The first 24

Its been a little over 24 hours since my netbook was turned on for the first time. I've spent time working on it and adding and removing programs. The hardest thing to get used to is the small keyboard. I'm slowly getting used to it. Actually I'm making this post from it.

Today I went home to my parents for a birthday lunch. My dad was out of town on my birthday so we celebrated today with home made sloppy joes. I had the choice of going out to eat or having a home cooked meal and I went with the meal. For dessert was homemade banana cake, my favorite.

On the way back to Kalamazoo I stopped in Battle Creek at TJ Maxx and Best Buy. I stopped into TJ Maxx becuase I saw some boyds bears at the one in kalamazoo last weekend and was going to see if BC had some for my mom. They didnt have the bears but I did find some underwear and a bag for my netbook. Its designed for a portable dvd play but will work just fine for the netbook. The best part was it was only $5. I'll post some pics of it. I then ran into Best Buy. That store is way too small for the amount of stuff they have stocked. I did a qucik walk through and decided to just go to the one in Kalamazoo. I left Battle Creek and was happy to do so. The people there do not know how to drive.

In kalamazoo I stopped at TJ Maxx and they still had the boyds bears so I loaded up a cart and picked up one of each for my mom. You really couldn't beat the price. Most were $4 and the most expensive was $8. I then ran into Tuesday Morning and Barnes and Noble. I finally stopped at Best Buy in kzoo and looked around and then came home. I then laid back on the couch and watched the latest episode of Hell's Kitchen on the Eee and now I'm writing this. I think tonight I'm gonna go out. Its been a few weeks since I've been to the bar....on a weekend night.

My Netbook

My netbook is here!

Save Big Money at Menards

Every year I get a birthday gift in the mail from work (along with every holiday.) This year they sent us banks that count change when you put it in the jar.

What a Long Lunch I Had

Yesterday I had to be to work early for the breakfast. It went off great and I was busy all morning with that and working on a finished basement estimate. After I finished that up I went out to lunch with my friends and it turned out to be a long lunch. We go the Craftsman Club around 2 and didn't leave until almost 10. I didn't plan on being there that long but it was a lot of fun and a great time.

Also Yesterday my tax returned was deposited into my account.

Today was really slow at work so I got sent home early. Tonight I'm gonna be catching up on surveys and watching some tv. Hell's Kitchen returns tonight and I can't wait to watch.

I'm hungry, I need to find something to eat.

Fall '08 books for Kalamazoo Radio

N/T WKZO-A ties Urban AC WNWN-A in 5th
Kalamazoo, MI (#186)
FALL '08 ARBITRON QUARTERLY REPORT Spr 08 Fa08
WKFR-FM Top 40/M 15.2 11.9
WRKR-FM Classic Rock 10.4 9.5
WVFM-FM AC 8.3 6.7
WBCT-FM Country 5.7 5.6
WKZO-AM N/T 3.9 5.2
WNWN-AM Urban AC 5.2 5.2

My daily email from All Access had the books for Kazoo in it today. Looks like for the most part people stopped listening to the radio except for WKZO. They increased listeners and I'm one of them. I listen to WKZO in the morning while I'm taking my shower and getting around in the bathroom. The rest of the time I'm listening to my ipod or zune instead of the radio. The only other radio station I sometimes listen to is WYZO and they didn't crack the top 5. Sucks to see WBCT in the top 5 since they are actually out of Grand Rapids. YZO is much better than them.

Monday Monday

Today has been the first time in a while where I've actually been busy at work. From the time I got to work until the time I left I was busy and estimates to do and when I left I have more to do tomorrow. Its a good feeling to be busy at work.

After work I stopped by wal-mart and picked up some needed groceries for lunch and dinner's for this week. I really need to get my budget figured out. I really want to get my finances in line this year and I really need to start keeping a budget so everything falls into place. I want to do it, now I just need to force myself into sitting down and working on it.

I also have been doing laundry tonight, I have two loads going right now and have one more load that might have to wait until tomorrow night. Its nice having clean clothes.

Also tonight I need to watch Get Smart. I rented it from Netflix and really need to watch it and get it sent back so I can get more dvd's sent my way.

On the netbook front I'm still trying to decided what one to get. I've settled on an Asus I now need to figure out if I want a 900ha or a 904ha. I think I'll go with the 900ha since its small and size is the main reason for getting one. I don't really care about the 6cell battery because more than likely I'll always be near a plug and the webcam resolution isn't a big deal. All I need to do now is wait for my tax return to get back. It should be here by the end of the week.

Ok this post has been all over so I think its time to finish it up and go watch some Get Smart. I finished all my surveys for today so I won't need to have the laptop in front of me.

Podcast Catch Up Sunday

It looks like I'm gonna spend the rest of my day at home catching up on all the podcasts I listen to and playing some xbox360. Right now I'm listening to the Nintendo Voice Podcast from IGN and I have the other gaming podcasts to listen to from IGN along with Rebel fm episode 3 and the latest cagcast. My zune is going to get a lot of one on one time with me. I'll be online so if you see me on say Hi!

Yay for Fridays

I love Fridays, its both payday and the start of the weekend. I have the next two days off of work. Tonight I'm gonna have some drinks and have some friends come over. This weekend I'm not quite sure yet. Peace.

The closing of Circuit City and Lexmark

I just received an email from Lexmark letting me know that I will be able to buy my circuit city exclusive inks at other stores in the future. I'm so happy. When I purchsed my laptop back in dec 06 I picked it up at Circuit City because I could get nobody to help me at Best Buy. Well CC was running a promo where you got a free multi function printer with any laptop purchase. Of course that free printer was a crappy lexmark but I took it because I was using an old HP printer I got from Circuit City back in 1999 with my first computer. The lexmark works alright for me except the past few months it was printing shitty because I needed a new cartridge but what sucked was you could only get the lexmark 2 cartridges at Circuit City or lexmark's website. Finally a month ago I went and purchased a new cartridge. Fast forward to tonight when I get an email telling me I will be able to pick up the 2, 3, 4, and 5 cartridges at Staples and Office Max in the future. That is good news for me now but hopefully I won't be using this printer for much longer. I would really like to get a new one that has wireless. Then I could print from any room in the house and that would be nice.

Insert Title Name Here

Today was a pretty blah day. Work was pretty busy for a change this morning but then slowed down in the afternoon. Tomorrow I have to do more cutting then do some calling around for prices. Tonight I was bad and laid down to watch some tv and of course fell asleep for an hour or so. I woke up from my mini nap and have been totally out of it for the rest of the night. Right now I'm catching up on the surveys that were sent to me today.

I should get to bed early tonight. Have to be into work an hour early tomorrow for a meeting. I'm ready for the weekend to get here.

A Night of Drooling

I've spent tonight looking around online at netbooks. I want one so bad but don't know what one to get. I thought I wanted an Acer but then I started looking at the Asus and then there's the MSI. I'm leaning between the acer and the asus. Pretty much I'm just looking for a good deal and the right color. Asus has a green netbook and I would really like to have that one. I love green.

Yeager is downstairs with me and she is snoring. I should get to bed soon but I'm not that tired.

I just got a notice from TaxACT, it looks like the feds have accepted my efile and I should have my return around the 30th. I can't wait to get that money into my bank account. I'm thinking about taking some of the money and opening up an online savings account. The HSBC direct looks pretty interesting. I checked that out a little bit tonight before doing my surveys and then checking out netbooks.

My Bday Cake

Thanks Trish, the cake was really really good. Marble with Bavarian Cream and Whipped frosting.

Taxes are Filed

I was hoping to file my taxes on Friday night but I went out with some friends after work and when I arrived at home the internet was down. Then on Saturday I worked in the afternoon and then went down to Burdick's for my birthday dinner. Then last night I watched "21" on blu-ray. That then left this morning for me to file my taxes. Thanks to taxactonline.com it only took a few minutes and I was done and now just waiting for Uncle Sam to deposit his money into my bank account. I'm gonna use the return to pay off some credit cards. I'm really tempted to pick up an acer apsire one netbook but I really don't need one right now. I think it would be nice to have a little netbook that I could just sit on my lap and watch tv and take my surveys and keep up with the blog. We'll see how things go with my tax return, profit sharing and then management bonus.

Tonight I'm catching up on some more "One Tree Hill." I'm hoping to have season 1 wrapped up very soon so I can start on season 2. Then I can work on seasons 3, 4 and 5.

Happy Birthday

Today I turn the big 28. For me birthdays are just another day and today its been like that. I had to work this afternoon. I worked the big 4 hour saturday afternoon shift. I was going to try to leave early but instead I stayed for the whole 4 hours. I figured I mine as well make some money.

Tonight I'm gonna have dinner downtown at Burdicks and then I want to come home and snuggle up with a blanket and watch some dvd's.

I Love Snow

This is how my car looked on Sunday before I cleaned off all the snow that had fallen that weekend.

Happy Hump Day

Today went by pretty fast at work, I stayed busy working on a few things and had a quote come in right before I left. I cranked it out and sent up the stuff I had to before I left so I should be able to finish it up in the morning when I get to work.

I'm pretty suprised that while its been really slow all week I have not yet gone home early. I'm thinking/hoping that Saturday I'll be able to get out early. It will be my Birthday and I do need to celebrate it.

I packed up my spacebags tonight and sucked the air out of them and they worked pretty well. With getting rid of a lot of stuff and using the space bags I was able to free up some room. Pretty much everything I had in the closet and under my bed now all fits under my bed.

Before I packed up the spacebags I watched a couple episodes of "One Tree Hill." I'm going through my OTH collection and started fresh with season 1 and tonight I finished up disc 4 and have 2 left to watch. Then I'll move onto season 2.

I've also been keeping up to date with the video game podcasts. My new favorite podcast is the Rebel FM podcast that is former EGM/1up people. It sucks what happened to them all but its a great listen to check out.

Well I'm about to go play some video games. I'm either gonna play some GTAIV on the PS3 or Sally's Salon on the DS. Sally has been getting all my attention lately. Its a cheesy time management diner dash type game but i'm really addicted to it. Right now I'm trying my hardest to get 15 people through my shop and all my chairs upgraded.

Will the Space Bags Work?

I picked up a couple sets of Space Bags yesterday at work. I have a bunch of shirts I want to pack up and figured the bags would be the best way to store them without taking up all the space. I had planned on folding all the clothes and then pack them up in the bags but I didn't get that far. I have everything folded but then it got to be 10pm and I wanted to catch "The Real Housewives of Orange County." Tomorrow night I'm gonna suck the air out of the bags and see how well they work.

We got a few more inches of snow today so tonight when I got home from work I shoveled the driveway. It wore me out. The worst part of the driveway was the end where all the snow from the road is thrown into the driveway by the snowplow. That snow was heavy and a pain. It took mu just under an hour to shovel it all.

Tomorrow I have to go into work an hour early for our department meeting and then tomorrow night I have to do more cleaning at home.

Sweet Deal at Target

I had to run to Wal-Mart and Target today after work to pick up a few things. At Wal-Mart I snagged my free Monday rental from redbox. When I get finished up writing this I'm gonna watch "Pineapple Express" and work on the blog. I also had to pick up a couple 100 calorie oreo snacks for a friend. I was hoping that Wal-Mart would have Target price matched on Mtn Dew this week but they didn't so I had to stop by Target. The last few weeks Targets had the collector's edition of GTAIV on clearance for $60 and then $40. The price was too high for me to pick it up then. When I got to Target I decided to make the usual loop and checked out the clearance rack in clothing and nothing then I swung through electronics and they still had the CE GTAIV's but this time the were marked down to $22 so I picked up a copy. $20 for a $90 game is a pretty good deal. The edition is packaged in a black metal lock box and inside is the game, a soundtrack, art book, duffel bag and keychain. I then made my way to the food section and picked up $3 24oz six packs. At the check out I realized I had the stereo-typical gamer haul of dew and a game. All I needed to round out the picture were some Dorito's and Pizza Rolls or Hot Pockets.

Sounds like we have a nice winter storm heading towards us. They say on TV were going to get 4-6" dumped on us in the next 24 hours and the winds are going to blow and temps are going to drop. Joy....I'm so sick of winter weather. I know I'll be shoveling the driveway when I get home from work tomorrow.

Time to watch my free rental of "Pineapple Express."

A Quick Post

This weekend went by really fast as usual. We got dumped on with snow. I think my car had a good 10" on it today when I cleaned it off. I figured I would brush all the snow off today so I wouldn't have to do it tomorrow morning before work.

I'm gonna stay up a little bit tonight and watch "Jesus Camp" on Netflix on XBox360 and do some work here on the blog. I'm gonna try to figure out all the workings so I can get this customized to how I want it.

Yay for new Disney Blu-Ray in 2009

Disney has announced some releases for 2009 on Blu-Ray and its pretty sweet. TVshowsonDVD.com has the whole press release. I would say the best parts are Disney is going to be releasing some of the DVD's in a combo package like they did with "Sleeping Beauty" with a standard DVD and Blu-Ray in one box. The movies I'll be picking up on Blu are High School Musical and HSM:3(Feb 17), and "A Bug's Life" and "Monster's Inc." and "Pinocchio" and "Snow White."

The snow has made its ugly return to the area. It started last night when I went to bed I noticed a light layer of snow outside then this morning when I went to work I had a couple of inches on my car to clean off. It snowed off and on all day but nothing too bad but were supposed to get more snow over night and tomorrow. I think somewhere in the range of 3-6 inches. I hope its not too bad because nasty winter weather leads to very slow days at work. Luckily it was kinda nice today and I was able to get some really nice sales. Its been a while since I had days like today.

I think tomorrow night I'm gonna take down my Christmas tree. I've been needing to take it down but just haven't been able to get in the mood. Hopefully tomorrow night will get me in the mood.

The other night I decided to forward my old domain to the blog. Rossatron.com now links to here. Its been so long since I've used the name but I kept it registered to me for future use and I guess now is the time to get it back in use. I now need to get back into html coding so I can really get this place looking like me.

I Finally Cashed in my Tickets

I've gathered a small collection of scratch off lotto tickets in my room and finally today got around to cashing them in. Most of them were only worth a couple of dollars but I had one worth $10. I stopped by Meijer after work to return my redbox movie and then cashed in the tickets for $23.

Work started out busy this morning for me but then I finished up all the work I had to do so then I spent the rest of the day trying to keep busy. I hope I get something to do tomorrow or its going to be a long day. I have to be in an hour early for a department meeting.

Last night I rented "The Happening" from redbox and I have to say I was pretty dissapointed with the movie. I was hoping it was going to be a lot better but I thought it was pretty stupid. Luckily for me it was my free monday rental from redbox.

I have to get to bed early tonight. The last couple of nights I've gone to bed and then laid in bed and played "Build a Lot" on my DS until 1ish. Tonight I'll have to go to bed and get sleep.

Oops I Missed a Day

I was doing well for a couple of days with blogging everyday but I didn't get around to it yesterday. I did make it back out to Sonic yesterday and got the popcorn chicken meal. We also got the HD cable box hooked up yesterday and now have more HD channels to watch. My favorites are HGTV and Food and I can't wait to watch TLC tomorrow night and see "Little People Big World" and "John and Kate plus 8."

Today we got all the different components up and running and all the chords situated. Now we just need to get the sub-woofer replaced.

This week at work is going to get some getting used to. I'm going to have to work all 5 days. Hopefully I will have some estimates to do when I get in this week. I didn't have any on Friday so I ended up helping Jenn back in Pet and Grocery downstock and take care of the milk.

The rest of today I'm going to spend some time working here on the laptop. I need to play around with my zune some more and also photoshop. Then later on today/tonight I think were going to watch a blu-ray movie.

Falling in Love with my Zune

My parents gave me a 4 gig black zune for Christmas that I call Black Betty. For the last week or so I have slowly been figuring out and playing with Betty. Well last night I signed up for Zune Pass and thats when the full on love for Black Betty really took off. I love being able to look up different songs and albums and finding them and just pushing play and being able to listen to them. I need to play with Betty a lot more to figure more out about her but I know right now my Ipod is going to get pretty lonely. The Ipod is so boring compared to the Zune.

Tomorrow morning Charter is coming to get our HD cable box up and running. Can't wait to sit back downstairs in the basement and watch TV in HD.

Hello 2009

Its the first day of the new year and it was nice having it off. I slept in this morning. Then headed back to my parents for the afternoon. My jimmy has been running fine now so I didn't have it worked on. Came back to Kalamazoo and now I'm laying down in the basement watching some "Holmes on Homes." I need to get this disc watched so I can get it sent back to Netflix. I think I've had this dvd for more than 2 weeks. Tonight will probably be spent in front of the new TV. We got a 52" LCD tv on Sunday and we have the PS3 hooked up to it. It looks really nice and on Saturday charter is coming to replace our old cable box with and HD and set up HD channels for us. Once you've seen HD its hard to watch regular tv.