what once was lost, now is found

i was snacking on some chips and salsa, and got salsa on my pants. so i dug out a clean pair of sweatpants and donned them. but something wasn't right. it felt like i was wearing a super-maxi pad from the 70s. so i check out my crotch and find my missing wool sock. goodie! all socks have their mates once again.

opportunity knocking, but apparently nobody is home

i saw a news story yesterday about how the most popular gift item - the gift card - is now an endangered species. what the? why?

well, it turns out that in these dire economic times, people are actually planning on spending less money this holiday season [[shock]]. the story went on to reveal that americans plan to buy items that are on sale. and gift cards don't go on sale.

so my first observation is that people are cracked (yah, like you didn't know i thought this already). if you like someone well enough to give them a gift, why in the heck would you choose their gift based on whether or not it's on sale, rather whether or not it's something they'd want/need/like?!

second, gift cards are a great deal for a company. they get the benefit of having your money right away, without the detriment of giving up any product in return for it. 50% of cards are redeemed within 30 days, and 90% are redeemed withing 90 days. some are never redeemed. so why - why - wouldn't any retailer see that it's in their best interest to offer, say, 10% off on gift cards? to make it worthwhile, they could even put a limit on it to entice larger purchases, like if the card is $50 or more, you get 10% off. people would eat it up!

i'm convinced retailers are daft.*

*i love that word

crazy like a fox

i've lived in this house for 16 years, and yesterday i saw something that i've never seen before: a fox. right in my yard, too! he was pretty small, 15 pounds maybe, pretty mangy looking, and was hopping along on 3 legs. poor critter. i hope his foot mends before he starves. maybe i should leave some kibble outside.

dry spell

i wonder why it is that sometimes i can come up with multiple things in a day to write about, and then for days or weeks on end, i can't come up with anything to say. i'm in a bit of a dry spell on blog ideas. things must be going pretty well, because i'm not finding things to rant on about. but things are also very stable, so i have nothing new to wax poetic about. i'm curling. i'm racquetballing. i'm climbing. yeah, yeah. same as last winter. everybody has already heard about my dog. i'm broke, but i'm not willing to get a job quite yet, so there aren't many sympathy points available.

okay, so one noteable thing. i was in the chiro's office, and i saw my chiro talking to this guy. from the way they were talking, they were obviously friends. the guy turns to look at me, and darned if he wasn't the guy that steve and i got into a fight with on the golf course a few years back (in case you hadn't heard this story, this was literally a fight, with the police showing up and everything. after exchanging words an hour and a half earlier, two guys blindsided steve and coldcocked him by the clubhouse. it was 2 on 1, so i had to help my friend out). it was then i realized why my chiropractor looked kind of familiar. he was one of the foursome.

time to look for a new chiropractor. open to suggestions.

that's technology for you

sometimes the old way is the best way...

write or die

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lab.drwicked.com

this blog post is being created in an ingenious web app called write or die. i have set a goal for myself of 100 words in 20 minutes. even though this is an extremely achievable goal, it will definitely keep me from over-editing.

lol! okay, so i stopped typing for like 30 seconds, and the background started changing color and music started to play (i can't remember the artist, but he sang about "never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down..." once i started typing again, the page went back to normal. this is awesome! there is a done button, and once you are all done, you simply click it and...

...you get the option to copy everything to the clipboard, and you paste it in to your blog. note that the text in the box is the above box. keep scrolling down to the bottom to get the text you actually wrote.

nothing like a little change to put the spark back into blogging.

[addendum]
i don't want to spoil your fun, so i'll just encourage you to play with the grace period settings (evil = don't stop typing for even one second, honey) and the modes. rick astley was the artist singing in normal mode, although other audio gets played, too; you get a pop-up reminder in gentle mode. i wonder what happens in kamikaze mode...

preparing for election day - i wish the candidates would help

it happens every time. i know who to vote for in the senate race (pffft - nobody). i know who to vote for in the presidential race. i know who i want for u.s. and state reps. after that, it gets fuzzy.

who is running for the school board? commissioner? justice? judge? i get to the voting booth and make uninformed choices, because i'm uninformed about the local candidates.

well, this year i decided to be totally prepared, so i went online to see exactly what my ballot will look like. no stopping me now.

except that less than half of the people running for local office even have a web site! this is ridiculous! how can you run for an office - even the school board - without putting together a web site of some sort? it's not expensive, it's not hard, it's just (in my humble opinion) lazy and inexcusable.

if i can't find out about you, it's not very likely i'm going to vote for you. so get with it, you chumps!*

*seems that somebody is ready for the election to be done.