I was ready for that bullet that missed.

As many of you know last year I decided to re-market myself in the workforce. I wanted to see if I had a needed marketable skill that could find me another job if I had to. After two plant shut downs you tend to prepare for it and be ready for it.

Vargis / Infotech made a unique little offer to me an that was the ability to work from home. I saw this increasing the quality of life and felt it strengthened my position within my company in case something would ever happen and they shut my office down.

I have felt that an announcement was going to come since probably last September for some reason. There was less interest in what was going on at the Frostburg facility and they were not replacing anyone.

Today, the announcement came and they are shutting down my office in Frostburg in March. An office that two years ago I had full intentions of running never came to fruition and they moved me onto jobs where my skills had already been significantly developed.

Of course, having gone through this not once but twice I was secretly preparing and not giving any hints over what I had felt had been developing over the past six months. I was ready for this announcement. The President and COO both made trips to Frostburg today, but no one bothered to officially tell or invite me.

Reason being, they are giving me two options and I receive both official offers tomorrow. One will be to keep working from home, with an increase in salary. The second is to move to Sterling, Virginia to that office with a salary pro-rated for the DC Metropolitan area.

I have not seen either offer yet nor do I know much of the details, however I should receive them in an e-mail either this evening or tomorrow morning. I know about 95% what my decision will be, however it is nice that there is a chance to relocate at a nice salary to a place where the opportunities would be almost limitless.

For the record, my lease expires today and the new 12 month lease I signed a month and a half ago kicks in tomorrow.

I guess this time I dodged the bullet and set myself up for my next set of goals when and if I decide to persue them.

Baby fart

Tried something new

I'm always open to try new things. Today I tried something new, and never really had an opinion of it before. I actually bought some chocolate soy milk and decided to give it a try.

It was a little more expensive than regular milk, but you can see in on the shelves with a little more consistency now. I tried the product brand Silk and I have to say it wasn't that bad. I kept thinking back to the scene from the movie "The Santa Clause" with Tim Allen and him drinking a glass of milk and the look on his face. He told the little girl the milk was sour and she told him it was soy milk because he had told her the previous year that he was lactose intolerant.

I gave it a try just to see what it was like. I didn't notice much of a difference other than it lacked that dairy after taste that is usually left behind after drinking milk.

If I had my choice between real milk and soy milk, I think I would choose real milk mainly because it's cheaper. I could get used to soy milk, but do you like imitation cheese or real cheese better?

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2007 When

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is
that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see
if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7 Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of
the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have
the
first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for
panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your
coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward
this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9
on this list

A movie I have never heard of but will buy.

I was walking through Wal-Mart a couple days ago and all the TV's were playing previews for this one football movie. I stood there captivated and immediately turned and looked for it.

The movie is called Facing the Giants and from everything I have seen so far, it is a movie that I must own. I have a feeling this is going to be a classic sports movie for the ages. Thing is, before a couple days ago I never even heard of it.

Looks to be very inspirational and a must own DVD.

It's Friday!!!!!

Give me a T

Give me a G

Give me an I

Give me a F



What's that Spell?!?!?!?!?!?



Nothing, it's an acronym.

I hope everyone's week has went well. We are once again at another Friday and the end of the workweek. Next Friday, I will have a certain little rodent in the cross hairs and if the rat sees his shadow again I'm blowing his head off. Anyone for groundhog stew for next Friday's lunch?

Not much has really went on for me this week, horrible weather and just a typical week at work doing a lot of editing. Fun, fun fun.

I'm thinking of either watching a DVD tonight, I think I may watch V for Vendetta, but that is not a solid commitment. I may change my mind.

I'm starting to feel like bear

Have I ever mentioned that I hate snow? It's a time of the year that confines you to being inside and not being able to have the front door open to allow the fresh misty mountain air to emanate throughout your living quarters. I have to resort to candles and renuzit's to remind me of that gentle smell of a fresh spring morning.

This is the time of the year I feel like an ole grouchy bear being awaken from the midst of his hibernation to the unpleasantness of snow, cold weather and near 0 wind chills.

I was watching 24 Sunday night for the first few minutes, I was sitting in the chair and the next thing I know it was 10:05 and I had fallen asleep during 3/4 of the most action packed show on television.

Hurry up softball season.

YUCK!!!!!!

Powerball jackpot

Everybodies favorite waste a buck to dream a little game is reaching that level once again. Powerball currently is an esitmated $240 Million and has an estimated cash value of $114 Million before taxes.

Take a buck, spend it on it but don't go overboard. I've sold literally thousands of tickets and know that that chances of winning were very slim BEFORE they added additional numbers to the pool a few years ago. The odds of winning are

Jack Pot 1 in 146,107,962.00
$200,000 1 in 3,563,608.83
$10,000 1 in 584,431.85
$100 with the powerball 1 in 14,254.44
$100 without the powerball 1 in 11,927.18
$7 with Powerball 1 in 290.91
$7 without Powerball 1 in 745.45
$4 1 in 126.88
$3 1 in 68.96

The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 36.61.


Have fun, let yourself dream a little bit what you would do if you hit it other than share it with me. Most importantly coming from a guy who has literally sold thousands of these tickets working at the Valley Mart, it is rare to win.

Is it Spring yet?

I hate snow. I hate the cold and I hate winter. I'm ready for the fresh smell of new foliage of the spring. We're not even at Groundhogs day yet.

Steelers are out of the playoffs, so I'm not really interested in the NFL playoffs.


Is it softball yet?

Let's see, what did I do today. I went to Super Wal-Mart (now there's a surprise) and bought by 2006 copy of my tax software. If anyone else uses Tax Cut, we can work together on this and make a few bucks for each other with each of us receiving a $10.00 rebate. I have used Tax Cut for four years now and highly recommend it. It is actually one of the most inexpensive tax softwares out there and it is done by H&R Block . I bought the Premium federal version for $14.95, and if you are reading this and you haven't done your taxes yet, we can each get $10.00 rebates. I no tax expert, but this has helped me get $300-$400 each of the last two years more than if I had done them myself. Sooooo, help both of get that $10.00 rebate.

What else is new for the day? Hmmmm. Have I mentioned that you can get a $10.00 rebate from buying Tax Cut?

The temperature outside is currently a very ugly 22 degrees. Why couldn't that be 82 degrees and it be spring time? Birds singing fresh rain to cleanse the air and softball season.

So, have you bought Tax Cut yet? Did you know you can get a $10.00 rebate? Just in case I forgot to mention that.

OK, NOW

I have the day right, Happy Birthday Nick.

OOPs

Nick's birthday is tomorrow. Brain fart on my end however IO got a chance to speak to Terri for a few Minutes. There is nothing going on at the bar tonight, but she said that the Hillbilly Gypsies are playing next week.

I am going to have to go and catch them next week, before they start hitting the big time.





Muleskinner Blues




Fire on the Mountain.

Happy Birthday Nick

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my brother in law Nick a very Happy Birthday.

American Idol to start again

Ok, it's time once again fro my favorite part of American Idol, that is when the judges initially visit all the cities and get to see all the uh..."talent" first hand to decide if they are going to make the trip to Hollywood.

This is the round when being bad could make you another William Hung

New TV show I am starting to watch

Over the past few years, I have had more than one person tell me about the TV show 24. I made it through the initial two shows last night and am watching the two other shows tonight (season premiere) and I have to say that I have been impressed.

Maybe I have a new drama series that I will finally start watching on a regular basis.

Texas Hold Em Round 4

This afternoon, we held round 4 of our Texas Hold Em Tournament. Today was a double point round and I needed to make up some ground on the points. I ended up finishing fourth overall and the double points round pulled the overall field in a little closer.

Players who had had pretty good games to this point went out early, and those of us who haven;t had good rounds played pretty decent for a change. Norma and Charlie were the final two players, but considering they are married we know what household that prize money was going to before the game ended.

Norma took Charlie out, winning round four.

How in the World

How in the world do you win $315 Million Dollars in the Lottery and be broke four years later? I mean come on, he was a millionaire BEFORE he hit the lottery. He took it in one lump sum of $113 Million AFTER taxes and in four years has blown it.

I have no idea how in the world he could have done this, but if someone would like to give me $113 Million cash I will try my hardest to be penniless in four short years.

Everyone can rest assured that we all would have taken a few trips around the world, and especially to Rio to see the topless babes on the beaches.

Bottled water consumers

The idiots of today with the wallets of tomorrow. I had to post this one, I see so many people buying battled water in convenience stores and have to laugh. First, it is higher priced than the soda that the beverage distributors also distribute, and secondly its tap water. I'm having fun with this.

Why Bush's NSA Wire tapping is defeated by VoIP Networks

Bush claims he needs NSA wire tapping to break up terrorist networks but terrorists are not using the phone network Bush is tapping. They are using private voice over IP internet phones (VoIP) that can't be tapped. This video explains how it works. EDIT: This is actually me testing out a feature from Google that I have never used before and that is posting a google video into a blog. WAAAAAYYYY too easy to do. All you have to do is log in.

TGIF

It's FRIDAY!!!!!!!!

Let the weekend begin!!!!