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12.30.2002
Weekend 1 of being a printer rep has come and gone. <sarcasm>It was TONS of fun.</sarcasm> Well, who am I to complain - it's money, right? Although, other than the Cannon rep being blood thirsty for a sale, it wasn't too bad.

Not much else to speak of. Derek is making himself feel at home - in his old home. Yes, lots of TV watching and laptop use. Shades of the apartment. Unfortunately, unlike Kirstin, he doesn't clean.

God damn Packers. Instead of clinching the #1 spot and getting home field advantage, they blow it and are stuck playing a game in the first round. They better not screw up this weekend.

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12.27.2002
So day one of "turning on the fun" has come and gone. It turned out to be surprisingly easy to convince people that they need/want a certain product, despite the fact that 8 hours on your feet is a bitch. Hell, I even managed to sell a handful of good old PSPs. Of course, the customer from hell did decide to drop by.

While waiting for another unsuspecting target to show up, an elderly man - probably 75 but looking about 10 years older and behaving 20 years older - walked in. His first words were "Oh, great, you're from Lexmark, you can help me." Turns out the guy already had a Lexmark printer, and was trying to print photos. He had two copies of a photo done on the printer, and one copy done at Woodman's. The Woodman's copy looked a lot better than the copies done on the printer. His question: "Why do these look so bad?" My first question to him was "What software are you using to print?" His response? "I just use the computer, I don't have any software." You can see where this was going. I tried to explain that without knowing exactly what he was doing, there was little I could do to tell to him *why* his prints looked bad. "You see sir, there are settings you can adjust like brightness and contrast..." No, it all fell on deaf ears. I eventually handed the guy off to one of the store employees, who took about 5 minutes to get as far as I did, who then handed him off to another employee, who probably talked to the guy for another 10 minutes. Then it was back to the previous employee. All in all, the guy was there for probably half an hour, when everything could have been simply solved with "You're old, you're stupid, get the fuck out of this store."

I'm not sure if management would have appreciated that, though.

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12.25.2002
Time for an Xmas morning update.

Yesterday we made the trip down to Racine for the annual Ahrndt family gathering. Plenty of chaos, as usual. My grandparents were looking better than they have recently, although my grandpa seems to be more deaf than ever. Of course, the big news was that my 59 year old aunt is now engaged. The same aunt who's never dated or had a boyfriend, until now that is. This will prove to be interesting.

Some sad news - family friend Susan Goodrich died the other day. Luckily we got to see her last weekend when she was in the hospital, where they were doing little more than keeping her alive. I was kind of like the grandson they never had. Here's a story about her. She was really a neat person.

The hotel is still open. Zach and Katie left on Sunday, and the Blirstin is here till Thursday. Then Derek comes to stay on Friday. Having Kirstin here is nice, as she feels the need clean and straighten things up.

The "job" starts tomorrow. I suppose I should read up on Lexmark's fine offerings. My "training" was very thorough, you know. [removes tongue from cheek]

Merry Xmas, everyone. Well, to all you Christians and cultural Christians, anyway. To everyone else, consider yourself lucky that you have one less headache to deal with.

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12.21.2002
This one goes out to Kaiser Soze (notice the incorrect spelling) and SoltnGris:

Clan WiscFrag

I think we should get a good old Q1 game going one of these days. Just give me the rocket launcher. Ziggurat Vertigo, anyone?

Also, a nice quote courtesy of Katie Henkel:

"I like my booze booze-flavored."

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12.16.2002
So, it looks like I got a job. Well, sort of. Apparently I'll be pushing Lexmark printers at Best Buy on the weekends over the holidays. I don't foresee it as being particularly fun, but hey, it's money, right? I start this Friday, just as everyone starts showing up here. Go figure.

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As Amy mentioned, we went to see Igby Goes Down Saturday night. I really enjoyed it, as did (I think) all of us who went. I quite enjoyed this scene:

Sookie: [After Igby says something humorous] You're funny.
Igby: Instead of saying that someone or something is funny, why don't you just laugh?
Sookie: [laughs heartily] Is that better?
Igby: Much.

I think I want to see Far from Heaven next.

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12.11.2002
"Good news of a long-awaited event will arrive soon."

That's what my fortune cookie told me today, anyway. Hopefully it's something that gives me a paycheck.

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12.09.2002
Blargh. After getting up fairly early yesterday and feeling fine, early in the afternoon I started to feel like total crap. I don't know if it was the flu or what, but I was essentially stuck in bed all day. Not fun. Luckily I'm feeling a lot better today, although still not 100%.

It's funny - this house has a humidifier on the furnace, but Derek's parents told us it didn't work, and never had (they lived here for 20+ years). Well, yesterday morning I thought I'd go take a look at it, and it turns out that other than not being totally hooked up (I need to replace a small air duct they probably removed, along with getting a hose), it works fine. It needs a good cleaning, I'll give you that, but everything seems to work fine on it. That will save us $400+ (how much a new one would cost).

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12.05.2002
This came up while looking on Amazon.com:

"Customers who wear clothes also shop for:"

What do the customers who don't wear clothes shop for?

All of the moulding is finally back up in the hallway (I had to take it all down when I put the new floor in). I also replaced the baseboards with the same stuff that we put in the extra bedroom.

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12.01.2002
Today is an update full of photos (click on each for a larger version):

150000Recently my car hit 150k miles. It's still running fine, although my fingers are crossed.

The New FloorThe other day Amy made a comment that she didn't care if dogs ripped up the carpeting in the hallway, since it was in rough shape and we'd get to enjoy the nice wood floor below it. Well, the dogs (probably Freckles, actually) must have heard her, since when we came back from Racine yesterday the carpeting in front of the bedroom door (which was closed) was all ripped up, most likely because someone wanted to get on the bed. So, the carpet in the hallway came up. One problem, though - the wood floor doesn't go in the hallway, just the front bedroom and dining room. In its place was the same brown tile found in the guest bedroom. So, I spent much of today getting the area ready (taking off baseboards, for instance) and putting down more parquet. My knees are tired.

The SuspectsAnd, finally, here are the suspects, looking particularly cute.

Oh, and I'll add this. Lava hand soap works wonders with flooring cement.

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The Simpsons Archive

Vital stats:
DOB 2/16/79. I'm a web developer at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. I like lots of old music, including The Who. I spend a lot of time working with computers. And my favorite TV show (when I actually decide to watch TV, that is), obviously, is The Simpsons.

Education:
In May 2002 I officially graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a BS in computer science. In 1997 (man that seems like a long time ago) I graduated from Washington Park HS. Yes, I know, that site isn't very impressive, and no, I haven't touched it for several years.

WFS Logo

WFS:
One of the best experiences I have ever had was on a trip called Western Field Studies. This is a 33 day adventure throughout the western United States. Students travel on a school bus to national parks, monuments, forests, and places of historical interest and camp out (in tents or under the stars). I was a part of trip 25, which took place in the summer of 1996. A first for WFS was we took along a laptop computer and kept up a web site. That link will take you to the 1996 site, where there is a link to the current site.