Where there's smoke...

Well, I made it through out the Black Friday weekend fairly unscathed. It was super busy and we rocked it. Hopefully it will go a long way from pulling me out of the post wedding debt status...

Yesterday, was a well deserved day off. A day off, I might add, that amazingly found me free of anyone calling me from work! Stunning!

Not sure if any of you remember last year when I talked about our fireplace apparently being damaged (some back piece was cracked) and we could not light a fire until they replaced this piece. Took them until the summer to get that piece in! So, we figured with winter coming again, we would have them come out and install it. Which they did the other day.

So, last night, the woman wants a fire. Sure thing, throw a couple of logs on the fire with one of those little starter things and I light it up. Watch it for a bit. Smoke rising through the chimney. Ok, that works.

As my interest in fire has diminished greatly since I was a child, I run off to take a shower. After a bit, I begin to realize I am smelling smoke. "hmm, I should not be able to smell that way in here" I say to myself.

Right around the same time, the woman starts screaming for me. As I bolt out of the shower and into the front room (yes, I threw my jeans on first) there is smoke billowing out of the fireplace!! Son of a bitch!

Ok, smoke pouring out of fireplace INTO apartment.. logs on fire.. what do you do?! Well!!?

Fire extinguisher. BLAM! One quick shot. Which now causes even more smoke to billow out due to the sudden dousing of the fire. Logs still smoldering. So I have to grab those fireplace tong things, grab each log and throw them into the rocks out the front door.

At this point, the apartment is fucking filled with smoke to the point my visibility is diminished. Fantastic. Ok, so fine, nothing on fire, nothing burnt. But smoke is everywhere.

Call the apartment emergency line. Good for shit.

"Is the fire out?"
"Yes."
"ok, we will be out tomorrow."
"Thanks, dicks."

So, only option, crack open all the doors and windows, turn on the fans, to get the smoke the hell out and dissipate it.

Now, apparently, the smoke exiting our apartment smokes up the parking lot to the point that someone calls the fire department. As I know notice a huge fire truck rolling around through our complex seemingly looking for some action. Luckily at this point they see nothing and continue on.

So, here we are today and the place still smells like I have a fire burning. Major suckage. Really, really hoping this smell will start to dissipate after a few more days. I stopped on the way home for a bunch of scented candles and air fresheners geared to get odor and smoke out of the air. Hopefully they will help.

Calm before the Storm

Now, this is what a cool a REAL day off. Not just one of those "regular" days off, but a REAL one! You see, since it is an actual holiday, it means the store is closed! So, in turn, that means that I can get no phone calls, there will be no issues to deal with when I return, nothing screwed up that I have to fix. It is a REAL day off! Only problem is, they do not come very often.

So, Objective of the day? EAT! Yes, eat! Not to mention stockpile left overs for the upcoming Black Friday weekend of Doom! Going by the folks today for dinner. Not sure what we are having yet, but I am sure it will start with "A lot of.."

I'm tired. Insert your own title here.

Well, lots of strangeness going on at work. I had hired a full timer, which I desperately needed, who flaked out after three days and was never seen again. This left me insanely short on coverage. Today I find out that I will be "given" a temporary employee who has worked for the company before. A "bad seed" supposedly turning a new leaf - who they are entrusting to me. Yay. Feel my joy. I swear, I feel more like a parent than a manager some days. I do not like that feeling.

Suppose to have a visit from a bunch of the big shots over the next day or two. So, of course, everyone is a bit on edge. I am trying to get to bed earlier so I can be sharp tomorrow. Never fails though, I can not seem to get to bed at a decent hour! Actually, regarding the visit, I have a dollar that says they don't even show up. We will see.

Read this last night on Aint it Cool News and today on Yahoo. Peter Jackson, the director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has been told by New Line that he has been dropped from making the prequel to the series - The Hobbit.

Say it with me now: What.. the... Fuck?!

This guy rocks out this trilogy, it makes over 3 BILLION dollars, and they DROP him from the new project? Are you all idiots?! Watch the fan base reaction on this. Expect massive letter writing and blogging campaigns. I bet you will se Jackson back on the project before it is over, as he should be.

Can I have my week back?

I can tell it is the start of the busy Christmas Season, as seven days have past since my last update and it feels like I did it the other day. Sorry for the lack of updates, but work is keeping me busy!

On the absolute bizzare side of things, OJ Simpson has published a book titled "If I Did It", which he talks about if he did murder his wife, how he would do it... um... umm.... CMON!!! I mean, just.. CMON!!! This guy is SO SO guilty! Seriously. OK, your wife and some other dude are murdered. Why at any point would any sane person decide, "wow, I think I will write a book describing how I would murder my wife IF I was to murder my wife?" CMON!

I also caught an interview of him on FOX News this week. The dude just strikes me as a lying sob. He rarely looks directly at the interviewer, is always looking down or around the room and his manerisms just don't hit you right, you know? Guilty, hardcore.

Anyways, off to run those errands while I have the chance. Another day off you see. Those days off are going to get fewer and fewer as we cruise into Christmas.

That's an inverted Jenny, Dumbass...

Finally, another day off. I swear this week has been hell and it is only going to get worse as we slide into holidays. I feel entirely unprepared on the work side. Going in with lack of staff as well as half the crew not ever experiencing a Christmas before. Going to be a rough ride and not one I am looking forward too.

I ran across this little tidbit on Yahoo today. It falls under the category of: Dumbass.

Apparently, someone mailed in a Florida absentee ballot with a 1918 Inverted Jenny stamp! Now, for those not in the know on this, it is a rare, precious stamp. Only about 100 of them have ever been found - printed upside down. Some dumbass used it to mail in his ballot. To top it off, dumbass had no return address so the stamp becomes property of the state! *Yoink!*

So, what is the stamp worth, you ask? Well, at least $500,000!! So, not only did Dumbass lose $500,000, he basically handed it over to the government! Great job, well done!

Dumbass...

Firefox - rediscover the web

Today is one of those rare days that I am on the closing shift at work. Normally, I open to be there during "prime time", but a bit of a change today. At least I got to sleep in.

Not too much going on in the news lately, unless you consider Kirstie Alley showing up on Oprah in a bikini. I have realized that crappy news weeks severely limits my satirical tirades!

So, lets talk Firefox! Firefox has been a competing internet browser to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. As you may or may not know, IE has been prone to lots of bugs and security problems.

I switched over to Firefox last month and I could not be happier. Not only is a faster browser with far more features and add on capability, but it is also very secure. With IE, I would do a scan every week and pick up about 30-50 cookies and such crap. Just annoying tracking stuff. Since I have been running Firefox.. not a single one.

So, for those of you who are tired of IE and either want a more secure browser or a more capable one - or both, try Firefox.

Randomness

Ah, yet another one of those treasured days off! Of course, it is filled with a quick rush to finish errands so I can finally return home to start the actual "day off" part.

I made the mistake of mentioning my "errand run" to the woman last night. Now I find myself with the additional task of picking up kitty litter...

Things at work have stabilized, I think. It seems a lot of people were stressed out for non-work related, personal issues. Sometimes that stuff bleeds over into work. It shouldn't, but we are all human and it gets to us sometimes, I suppose. Makes it a bit tougher in the work environment when those things interfere though.

So, November is here! You know what that means, right? It means we are just a slow, down hill slide into the Holidays! Now, for some folks, like my woman, that means a happy and festive time. For me, however, it means making loads of cash intermixed with bouts of stress! Yay!

From both points, I think it will be a good holiday season this year.