Cool Runnings

jcp.com: Can't Truss It

In terms of baby gear for Little K, I love most anything peeps-related. Recently, a Carters peeps layette set at Kohl's caught my eye. LRK approved and even viewed it as a possible "going home from the hospital" outfit. Yes! Too bad Kohl's was selling it for $24 and I had no Kohl's coupons/cash/etc.

By chance, I was perusing JC Penney's website the other day. I saw they had the exact same Carters peeps layette set on sale for $14.99. Interesting. I saw on the slippery deals site I love that some people were receiving $10 off $10 or more Penney's coupons in the mail. I hoped I would be one of those lucky people. Yesterday, LRK and I both received said coupons. The $14.99 peeps gear just became a slick $4.99.

Before leaving work today, I checked jcp.com to see if the local Penney's had the peeps set in newborn. The site showed they did. However, upon arriving at Penney's after work, I found the only sizes they had were 3 months and up. That would just not do.

So now I have to see if a neighboring Penney's has the set in newborn the next time I am in that area. Obviously, I will not be checking jcp.com again to see the brick and mortar stores' stocks. Peeps fix delayed. How disappointing.

The First Kind

Is it wrong that when I play with Little K (which consists of me poking and prodding LRK's belly with Little K responding with kicks and punches) that I make sounds similar to the organ guy in Close Encounters of the Third Kind?

Radio Choices

On the radio, when you have the choice between listening to a classic (David Bowie - "Moonage Daydream") or a song you currently like (Jordin Sparks - "Battlefield") ALWAYS choose the classic. After Bowie, I was rewarded with GnR's "Sweet Child of Mine" and John Lennon's "Watching the Wheels" - nice!

LRK FTW!

LRK and I were watching College GameDay last Saturday (I like the whole show, she likes the "picks" segment at the end) and Chris, Lee and Herbstreit (who LRK once, hilariously referred to as "Curbstreit") were in Austin, TX referencing the "Hook 'em Horns" and "Guns Up" hand gestures of Texas and Texas Tech, respectively.

With all these Big XII hand gestures floating around, I queried LRK as to what Kansas State's would be, given the current state of the program.

Without missing a beat, she flashed something similar to the image below...



Classic. LRK FTW!

Pro Bradley

10 years ago today (September 20, 1999) Milton Bradley, then playing for the Harrisburg Senators, hit a two out, full count grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning in the deciding game of the Eastern League Championship.

Geoff Morrow of The Patriot-News revisits the final inning. Although ol' Milton did not cooperate in contributing to the article, Morrow does solicit some first-hand accounts from players and fans of what had to have been a surreal scene.

LCTCB Pleeze

I received a "Final Notification Letter" Saturday from the Lancaster Country Tax Collection Bureau stating they had not received my 2005 tax filing and that if they didn't receive my filing by October 15 they would proceed with prosecuting me.

As Angie Tempura would say, "B!!!!!!tch, pleeze." Those Greenspans did not receive my filing because I did not live in Lancaster during 2005. I resided in the YC from April 2004 to May 2006. So, duh, I filed my local taxes in 2005 with YC.

I tried to call LCTCB today to rectify the situation but had zero luck getting through to them. Some recorded message citing a switch issue. Ugh.



Lancaster County Tax Collection Bureau? I wish they would "collect" a case of the swine flu! Ahh bitc...

Fire Sale

LeGarrette Blount jerseys (#9 for Oregon - the guy who went cuckoo for cocoa puffs in Boise Thursday and was subsequently suspended for the year - you may have heard?) are now 40% off.

Hyperizing

Wow, one post for August? Weak.

What commercials annoy you? My list includes any of the Progressive Insurance spots featuring that irritating quirky woman who reminds me of Jillian from The Bachelorette, the numbers intensively cheesy grey and yellow Sprint Mobile commercials, NBC's promos for Trauma (I really can't stand the "I love my job" chopper pilot) and Mercy, and Safe Auto's "Justin Case" series. Ugh.

My new favorite commercial (by far) is any segment of this:



Chief Blocka - Andre Igoudala
Fog Raw - Mo Williams
Velvet Hoop - Kevin Durant
Ice-O - Rashard Lewis

"This is about heart and hustle, if you like staying underground maybe you should wrestle." - Ice-O

The Lethal Weapon

Last time I experienced a celebrity sighting was when I spotted REM bassist Mike Mills sitting across from LRK and me at our gate in Sangster International Airport, Montego Bay, Jamaica, waiting for our flight back to the States.

Well, yesterday evening I accompanied LRK to the Capitol City Lowes. As we were checking out, a familiar, bearded face accompanied by a pair of large arms got in line behind us. I immediately identified the guy as an old professional wrestler (my brother and I used to watch every week, back in the day), but I was totally drawing a blank on his name. The only word that came to mind was "weapon."

Anyway, I try not to act like an idiot on the rare occasion I run into celebrities, so I didn't say anything or make a scene. But when we got home, I immediately hit the Internet and googled "wwf wrestler+weapon."

As it turns out, I ran into "The Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman. Nice!

Will You Be There

Jennifer Hudson performing "Will You Be There" today at the Michael Jackson Memorial. My favorite performance from the event.

Wave the Wheat

LRK and I arrived back in PA late Wednesday night. Props to AirTran - their service was good, flights were smooth and the price was right. Southwest may well become the Wally Pipp of TINWA air travel to Kansas.

Some highlights:

+ Awesome home cooked meals that frequently featured vegetables straight from the H garden.
+ Watching Gran Torino - awesome.
+ Rock hunting with Mr. H.
+ Dinner at the Brookville Hotel. If you don't know, you better ask somebody.
+ Temps in the 100's.
+ Being in Kansas during harvest.
+ Riding in a combine.

My prior experience with combines was seeing Frank the Combine in the movie Cars.

My Yellowbrick Road

Stole the title from a Scrubs episode. LRK and I are heading to Kansas Saturday. Be back late Wednesday (AirTran, I'm looking at you).

The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien's Twitter Tracker is hilarious.

Craigslist: Not Just for Psychos II

Still with time on my hands, LRK and I started thinking of some other stuff we could sell. Upon a recent trip to the TINWA mothership, my parental units suggested a portable grill I won a little over a year ago, now residing in their basement.

To craigslist (again)!

I posted the grill (a Weber Q 100) Sunday afternoon. By early evening I had two interested parties. I contacted the first, who tried to haggle me down. I scoffed. Then I contacted the second, who had already found another suitable grill. Monday brought two more interested parties. The first one just purchased the grill a short time ago. Yay!

I just wish my job search results thus far would be as fruitful as my craigslist postings.

/Brainstorming for more stuff I no longer use that others may find value in

Pity Party

Hey, I was one of 345,000.

So I got that goin' for me... which is nice. Not!

To top that off, I discovered Friday afternoon that I provided PA Unemployment with the wrong/incomplete account number to get funds direct deposited into our bank account. The hits just seem to keep on coming.

Arbitron Crank Yankers

A few weeks ago, I agreed to be random sample for Arbitron's radio ratings. It seemed harmless enough, and they were sending me a couple bucks with every communication. As part of the agreement, I had to keep a daily diary of the radio stations I listened to and where I listened to them (i.e. car, Internet, work, etc.) for one week. At the end (yesterday), I would mail back my diary to Arbitron, and they would send me a crispy check for $10!

So they called the day before my week was to start, to make sure I had the diary and was clear on everything. I assured them that I was. Then they called the next day. I did not pick up, because I recognized the number and didn't feel the need to speak to one of their call center people again.

Then they called the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that. They called every freaking day during my diary week. Being a male aged 18-35, I was a valuable commodity because my demographic typically does not agree to be a random sample, and those that do tend not to follow through with returning the diary. I wanted to tell them that I am not a stereotype, but instead I just never answered the phone.

Anyway, I placed my completed diary in the mail yesterday. Now I'm waiting for that big $10 check. I should note because I was lazy, I listened to the same station for pretty much the entire week (WXPN).

Craigslist: Not Just for Psychos

LRK and I (through marrying her) had a treadmill. Since we both belong to a gym and make an effort to hit it at least two times a week to justify paying the monthly charge, we never used the treadmill. It sat in an unused bedroom. One day LRK suggested we get rid of it.

To craigslist!

With some time on my hands, I got around to snapping some photos of ol' tready. Then I basically plagiarized some Delaware craigslist posting for the same machine. I hit publish, then I waited.

For about 20 minutes. It seems a priced-to-sell treadmill is a pretty popular item on Harrisburg craigslist. I received about six emails the day I posted the machine, and about four the morning after. (I wish I had this type of response in sending out resumes). We ended up selling the treadmill to a nice, younger teacher. I hope she gets a lot of miles out of it... even though she admitted after making the purchase that she didn't particularly like to run.

This Stinks

I got laid off... a couple weeks ago. Wtf? You know the deal about the economy. And the company I worked for wasn't exactly well-run. Ugh. Hindsight being 20/20, I rather regret taking that job. I have stories. Brett, Flood and LRK know a few.

Yes, I did think of quitting this blog (hence the lack of recent posts). But like Jack Twist to Ennis Del Mar, my internal discussion over this dumb blog ended with me saying something similar to this:



Anyway, "this guy" is looking for work. I don't even care anymore, as long as it is stable and pays decently. For those interested in statistics, here is my resume distribution the past few weeks:

5/17 - 5/23: 14
5/24 - 5/30: 10
5/31 - 6/6: developing...

Tillman

Arizona State and Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman died over 5 years ago by friendly fire in Afghanistan. Mike Fish's four-part investigative piece surrounding Tillman's death and the Army's response - An Un-American Tragedy - is around 3 years old. V. late to the party, I know, but if you have time, pour through it.

Being Deke

Who doesn't like some quality Dikembe Mutombo impressions?