Below are the 16 most recent journal entries recorded in space_puppy's LiveJournal:

Tuesday, February 21st, 2006
9:23 am	Long Time Between Updates Sorry for taking so long to update; things have been pretty hectic dealing with my job and the work my boss isn't here to deal with any more. Spoke with him about a week ago and things with his wife aren't looking good. The doctors don't hold out much hope. He's planning on returning to Florida sometime later and will probably try to have some quality leisure time during his retirement. Anyhow, it's been quite busy here and I had to take a few days to return home to Pittsburgh to attend a funeral. The city is still quite abuzz of super bowl mania and it's fun to see everyone enjoying the 5th super bowl win. An interesting observance happened at the cemetary. You know what its like around memorial day when a lot of soldiers' tombstones get american flags attached to them. At my aunt's funeral the cemetary had about 1 in 10 tombstones decorated with steeler's flags. it was like a big terrible towel wave, LOL. I'll try and update again soon. There really isn't a lot of news. Just a boring life of working all the time. Even the weekends are boring, LOL. p.s., i had a tough time remembering my LJ password, its been that long, LOL I do read my "friends" pretty often though. (Comment on this)
Monday, January 9th, 2006
7:33 pm	New Computer I've been very busy lately; going into the fourth week with my boss out on family leave. so i've been doing his job and mine. i've decided i can add a new paragraph to my resume. i've become a professional cat herder. i normally don't let a lot of things get to me, but when you're operating an office that's short of staff, it can become stressful. anyway, went to visit my friends last weekend; its about a 3 hour drive; so i got to get out of town and unwind a bit. it's always fun to get to visit them and soak up the "family" environment; kids running around, people constantly coming and going, etc. and then its nice to leave it behind and return to my calm, sedate, controlled environment, LOL. saw my friend's son this weekend. didn't get much chance to talk about his "bi-curious" experience. he seems perfectly adjusted about it though, no hangups. his wife sure is a controlling person though; i can see why he needs to get away from that once in a while. anyhow, we've talked about him visiting me soon, maybe next weekend. he needs some money and i need some labor help to get some maintenance done around the house. so if he comes out we'll get a chance to talk more about it. i could tell a couple of times this last weekend, he was wanting to get alone and chat, and then something or someone would happen along, and we never got a chance to talk. anyhow, some other news; i'm now typing on my new toshiba laptop computer. it's really nice and lightning fast compared with my old desktop; i'm learning however the "M" character seems to be a little difficult. hopefully it will become more cooperative with some use. i'll try and update more often, but it looks like another "hell week" at the office. i hope everyone had a great new year. cya . . . (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 22nd, 2005
1:40 pm	Very Strange December Its been a while since i updated and this has been a very strange month. = = = = = = = = = = = First, some bad news at the office. my boss's wife is very sick in the hospital. he's been out all week and for sure next week. she has liver cancer and it seems very aggessive. sure puts a downer on the holiday season. that's part of the reason i haven't updated in a while, been just too damn busy at the office. but today is pretty slow, people are leaving early, etc. = = = = = = = = = = = Second, i've run into a serious financial problem recently, and i'm aggessively trying to get it back under control. but it does cause some grief and i'm trying to manage my way out of it. it could take a few months before things get back to normal. oh well, everyone's got problems, right? LOL just could do without the hassle right now. = = = = = = = = = = = Third, interesting situation has developed with a friend's son. he's been married for a couple of years now and has a very cute daughter. i don't think he's been happily married, but they've been trying to make it work. he told me recently that he's dabbling in the "bi-curious" arena. he feels open enough to talk to me about these things and i'm glad he does. i don't really think he's serious about "switching sides" but i'm not sure he realizes the jeopardy he's putting his family life in (albeit somewhat unhappy family life). he text messaged me yesterday that he was hoping to fool around with some guy. i got the impression that some action was imminent. i've been trying to get him on a phone conversation. each time i've reached him, he's been unable to talk because of where he is or who he's with. we're supposed to talk tonite. I'm glad he confides in me, but i want to counsel him to make sure he understands that public knowledge in his small town is a pretty sure bet. it's not a matter of if, but when, it gets back to his family. if that happens, it could be rough on him. i'm not trying to prevent him from doing anything, but i just want to make sure he's aware of the problems he may encounter. i think he's become friends with some cool gay people. he feels comfortable with them and is probably just wanting to satisfy some curiosity. i believe he's of the mind that if he meets a gay person, he's like "you're gay, eh? so, what's up?" no matter what happens, he knows he can count on me, but i will feel very sad if his home life is wrecked over it. with his family, that could happen. it will take a long time to recover, if ever. this is one of those moments when you've got to look at your decision and think it through. i think if his married life were more happy, he'd probably not even consider it, but what do i know. anyhow, his situation is just adding to the seemingly out of control issues surrounding my life right now. i don't want to give him bad advice, and perhaps its just best if i don't get involved, but i definitely don't want him to get hurt. he's a generous and thoughtful guy and deserves lots of happiness. = = = = = = = = = = = anyway, can't wait for 2006 ! ! ! Current Mood: contemplative (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 9th, 2005
11:13 am	First Winter Blast We got our first wintery blast yesterday; it didn't snow a lot, maybe 3 inches, but it was enough to reveal the idiots who can't drive around here. its amazing, a little bit of snow and people become morons; driving 15 mph, stopping instead of making that left turn even though the oncoming traffic is a good quarter mile away; not using turn signals, not using headlights (this is a special pet peeve of mine, especially with a dark car at dusk). i enjoyed it somewhat though, i drive an AWD Lexus and normally don't have any problems getting around; some suv drivers are idiots though, they think that since they can go, they can stop; NOT. oh well, i guess some are destined to learn the hard way. all the large proposal efforts are done at work; so no more weekends or evenings for a while; i was part of the group that were selected in "employee of the quarter" categories recently; we all got free lunch at TGI Fridays. can't pass up a free lunch. i've got too much vacation time saved up; you lose it if you don't use it at a certain level. so i used vacation for the 2 thanksgiving holidays to bring the level down some, but i got to use those holidays before the end of the year, and by then, my vacation level will be too high again; never had this problem before, but i'm sure i'll manage; might take a week or 2 off at xmas; with holidays, i can take off from the december 23 to january 3 and only have to charge 3 days of vacation. that's 11 days off for the price of 3; GREAT ! ! ! Have a great day ! ! ! Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 1st, 2005
10:19 am	Alright, somewhat pissed a few weeks ago when a school board in pennsylvania kicked out the "so-called intelligent design" board members, pat robertson was off and running at the mouth about how god would perform ruin on their hamlet. this kind of crap just sets me off and i sent him an email to let him know how he personally reinforces my belief in atheism. naturally i didn't expect him to personally read the email (though i wish he would), and expected a form letter reply. i got a response a while back and was too busy to check it out. so, today i read it and got more incensed by the response. asking me to pray for them to give pat robertson wisdom. anyhow, i blasted back. it makes me feel better to vent this steam. two kinds of people i don't like: 1. those who act morally superior and smug 2. those who think they're someone i should want to know. it especially ticks me off when they throw religion into the mix. Current Mood: irritated (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 29th, 2005
3:21 pm	Another Big Win at the Office ! ! ! We got word this morning that we won a second big contract. This is great news for the office and will provide a lot of stability for several folks. My office has numerous contracting vehicles that everyone works on, but its nice to have the stability of a large one too. The one we were awarded a few weeks ago is up and running and i think they've hired more people. This latest one means they're searching to fill some more slots. Since we were the incumbant, we already had most of them filled, but this new contract is expanding somewhat. Anyhow, great news. Weather here has turned bitter cold, i know not as cold as canada or new england, but we were in the 70s a few days ago and today the high was 34. time to bring the brass monkeys in from outside, lol. its defintely cloudy, gray, and gloomy. a large wind storm went through the other day and this morning they said there were still a few hundred families without power. that would be terrible with this weather. i know a few years ago, my family in pennsylvania were without power for over 3 weeks, lots and lots of food was wasted and had to be thrown out. luckily, it wasn't bitter cold then, just summer storms creating havoc. my dad hooked up a portable generator to fend off that fiasco again, lol. have a great day . . . Current Mood: happy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 28th, 2005
11:33 am	Long Weekend was Great ! ! ! I went to Indiana to visit friends/family for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun. They had all the fixins and served it up buffet style just like when i lived at home. later on the smaller kids came to my hotel to take advantage of the swimming pool and jacuzzi. it was great watching them have so much fun. my nephew stayed with me at the hotel thursday nite. Friday I headed back home and the drive was quiet and relaxing. I got home in time to feed my pissed off cats and take a short nap before going out Friday nite. a friend of mine got tickets at the Savvis Center for the Australian Pink Floyd show. It was incredible. Hard to believe a "tribute band" could look so much like the real thing. Those guys really put a lot of effort into it. The girl that sang "great gig in the sky" sounded just like the album. that's no easy feat, but i couldn't tell where she missed a note. didn't get home until after midnite. needless to say, saturday was for serious resting up. slept in til past noon. the first time that's happened in a long while. not much activity on sunday, but back to the office and the grindstone now. have a great day everyone ! ! ! Current Mood: happy Current Music: Pink Floyd; Careful With that Axe Eugene (Comment on this)
Monday, November 21st, 2005
2:34 pm	Happy Turkey Day (darn, working on my birthday) well, it looks like i have to work on my birthday (tomorrow), anyway. there's a ton of stuff here and its not convenient to sneak a day off when we're one worker shy. oh well, its not a big deal. some friends are taking me out to dinner tomorrow nite, i'm supposed to pick the place. it should be fun and i'm sure there will be ample alcohol consumed, lol news reports today say that the attempted take-over of the company i work for fell apart, no one is upset about that, lol. i should have moved my 401k money friday before a big fall today, but its alright. it ramped up on the takeover rumors, so it will slide back to the reasonable rate now. could have taken advantage of it if i was smarter, lol been visiting webseth some. his chat room can be very boring sometimes or obnoxious, depending on how many people are in there. i tend to avoid it. but he's got plenty of free galleries and message boards and forums i enjoy. can be pretty entertaining too, if you know what i mean. its nice to visit there when there's no game on or tv is just plain boring. hope everyone has a "happy turkey day" and travel safe. Current Mood: happy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 17th, 2005
10:06 am	Busy @ Work & Colder Outside Its been a while and not a lot has been going on except at the office. A pretty large workload and it probably won't let up for a few weeks. I try to take my birthday off every year (sort of a personal holiday), but this year i might not be able to. One of my co-workers is taking all of thanksgiving week off and that means we'll be a little short for handling everything thats going on. i'm gonna play it by ear, and maybe call in "slick" anyway. lol Turned pretty frigid here in the past couple of days. was a terrific weekend though. i think they're predicting a hard frost tonite. make sure you bring all the brass monkeys in, lol i've been a fan/viewer of webseth for a long time now. its kind of fun. satisfies the voyeuristic urges, lol. he's pretty cool. anyone else seen his site? i probably should put it on my "interests" list. when i get up in the morning, i usually have some time to check out my emails and visit with him before i go to work. it can be boring sometimes, but other times, he's fun to watch before going out the door. this week he's been entertaining some pretty hot ladies. interesting lifestyle he's got. spends most of his time at his computer in front of his webcam. he's a highly regarded computer/internet expert and i guess he makes a lot of money doing that kind of stuff, but i'm sure his website makes for a tidy sum too. a friend at work is putting off buying a new car for a while. he was going to go check out the lexus dealer with me, but his wife got a new job and he wants to wait until she's made it through her "grace period." at the new job. i'm sure she'll survive it fine, but he's anxious to get a new car and probably won't wait until the full 6 months are up at her new job. he's thinking of an infinit model too. time to get back to work. hope u have a nice day . . . . (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 9th, 2005
2:59 pm	Low Key @ Mid-week not much going on this week; just work, work, work. anyhow, it pays the bills, sort-of, LOL having dinner tonite with some friends @ applebees. they have 2 small kids (hannah & conner). conner's middle name is william, named after me, a great honor. i'm going to try and make some plans to visit family & friends back east this upcoming holiday season. hope i can get away for it. i have friends in indiana that i visit with fairly often. i'm thinking turkeyday there. i need to take more vacation and bring my balance down some. my sister (linda) said her hubby bought her a new jeep grand cherokee. he works at a chrysler dealership, so i'm sure he got a good deal. glad to see they're doing so well. her first husband wasn't much of a provider for the family. he's still way behind on his child support payments. that kind of stuff pisses me off. my cell phone has been acting wierd. sometimes when i charge it through the nite, it goes dead real soon. not sure what's happening with that. it only happens once in a while, but i don't understand what makes it do that. you would think that if it charged through the night, it would be good to go all day long. its not too old, just bought it in march; the battery should still be holding up. been text messaging with a nephew. its a cheap way for him to keep me up to date on whats going on with him. he has one of the pay as you go phones and a text message costs him a nickel. phone calls cost him a dime a minute, which is better than the 30 cents per minute he was paying with another phone he had. he's desperately trying to keep his old buick regal going. he'll need a good paying job to restore it the way he talks. a friend from DC called last night and left a message; i'm sure it was just checking in and seeing whats going on. i'll have to call him soon. may try and visit there this holiday season. when i lived in the DC area, that was where we developed the fine art of toga parties. there are certain protocols for toga parties. we got it down to a science too. all you have to know before hand is, how soon do you want to pass out, how humilitated you feel like getting, how many complaints from the neighbors you're willing to tollerate, and we'll develop a formula for you. LOL oh well, back to work. hope everyone is having a nice day Current Mood: content (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 6th, 2005
10:45 am	Great Party; Drank Too Much Attended the "win" party that everyone was anticipating. It was an informal gathering at one of the more upscale watering holes. I save my swizzle straws, and counted 14 before i was done. the flavor of choice friday nite was gin and tonic; i try not mixing up my liquors or mixing liquor with beer, can be bad the next day. anyhow, everyone seemed to have a great time and you could tell the waitress was eager to push those drinks. i'm sure she got a great tip. saturday morning, i got up to meet friends for breakfast at the local ihop. feeling a little hammered, i did need a shower, but passed on the shave. i didn't see any sense in risking any unwanted lacerations, LOL. the weekend is great weather so far, some storms blew through last nite and i think there were some tornados somewhere, but not too close to where i live. i'm taking monday off work too, up against my "use it or lose it" balance on my vacation accural. guess i'll putz around the house, or maybe if i'm brave, i'll wash the cat. lol Current Mood: cheerful (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 4th, 2005
10:16 am	Friday (Win Party) Today we're having the "win" party for a new contract that my employer won. It should be a pretty good time. Sometimes when you work on these things you don't get to meet a lot of people who are working on the same endeavor. Its a 5 year contract and should provide some stability for a lot of folks. We're still awaiting the announcement of another major contract we bid on recently. It would be great to have another "win" party soon. I've got too much vacation time saved up. When you reach a certain amount, you just start losing any new accrual. Sort of sucks, but it doesn't happen too often. I need to take at least one or two days soon, and maybe i'll take a week or more during the holidays. Should bring the balance down so i don't have to worry about it for a while. I haven't visited my friends in Florida in a long time. Maybe i'll go visit them during the winter. I can stay at their house, but I prefer staying a hotel on the beach. Some friends work there and they get me a good rate. Check it out at www.doncesar.com. Its really a decent place. Have a great weekend. Current Mood: happy Current Music: Eagles; Hotel California (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 1st, 2005
10:50 am	Slow Day my friends decided to put off a car purchase for now, but i think they'll go back to the lexus dealership, at least for another look; they're interested in trying several, i know they've talked about the honda accord and the toyota solara. the lexus is an extra 10K, but they would be able to use a local toyota dealership for maintenance, except for warranty stuff. they don't like driving so far for a car check up. they had an sc300 some time ago and had good luck with it, too. the company i work for is rumored to being bought out soon; stock price has gone up pretty good lately, but i think the offer price is still too low. at least its helping the 401k make a surge, LOL; stock symbol CSC we won a major contract recently, and there is a planned "win party" for friday; looking forward to that, free munchies and drinks . . . yippee weather was damp and rainy all day yesterday, but nice and sunny today; back in the 70s, maybe as soon as tomorrow; at least the air conditioning hasn't been turned on at the house for a while; utility bills will be murder this winter. hope everyone had a great halloween . . . Current Mood: okay (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 30th, 2005
2:59 pm	Trip to Lexus Dealer The trip went great on saturday. i think my friends have an appointment with a salesman on monday. there are incentives to close out the month's totals with as many sales as possible. they're anxious to get rid of their mercedes, but i know they've been looking at solaras, which are great cars. they were happy with the first ones they had (his and hers, lol). Anyhow, she loved the es330, they drive great, and so quiet. so, who knows. i may get a bird-dog bonus for bringing them over. that would be great. the weekend here has been great; near 70 degrees with sunny skies. lots of people getting in last minute barbeques. i just realized the date; i gotta make a birthday phone call . . . Current Mood: happy (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 28th, 2005
8:59 am	Friends are buying a new car One of my favorite things to do is buy a new car. Its been a while for me and i'm very happy with what i'm driving. Ran into some friends at the bagel place this morning on the way to work. they're looking to trade in their mercedes. i think they're leaning toward a new solara. they did mention a honda, though, probably the accord. they had a solara before and really liked it. as a matter of fact, one of their favorite things about the solara was that when it was totalled in a bad accident, the cabin wasn't compromised. after that they bought the mercedes but have been having a lot of problems with it. they also don't like going 40 miles to get the car serviced, so they want to get something closer to their house. the toyota and honda dealerships are only about 2 miles from their house. toyotas and hondas are very reliable. anyhow, we're going to meet at breakfast tomorrow and i'm going to "consult" them on this major issue, LOL. lots of fun, maybe we'll do some window-shopping and test drives. will make for a nice weekend. Current Mood: cheerful (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 27th, 2005
1:10 pm	Hello Live Journal Thought I'd give this blog stuff a try. I enjoy reading blogs of other people. Hope to meet new friends here. Current Mood: cheerful (Comment on this)