generous. truly the embodiement of christian service. I got him a ministry of healing - which it turns out he's read as textbook in medical philosophy - and we got to talking about satan's existance being required for ours. he think's without satan we could not exist. an inturesting idea. i told him that although sin was a contingency plan, i don't view this earth as requiring sin for us to be here. i'll cook up some bible texts about how we should look foward to satan's involvement in our lives because it demonstrates that we're worth fighting over - and that through Jesus, sin can be overcome. we also talked about when you should serve man or God, as he said that if man makes a law, we're required to follow it. he'd prayerfully consider it, but probably do the man's law to not make waves. he said there were grey areas. it was a very fun discussion. not combative, more like a brainstorm.
so, i'm going back for more krinked neck therapy tonight.

check gone astry - returns

it's ok that they can't follow instructions. the bank could not follow ours, so why should the issuer of the check follow the bank's instructions to make the replacement check out to THE BANK. we now have a replacement check made out to us. cool. it worked out.
that should be enough money to go see manahyme stem (steem) rollover or whatever their chistmas festivle music band name is called, with enough leftovers for the INCREDIBLES? - anyone, anyone? hint. hint.

broken headlamp

ok, so i get my steller deal for 130$ replacement assembly for my subaru and it COMES WITH bulbs. cool. oh yeah, and two little plastic peices taht busted off the VISIBLE RIM of the assembly = ugly. so, i glue them on, mount it in my car and decide a little compensation is in order as it's not in 'perfect' condition i purchased it in. The seller default liabilty to the shipper. the shipper wants origional packaging (it's monday and gone in the trash now) but is willing tocome out and look at the broken product. DHL is cool, but send a guy here over 10$?!
common. SO, now I expect to get some paperwork and a visit which will probably result in
A) nothing
B) a waste of my time and minimal money (like 3$)
C) 10$ that i'm after at a HUGE cost to dhl
D) a replaced unit at dhl's expense.

i beleive c is the correct answer, but I'm expecting A. Lets wait an see what happens.

effeciency

i have held true to my guns that it's better to teach people how to help themselves then it is to do their work for them.
My question: how long must i 'teach' before i can expect them to start being able to do their own work?
i thought 18 months was fair, but this morning I found myself showing a person how to use windows explorer to COPY a file to another location. What on earth. next it'll be how to press the green button on the copy machine.

public chocolate

I have this co worker (several actually) that are convinced food on someone else's desk that is ungarded is free game. do you see a candy dish on my desk? I did not think so.

so, i get this paintcan sized gift of chocolate from my pastor because i restored his encrypted files after a hard drive crash (see nerdytales.blogspot.com october 2004) and I get this can.

just a second ago a co-worker invites themseelves in, and in front of me asks if I have opened the can (as they open it) and I say no. "other people have, and they have eaten stuff too, but i have not."

appeartly this gruff statement hit home and down went the can, lid pushed back on, and they left.

how do I tell people that my food is not their food? I honestly considered putting a note on the top of the can that said 'this is NOT for you' and it turns out I should have taken my instinct and run with it using a highlighter.

awe, life. this reminds me of the time I came back to my desk to find someone eating my lunch. (the statement spoken through a half-full mouth was 'i love wheat thins, don't you?') Maybe if I put a bowl of maggots on my desk, people will not eat so much.

I've even seen people, in front of me, OPEN candy (lifesavers) and take one when it's sitting on my desk behind what i'm working on. amazing, absolutly amazing.

they probably drive off with 'complimentary' gas for their cars to the tune of sirens too.

Janell visit this weekend

Janell came to visit this weekend. it's turning out to be a real riot, we're really enjoying it.
Alodia and Janell spend a day on the town friday - going to a ciropractor, food, shopping - what have you.
today we're planning for a splendid day at church a cool (cold) afternoon at the park.
Last nite kevin wooped 'em at speed scrabbel, but they were too tired to notice (2320).
We were pleased to present janell with awards of a turtle theme for growing 1 year older. what excitement.

Christmas Social Committee

this is an email I received from a coworker spuring me to action as a comitee member.
enjoy.


Hello my little Elves,
If you are reading this it means that you are on the list of people who have been chosen to serve on this years Christmas social committee by a random (rigged) drawing. And here you thought you had never won anything....lucky lucky you!
And I am "overjoyed" to hear that I have also been elected to another term as your President. Someone please assassinate me!
(just teasing, did I say that outloud?!)
Okay, I'm sure it's going to be a great event. Unless of course we wish to assure ourselves of NEVER being asked to serve again, and make it reeeallly hokey? Hmmmm.....
No, no, to make sure we are not embarrassed, we should all get together and share the ideas in our massive brains, as a group we can likely make up for a couple members of our committe who are lacking in this area.
If one of these days does not work for you next week over lunch, (12:15 - 1pm in the upstairs meeting room) please let me know. Or better yet, just vote on your preferred day(s) for our first of two likely meetings. Please reply by Monday Noon. We'll meet on the day that works for MOST people. Tue, Wed or Thu. next week, vote for up to two (and list any day you can't make it at all)??
The ones who don't show up, I'm quite sure, will fairly get the nastiest jobs we can assign. hohocacklecackle
Please bring your ideas. Attached is a little inspiration to get the juices flowing...
Darin Clause
ps Date of the actual event, I have learned, has been re-scheduled to Tuesday evening, December 14.

attached pictures:

check gone astray

We deposited a check via atm (from our insurance agency) about a month ago.
this week we got a letter from our bank that indicated they had LOST the check and wanted us to contact the origional provider, have them issue a stop payment and have them reissue the check OR provide documentation with where the check cleared .
seems like a lot of work on my part when they are the ones that lost my check!
i was furious. i wanted to tell someone to check the security camera and get the check info from that - but alodia handled it very well, and our insurance agent came to our aid and did most of the work for us. Awesome service. You go Ken Hughey!

If you move to spokane, we've got the insurance agent for you.

walmart treat

sat. nite we went to walmart to get a ceramic heater (kevin decided on the most expensive) with a digital wall timer for it (also the most expensive)
we were shopping and I went to look at the lamps as I like the inert gas ones, and the fiberglas ones. I noticed some KY-warming jelly's hanging from their little strip with the lamps and took a picture of it. it amused me greatly. maybe someone misunderstood its application.

all employees were dressed up. way up. some too far - like a dude we saw in drag - alodia wanted a pic of him, but he would not hold still (I blurred my attempted pic with my pda)

we were over looking at some unmentionables, and this chic came by with a skirt higher then her underwear (think swiss chocolate) and leggings that were up to amost her butt. so, she walks around pulling up her leggings and down her underwear : being folllowed by two other emplyees (both male) for quite some time. we missed a photo opp there too.

THEN we see this employee leaning over checking someting on the bottom shelf - her costume was not fitted to her person well as you could have put a magic marker in that crack - also another missed photo opp.

all in all, a very inturesting experience. hey, at least the new keys for 99c a peice worked for the subaru. walmart comes through again.

I confronted customer service about some items wrung up wrong (charge us a1$ for soda instead of 50cents as marked) we got 1.50$ back in change. I asked 'how does the 3$ rule work, i thought if the item was wrung up wrong and it was 3$ or under we got the money back and the item" she said that was correct and the other teller had just done it wrong. and then said most customers don't know about the policy. It turns out it's not cumulative: it's item specific. so even if the 3 items totaled more then 3$ in value, i'll still be entitled full refund and keep item if the itme in question was less then 3$. i let them keep their money, as it was a good buy, and appreciated the implied conclusion that I was an informed walmartite.