Thursday and Friday
Thursday, July 1, 2010: Last day of school this quarter. I'm now off for two weeks before I have to go back to school again. Marty is home today; he got laid off from the title company ah-gain; his "contract" ran out. He doesn't mind, though; he's got his car club extravaganza coming up later this month and has tons of things he'd like to get done before opening night. So, it worked out for him. He was up this morning by about 6:30 even though he could have slept in; he said he had "too much to do!"
Auto Insurance: My insurance with Mercury runs out this month, so I shopped around for other policies to see if anyone was cheaper, and I found that Geico was actually less expensive, so I signed up with them.
DVD Stuff: Marty and I watched "Surrogates" with Bruce Willis last night and really enjoyed it. Yeah, yeah, I know: it's a droid flick. But it's done with an interesting twist and lets Bruce Willis body-jump throughout the film. Willis is a police detective who plugs into a surrogate of himself (about 30 years younger with blonde hair, very well done), through a machine in his home. Billions of other people are plugged in to their own surrogates as well, and for a while everything works beautifully. Because the humans are plugged in, and they can "act out" any way they want through their surrogates without actually causing damage to themselves or other humans. Crime rates plummet, there are no unwanted pregnancies, STDs become practically nonexistent When a human is killed, however, while connected to his surrogate (when the unit is fried the damaging signal travels through the system to user and liquefies his brain), Willis has to figure out what's really going on. At the end he has to choose whether to let everyone remained plugged-in, or force them to face their real lives again... It's all done very well; a quick-moving movie, tight editing, good actors. I enjoyed it.
Dream Stuff: I had an odd dream during the night about being in a yard -- that looked something like the yard at the Nona Street house -- with a bunch of dogs. I don't remember what it was about exactly, but one thing that really struck me was a moment when my dog, Giuliani, my Chihuahua that Animal Control stole from me, came out from behind an out-building in the yard and looked right at me. Our eyes locked for a moment, and my mind was filled with this very vivid image of his little face and big eyes... and I woke up missing him soooo much, and worrying about him. I wonder if he's okay; if he was "calling out" to me or missing me...
EDD Stuff: I also got a check today from the EDD for the weeks of 06-19-10 and 06-26-10. It's measly -- but it's MINE; I deserve it; I worked for it; I'm keeping it. So, in the bank it goes.
Friday, July 2, 2010: I helped Marty a little bit with his West Coast Story foam letters, in between other morning projects like making us breakfast, answering e-mails and doing job search stuff for the day. It was fairly nice out all day, although it did warm up a little by the afternoon. Around 11:30 or so, I decided to go into town, make a deposit at the bank, get some office supplies, and pick up a few groceries for lunch at the supermarket, but -- wow! -- this was NOT the day to go out. It looked like EVERYONE had the day off from work, and was out buying booze, picnic stuff and fireworks, clogging up all of the roads and parking lots around for miles. What a mess! I got through it all okay, though, and got all the supplies I needed, including several copies of my resume and multiple copies of the State's application form. (The State is broke, but there are applications available for almost every department.) While I was at Office Depot, I found this really great booklight that uses lithium batteries and an LED light, so it won't "burn" and it won't run out of juice in 10 minutes like the old versions did. It's also a lot lighter (weight-wise) and more compact. I really like it!
Later in the afternoon, Marty used my computer to burn some CDs (his laptop bit the dust, and his desktop PC is cranky about burning disks). When he played one for me, I was sitting in the TV room with the dogs and started bouncing a blueberry to the beat of the music. Pozey, who loves blueberries, watched the berry and bounced her head along with the beat, and was soooo cute, I took a short video snippet of her. At the end she gave me a high-five and a shake-hands! Hah!
EDD Stuff: I had sent a letter to the EDD telling them that my jury duty was scheduled for the same period when they wanted me to attend a meeting (on the 8th at 1:30 PM) at the Sacramento Job Services (SJS) office. Well, I got a call today from "Frita" at SJS and she told me I DON'T have to come for the meeting. She didn't want to keep my appointment open if she wasn't sure I could attend ((I won't know if I'm called in for jury duty until the last minute)), so she told me to just skip it. She said she'll ket the EDd know what happened, but also suggested that I post a note on the EDD website or mail them to let them know about my conversation with her -- so I did that, just so everything is documented in writing.
Jury Duty: I was feeling antsy about the upcoming Jury Duty stuff -- don't know why -- so I checked the court website. Now, if I'm reading that right, it looks like I don't have to check back with the court until the evening of July 8th; yay! Maybe I won't get called in at all and will have a peaceful vacation afterall.
Comcast: Two "kids" showed up at the house around 8:00 PM tonight, and without identifying themselves they asked if Marty lived there, who was I, how was I related to him, etc. I asked them to identify themselves, and they claimed they were with Comcast. I know Marty has that service, but HE pays for it, so I don't know anything about what he wants or what he pays or anything. These guys kept trying to get information on Marty's service from me, and I had to tell them THREE TIMES that they needed to speak with Marty, and Marty was out running errands. One of the guys then said, "We have a lot of really great deals for you, ma'am, if you'd just cooperate with us." WTF?! I told them AGAIN that they would have to speak with Marty, and I closed the door on them. . . Then I went on-line to Comcast's site and filed a complaint, starting with the line: IS THIS THE WAY YOUR COMPANY REPRESENTS ITSELF TO THE PUBLIC?! and ended with something like, IF THE ACCOUNT WAS IN MY NAME, I'D BE CANCELLING IT RIGHT NOW! TEACH YOUR PERSONNEL SOME MANNERS! Jebuz. They trespass into private property, come after 5:00 pm when "normal" people are trying to relax for the day, don't identify themselves, don't listen when you speak to them, and then insult you. Arrrrgh! Am I right, or am I just turning into SUCH an old curmudgeon?
Auto Insurance: My insurance with Mercury runs out this month, so I shopped around for other policies to see if anyone was cheaper, and I found that Geico was actually less expensive, so I signed up with them.
DVD Stuff: Marty and I watched "Surrogates" with Bruce Willis last night and really enjoyed it. Yeah, yeah, I know: it's a droid flick. But it's done with an interesting twist and lets Bruce Willis body-jump throughout the film. Willis is a police detective who plugs into a surrogate of himself (about 30 years younger with blonde hair, very well done), through a machine in his home. Billions of other people are plugged in to their own surrogates as well, and for a while everything works beautifully. Because the humans are plugged in, and they can "act out" any way they want through their surrogates without actually causing damage to themselves or other humans. Crime rates plummet, there are no unwanted pregnancies, STDs become practically nonexistent When a human is killed, however, while connected to his surrogate (when the unit is fried the damaging signal travels through the system to user and liquefies his brain), Willis has to figure out what's really going on. At the end he has to choose whether to let everyone remained plugged-in, or force them to face their real lives again... It's all done very well; a quick-moving movie, tight editing, good actors. I enjoyed it.
Dream Stuff: I had an odd dream during the night about being in a yard -- that looked something like the yard at the Nona Street house -- with a bunch of dogs. I don't remember what it was about exactly, but one thing that really struck me was a moment when my dog, Giuliani, my Chihuahua that Animal Control stole from me, came out from behind an out-building in the yard and looked right at me. Our eyes locked for a moment, and my mind was filled with this very vivid image of his little face and big eyes... and I woke up missing him soooo much, and worrying about him. I wonder if he's okay; if he was "calling out" to me or missing me...
EDD Stuff: I also got a check today from the EDD for the weeks of 06-19-10 and 06-26-10. It's measly -- but it's MINE; I deserve it; I worked for it; I'm keeping it. So, in the bank it goes.
Friday, July 2, 2010: I helped Marty a little bit with his West Coast Story foam letters, in between other morning projects like making us breakfast, answering e-mails and doing job search stuff for the day. It was fairly nice out all day, although it did warm up a little by the afternoon. Around 11:30 or so, I decided to go into town, make a deposit at the bank, get some office supplies, and pick up a few groceries for lunch at the supermarket, but -- wow! -- this was NOT the day to go out. It looked like EVERYONE had the day off from work, and was out buying booze, picnic stuff and fireworks, clogging up all of the roads and parking lots around for miles. What a mess! I got through it all okay, though, and got all the supplies I needed, including several copies of my resume and multiple copies of the State's application form. (The State is broke, but there are applications available for almost every department.) While I was at Office Depot, I found this really great booklight that uses lithium batteries and an LED light, so it won't "burn" and it won't run out of juice in 10 minutes like the old versions did. It's also a lot lighter (weight-wise) and more compact. I really like it!
Later in the afternoon, Marty used my computer to burn some CDs (his laptop bit the dust, and his desktop PC is cranky about burning disks). When he played one for me, I was sitting in the TV room with the dogs and started bouncing a blueberry to the beat of the music. Pozey, who loves blueberries, watched the berry and bounced her head along with the beat, and was soooo cute, I took a short video snippet of her. At the end she gave me a high-five and a shake-hands! Hah!
EDD Stuff: I had sent a letter to the EDD telling them that my jury duty was scheduled for the same period when they wanted me to attend a meeting (on the 8th at 1:30 PM) at the Sacramento Job Services (SJS) office. Well, I got a call today from "Frita" at SJS and she told me I DON'T have to come for the meeting. She didn't want to keep my appointment open if she wasn't sure I could attend ((I won't know if I'm called in for jury duty until the last minute)), so she told me to just skip it. She said she'll ket the EDd know what happened, but also suggested that I post a note on the EDD website or mail them to let them know about my conversation with her -- so I did that, just so everything is documented in writing.
Jury Duty: I was feeling antsy about the upcoming Jury Duty stuff -- don't know why -- so I checked the court website. Now, if I'm reading that right, it looks like I don't have to check back with the court until the evening of July 8th; yay! Maybe I won't get called in at all and will have a peaceful vacation afterall.
Comcast: Two "kids" showed up at the house around 8:00 PM tonight, and without identifying themselves they asked if Marty lived there, who was I, how was I related to him, etc. I asked them to identify themselves, and they claimed they were with Comcast. I know Marty has that service, but HE pays for it, so I don't know anything about what he wants or what he pays or anything. These guys kept trying to get information on Marty's service from me, and I had to tell them THREE TIMES that they needed to speak with Marty, and Marty was out running errands. One of the guys then said, "We have a lot of really great deals for you, ma'am, if you'd just cooperate with us." WTF?! I told them AGAIN that they would have to speak with Marty, and I closed the door on them. . . Then I went on-line to Comcast's site and filed a complaint, starting with the line: IS THIS THE WAY YOUR COMPANY REPRESENTS ITSELF TO THE PUBLIC?! and ended with something like, IF THE ACCOUNT WAS IN MY NAME, I'D BE CANCELLING IT RIGHT NOW! TEACH YOUR PERSONNEL SOME MANNERS! Jebuz. They trespass into private property, come after 5:00 pm when "normal" people are trying to relax for the day, don't identify themselves, don't listen when you speak to them, and then insult you. Arrrrgh! Am I right, or am I just turning into SUCH an old curmudgeon?