jagmas.com

It’s Official: Worst Summer Ever

// July 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Just Blogging, Life

I have a crack in my foundation. I thought the cracks in my tile were due to the house settling. It settled alright. But that isn’t half of the crap i’ve gone though this summer.

1. Water softener leaks resin into the house causing my sinks to refuse to put out water. One new kitchen faucet (and a garbage disposal that need replacing anyway), replacment tank, and cleanup of said plumbing later i’m back in business
2. Car dies at Walgreens and won’t take a jump. One rental and battery (200+ alone for a huge dry cell in the trunk) and i’m all good.
3. AC unit goes out over this past weekend. Two days, 3 calls to 3 different repair places and one vacation day later (nice vacation huh?) it’s fixed Monday evening.

Throw in an expensive TV repair and some other minor issues (video card croaking, etc) and you can start to see why it’s been a great summer so far (not). At least I have a better way to pay for the tile damage now.

Men, Women and keeping it real..

// April 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // Books, Life

Saw an really good piece on Good Morning America this morning since I was already late for work. It was comedian Steve Harvey talking about his book called Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man which has become a bestseller and features straight talk to women about men.

He was pretty spot on from my point of view about everything. Of particular interest was how he laid out the differences on how men and women show each other how much they love one another. He surmised that women have a multitude of ways to do this while men basically have three. If you have a chance, take 10 minutes to watch the clip (at least to the 3 P’s). It may hit home or peak your interest as to what else he has to say..

Click here for clip

Memorable Monday

// April 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Just Blogging, Life, Random Thoughts

Monday will be a memorable day not only for all the well wishes on facebook but also for a minor (at the time major) scare we had with my mom. My mom came up to celebrate my BD at a birthday breakfast with my sister. During her preperation she inadvertantly took a knock on the back of her head before she left home. It was evident that something wasn’t quite right (slow speech, etc) and she suffered through a headache throughout the morning as well as being groggy. We’d hoped that it would have cleared up later in the day, but as the day went on she didn’t seem to be any better. Around 9:30 pm we convinced her that she should be checked out by a doctor. For one I was worried that she could have something more serious going on up to the possibility of going to sleep and not waking up. My sister and I met her at the hospital where she was given a catscan and it was determined that there was no internal bleeding and probably a mild concussion. She was told to stay home for the next 24-48 hours and be monitored throughout the day. I was just happy that it wasn’t anything major and that she was alright. So, definitely a memorable Monday in a few ways. Again, thank you for the well wishes throughout..

Mine all Mine (Tomorrow)

// March 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // Just Blogging, Life

Tomorrow will be the first time I’ve ever really owned a car without having to make payments on it to a financial institution. I’m not sure what i’ll do with myself but I will most certainly not be planning to go out and pay for another car anytime soon. I really love this car, much more that ones i’ve leased in the past (BMW, Acura) so that makes it even better. Now I can pay off some bills with what used to be my car payment.

My Kindle: Part Deux

// February 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Kindle, Life

I broke my Kindle.

It was sitting on a ledge where I also keep my wireless headphones with tiled floors all through the house. Not a good combo. I almost dropped it a few times before due to wires getting crossed up etc. The thing that did it was me forgetting it was plugged in and grabbing it from the opposite side I usually get it from. It smashed on the floor screwing up the e-ink to where it was pretty much unreadable. This all happened awhile ago, but I called it in on Monday. 189 dollars later and my brand new Kindle arrived on Tuesday. Setting it up and pulling down my books, magazines and newspapers again was a breeze. Still it was an expensive lesson to learn. Moral of the story is keep your Kindles in a better spot than I did!

Leggo My Elbow..

// February 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life

My elbow has been giving me problems for a month or so after I strained it in the gym. I didn’t think much of it until Monday night when I went to bed at 10 pm with the plan to wake up at 5 to go workout. That never happened because I didn’t get very much sleep due to the throbbing pain all night from my elbow. I went into the office late on Tuesday feeling like crap. I had looked at my arms in the mirror and saw a bulge in my right arm but didn’t think much of it. After showing it to a few people in the office and seeing their reaction (not good) I decided to go get it checked out. So after getting some anti-inflammatory drugs and promising to stay away from the gym a few days along with checking back in if there were still problems I went home and passed out.

Thinking back I should have gotten it checked out when I first starting having problems. But guys are stubborn that way I suppose. Now I may have to go have the elbow drained if the meds don’t help much. In any event I got a decent nights sleep.

Not in my lifetime

// November 5th, 2008 // No Comments » // Just Blogging, Life

Wow.

The first call I made was to my mom. A mixture of excitement and some tears came through the phone from her after the speech Obama gave was over. “Did you ever think this could happen?” I asked. “Not in my lifetime” she replied.

Not in my lifetime. I haven’t lived the life she or my father has but I had heard some stories about my dad going to a segregated school and my mom going to a non-segregated school a few years later in the town where I grew up. I can only imagine how tough life was during those times, how options were limited and how something like last nights election could move people like my mother to tears. I can only imagine the emotions my grandmother experienced watching the election and I wished that I could have been there in the moment with them both.

I look forward to talking to my parents and my grandmother over the next few days to take in the magnitude of the election from their point of view. They’ve lived through some of the ugliness in our nations history and I’m overjoyed that they’ve had the opportunity to see this in their lifetime.

Lemons

// August 4th, 2008 // No Comments » // Just Blogging, Life, Random Thoughts

I’m kinda lost at the moment trying to figure out what’s next. For now I’ve got a big bag of lemons and I don’t know if I’m up for lemonade. I mean, you have to go find sugar and some water. You can’t really have lemonade without ice and you really need a nice big glass cup to really enjoy it. Still, there’s nothing like a nice cool glass of lemonade to hit the spot sometimes huh?

So what’s next? First, let’s see what tommorow holds…

I’m missing a month here…. Mulder?

// May 29th, 2008 // No Comments » // Just Blogging, Life, Movies, Play

Holy crap I haven’t posted in a month! I really don’t know where to begin other than to say this post won’t be long because I’m tired as hell. I was up late, got up early, then spent the rest of the day running around for no apparent reason, save one (I did have an appointment I had to make). Other than that it’s been all good. Mother’s day was great and I spent some quality time with the family. I actually got my pulse pen (ie Lightscribe) but even more crazy is I have yet to use it. That’s partly because it came a day before my week of vacation concluding tomorrow. But back to the ill conceived thought that this would be a short post..

So.. Sex and the City tomorrow. I’m on the hook to travel with a few coworkers (all women), so I will probably get the token gay member of the group pass (not that theres anything wrong with that) but no worries, I can deal. I was halfway thinking of dressing the part if I had something outrageously flamboyant. I’m not expecting much of the movie so it should be great! Truth be told I loved the series. It was smartly written and half of the stuff talked about could pose for stuff guys talk about with guy stuff substituted in. So in the end I guess we’re all not too different, save the venus and mars pieces.

Anyway there’s so much I wanna say and not enough time so i’ll just end now. We could always use more peeps to enjoy the flick so if you’re not doing anything around 10:30 a.m. and you’re near the Gateway theatre come on by!

I should really spell check this before…

Sleeeeep….

I Want To Believe

// April 24th, 2008 // No Comments » // Just Blogging, Life, Random Thoughts

Walking into the office today my thoughts turned to the poster from the X-Files that basically outlined Mulder’s being on the show. I’m not sure why it came up or why it resonated with me at that moment but it did. I started thinking about all the things that I wanted to believe in then I got a little sad. I remembered back to all the things that were possible when I was a little kid, how everything still seemed within reach even when I got older.

I think we all have moments like this at some point and sometimes they hit home harder than at other times as well. For me, it was a momentary lapse that made me pause and think longer about it than maybe I should have….or maybe not.