Friday, December 21, 2012

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: December 21st

Folks, this is our last blog "thoughts of the day" post of the year.  I hope you all have enjoyed the daily ramblings of mine and I hope to continue more of the same next year.

I'm so thankful to have a roof over my head, food to eat, and a loving supporting family.   My financial situation is not the greatest, but I get to pay my bills and I hope it continues to be so for all time.

To my friends on the internets, you all bring such a smile to my face every day.  I know we're just goofing around, but having you all to converse with has been great and dependable.    There are some days where I'm just not doing that well, but my online friends far and wide have been there.  It means a lot.

It's great that I've met a lot of you in person!   I hope I can do it again soon, time and money permitting.

To the people at UCLA, you are the reason I get to maintain a healthy, comfortable lifestyle.   You saved me when I was in a world of hurt, and to all of my companions, managers, faculty, grad students, and my staff, thank you.  There are just too many names to list, but you all are appreciated.

To my family itself, I wouldn't be where I am if not for your support.  Sometimes I do stupid things!  Nonetheless, it really does a lot for you all to show me the way.

To my "offline" friends, we've shared good times and great memories, and I hope to keep doing so for years to come.   Hope I haven't been too much of an annoyance.

To anyone else who's picked up on this blog, or listened to the DITC podcast, thank you for your patronage.   You can always contact me off air if you'd like via Twitter: @diningwithdave .   It's wonderful to have an audience for those shows.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and fruitful holiday season.  There may be other good things in store as we go along. 

So!  Before I leave some more goofball thoughts from the pen...

I can't eat yet.   I'm due to take a blood test today and until I do I have to fast.  This is painful...

I went to swim this morning and hoped it'd be a slightly easier sprint practice, but no!!!  We do alternating 50m freestyle and butterfly sprints, long course.  Oh man was I worn out!  I didn't even think I'd make it, but I did, and I'm spent, whew.

I don't know when to take the blood test... this is a strange spot.   Most of my units will close early today, but to wait all the way until 2pm to take the blood test is impossible.  BUT, I'm at the main office until 12pm.  BUT the medical center is closed between 12pm-1pm.  Geez... talk about bad planning, I should have handled this yesterday.

That's what I get for not taking the extra week off, but I wanted to see this through.   Interestingly, all of our office parties were scheduled for this week anyway... the calendar compressed Christmas and New Years practically on the same week so it didn't allow for any cushion in between... Otherwise, the Office Parties would have been about a week before Winter Closure at UCLA instead of within the same week.

It hasn't been a period of rest for the 'cow.   Somehow the week at work had been reasonably busy with projects and such, where I thought it'd be completely dead.  Not so!   No matter, though, it's almost done.

You know what irked me as well?   I asked for two day shipping for a package from Amazon and it *didn't* arrive on time!  What the HELL man?   Is it two day shipping or not?!   If it doesn't arrive today I'm going to be very annoyed.

One time, I tried ordering gifts online and I was about a day or two late with the order.  What I did not realize was that even you you get shipping calculations, that's all dependent on the date the order ships.  So surely it says "3-5 business days" but if it takes an extra 2 days for the order to ship out, then you're hosed.  It was very awkward telling people around my family that their present was still in transit that Christmas.

Remember that quest for the Porterhouse Steak?   I had some barbecue yesterday for one office party following an entire lunch from In N Out for our other unit's staff meeting.   Never before has any person eaten a full In N Out meal and Lucille's BBQ at once.  Needless to say, I'm in no rush to eat porterhouse steaks.  Boy were those lunches wonderful though!

NFL Week 17 games... there's a lot of coasting going on that week, but I did enjoy the Giants/Jets game from last year.   Even so, I doubt there will be much excitement at all, even with the impending playoff implications.

I wish some of the bowl games next week would be scheduled for the afternoon.   Waiting the whole day to see it at night is a little tough, but while true, that extra time could be used to watch movies.

Django... looks promising.

Blue Tortilla chips are phenomenal.   Enough said.

Anyone ever see the extra long twizzlers vines?   They were nearly 3 feet long each.  My goodness!

It's very strange to see the Lakers as a clear underdog to the Golden State Warriors.  They used to be the team the Lakers would kick around, but tonight, there is no question the Lakers are on their heels instead.   LA won three in a row, but nobody is convinced of them being a good team yet.  It's going to take some time.

Here's an interesting question, although it's early.  Who will win more postseason games:  The Knicks or Duke and Syracuse combined?  

That's all for this year.  Have a wonderful holiday season everyone!  More to come, we hope, in the coming months and years.   So long for now...

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