by Matt | Mar 17, 2006 | Personal
I doubt I’ve properly described the amount of dancing Lauren and I have been doing since the new year. We love it. We’re as addicted to it as we were back in college. All my college buds know full well the frequency with which we danced back then. This rivals that. Which is good. Honestly, I could use the exercise. The people are nice, the instruction is great, and we have a great time.
So, since we are having so much fun, we decided to sign up for LindyFest, the Houston Swing Dance Societies big annual festival/workshop. Thousands of people from all over the county (and internationally) come to this. Its Thursday through Sunday.
There’s lessons, workshops, presentations, dances, parties, all sorts of great stuff.
Today, at 10am, we started with Intermediate Lindy Hop. Then it was on to general all level Lindy Hop with Frankie Manning (google him for the moment, I link that to something good later). After that it was Lindy Hop Fundamentals and a Lindy Hop history lesson. We’re taking a break for dinner, but then we’ll be at the dance party tonight until 12:30, follows by the after hours party that goes until 6am.
Tomorrow we get more intermediate stuff and more “technique” and Sunday is the more advanced stuff.
I’m having a friggin blast. This is the best thing we’ve done in a long time.
Matt out.
by Matt | Mar 15, 2006 | Aggravation
It completely blows my mind when banks process debits so completely inaccurately. It’s electronic. Purchases should be instant, if not, then by the end of the buisness day at least. I think it’s a fucking scam. Over the past two weeks I’ve done all my normal purchases the way I always do and none of them went through UNTIL I had $20 left in my bank account. I had 15 transactions go through in 1 day. 15! That’s not a fucking coinsidence. Two weeks worth of charges just happened to all hit at the same time… the day before pay day. I don’t think so. I think the bank held them. I do. When I made every single one of those purchases, I had the money in my account. It wasn’t taken out, it wasn’t even reflected in my available balance. Then, suddenly, a large check cleared that dropped by balance. THEN all those checks went through. Not only am I over drawn, but I have 8 over-draft charges at $30 a pop. I have receipts for everything and it boggles my mind that dinner from March 2nd went through yesterday, as did gas from the 5th and a snack yesterday. Two weeks worth of charges just sat there and waited for my balance to be low. Now, I’m not saying I’m a saint when it comes to spending. I’ll freely admit that I run my account into the red on a regular basis. But, it seems to me, that all but the last of those charges should have cleared and ONE check should have bounced. Not 8. They took the biggest and latest BEFORE the eariler charges. That’s crap. Those 15 charges should have been applied in order, the days they occured. Waiting two weeks for charges on a debit card to clear is rediculous and unacceptable. I hate banks. I hate banks, credit unions, credit agencies, money in general and the basic aspects of our commerce. I wonder if anyone will trade animal pelts for beads anymore?
by Matt | Mar 10, 2006 | Personal
I made a wonderful discovery the other day. Old school Coke, in glass bottles, and not those little tiny 8oz thing that they out out for special events. I mean the real shit. 12oz, in a bottle, made with… and stay with me here… sugar. Actually real, honest to god cane sugar. No nutrisweet, no sacrin, on maltdextrose, and no corn syrup. Real fucking sugar. I found these little gems at the neighborhood mexican quick-e-mart. A product of Mexico stamped right on the bottle. Down there they’ve never heard of corn syrup. They still make all the sodas the old fashion way. Oh god, it was heaven.
I had the chance to sample Mexican Pepsi on my honeymoon, but this put it to shame. We were so affraid of real sugar 30 years ago that we developed dozens of alternatives. That shit will give you cancer, all sugar is going to do is make you fat and happy. There ya have it folks. You want a REAL soda, head for the boarder, cause you’re certainly not getting it here.
by Matt | Mar 2, 2006 | Aggravation
It could be that my purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others. Or, it could be, that I have bad luck with tires. The tire fairy has again visited me and this time shredded the ever living crap out of my front tire. I knew the tires were getting towards the end of their life, but I didn’t think that the entire tire would explode on the highway. I only have 30,000 miles on those tires, they should have been good for quite a while more. Nope, I guess not. This morning on my way to work I heard a nasty thump, pulled off, and found bits and pieces of my tire as a trail behind me. Better than describing it to you, I can just show you…
I’ve found a set of replacements, I’m done with these, this is the 2nd tire that this has happened to. I thought the first was a fluke. Guess not. I’ve got an appointment to get 4 new tires put on tonight. I hate unexpected expenses like this. Arrg!
I guess I should be lucky, looking at the damage, that I didn’t lose control of the car. Here’s to small miracles.
PS: The grass IN the tire, is from the side of the road I pulled off onto, dunno how it got sucked in there, go figure.
by Matt | Feb 27, 2006 | Personal
My folks are in town this week. Its great to see them. They add a interesting hilarity to my life. I love my folks, they crack me up, they’re real down to earth folks.
Anyway, they’re here. They’re basically just hanging out all week. Were actually at the mall of all places right now. I found a sweet little usb card reader for my camera SD cards. I also stumbled across the Penny-Arcade limited edition collection book at a Walden books of al weird things. It was a going out of buisness sale and I guess they had a few they never sold sitting out back. I got it for $10. I was floored.
We’re gonna check out the rodeo this week too. I can’t wait for food-on-a-stick. Possibly the greatest thing to happen to food.
Recent Comments