I've been setting here for hours attempting to navigate all the junk to be found on Blogspot in terms of trying to get the thing set up the way I want it to be set up.
I hate the pre-designed themes for the blogs here, I have gone beyond those borders and attempting to upload a couple of different blog templates that I thought looked cool - none of them would work.

Undoubtedly my own ignorance in that department, oh well.

And no offense, but having to do all that stuff on several blogs in order to be able to post a comment, including having to type in the "word" shown is a bit of a hassle.

The games yesterday, what a HOOT!!!
I DREAMED that the Chargers would win and potentially be up against Pittsburgh, I had no idea that it would actually happen. What a great game that was, too! Overtime, the Chargers win the toin coss and walaah, they actually manage to score and win the game. Manning never even had a chance to get on the field after overtime started.

The Cardinals also pulled off a HUGE upset, at least as far as I'm concerned, against the Falcons. I found myself actually rooting for the Cardinals. I know, kinda lame, I'm "supposed" to be a fan since it's my home team, but - I have always been a Steelers fan through thick and thin and will never let the Steelers take a number 2 spot on my very short list of favorite teams.

So there's a couple of more Wildcard games on today, I'll be watching those as well.

The extended periods of days off are over as of the end of today. For whatever reason, having a hard time getting my brain back into full-work mode. I don't have any choice in the matter, I'll be at work at 5:45 am tomorrow morning, and I will be there until at least 2:30 pm and that will be that. Afterwards - on one day this week anyway - I will probably be heading to Fry's to fill out an application in person and attempt to land a part-time job there.

My new tenant thinks I should just do the taxi thing for 48 hours during the weekend. Weekend Warriors they call them, people who just do it on weekends. I think I'd rather work at Fry's to be honest. At least, if I could get a job cashiering. Well, heck, if I had my druthers, druther be finding a job on the side driving a truck. That hasn't exactly happened, yet. As the economy dives further and further, jobs of any kind are becoming more and more scarce. Perhaps you might call it extinction. Not a heckuva lot out there and I did not bother to buy the Sunday paper today or last week cause' it has practically nothing in it. 3 pages - where it used to be friggin' 20 plus pages of employers placing ads for help.

Oh, I have pictures! Have yet to upload them to my computer, though. Try to do that later, I'm trying to get some laundry and other things done right now. Gotta make a trip to Fry's later on - for food, not a job - and I still have holes to dig outside, plus I was going to go get those poles today.

Again, this period of having all the time off is spoiling me. I could take another week off of work and not miss work -at all. Yes, I even have the hours saved up to do so. Lessee: 61 hours of sick leave; 40 plus hours of vacation; 24 hours of personal time and 16 hours of floating holidays plus 6 paid days off for holidays and I get my birthday off. That's almost 200 hours of paid time off for this year. Plus I accrue even MORE vacation time. 6.6 hours per month, to be exact.

I'm still wondering what's going to happen at the main branch at my company. Someone has to move to Albequerque (no, I won't even think about it). An inside salesman, to be exact. Which means, if/when that person decides to do so, someone will have to be promoted to take that person's place. I can think of some others that MIGHT qualify for the position, but the pickings are starting to thin out. People that are qualified are already filling other positions that have to have someone filling it. Wait and see thing - I have put my name in the hat more times than I can remember in informing management of my desire to get out of trucking.

Whether it actually materializes, who knows.

I'm off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of - laundry.
c'yall later.
ben

Drive back was both fast and exasperating at the same time. There are far too many drivers out there now that think the inside lane/highspeed lane is the place to camp out and basically block traffic.
I ended up passing a lot of these people in the right lane. I'm not going to drive 65 mph in a 75 mph zone because some person is sitting in the fast lane and doesn't care that there are a LOT of cars stuck behind this person. You're sitting there, waiting for an opportunity to pass - yes on the right - after they pass a car. They're going just fast enough to slowly pass a car and also by the time YOU pass that same car they have made it far enough to block you from passing on the right.

So, I get home and the dogs, of course, go crazy. I gave them all attention, but then had to go to work. Get the Christmas tree outside, open up the windows - this place as STUFFY - BAD stuffy - turn on ceiling fans, whole-house-fan, and then go out and water all the plants.

Then, of course, I had to sit down and watch the Cardinals v Falcons game. A stunning ending - I had no thought whatsoever that the Cardinals would actually win the game. It was amazing to see the Cardinals pull out that win.

Now, I'm just waiting for the second game to start. Colts V Chargers. Colts, from my view anyway, favored highly to win. BUT - Chargers have home-field advantage. Perhaps another upset? Who knows.

I'm outta here - next game set to start.
ben

Saturday

Some good football (I hope it's good anyway) on later today. Dad and Millie are coming over to the hotel this morning, we're going to check out and head over to a favorite eatery of theirs. After that, we'll be heading back to Phoenix hopefully to arrive in time to watch the first of 2 NFL games on today.
Apparently Mary has had this guy over putting up the door and framing to turn the front family room into a rather large bedroom. Mary has complained about how small the bedroom is that she's currently in (of course, she got to SEE that bedroom before she moved in) and wanted a bigger room. I had thought about telling her to go rent her own apartment somewhere. Okay, it's just that sometimes she gets a little ....out-of-control.....is how I'll put it - and I have to end up dealing with her as if she were a little kid.
I already gave her permission to do that with the caveat that I am not responsible for the monies owed to her friend, in any way, shape or form, for the work that is done and further, that there is no rent deduction for the work and further that I will not be paying her anything for that work after she moves on to her next dwelling abode - whenever that may be.
If/when she leaves and if I don't like it, only a matter of tearing out the framing and drywall with the door and then a little patchwork on the drywall. No big deal. It frees up a bedroom. If our company starts cutting back hours: 5 hours per week cut is the talk of the town, I will not hesitate to rent out another room. It's that or sink. I figure if this economy keeps going in the downward spiral, our company will continue to be hit with slumping sales and yes, they will do whatever they have to in order to stay afloat, including laying off more workers and cutting back hours.
Happy new year, right? Lol. And some people wonder why I was and still somewhat am looking for a second, part-time job. I say somewhat because I filled out a lot of applications and received word back from only one of them. A minimum wage job, I passed on it. If I want to volunteer my time, I can think of plenty of things to do besides working at a concessions stand at the Phoenix Zoo.
This coming week will mark the start of back to 5 day work weeks. After having all this time off, that may be something of a chore to get used to. If there's nothing going on, it will be especially mundane. Yes, I'm glad to be employed, but when work slows down to a crawl and there's nothing to do, I tend to start fading out.
I've enjoyed a trip away from home, but - I'm definitely ready to go home and visit with my dogs. Michael has been over there for the last couple of days - after he told me he wasn't going to be there until I came back. Not that it matters - much - but, I just want to get home and see with my own eyes that everything is okay. I'm sure my dogs are greatly missing me by now. If I remember, I'm going to take a short video when I get home of all the noise and noises they'll start making. Duke starts whining like a baby and Prince makes this noise that sounds like a bear. Coco sometimes makes noise, but mostly just stands there, wagging her tail, waiting for me to unlock the gate and come inside.
Anyway, I'm offa here. Start checking everyone's journals later today when I get home.
ben