Not that it matters, as I’m soon to form my own company, but out of town recruiters have gotten a tad smarter. They’re at least using VOIP based local numbers to call from now. Before, I could easily weed them out by local or non-local numbers. But the same goons are calling from the same companies that are out of town and have no relationship with local clients.

I’ve been bad about posting lately, but as the company formation comes along, I’ll post progress on it as a “how to” for others.

I AM a misanthrope.

From Wikipedia:

While misanthropes express a general dislike for humanity on the whole, they generally have normal relationships with specific individuals. Misanthropy may be motivated by feelings of isolation or social alienation, or simply contempt for the prevailing characteristics of humanity.

I clearly have contempt for the prevailing characteristics of humanity at this point in time. Can we save ourselves from ourselves? I don’t know. When teenage girls start showing up to church looking like strippers and with mother stripper look-alike bringing her, it’s hard to think that we can. Somehow, over the past 10-15 years, the me-ism and selfishness of the 80s has resurfaced, and I don’t like it one bit. I just hope that we can raise our daughter to be more conscious of her surroundings than most people are today.

Our Dog, Pearl, got her head stuck in the fence yesterday. Motivated, but not smart. She was in the back yard, and I was in the front mowing. Sarah comes around and motions to me to stop the mower. She then says, “your dog has her head stuck in the fence. She looks all sad like she’s in the stocks in colonial America.” Sure enough, Pearl had her head stuck between the pickets at the bottom, and presumably was just hanging out until someone freed her. She’s smart when she wants to be, but her smarts are sometimes overridden by her love for us- she just wanted to be in the front with me.

The other funny thing was that as Sarah was clearing the back yard of sticks, she was throwing them up into the leaves. Unfortunately, Pearl was bringing them back as fast as Sarah could throw them. Frustrating for Sarah, but all kinds of fun for me to watch.

After we moved, the old CharBroil that we won in a raffle at the gym gave up the ghost. Wouldn’t light and couldn’t even hear gas coming out of the burners. Upon inspection, the burners were rusted out as all crap. So, I researched new burners for it, and it was cost prohibitive. The grill was free to us, and was on the very low end of their range. Crappy grill that lasted for 5 years, so I don’t feel badly about replacing it.

The new place has a natural gas hookup on the patio, so naturally, I thought we should buy a natural gas grill. I settled on a Weber and have pretty much decided that it should be the last grill that we buy - or at least that it should last 15-20 years. The only problem is that they are incredibly hard to find. Home Depot wanted $85 to have it shipped to my house, and that was on the low end of what most retailers wanted for shipping. Average was $130.

I was in Home Depot yesterday for a few other things, and went to look at the grill again. They had two that were on hold for someone else. The sales guy checked the system, and couldn’t find where one was listed  under anyone, so he let me have it. Hooray. Got it home with no problems. It was just a bit frustrating that HD didn’t list any in store on the web site just to be able to walk in and get one if your timing was right. But, we got the one we wanted with no inconvenience other than continually checking stock.

Now, just have to try my hand at some real deal brisket - Texas style, of course. None of the inferior pig that’s so prevalent in the southeast.

OK, so I ran out of humidor solution a few nights ago. Essentially, the stuff is propylene glycol and distilled water in a 50% solution. Not tough. However, prepackaged solution retails for about a buck an ounce. Ridiculous. So, I decided to go out and look for the pure stuff. Shipped direct to my door, it’s $38 for a gallon of the stuff. That’s 2 gallons of solution. At retail, that would be $128. Suckers.

So, I’ve finally decided to tell Gillette “Up Yours”. I’m sick and blessed tired of paying an arm and a leg for razor cartridges that give an inferior shave. Now, I don’t have a think burly beard, but you can tell it’s the end of the day by looking at me. Mach 4 razors are about $2.50/cartridge. At one per week x 52 = $130 a year just on razors alone. And a crappy shave to boot. I get maybe 2-3 shaves before I start getting razor burn on my neck.The thing is with 4 blades on a head, how good can they be? How soon do they warp? I know how fast they dull - fast.

So, based on a recommendation in Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools, I bought a Merkur DE safety razor. (Plug- leesrazors.com) I used to have a cheap plastic handle one when I lived in DC, but it didn’t make it through the 4 moves since I lived on Nelson. I had totally forgotten how good of a shave you get with a good razor. It’s awesome. one swipe, and it’s baby smooth. You have to retrain yourself not to press down when you shave and let the razor do the work. The razor is pretty heavy, and I’m almost certain that I’ll never have to buy another. The blades are ballpark $.5o each, and will easily get you 6 shaves. So, blade cost is cut down to $26/year. The razor was $41, but that cost is recovered in 5 months.

Next, maybe need to look at brush and mug for shaving cream once my current nutrogena runs out. No sense in throwing it out when I’m getting a perfectly good shave from it now.

Cooked up a bag of it last weekend when the inlaws were in town. Not terribly happy with it. The flavor is good, but not enough fat in it. I used center cut pork chops to make it (as that was MUCH cheaper than butt when bought at costco). I’d say it’s maybe 97% lean, and a tad dry. Either need to get used to a healthier snaus, or find a way to add moisture back. Maybe add some apple juice to the pan as they’re cooking? Wrap them in bacon? Nah. neither of those will probably work. Just need to consider it a lesson learned for next time. Either use butt or add fatback.

So, I changed my # over to a local Atlanta number. It was an ordeal. Took an hour on the phone with 2 different Sprint reps. The first told me that I couldn’t keep my SERO plan if I changed my number. That was after she asked me what the area code and exchange of my new number should be. Shouldn’t she have known that? So, she changed my number without telling me. I had to call back and got another rep that walked me through the final steps to change the number, with no problems, and no change to my account.

Well, the new problem is the previous owner of my number, a Lynn Rush, still has people calling it. I need to begin making up fabulous lies aout her. “Nope, she joined the peace corps” or “She’s taking some time off to explore a career in erotic dancing.” Nah, not her fault that they’re calling her old number - for now. Ask me in a few months if I’m still getting calls and what I’m saying then.

The same thing happened when I was issued a phone for work when I was at Heritage Health Systems. Apparently, the Nextel number on my phone was previously assigned to one Mr. Curtis Spears - who was/is a deadbeat. I got no less than 4 collection calls per day on that phone for months - enough to make it worthless for communicating. Eventually, I just began to answer the calls and tell them it wasn’t his number any longer. It was especially choice when someone from the video store called asking about a late return. I told them that if they see Curtis, tell them to pay his bills and stop giving out his old cell number.

I guess it’s more of a commentary on the ever-shrinking pool of available phone numbers. Cell usage just keeps going up, and with no decrease in land lines, fax, etc. we’re rapidly approaching an PIv6 dilemma with phone numbers. Maybe one day, dialing balogs.net will ring the house first, then roll to both our cell phones, then send text messages and e-mail? Who knows.

So, little one was bitten on the face yesterday at school. Really sad, because she didn’t do anything to provoke it. Some other little girl just walked up and honked her on the nose and upper cheek. Apparently, the biter is having issues as a second child and has been acting out by biting. Little one is OK. I just hope that the other kid’s parents can get it under control for her sake and theirs.

Never. Ever. Deal with non-local recruiters. They have an ice cube’s chance in hell of placing you anywhere.