The Bosque

I finished my 11th class last Thursday night--Business Policy and Strategic Planning. The class consisted of almost 100% computer-based work with some instruction in class. It wasn't bad...the teacher was a bit odd, but he was like 120 and a Republican. Unfortunately, the class led to a schism in my study team--one of our team members is either going through a rough patch or has decided to stick her head firmly up her ass. I still hold out hope that she'll come back around though.

No grade yet, but I'm thinking I got an A or A-. I have this week off (which I've dedicated to working--I'm working 13 days in a row), then I start my thesis next Thursday. I think I've got a good one ready to roll...and at this point, so long as a I get a C, I graduate. Whoohoo!

Last class/presentation day is June 14th...45 days to go.

Cardinals reliever Josh Hancock died in a car accident here in St. Louis overnight. Tonight's game with the Cubs has been postponed.

This marks the second time in 5 years that Cardinal Nation has lost one of its players during a season...Darryl Kile died in June 2002 of coronary disease, ironically during a series with the Cubs in Chicago.

I regularly take deliveries to the public elementary school by our shop. As I was on my way to a teacher's classroom yesterday, another teacher had her class in the hallway, apparently headed for lunch or recess. One of the kids had apparently told another kid that he was going to kill him, when the teacher intervened. I didn't hear what the kid's responses were, but I could hear the teacher:

"Why are you threatening to kill him? You don't say that kind of stuff!"

"Look at you! You're way bigger than he is! Why would you want to hurt him?"

"Why are you picking on him? What has he done to you that would make you do that?"

"I want you to tell him why you keep picking on him. Turn to him and tell him."

It was a bit over-the-top and I'd be concerned about embarrassing the troublemaker (which could lead to more problems later), but I thought the teacher did a good job with him. She called him out and forced him to try and rationally explain his behavior. From my experience, you try to do that to a kid, he feels stupid and can't explain it. As long as she keeps an eye on the troublemaker and the attacked, and perhaps lets the parents in on things, it could be a successful long-term fix.

Wolf's in charge today

Hot off the AP wire:

Bull Wanders Into Garage, Attacks Car
By Associated Press

HEBRON, N.Y. - A woman pulled into her driveway and spotted something big inside her garage. That something turned out to be a bull. And an angry bull at that.

Mabel Washburn says she drove to a nearby relative's home in rural Washington County to call police after coming face to face with the bull on Wednesday afternoon. When she returned to her home near the Vermont border a few minutes later, the bull was still there.

The 81-year-old woman says the animal then rammed its horns into her Ford Escort a couple of times. She blew her horn at it, but the bull chased the vehicle as she drove away.

The story makes no mention of the color of the old lady's car, but since it seems to have angered the bull, it must have been red.

...get a not-so-simple answer.

So, I went to look at a Mercury Grand Marquis at an Enterprise car sales location. Each member of my immediate family has bought a car from there, and except for Tim, we still own them.

The Grand Marquis was at their central county location. I went out there, drove it and decided I didn't like it. They had an '06 Impala that I did like, so I decided to get the ball rolling, credit-wise.

Unfortunately, they were only going to give us $3800 for the Malibu...I still owe $7900 on it. Factoring in an extended warranty, I was looking at a car payment of $400 a month...not to mention, increased insurance costs. Fuck that. April and I are going to need to actually put some cash down...and we don't want to do that right now because we're trying to save up for our honeymoon and a house. Plus, the fuckers kept me waiting forever.

Okay, so no deal. The finance guy calls me back like 10 minutes ago to tell me that the credit union approved financing for the Impala. I told him that we decided not to purchase the car because the financials were too risky. He then tried to put me on a mini-guilt trip, which I deflected. Then he says he was able to get the payments down to what I was looking for...I had told him $350-370 a month earlier this morning.

Syc: "What is the payment amount?"

Finance guy: "What were you looking for?"

I then yelled an expletive at him and hung up the phone. I fucking hate shit like that...drives me nuts.

I dunno what the fuck we're going to do now...*shrugs*...maybe I'll win the lottery.

Seriously, we're going to do this the right way. I'll wait until I get a regular job or can sell off some of my collectables to have cash down. And I'm going to buy a brand new car...no more second-hand shit.

Sort of...from MSNBC: In his first public comments since last week’s massacre, the National Rifle Association’s top lobbyist said today that the group backs proposed new legislation designed to ensure that mentally unstable killers like Cho Seung-Hui do not gain access to firearms.

Wayne LaPierre, the group’s executive vice president, told NEWSWEEK that Cho, the Virginia Tech killer, “absolutely” should have been barred from buying a gun under current federal laws. But Lapierre nonetheless says the group is now working with longtime ally Rep. John Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, on a bill to ensure that mental-health records—such as the December 2005 court order directing Cho to receive a psychiatric evaluation—are entered into a FBI database that is used for background checks of gun buyers. Federal law does bar sales of guns to those who have been found to be mentally “defective,” but most states have a shoddy track record of reporting mental-health records to the feds.

The title alone should generate some hits. :)

From the BBC: Japan's Toyota has overtaken US rival General Motors to become the world's biggest carmaker, a spokesman for the company has said.

According to company figures, Toyota sold 2.348 million vehicles in the first three months of 2007.

General Motors (GM) is estimated to have sold 2.26 million cars and small trucks during the same period.

I'm about two steps from never buying another GM vehicle.

I thought this thread on Cellar would get more attention, but...*shrugs*...oh well.

Here are some of the cars I'm considering as of right now (in no particular order):

Ford Taurus/Five Hundred (Mercury Sable/Montego)
Mercury Grand Marquis
Chevy Impala
Pontiac Grand Prix
Subaru Impreza
Subaru Outback
Honda CR-V
Toyota RAV4
VW Golf/GTI/Rabbit
Saab 9-3

I really need to get out and drive some of these. I've driven the pre-2007 Tauruses, and liked them. I don't know how the new Taurus/Five Hundred feels...I hear it's underpowered.

For some reason, the Grand Marquis is really calling me...I don't know why though. I like it better than its twin, the Ford Crown Victoria.

I just don't see myself getting one of the foreign vehicles...they're too expensive new, and hard to find used. And if you find them used, they tend to be older and out of warranty specs.

We'll see...I want that damned Malibu gone, though.

I noticed that my car was becoming more difficult to start last week. When I left work last night, it almost didn't kick over. Then it decided not to start at all after I left a Walgreens last night. All signs point to a bad starter--one that was just replaced a year ago by the dealership.

Lessee...blown fuses, transmission pump, fuel pump...I think the car has been at the dealership for warranty repairs at least a dozen times in 2 years. Incidentally, tomorrow will be the 2 year mark.

I'm tired of this shit. I realize that I use it as a delivery vehicle and that I've put 47,000 miles on it. But I take very good care of it...there is no reason I should be having so many problems with it.

April and I are in good financial and credit shape, and can afford a slightly higher car payment and insurance. Now I just need to figure out what the fuck I want.

Time to search...

Limbo (the religious concept, not the dance) was officially killed off by the Catholic Church yesterday. If your babies didn't get baptized before dying, they are in Heaven after all.

No word on non-Catholics as of yet.

From MSNBC: The festering bad blood between movie-star exes Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger erupted Thursday when an angry phone message from Baldwin to his daughter was made public.

On the recording, Baldwin can be heard admonishing his 11-year-old, Ireland: "You are a rude, thoughtless little pig."

Did he really need to talk to his kid like that? That's terrible!

At the same time, did this really need to be made public? This is one of the nastiest public divorces I've seen in a while...and Baldwin and Basinger have been divorced for 4 years now.

Today is a joyous day in Sycamoreland. April's kid sister May is 18 today...whoohoo! I believe she is celebrating the day by getting a tattoo and going to Chuck E. Cheese's...that sounds like a great birthday to me.

Happy birthday, kiddo! It's all downhill from here. ;)

From the BBC: Canadian coastguards are trying to rescue the occupants of about 100 boats carrying seal hunters trapped by pack ice off the country's eastern coast.

Several of the boats are threatened with damage or sinking, and at least one crew had to abandon ship.

Fishermen have described conditions as the worst for more than 20 years.

The hunt, described by activists as cruel and unnecessary, is currently in its third and largest stage off the coast of Newfoundland province.

"If nobody comes down here and buys a car in the next hour, I'm gonna club this baby seal! That's right! I'm gonna club this seal to make a better deal! You know I'll do it, too, 'cause I'm crazy!"

So, I was planning to come out to Philadelphia the first week of May. SteveDallas from Cellar was trying to figure out a way to get some fragile items of his wife's from Chicago to Philadelphia. I volunteered to do it for a fee...it would finally give me a chance to get out to my second city for the first time since I left in 2005.

Unfortunately, I found out today that Steve's wife will be going out to get the items herself. While I'll wind up saving some cash, I'm still bummed out about it.

*shrugs* There will be another time soon, hopefully.

Wolf is in charge today.

"Our trouble is that we drink too much tea. I see in this the slow revenge of the Orient, which has diverted the Yellow River down our throats."


~~ J.B. (John Boynton) Priestley


This week I will be joining my girlfriends at a tea house. It's like going to a little island of elegance in a sea of chaos. Once you step through the door of the storefront, you are transported to a world of the in which ladies wore gloves and dainty little hats, with miniature sandwiches served on doily covered tiered trays.

On the upside, you get all the tea you can drink.

I will have to be on my best behavior. The last time I was there, the owner told a story about some inappropriate women (note, not ladies) who were taking tea and one of them used a naughty word. She couldn't even say the word out loud. She spelled it.

I hope I don't slip and accidently say "Fuck." The owner will die of a heart attack on the spot, or the roof will probably cave in or something.

One of the strange things about going to this place is that I remember going there years ago ... it's across the street from what used to be a sleaze-bag motel in Lansdale. The space was formerly occupied by a Chinese Restaurant. The pet store was next door to the Chinese place. At least you knew that everything you ordered was fresh.

College is supposed to be a place and time to learn, to grow and to have fun. Sadly, for students at Virginia Tech, that piece of their lives will be marred by the loss of (currently) 33 people in a horrible act of violence.

We don't know what exactly happened yet, and I can only imagine what those folks are going through out there. I hope that God is watching over them right now, and that they can heal and get back to normal as quickly as possible.

Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hi
Tech, Tech, V-P-I
Sol-A-Rex, Sol-A-Rah
Poly-tech Virgin-i-a
Ray, Rah, V-P-I
Team! Team! Team!

I bought a new beard trimmer about 6 months ago or so...I threw it away yesterday.

The trimmer piece sucked...it regularly adjusted itself and I never got an even trim, or it would chew up a chunk of my beard. I finally had it after another fuck up yesterday.

Normally, when I fuck the beard up, I trim my mustache off because in the past, I've thought I look like a child molester. But after I shaved the beard off, I looked at the 'stache...it doesn't look bad. It makes me truly look Latino, if I'm not already. And it makes me laugh. So it's staying...just call me Alejandro.

From the BBC: A video aired on German TV has shown an army recruit on firing practice being ordered to pretend he was in New York's Bronx facing hostile African Americans.

This is sad. Incredibly funny, but incredibly sad.

Now that we've reached the climax of the situation involving Don Imus, I wanna talk about it a little bit.

I like Imus...his sense of humor seems to be like mine. My primary exposure to him was on MSNBC, as he wasn't on the radio here in St. Louis that I can remember.

What he said was stupid and wrong. Even if he truly was being funny--which I'm on the fence about--his words carry more weight than the average Joe because of who he is. And if you fuck up, the world finds out about it pretty quick...so you gotta be careful.

But firing him was stupid too. What point was truly made? To me, this will be another example of "If you fuck up big time, you will lose your job. But once things die down, you'll get back on your feet." And while I respect Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for some of the things they've done, they're not much more than attention whores these days. How can anyone really take them seriously anymore?

Is this incident going to lead to grand changes...or any changes? I dunno...I suspect not. What Imus did in the grand scheme of things wasn't that big of a deal. But in the short-term, I think it will increase animosity between liberals and conservatives.

This week, I started a daily trip to the grocery store for a fresh bagel, usually Asiago cheese. They're delicious, and much cheaper than the ones at BreadCo/Panera. I usually have that and a glass of chocolate milk for breakfast. I thought about making eggs this morning, but I was lazy.

I used to do something similar during my last few months in Philadelphia. I'd put in 4 or 5 miles walking, then stop by the Shop-Rite or Pathmark in Germantown and grab a few items for breakfast and lunch.

As I've mentioned somewhere before (maybe here or Cellar), I love grocery shopping. I just like meandering around the store, looking at and buying things. The grocery store by us is nice...fairly large, with a food bar and a large selection of Italian goods (given its location on the edge of The Hill, St. Louis's Italian area). And I get exercise...if I knew the management wouldn't get suspicious, I'd walk around the grocery a la mall-walking.

I'll have to get April into it on the weekends. But I'll have to keep an eye on her...she'll want to buy a bunch of shit that we don't really need. :)

Did I mention that my cholesterol is now at 160, down from 208 a year ago? And my LDL and triglycerides were awesome. I am shocked and amazed.

Work kicked my ass tonight. My study team has a case of senioritis and is pissing me off. I have a killer headache. And April doesn't get back from Indianapolis until tomorrow.

I'm going to bed.

You know how on most cable systems, local commercials are sometimes shown instead of national commercials on a station like Comedy Central or CNN?

"Family Guy" had just finished up on Adult Swim, when a commercial for a local pro-life group that provides counseling services for pregnant women came on.

At first, I thought it was a joke, until the name of the group (Birthright) was mentioned.

Wow...talk about weird...and poorly targeted...

This piece from Neil Cavuto about apologies caught my eye the other day. IMO, he hit the nail right on the head:

Just remember, when you apologize, you're apologizing for something you did wrong, not just to make the other guy feel right.

Good stuff. Although, inevitably, I think we're all guilty of appeasement...sometimes ya gotta.

...it's only fair to show some love to the bunnies!



From left: Molly, Holly, Selma and Quentin

...sells pre-paid gas?

Remember back in the day when you could "name your own price" for gas on Priceline? I'm just wondering if there is a place like that now, where I could buy a certain amount of gas at a certain price and lock it in, like SWA did with jet fuel. I haven't researched it online yet...I'm just wondering if anyone knows anything about it before I do.

Currently, the cheapest gas price I've seen in St. Louis is at the QT by our apartment...$2.659. It's gone up about 65 cents a gallon in the last two months...my monthly gas costs have gone up $60 in that time. And apparently, prices are supposed to go up more before Memorial Day.

Being able to lock in a reasonable gas price would be so nice, given my current occupation. I see $3 gallons of gas by Memorial Day...I'd be happy to stay at $2.66.

Tim brings us a bonus Manifesto today

Wow, things have really been busy at work. About 2 mos ago, a night crew had their ambulance stolen and involved in a high speed chase from sunset hills to north city. The chase ended with the truck into a building somewhere up in north STL. Thankfully nobody was injured.
Last night, something else happened at work. A crew was driving down Manchester in our 911 muni and they were hit from behind. The truck flipped 6 times and ended up standing upside down against an apartment building. They were both transported to the hospital.
This really fucks with me. Before I left work I saw that crew. They are friends. And the crew that called this incident in, well, that would have been me and my old partner if I hadn't gone back to days. My old truck called it in.
This really fucks with me. Especially knowing that I could have been the one that had to do this. I know my field is a fucked up thing, but when it happens to your own you can't do anything but question. For the last 4 yrs that i've been on the job, I've never worn a seatbelt in the rig. Because I don't want everybody's elses nasty on me (we share trucks). Now after seeing this truck on teh news and it's position, my outlook has changed.
As far as I know everyones alright. My dad called me first thing this morning to make sure it wasn't me. This just really fucks with me because all of the incidents happening lately has been veteran employees like myself, not some fucking new hire. Maybe I need to rethink my status as far as the ambulance goes. I've been 4 yrs and well over 200,000 miles w/o an incident. Guess my coushin of safety isn't there like I thought. Sorry, just had to sound off.

From MSNBC: Chaz Brewer visits the upscale St. Louis Galleria mall about once a week, checking out clothing stores like Aeropostale and American Eagle and hanging out in the food court.

But come April 20, he can’t visit the mall by himself on a Friday or Saturday night, under a new policy that prohibits teens 16 and under after 3 p.m. unless they have a parent or guardian with them.

We've also had fights at two other area malls recently.

I dunno. April and I go to the Galleria on occasion, and I got a bit irritated by teenagers walking slooooooowly in front of me. But as a teenager, I frequented malls on occasion, and probably acted up enough to be an irritant to shoppers at times.

Malls aren't babysitters, and there are a ton of things for kids to do on weekends. My friends and I would drive around, hang out at someone's house or go somewhere to eat, like McDonald's. If I were a teen now, I'd probably do much the same, with the addition of going to coffee shops.

I knew I had a break week coming up school-wise...we haven't had one since Christmas. But for whatever reason, I thought it was next week. April thought that sounded odd, since this is Holy Week, and Fontbonne is a Catholic university.

As I was drifting off to slumber last night, something told me to check my school calendar. Sure enough, I don't have class tonight. Whoops!

This class isn't very labor-intensive, so now I have more time to fuck around and spend with April. Whoohoo!

Every now and then, I have a meal that is incredibly satisfying. It tastes so good and leaves you feeling like there's nothing better in the world at that moment.

Such was the case with my breakfast at Chris' Pancake & Dining this morning: A country omelette with no onions, 2 pancakes with some syrup and a cup of decaf coffee. Nothing fancy...but damn, it was really good.

I can't say that lunch and dinner were so great, but at least my day started off right.

Seriously...a vending machine that distributes pens and pencils for a fee. As you can see, it's similar to some of the older stamp vending machines. I saw this in a middle school I delivered to yesterday.

From the BBC: Routinely checking to see if babies can respond to their name at the age of one could help detect autism earlier than other tests, US experts believe.

It sounds so simple, it's ridiculous. But it might be so ridiculous, it works.

At 7:05 CDT tonight, the St. Louis Cardinals take the field against the New York Mets to begin the 2007 baseball season and defend their 2006 World Championship.

I'd love to see the Cardinals repeat as champions this year--and given their lineup, it's quite possible. But in the end, I don't give a shit if we finish dead last. Last year was such a pleasant surprise, and I don't know if our hearts could handle another playoff race or championship.

Win or lose, we love 'em...GO CARDS!