FAQ

Journal

Biographies and Galleries

Friends

Vacations

Outdoors

Visitors

Links

Contact

Discuss

Blatant Promotions

Rants

Geology

December 2002

• 12-31-02

Happy New Year!!!

When your new year eve day starts with a water main exploding in downtown Boston, flooding half the downtown and shutting down the subways, you know that something is probably going to be amiss for the day.

Then to find out we were dismissed at 3, but didn't get the call until 10 after 3 and then our boss spent 20 minutes deciding if we really should go...so not leaving the office until 3:30 when I usually go home at 4...

Then while the trains were running again, they were all screwed up and you had half the world in Boston for First Night...I enjoy standing like a sardine in the train for like 45 minutes...

I didn't get home until 5:15 - a full hour and 45 minutes after I got out and 2 hours and 15 minutes from when I should have gotten out of work.  By the time I got to the house, I was counting to 10 in the car so I didn't start running people over.

Went to bed to relax...

Then got up and spent New Years with Moe, Sharon and Debbie down at McDonalds (how exciting) because they got screwed tonight with people calling out sick and shit - so we sat in the lobby talking and drinking and having a good time until midnight and had our celebratory toast with sprite instead of Champagne.

• 12-30-02

I hate listening to news, but yet I always do.  I find myself listening to NPR all of the time (National Public Radio for those in the know) and every day I hear how the budget situation in the state is getting worse and worse and each time the knot in my stomach tightens a little bit wondering if my agency is going to be the next that gets the budgetary axe.  The only solace I have at this point is that there are three people in the agency that are newer than I am, so hopefully, (fingers crossed, knocking on wood), they would go first if there were any layoffs.

None too exciting day otherwise.  My boss dumped a whole bunch of projects on me, not that it's a ton of work, but it's pulling together a bunch of loose ends.  I hate loose end type projects because it never seems like you get anywhere with them.  The rest of work was spent cleaning out my old files from 2001 and making way for the upcoming 2003 files.  Sort of a changing of the guard I guess.

I think that Moe and I are going out tonight for dinner - as I have to work tomorrow.  But we are probably going to get out early tomorrow since Boston shuts down early for First Night activities and then I have Wednesday off! 

Happy New Year a day early!

• 12-29-02

A quieter day than yesterday thank god.  Moe and I slept in until like 12:30 or so (still only giving us 8 hours of sleep since we went to bed almost at 5 in the morning).  After we got up, we finally exchanged our Christmas presents - only what, 4 days after Christmas!  We just never had the time in between to sit down and exchange.  Moe got me some great presents.

I've done laundry, laundry, and some more laundry and cleaned the house up a bit.  I also made dinner and then brought it down to him and got some grocery shopping done.  So I think that even though it was quiet, it was a productive day.  Hell, I even managed to get an entry in here, so that's pretty good.

I've decided with the new year coming, I've got to buckle back down and stop spending money.  I was doing good for the last five or so months and then Christmas came and I just blew it all to shit, spending on myself, on other people and gambling.  It was just a bad month all around.

So I think my New Year's resolution will be to go back to paying off my bills, saving money and not wasting it on stupid shit and gambling.

• 12-28-02

Moe, Sharon and I got side-tracked tonight and never made it to Brian's house.  It was an accident.  We had gone out to lunch with Sharon and Brendan and Moe and I were telling Sharon about how much fun we had when we made a pit stop at Mohegan Sun the other day on the way back from NY.  So we decided we would run down and then come back up and Moe and I would go to the party and Sharon would go to bed because she had to open at McDonalds the next day.

We got there around 4 or so and were planning on turning around and coming back around 5 - but within 5 minutes of us being there, Sharon won $500 and then it went on from there.  None of us really spent a lot, but played forever.  There was this one machine that I must have played for 2 hours on a single twenty dollar bill.  I finally had to cash out because I think I had played every bonus round and saw every payline.

Then there was the point that no matter what machine we put money into, we were winning.

So by midnight we decided we were hungry.  I had to have the PIN changed on my players card because I didn't know it and we ran into our friend Chrissy, one half of our friends Amy and Chrissy.  They both work at Mohegan.  So she helped me with my players card and told us that Amy was over in the other part of the casino.  We had dinner and then found Amy.

Remember, Sharon has to open through all this - which means she needs to be at the store at 4:30 in the morning.

It's now 2am and we are getting ready to leave as we say goodbye to Amy.  We play a little more and we get to the car at 2:45 in the morning and I have to race back here to make it home around 4:15 in the morning.  Moe and I made it home at 4:30 after we dropped Sharon off.

Now I'm just getting ready for bed...sleep...sleep...sleep...tomorrow should be much quieter.

• 12-27-02

Merry Christmas a few days late!  Moe and I have returned from the longest trip to NY.  We got there Monday night and everything was fine Tuesday and Wednesday morning when we had Christmas but then the heavens opened up and it snowed and snowed and snowed all day Wednesday and through Wednesday night.

I was supposed to have worked on Thursday, but I had to call and say that I wasn't able to make it back to Boston because it was snowing and the roads were so bad (they were).  So when we woke up on Thursday morning, there was about 15 to 17 inches of new snow on the ground.

No big deal right?  So we help shovel, snow blow and plow and we are soon on our way back to Boston.  I-84 turns into a parking lot after Danbury in CT and it takes me three hours to go the 30 miles to Waterbury.  At that point Moe is almost in tears because he has to pee so bad and I don't want to even see a highway anymore.

So I find an exit (when we finally manage to get there) and I get off, without any idea in the world where I even am in CT.  I navigate these little back roads and somehow manage to find I-91 and made it to I95 where I take 95 back up towards Boston.  It was the first highway that wasn't backed up all day.

On the way back on 95 and then 395 (after about hour number six in the car) we stopped at Mohegan Sun to get the buffet and stretch our legs.  I actually was very good and only played with a little bit of money.  But we didn't want to stay long, so we were off again soon.

Got home at about 10 to find that the driveway wasn't shoveled except for the annoying people downstairs, who shoveled, just their cars out and left everything else.  So we shoveled and cleaned everything up.  That lasted until 11.

I never got into bed Thursday night until about midnight and then I had to work all day today.  I was a zombie for part of work and still feel a little out of it.

Tomorrow both Moe and I have the day off - I can't wait!!!

• 12-21-02

Remind me never to go gambling again.  That's all I will say about our "vacation" to Foxwoods yesterday.

Today I've been Mr. Christmas.  This morning I got up early and was wrapping presents and then went out to Target to find some more presents before going to a Christmas party in Marshfield this evening.

The party was fun and I saw most of the people from work.  Two of us went to the Christmas Tree Shops beforehand and had a blast.  For a store full of shit, they are awfully fun to shop at.  For $50 I left that store with so much stuff, which is a good thing.  Stockings and things for people.

Tomorrow I was supposed to close with Moe, but he told me that he found someone else to cover the closing shift (phew!) so I am only going to help him out from 5 to 8.  That's cool because it gives me more time to get stuff done.

• 12-18-02

So much for getting some Christmas shopping done tonight.  We went out with Sharon, went out to dinner - while waiting for dinner we browsed through Marshalls, then went to Newbury Comics and afterwards went to go to the Christmas Tree Shops, but they closed at 10 - so in the end, I left with the dinner bill and that was about it.  Not a productive shopping night.

At least I really just have Moe left - the rest of everyone else is done.  I just need to get a few small things for a few people.

I was a zombie at work - even though I got enough sleep - I think it was that elbow of Moe's that for some reason kept knocking me in the head last night.  Thank god for queen size beds, that's all I have got to say.

We had half a day without annoying coworker and then she made it up in about 5 minutes after she got there.  I just walked away I got so pissed off.

Tomorrow is the last work day of the week for me - Friday is my vacation day at Foxwoods - woo hoo!!!!

• 12-17-02

So I get home from work tonight - quickly for a change and the phone rings.  Caller ID says that it's McDonalds so I pick it up.  Turns out that Moe barely had any staff at the store and he needed help.  So I changed and went down and ended up working for an hour.  At least it's some extra money - that's the way I have to look at things nowadays and I got a free dinner out of the deal too.

I'm starting to get sick of buying smokes in Boston - I never seem to have time in the evening to pick them up out here - so I am stuck paying $6.45 for a pack in Boston, whereas here, they are only $5.00 - not a big deal I know, but that $1.45 could have gone somewhere else.

Annoying coworker was in rare form today - it was her Birthday and not a single person in the office (except for the new person) said happy birthday to her - you would think that would tell a person something, but nooo...she's just a fucking bitch and is so annoying that I feel like throwing my computer into the cube next to me to make her shut up.  Her latest stint is that she wants to learn all about environmental stuff and what I do - I told her to take it up with our boss because I wouldn't show her unless he told me to.  He never told me too. 

Moe came home with me - but he's asleep because he has to open tomorrow morning.  I find it funny that when he opens - he gets up an hour before I normally do - but has to go to sleep in the middle of the evening, but it is okay for me to stay up forever and force myself to go to work the next morning...guess I'm just complaining - I could always go to bed earlier if I really wanted to. 

Anyway, I am thinking that I will probably go to bed soon anyway.

• 12-16-02

Another work-week has started.  After going to the McDonalds Christmas party on Sunday night, I wasn't in much of a mood to get up this morning to go to work.  But get up I did, and made it through I did too.

When I was shopping on Friday I think I had picked up a coffee maker - it was $9 at Wal-Mart.  Our office hasn't had one since I started, and I was getting sick and tired of always going and having to buy coffee if I wanted some.  So I picked it up and brought it into the office today.  Didn't have a power strip - so couldn't use it today - but I got it all set up and ready to go tomorrow.

Sadly, a coffee pot makes me pretty excited about work.

Otherwise it wasn't all that exciting today.

I got up this morning and was walking out to my car when I realized that it was snowing.  I had no idea that it was supposed to snow - but it was coming down quite hard as I was driving to the train.  Never accumulated in Boston, but out here we got about 3 inches or so.  It was a heavy wet snow so it stuck to everything.  It looks very nice with all the snow plastered to everything.

When I got home from work I crawled into bed and slept for a while until Moe got home.  Then I fought to get up only to find that he has the living room completely disassembled and is moving things around.  I'm sort of in a clear little area by the computer - stuck here because crap is piled around me now.

Help, I am the man stuck in his own living room.

I think that we are going to go out to dinner afterwards, then I hope to go back to bed.

The rest of the week should go by fairly quickly at work.  I have Friday off because Sharon, Moe and I are all going to Foxwoods for the day and the next couple of days will actually be busy for me at work - which makes anything go by faster.

• 12-14-02

It's been a few days.  Most of the week I came home from work and then crawled into bed and went to sleep.  I think on Tuesday night, I came home, went to bed around 6:30 and didn't wake up until I had to get up for work at 5:30 - so 11 hours of sleep was very nice.  I was just a bundle of energy on Wednesday when I was at work.

The rest of the week was pretty much the same.

The only difference was on Friday was that I had to go to a meeting in Truro out on the cape.  It wouldn't have been so bad, but the meeting was at 10 - so I had to leave here around 7 to make it all the way out there and then by the time it was over, I had to drive all the way back.  I don't know about you - but driving long distances isn't the most exciting thing in the world.  I went to bed when I got home. 

Then I was woken up by Moe putting up the Christmas tree.  I got up - and helped decorate and all that stuff.  Then we went out to dinner and then did some stuff with Sharon before getting home quite late.  Then at 4:30 in the morning, I hear what sounds like a 1000 little icicles breaking and realize that that tree probably fell over.  I come out of the bedroom and there's the Christmas tree, spread across the floor, with all the ornaments shattered around it.  I wasn't a happy camper.  So we cleaned that up and just shoved the tree in the corner.

I didn't get up until like 2:30 this afternoon today.

Then I went to the store and got metal wire and eye-hooks and tied the god damn tree to the wall, this time it isn't going to fall over unless it takes the entire wall with it.  Then I redecorated it. 

I was also doing some work on our online gaming portal - you should check it out if you are interested in playing online.

Then Sharon and I went out to dinner...restaurant to restaurant looking for one that had less than an hour wait to sit down since we were starving.  We went to half the places within 15 minutes or so until we finally found someplace to eat.  It wasn't all that great.

After I got back home I played with the websites some more and then finally went and visited Moe at work and now it's 2 in the morning and I am here writing this...

jeez...long day...for getting up at 2:30 in the afternoon.

Now I have just got get my internal clock back to normal by Monday so I can get back into the work groove.  Then I have Friday off because Sharon, Moe and I are all going to Foxwoods for the day - our own little "Christmas Vacation" before Christmas.

• 12-9-02

I'm playing hooky, since all of my intentions this weekend were good and I accomplished nothing, I decided that I had to take today off to try to make up for that.  I've got to get some stuff to the storage unit to make room for a Christmas tree, then find a Christmas tree, get a new door lock for our front door and then go Christmas shopping to find a grab gift for my office grab tomorrow.  So why the hell am I even wasting time here typing?  I'm waiting for Moe to wake up so that he can help me with the storage unit and with the tree.

I'm off to load the truck up...

I'm back.  You know, it never rains, it pours.  Last night this guy walked into our apartment when Alicia was home alone.  He was "looking for a gas station" and he parked in our driveway, came up the stairs and walked into the house.   So she got him out and called the police and was really freaked out - I would have been too.  So today as part of being out sick I went and got a chain for the door so we can at least lock it that extra bit when we are home.  Then I am going to make dinner and I realize that everything in the refrigerator is warm - the damn thing had stopped working.  So I had to take it apart and try to fix it.  I think that I did - or at least it's cooling down again - so we will have to wait and see what happens in a few hours.

I'm ready to collapse at this point - only got about 6 hours of sleep last night, even though I got to "sleep in" this morning.  I did finish working and developing the discussion forum for this website though.  I was sick of having to use those crappy applets with all the ads, so I put together my own.  Either check out the "discuss" choice on the left, or check it out here to post your own thread or reply to one.

Bed....bed...bed...

• 12-8-02

Now I am a little less rich - Sharon wanted to go back and I didn't win a thing.  So the stars must have been aligned somehow on Friday night when I was there on my own.  I couldn't seem to touch something without winning on it.  Last night, I couldn't seem to lose when I touched something.

We were going to go to the mall, but we never made it.

I haven't gotten into the holiday spirit yet and I couldn't see myself Christmas shopping, the idea was making we want to go back home.  I don't know what it is - it just doesn't seem like Christmas time.

So this morning I go and update all the links on the Link Page here and guess what - on one of the last links I am working on - FrontPage freezes and I lose all of the work that I had done because I hadn't saved it yet.  Oh, I was not a happy puppy.  So I went through it again, this time saving every few minutes and managed to make all the updates.  Thus all of the links on the link page are alive as of today and they all open in a new window since they are offsite links.

This afternoon and evening I am working at McDonalds with Moe - so I should go and get ready since I have to work soon :(

• 12-7-02

I'm $800 richer today!  Yeah, I was hitting big last night - I think that it was a good choice to go to Lincoln Park last night.  At one point I was over a $1000, but I kept playing here and there so I came home with the $800.  I think that's pretty good, considering I went with $60 and never took any additional money out.  Now I can go Christmas shopping and not worry about finances.  That's a pretty cool thing.

After Lincoln Park I went to McDonalds to visit with Moe and Sharon because I didn't want to be home with our roommate, especially after Moe left that note.  So we were there for most of the night and then we went out to get something to eat after they closed.  When we finally did get home there was an envelope with "sorry" on it and cash inside.  At least we got some of the rent money.  How fucking hard is it to not bounce a check?  I've never bounced a check in my entire life, even when I have been poor.  If you don't have the money, or you don' t know, don't write the god damn check.

Finally a nice day after a week of cloudy and snowy weather.  Not that I don't like the snow, I would prefer that over snow.  But going for a week without sun gets old pretty quick.  I'll have to get a grow lamp to hang over my bed so I can get my dose of artificial sunlight next time.

However, I'm cleaning the house for some reason?  Moe's at work and Sharon and I are going to go Christmas shopping this afternoon, so in the meantime, I'm organizing and cleaning.  I just found my desk underneath all of the paper.

• 12-6-02

Our roommate managed to bounce another rent check.  This time it was Moe who went off the deep end.  I come home from my meeting and there's this note over the rent check that says "You're fucking rent check bounced again" and that was it.

It was at that point that I decided that I shouldn't be here when she gets home.  So I'm gonna head out - think that I am going to go to Lincoln Park - I've been saving up for a gambling trip and I have nothing better to do and I don't want to be here.

Hopefully traffic won't be too bad.

• 12-5-02

This has been one hell of a long week...jeez...

Between having to be in the office all week and helping out at McDonalds on various nights, I think I've worked like 60 hours this week.  And, good for me, I never managed to call out sick in my regular job.  I figured it was time to actually bank some sick time up instead of only leaving a day or two in there at any one time.  I earn it so fast, I might as well have some sort of buffer.

The only good thing is that tomorrow I've got a meeting to go to, instead of having to go to the office, otherwise I think I would start to cry.

Then because of the "snowstorm" it took me two hours to get home.  Plus at 4pm they announce that we can all go home.  Guess what time I normally get off at?  You guessed it, 4pm.  I'm like "big fucking whoopty do" and I went home.  The train was fine but then traffic was just insane and it wasn't even all that much snow.  It's just no one seems to understand how to drive in the snow down here.  When I was in Maine, traffic didn't even slow down until after we got a foot of snow on the road.

• 12-1-02

I've made it to the month of December - wow, November just freaking flew by.  Not that much new since yesterday, other than Moe and I spent the day cleaning and then went to his Mom's house before hanging out with Sharon until well into the morning on Sunday.  Now I am getting ready to go down to McDonalds to help him close tonight - something I'm not too keen on doing, but since I said I would do it, I have to do it.

Then it's off to work early tomorrow morning, so I am not looking forward to having to get up early after closing - but I slept in for most of the day today so we will see.  Maybe it'll be a day with plenty of coffee.

Last Updated on December 30, 2002 - webmaster@jeffandmoe.net