The Week From Insanity

Monday: Worked on Capitol Hill. Got all the TV stuff resolved for the guy at the end of the block.
Tuesday: Worked in Upper Marlboro for some friends of my family. I took an angle grinder to the cement block wall in the basement. Ended up spreading dust all over their basement. The friend's garage floor can be ate off of. They were not as mad as I expected. Got a LG Voyager phone to replace my LG VX8300 which was dying.
Wednesday: Drylocked their wall. Cleaned up some. Went to Capitol Hill and did gardening.
Thursday: Went back to their house again to help clean up. Went to Lowe's to get supplies for the apartments. Did more gardening at work. Put down weed killer. Ryan invited me down to his family's vacation home on the Rockfish River in Nelson County VA.
Friday: Went to work. Forgot to pick up my suit from the dry cleaner before leaving for work. Swept the roof, cleaned the gutters, did gardening, trimmed a tree, cleaned off the walks. Drove 160 miles down to Nelson County in my truck. Got drunk after arriving. Met some of Ryan's friends from when he lived in the Norfolk area.
Saturday: Woke up without a hangover. Went to visit my mom's cousin, her partner, her daughter and grandkids. Drove back to Charles County to change Ram for Accord. Went to Sam's Club. Went to my parents house. Went to the family that I did the work for's BBQ, drove to Baltimore. Proceeded to set Tim's grill on fire. Spent the night there.
Sunday: Cleaned Tim's house. Went to Shoppers Food Warehouse in Forestville for groceries for my parents. Went to Home Depot for my parents. Cooked crab legs for my dad and I. Watched the HBO movie Recount. Went home.
Monday: Attempted to program my new phone. Went to Nordstrom in Pentagon City and dropped about $325 on a new pair of Kenneth Cole shoes, a new button down dress shirt, a new tie, a pair of khakis and a Tommy Bahama T-Shirt. Went to Best Buy to buy the OneRepublic CD and the new Donna Summer CD. Went to work, did gardening, cleanup, talked to Maggie, did laundry. Came home from work, cleaned my room.

I think this about sums it up. Hopefully I will have more time to elaborate on everything over the next few days.

Evil Mega Churches

My younger niece, who is 16, is attending a non denominational bible church.

Those are scary things. On top of it, she is working at Best Buy. I guess if you are going to drink the evil empire's cool-aid, you might as well do it in gulps and not sips. My mom, brother and I are very concerned about this church's influence over my niece. And after seeing what a similar type of church did to my boss, well, I have more reason to be concerned.

Saturday I worked at a fundraiser for the Angie Holtz Scholarship Fund. I enjoyed working with the people. Afterwards, Tim, Ryan, Ryan's friend Leo, and I went out to a Sports Bar in Laurel. I can't remember the name however. Things went pretty well, despite the fact that Dan, Tricia, Shannon and Kelly could not make it. Shannon got tickets to the O's game though her friend Pam, and Chris took Kelly to the O's game. Dan and Tricia backed out of going. So it was just the four and we had a good old time.

Today I installed a new ceiling fan at home. My roommates and I may have to install a new wiring box, because the existing one cannot support the weight of the fan. Ooops. From there I went up to my parents house, running by Target for groceries, Circuit City to redeem my DTV converter box coupons, and Wawa for salads.

The cashier at Circuit City did not know how to redeem the DTV cards. I was sent to customer service, I had to wait in line at customer service, behind complicated returns. Once I got to the front of the line, the customer service cashier was able to ring me up in less than a minute. I was very disappointed with their employee training. No wonder Circuit City is loosing market share to the evil Best Buy.

I Can't Do It, We'll Do It Live

Bill O's little rant back in the day when he was a host of Inside Edition. Funny. It's great to see people such as him have little hissy fits.

Tonight Tim and I went to the Oriole's/National's game in Baltimore tonight. The O's won 5-3. The new high definition score board had some glitches, such as showing the Boston Red Sox logo instead of a Nationals logo for the lineup. The worst glitch was the Old Bay Crab shell game malfunctioned badly. Otherwise the game was fun. Afterwards we went to XS and had sushi.

My mom went for her MRI earlier in the day. While she was being scanned at Bowie Medical Center, I went over to my friend Janice's house. I have not seen her since 2003, around the time I won the auction on 2211. She is doing well, her son is now 17. I remember him as a eight year old. Amazing how time flies.

I am proud to see the California Supreme Court took a bold step to allow gay marriage this week. I am also proud to see Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's acceptance of the ruling. Hopefully this ruling by a relatively conservative state court system will spread to other states.

My truck's battery has been replaced. The woman that wrote up my service ticket told me her 2000 Durango has the same random windshield wiper swipes and the steering wheel radio controls seeking instead of the changing the presets. The technician told me that he thinks my truck's body control module is having intermittent failure. I plan on dropping the truck off sometime next week to have it inspected more thouroughly.

Remembering All Those Who Served Heroically

This post is to remember and honor Deputy Jason Baker of the Marion County Indiana Sheriff's Office. His end of watch was 9/17/2001.
This post is to remember and honor Corporal Steve Gaughan of the Prince George's County Police Department. His end of watch was 6/21/2005.
This post is to remember the other countless people that have served the public as police officers and have given their lives for the rest of us. May you all rest in peace.

Pleasure Reading Your For Posting

I ran off to Deep Creek Lake this past weekend.

Noteworthy: More button copy signage is disappearing. Some mileage signs along I-70 and I-68 have been replaced with reflectorized BGSes. Also along I-68, the "Watch for Maryland Wildlife" signs have been replaced with the text in black on a yellow background, opposed to the former brown on white with the old signs.

Also, Frostburg has a "Paris N. Glendenning Recreation Center". Amazing. I would have never thought that anything in Allegany County would be named after him.

The DC area flooded while I was gone. Oh well. Apparently there was over 5" of rain at Andrews AFB in the past 24 hours. My parents said they had trouble sleeping due to the wind driven rain hitting their house all night. US 301 was closed at Western Branch. Just a total mess. My trip home from Garrett County was uneventful. Thank god.

My prediction for the West Virginia primary tomorrow is Clinton 59%, Obama 41%.

Whew

At least my throat infection is getting better.

At work today, I did some gardening, tried to figure out why the sound was not working at that guy's house where I installed the TV yesterday, cleaned up some dead baby birds, bugged Verizon about the low hanging wire in the yard, replaced seats, springs and stems for a faucet and did some vacuuming.

On the way to the hardware store, when I walked by the Eastern Market Metro station, I heard this guy spewing off religious nut job stuff over an amplified megaphone. So I dialed 411 and tried to get the number for the US Park Police. The wonderful Verzion 411 person put me through to the Kennedy Center Security desk. So I had to call my brother and have him look up the number. I hope the USPP came by, because he kept spewing off "A doe, a deer, a female deer" and "bird, bird, bird, bird is a word", which now reminds me of the scene from Pink Flamingos where a contortionist who "lip syncs" the song with his exposed anus. Thank you John Watters for ruining this song.

This will probably be my last post until I get back from Western Maryland on Monday May 12th. See you all then!

Presumptive Nominee

I think Barack Obama has done it. Yesterday's overwhelming 14 point victory in North Carolina for Obama, coupled with Clinton's slim two point victory in Indiana has tipped the scales very heavy for Obama. Granted, I expected Obama to win Indiana roughly by four, however, the places where he had to do well, such as Marion and Lake Counties, he did not perform as needed to swing the whole state. However, the fact he came so close, when people were predicting a Clinton blow out, suggests that he is gaining momentum again.

Yesterday I went to the doctor, found out I have a throat infection, and was put on penicillin four times a day for a week. I am starting to feel better. Afterwards I went to work, installing a flat screen TV for one of the neighbors. He's much more happy with his new 40" Toshiba 1080P LCD over his old 30" Gateway 720P LCD. The old one had major ghosting issues.

My parents neighbor suggested that I write a letter to the new CEO of Chrysler Group, with photocopied service records, complaining that I want them to find the problem with the truck. It's worth a shot. I'm getting frustrated with the truck, that's for sure.

I bid everyone a good day

What happens in Williams Arizona?

Congratulations to Kristin and Justin. Kristin is pregnant again. She right now has a nine month old in the house. That will put the two siblings about eighteen months apart. My brother and sister are eighteen months apart. So are Robin's two kids. So are (another/different from the one at the party) Jessie's two kids. All have said it's nuts doing that.

Today at work I ran into one of the tenants at the building the church ended up with. I told her about the job opportunities I am looking into, and I asked her if she was hiring anyone. It ends up she is looking for Summer interns, with pay ranging from $35/hr to $50/hr. I e-mailed her my resumé when I got home from work tonight. At work I mowed the grass, cleaned the area ways, did gardening and adjusted a lock. The trash has not been picked up since last week, the cans are overflowing and stink. I called the management company to know their garbage contractors are not doing their jobs.

Today I also noticed in my sent text message file that someone texted K9 John at 12:30 AM on Saturday, in the middle of the party. Fantastic. You bad pranksters sent a text message to a land line, which of course does not go though.

Kelly had her sit in with the District Court Commissioners today. She said she thinks she can handle the job. While I need the job more than she does, if they hire more than one, it would be nice if both of us were chosen.

I spoke with the mechanic that worked on my truck at the auto electric shop. They said the battery was bad. I mentioned all the strange electrical problems it has had, the fact that this is the THIRD battery since the truck was new in May 2004. He checked the voltage regulator, the alternator, and some other accessories, and everything turned up normal. I am guessing I will be selling the damn thing to Carmax or something once I find a new job, because these gremlins are driving me up the wall.

When I got home from work, in addition to sending the resumé, I helped uncover the pool with my roommates. After doing that once, I probably would never want a swimming pool, unless I can pay someone else to do all the work. I like to keep homeownership simple.

Prediction for tomorrow with the North Carolina and Indiana Primaries:
North Carolina: Obama 58%, Clinton 42%
Indiana: Obama 51%, Clinton 49%

I bid everyone a good night, I go to the doctors tomorrow to get this sinus infection taken care of.

It's My Party, and I can, oh Nevermind

Friday afternoon I did a phone interview with Northrop Grumman. While the position is not exactly what I am looking for, I decided to throw my hat in the ring. I still hope to get the District Court Commissioner position, since that would be more pay, keep me local, and get me closer to a career in police work.

Friday night was my birthday party. An extra special thanks to Tim for hosting it. Of course a special thanks to Freddy, Shannon, Shawon, Dave, Jessie, Steve, Adam, Kelly, Rick, Tricia, Dan, Tara, Justin, André, Tatyana, and Chad for showing up. We had great food, Tim's iPod on shuffle, lots of stories about me from high school (Justin and Tara) and college (Shawon) to entertain everyone. Jessie gets the quote of the night about the Tofukey sausages I got a Trader Joe's, along the lines of "They are the sausage equivalent of a dildo." At 11:30 PM or so, we had a campaign toast and served the ice cream cake. I proceeded to get even more plastered until I opened presents around 2:00 AM or so. I received a friendship book, E=MC2 by Mariah Carey, Blackout by Britney Spears, two copies of The Smurfs Season 1 on DVD, an iPod dock, a deck of playing cards, a Swiss Army type tool. Some other presents ordered by other people are on the way to my PO Box. Around 3:00 AM, I was sent to bed because, well, the party was coming to an end. Shannon, Freddy and Rick spent the night.

I woke up the next morning throwing up. And kept throwing up from about 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM or so. Finally after my stomach settled down, I felt it was safe to leave Tim's house. Freddy drove me back to my parents house and went home with the Accord. Chris then brought my parents Chinese food, which helped settle my stomach. I ended up catching a nap from about 7 PM until 10 PM, then got ready for my ride along.

OK here is the short of the long of it, community relations with the Prince George's County Police have come light years along since 1999 when I last rode with them. The level of respect that the citizens showed the officer I rode with amazed me, considering he was a white guy. In the past, there was quite a lot of tension between police and citizens, which I witnessed quite a bit on my ride alongs with the department. I rode along in District III, which is Palmer Park, and specifically was in the "H" sector, which was roughly bordered by Southern Ave on the West, Suitland Parkway on the South, Central Ave on the North and the Beltway on the East. Areas included District Heights, Capitol Heights, Suitland, Forestville and Boulevard Heights. We responded to three noise complaints, a hit and run, two shootings, did a traffic stop and gave some hookers a good scare. While en route to one of the shootings, we went though a red light camera intersection with our lights and siren on. This led to my favorite quote of the night by the officer, on the radio, with dispatch. "Had a Kodak moment at Donnell and the Pike on priority". The second noteworthy event of the night was when we pulled the traffic stop. We clocked a Zipcar doing 53 in a 35 on Ritchie Road. The guy had his children at a movie until nearly 2 AM. That raised the eyebrows of two other officers. The third noteworthy event of the night was with a woman walking along Southern Avenue with her two children at 2:30 AM. She was emotionally distressed, and the officer calmly asked her questions about her welfare despite her agitated state. She claimed she was coming home from work and just picked the kids up from a family member's house, and she lived about two blocks away. The fourth noteworthy event of the night was when we rolled up on some hookers in Suitland across from the Census Bureau. Both were white women, born in 1962. One looked to be about 80 years old, the other one looked to be in her late 40s. The one in her late 40s was strung out, and when the officer asked if she was on anything, she told him she had just smoked a rock. While giving her a field interrogation, she tried to flash the officers on the scene. However, due to her very point blank honesty and cooperation, we ended up sending both on their way with a stern warning to leave the area. The final noteworthy event of the night was the second shooting, however other officers on the scene had the incident under control. At this point it was 4:30 AM and the officer and I both concluded that this would be a good time to part ways. I got back to my parents house around 5 AM, my dad was up watching TV, I ended up going to bed until 9 AM or so.

I woke up around 9 AM, my dad cooked me breakfast. Afterwards we tried to go get free mulch from the County, however the facility was closed. There was a stray dog walking around. She tried to follow my truck, so I got out and tried to bate her over. However she ran away. Poor dog, she definitely looked like she had been dumped there by a heartless owner. We then went to Dunkin Dounuts, to get coffee and donuts. Then I did random chores around their house. My brother came by, met me, we took the truck to the electrical mechanic in Upper Marlboro and dropped it off, and he ran me home. When I got home I proceeded to take a hour long nap. Afterwards I ate some dinner, watched some TV, and sent out a couple copies of my resumé before starting to write this post.

I bid everyone a good night and good luck.

My Truck is Posessed by Evil Demonic Forces

Well, lets see: The steering wheel radio controls, when I hit preset instead seek. Occasionally when I hit the keyless entry to unlock, the windshield wipers sweep. Occasionally, when listening to the CD player, and hitting the gas, the windshield wipers come on. The ABS computer self destructed. The seat heaters don't work properly. The FM radio randomly picks up stations from Alabama, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Vermont instead of local stations. Now, the truck wont crank over every time. Last night, when I tried to start it, the headlights, windshield wipers and seat heaters came on, despite the switches being set to off, yet the truck would not turn over. Chrysler wonders why they are loosing market share. Need I say more?

The DC madam, Deborah Palfrey, committed suicide yesterday. She was visiting her mom in Tarpon Springs Florida, when she apparently hung herself in the shed. Poor woman, I actually feel sorry for her. And for her age, she was extremely attractive and very well spoken. I don't think what she was doing was a drain on society, despite being against the law. May she rest in peace.

This morning, I took my mom to the eye doctors. When she was called to go into the exam room, she collapsed onto the floor. The doctor checked her vital signs and her blood pressure and pulse were high. She needs to get that looked into. At least her vision is still 20/20.

Tonight is my birthday party at Tim's house in Baltimore. I'm excited, it looks like we are going to get between 20 and 25 people tonight.

The District Court Commissioners Office has scheduled an interview for me later in May. I'm excited.

I am off of here until tomorrow. Have a good one.