Here's your sign....

Please read the excerpt below from EW.com posted on CNN....

"...if Viacom can't reach a deal by midnight Wednesday that would keep Comedy Central, MTV, and its 18 other networks on Time Warner Cable systems, according to a report in The New York Times."

There was a scrolling message going across the bottom of those channels saying if you are a Time Warner Cable subscriber you will lose this channel, blah blah blah... how many people called in asking if we were removing these channels? Do you subscribe to Time Warner? No? D'uh..ugh... people must have started drinking early today....Everyone have a safe and fun New Years, we're actually going out tonight and we're staying over in the Bay Area.... Woooo!

Friday Night

Since I've moved up to BFE, I haven't really had a "late night", meaning I usually end up crashing at a friends house (thank you Jackie!) or my moms. Well, the other day, my close friend Jason, sends us a message that he wants to go out on Friday night for drinks in Campbell. I contemplate it considering that Jason lives in Boston and my other best friend, Melanie was going to be there (She lives outside of Reno). I decide to go as Jeremy had to go to Tahoe to help his uncle set up their washer/dryer (I know, what a good nephew). I had to stop over at my friend Jackies house before I headed out as Santa had a couple of things to drop off. I tried to get her to go, but alas, she had no sitter. :(
I drive over to Campbell around 8:45. Years ago, the night didn't start for us until about 10:30/11, and looking back on it, hell, we should have met up at 9! When I got there, I had rock star parking and our friends, Maggie and Brian had scored a little nook with a couch and loveseat (Our own VIP room, if you will!), yeah....people were jealous...we had the spot...
Now Maggie, is a fabulous woman. She has a take charge, no sh** kind of attitude which I love. It turns out that later in the evening when a couple of us had left for a few minutes, some guys asked her if the chairs we were using were taken. She told them yes, but yet, they had the audacity to ask the waitress who then, not knowing, took them and gave them to the guys who knew they were the chairs we were using. Maggie, walks up to the guys and basically says, did those chairs magically appear out of nowhere, cause I know you know we were using them, and the guys says, "what? you want them back?" and she says, "yes I do".. Go Maggie...She won't think twice about throwing down with a guy...*mental note* take Maggie with me if I ever have a fight, she's got my back. I love you Maggie.
The rest of the night was wonderful! It was a reunion of old friends who used to spend weekends at the Brit, looking for the beer wench or beer necklace guy, complaining about the lack of intelligent men or women we could never find, making new drinking friends on the back patio. We're all a bit older and wiser now, but the good times never change with friends. I love you guys. I couldn't ask for better friends. All I could have asked for was my house to be closer, because it took me over an hour to get home! And being the trooper that I am, I went to bed at 2:30, woke up at 5:30, went to work, and went to a friends house on Saturday night! (Chas, that dinner was yummo!!!) :) Pics will be up soon!

Please refrain from using cell phones...

If there's one place I would like to have a bit of privacy, it's the bathroom. Seriously, I do not wish to have a conversation with someone who is in the midst of tinkling or anything else. On the same token, I do not wish to be in a bathroom stall hearing someone else on a cell phone. Why do some people think it's socially acceptable to do this? It isn't... really, it isn't. It's one thing to have a conversation with a friend you walk in the bathroom with, it's a whole other thing when you're on the phone with them and you hear flushing...ew. So the next time you're chatting on the phone about what's for dinner or sharing some gossip and you walk into a bathroom, can you please tell them, can I call you later? :)

Company Party

Sat. night was our annual company holiday party. I ended up winning a $100 GC for spafinder.com, which turns out to be a website for all these different spas I can use this GC on... go me! w00t! It was fun, I'll post pics as soon as I find my card reader thingy... we stayed until the music started and then it got too "promish" for me and Mr. T and we took off.
I've been presented with the opportunity to transfer to a full time position with my company and I'm thinking about pursuing it. Times right now are tough and as much as I would LOVE to start my own business, it just doesn't seem economically feasible. Perhaps if the economy picks up next year, I will go for it, but for now, I will have to wait it out...

Ideas?

Ok, so there is this little Japanese place by my house that has really, really good sushi considering it's in the Central Valley. The owners are really nice and are always chatting with you. They have cute rolls named for things in our area like the UOP roll, the ITT roll, the Harlan roll (that's one of our streets) and so on...I asked Susan why don't they add a John Deere roll... so she told me, come up with an idea and we'll try it out... so I ask you friends... (Carol, oh great sushi master)...ideas? I think I'd rather call it the JD Roll...avocado with yellowfin? I'm a big fan of sushi with cream cheese in it (I know, it's probably not the greatest thing, but hey, it's good stuff!). So, if you have any suggestions for a JD roll, that would be fabulous!
The other day at work, I think I was seriously PMSing, it seemed like every last customer was getting on my nerves. They decided to throw in some billing calls in our queue, and I get a call from a lady who is yelling at me for turning off her services, she states she just paid the bill in cash... I look at her account, yes ma'am I see there was a payment made on the account for $200, however, I do show that a check for $200 was posted to the account last Friday and it was returned, thus causing you to be $200 short still. She then proceeds to tell me how it's our fault and she never had this problem with our competitor... Let me think about this...

Nov Bill....$300
Check ($200)
Balance$100
Dec Bill...$200
Balance...$300
Cash Payment...($200)
Balance...$100
Check returned...$200
NSF Fee...$25
Balance...$325

So you're telling me that when you were with our competitor, you never bounced a check? Then she tells me that she knows the check didn't clear, hence the cash payment, I'm trying to tell her that we bill one month in advance and she still owes us from November... not to mention I looked at her billing cycles and NSFs on her account, I'm surprised she's allowed to write checks with us! I ended up transferring her to billing, so they could tell her in childlike terms...That day I felt just downtrodden and down with customers, it reminded me of that episode of Family Guy when they have a clip of Darth Vader working at the DMV and he goes home to complain to his wife...I felt like Darth that day...sigh...I'll go apply for a loan to build a death star...I'd post a clip if I could, but youtube has no Family Guy clips...boo...

Black Friday Saddness

Black Friday, 34 year old Jdimytai Damour was unlocking the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart and mobs of people rushed into the store, crushing him and ultimately killing him. It makes me so sad to see a life taken away merely so people can get their adrenaline rush to buy deeply discounted items that they will probably use once or regift. Black Friday used to mean retailers were seeing a profit, now it is known as a sporting event, a day where companies slash prices and consumers will do anything to get their hands on it, even if it means taking a life. This is why I do not go out on Black Friday, I know there won't be a huge crowd where I go, but to think that someone died on a day that was to celebrate (what used to be) great shopping is not worth it to me in my book. I will not go out shopping on Black Friday in memory of Jdimytai Damour.
What makes me more pissed off is now 2 people are suing Wal-Mart for being injured in the mad rush....they chose to go out there and wait with the huge crowd. Hell, perhaps they were involved in the mad stampede that killed Jdimytai, who was just doing his job.