David's Tangled Thoughts

Earlier this week, with my workload being light, I helped the inventory control team with a new project. Without giving too much of my work info away, I’m basically scouring three warehouses, finding product and weighing them. I’m not too sure what this is about, I think it has something to do with international shipments and dealing with customs requirements. Anyways, I was sneezing and having a runny nose. It was gross and this seemed like a classic allergy attack. Trouble is, is that it still freakin’ freezing around here. Turns out I’ve caught the cold. Yay me. I’m just slightly bummed as I had a dinner planned for this weekend. Also, my friend Season will be flying in from Florida tomorrow. I’m eager to see her again but I probably should let this cold run its course before I try to put together a mini-reunion. Oh and if anyone is interested, Kevin and I saw “ I Am Number Four .” I didn’t know much about it before going in other than that Glee gal was in it. I was pleas

I thought that I would try out the new Blogger app using one of the pictures from my phone. Hopefully what you are now seeing is the market in San Fernando, La Union in the Philippines. I used to live a couple blocks from here and right next to a bay. The last time I was there, I could find almost anything I wanted except for shoes. Apparently size thirteens over there were only sold at Giants R Us. UPDATE: Wow, this app is pretty sucky with the pictures.

About a day ago on Twitter I saw the following post in my feed: I was amused that someone would say that it would drive him or her bonkers if Queen Elizabeth II was referred to as the Queen of England. It was a sentiment that was echoed by a couple other people. Personally, I don’t really care whether the Queen is referred to as the Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or “that rich old bag lady with the dogs.” Well, at least informally. I wrote back saying “I dunno. Maybe because saying the Queen of Canada or Queen of Australia sounds odd.” The fact is that many people will refer to Queen Elizabeth II, that old bag lady, as the Queen of England. It’s not to say that she’s the queen of only England or to insist that it is her proper title. No, it’s just to identify a person that is being talked about. When someone says “Queen of England” most people know exactly who you are talking about. Using the proper designation or even saying something like the Que

Our debt is about to exceed our economy. Article here . Dang. This has all got me thinking about jumping the border and heading north. Better do it now before they build a fence. :P

I’ve made it out of my “godawful two-horse town.” Still no improvement!

My friend Stacey is back in the area and she invited me to accompany her to Dowagiac for some chili tasting. A number of the local restaurants offered their own recipes up for public scrutiny. So with pen, paper, and ballot in hand we went around old downtown eating as much free chili as we could. While we were there, we saw some wood and ice carving done. Stacey also snagged herself a box of Girl Scout Cookies. (Thin mints, if you wanna know.) All the offerings were noticeably different. I did my best to note the plusses and minuses and make loose judgments based on presentation, smell, use of ingredients, consistency, condition of the beans, spiciness, and overall taste. Additional points were considered based on unique ingredients, the offer of crackers, and… how big the samples were. It was a good time and who doesn’t like free food?

Last week my ear started to ache. Then it moved to my jaw. I figured out that I had a toothache. When I wiggled my last upper, right hand molar, a bit of it broke off. Freaked me out. The odd thing though was that the ache went away. Aside from a little irritation to the cheek from the jagged edges, I was fine. Still, I went to the dentist’s office today where I was given two options: a root canal or an extraction. But really my choices were to pay $800 or $150. Hmmm… guess which one I chose. It’s a good thing that I took the entire day off from work as my tried and true way of dealing with pain is to sleep through it. I was out for most of the afternoon. Now I’m hungry and my body likes to mess with the brain because I want to have a steak not something “cold and soft.” Blech. I head back in a week for a follow up but the bleeding has stopped and the pain—so far—hasn’t been that bad. I think I should be fine. But man, this could not come at a worse time when I’ve got my

I’m sitting here in my PJ pants and drinking some nice hot tea instead of being at work. A blizzard came through last night. Chicagoland was expecting two feet of snow. Looking outside my bedroom window, it doesn’t look like it but actually snowfall isn’t as important as the wind. I took the back roads home last night and they were already clogged up snow drifts. The company that I worked for said that they would be closed if a state of emergency was declared. While a state of emergency wasn’t declared in the county where I work, a similar one (called a road emergency) was declared in the Michigan county where I live. That means the public is restricted from travel. It’s a good thing that the company did close for the day otherwise I would have had to make the choice of breaking the law to get to work or not. From what other friends have told me and what I see outside, it doesn’t seem all that bad. Again, I think the main issues all the snow drifting onto the roadways. I’m totally fi