Cool. Cox and our local CBS affiliate are in a pissing match and neither wants to budge. Their contract expires at the end of this month. Guess who's carrying the Super Bowl this year?
My wife and I ended up buying our first house together last year. We had been renting because my job is always on the move and she didn't have an established career yet. Since living where we are now, her career has taken root, so we decided it was time to buy. We live in Orlando and it isn't what anybody would consider an exciting or charming place to live. We bought in one of the few areas that have good public schools with two young ones getting started at school soon. We spent a lot of time house hunting and ended up buying a bank owned property. It had been on the market a while, needed updating and some TLC and was a bit bigger than I wanted (4/4/3 4000sqft) but the deal I was able to work out was too good to pass up, I ended up paying less for it after financing most of the renovation than what it sold for new in 1999. Renovations can be a bastard. I was under a severe time crunch because I was only home for a few months before I had to leave for Saudi Arabia, so I did as much of it as I could but hired out the bigger projects to a contractor. We put a new roof on, painted the exterior and interior, ripped out all of the bathrooms, kitchen, all of the floor coverings, lighting and did a little changing to room dimensions. It worked out alright in the end, we moved in the week before I had to take off for KSA and the contractor was doing his final punch list at that time. Looking back, I'm glad I just bit the bullet and did it all up front instead of doing part of it, moving in and then having the contractor come back. Since that time we have taken on a few other small projects: re-landscapping the whole house and now my wife is on a woodwork kick: chair rail, wainscot, a new fire place mantle with bookshelves. I really hoped that the construction had ended with the major project but I spend more time at Lowes and watching youtube "how to" videos than I would care to admit. If I could live anywhere I would have a key west-style house on the Gulf Intercoastal somewhere that is a little more sparsely populated that I could take my SUP out and go fishing every day.
My ideal home would be maybe 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, a library, a game room, a media room, a 2 lane bowling alley in the basement, a 4 car garage, at least 2 fireplaces, with a pool, a hot tub, and a 18 hole golf course in back yard. And a jungle room. It has to have a jungle room: I actually have a 1600 sf foot home with 4 bedrooms and 1.5 baths, with a deck and a two car tandem garage. But I could lose my job tomorrow and still pay the mortgage, what little I have left, and the taxes are low. And I live a stones throw from a lake with a membership only beach that we belong to. No complaints.
As you all know, I like to bitch about things. Anyway, this is a non bitch. A month ago, stopped by a friend's cigar shop, and saw some Zippo lighters. Both of mine are broken, so I get a new one. My friend tells me 'hey, you know they fix them for free.' So I go on the website, print out the form, package up the two lighters pursuant to instructions and send them off. I get an email saying they received them. I get an email saying they're sending them back. I get them today, and they both were fixed. It cost me shipping. Awesome.
It's a shame these guys got such a bad rep, because they were fucking awesome. Seriously, there is some nasty playing going on in this song. Reb Beach and Rod Morgenstern are fucking animals.
Same thing just happened to me but it was back on a couple days later. Good thing because my grandmother was about to lose her damn mind over it and she called me at least twice to voice her displeasure, in addition to telling me in person.
The same thing has happened with DISH and Fox a few times, and once with the local CBS affiliate. Once it was only couple days, but once it was a pretty good while. If I call DISH, they say Fox wants too much money to rebroadcast and they're just trying to keep my costs low. If I call FOX they say DISH isn't being fair in whatever deal. So, I just always call DISH and say, look, this isn't my fight, but I'm the one getting the shaft. What are you doing for me to compensate that I've paid MY bill? I've gotten free NFL Redzone for the season, and I've gotten $5 off my bill for 6 months and stuff like that. Just demand you be compensated.
The last Sunny in Philidelphia was some of the funniest television I've ever seen in my life. It was fucking awesome. It was a spoof on the classic 80's ski movie. http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/funny-disposable-sunny-drops-gang-80s-ski-movie-230916
Anyone else snowed in until Tuesday? I am in Baltimore, and apparently our bodies will just be found in the spring. I will be "working remote" until further notice which might as well be translated as "wanking during work hours rapidly".
Yup, snow here in Philadelphia. Apparently, it's not always sunny here. I had a noon walk of a Brussels Griffin that weighs about 5 lbs. That just got cancelled. So I have a cat visit tonight around 7. Luckily, I can walk there.
Yesterday we had some sort of conference in my building. Lots of guys with expensive haircuts and expensive suits walking around shaking hands. I happened to be in the restroom during one of their breaks. As I was washing my hands, five of them finished their business and left the restroom. ONE washed his hands, the other four zipped up and headed straight out the door and went back to shaking hands. Disgusting. And I'm the unsophisticated redneck...
DC area's been in full panic mode since Wednesday evening's clusterfuck of a commute after less than an inch of snow. People reported taking over six hours to go 10-15 miles. People are bitching the city didn't pretreat but to be fair, the forecast called for rain turning to snow and any pretreatment would've washed away. The actual blame rests on the shitty driving skills of most residents as well as most deciding all season tires (or running tires past their wear) are sufficient. For the weekend, barring an emergency, I'm venturing no further than my couch. Because of the above mentioned shitty foul weather driving skills of the average DMV driver, Monday's commute should be fun.
I visited with some friends last night and was catching up with them. How're are your kids, what've you been up to, blah, blah, blah. His wife proceeds to tell me a story about their cat. I find it hilarious, because I don't like cats. But, I have been told, that this is actually a sad story. So, spoiler alert, if you like cats, this may have a sad slant. They go out of town for several days and come home to no cat. They have had this cat for four years - sweet, loving, lives inside and out. She is gone. She. A few days later, a neighbor says they have located the cat, but it won't let them near it. They "trap" it in one of those Have-a-heart cages and bring it over. Thank you, thank you. The cat will NOT get close to anybody and for a week has been "living" behind the entertainment center, getting food every now and then. One of the daughter's friends comes over and comments, "hey, your cat used to have a grey nose. Now it's black." My buddy picks up the cat, flips it over. It's a boy. Not fixed. At this point, I about spit my beer all over the table. So, now, they have lost their cat AND they have a feral cat living in their house. And, they didn't notice for a week. My buddy calls it Bruce, since there was some conflict about its sexual identity.
Our snow forecast has gone from maybe 4" to definitely at least a foot, and probably more. Pork shoulder is in the crockpot and the wife and I are bath robing hard, watching UConn V. Georgetown followed by a marathon of something. Unrelated, we just got a new mattress and it's been life changing. We went with Tuft & Needle (like Casper, but a bit firmer). Highly recommend. I've been sleeping a minimum of 10 hrs a night on weekends, which hasn't happened in probably 8 years.
Over a foot for me now. Forecast was for 3-6" yesterday. I think UConn was trying to win today with only making 1 FG in second half.