Let me begin by telling you that you must all watch USANetworks tonight at 10pm to catch at least a little bit of Cannonball Run 2001. It’s a hoot! Six teams are racing across the US in wacky cars, facing challenges along the way. They all started out as 2 person teams, then the network added a third to keep it interesting. One team is called Third Wheel and it’s Ken & Barbie, with Ken’s ex-girlfriend as the surprise 3rd team member. The poor dide is in hell, cuz the girls are getting along! They fight, they make up. He’s feeling like the girls are ignoring him and spending too much time together…I laugh every time. Check it out!

Bad day. Reports have been off the last few days and I just was told this morning, so we’ve got to re-do the month. They installed new print drivers last night so now the entire company can’t print. Gimp is back from hip replacement surgery and it just as disagreeable as when she left. She has a habit of not speaking to me directly that drives me up one wall and down the other. “QuietGuy? Do we have to do the suchandsuch for soandso?” She’ll ask, when I’ve just that morning told her how it should be done. I’m the lead in the department but she refuses to acknowledge me – so she must die.

A/C still isn’t fixed in my car and I swear I almost passed out yesterday. I could hardly make it upstairs to the apartment. It should get fixed today, but I may have to leave the car and walk the 4 blocks home – not a huge distance, except in a heat wave. The customer service manager from Speedy has not returned either of my messages – I will be taking out all frustration on them later.

Blixx invited some friends over to watch football on Friday night. I guess the Patriots are going to kill the Giants (just looking for a fight, my NY friends). Anyway, this is DrJim and his wife HighOctane - and I don’t want them to see my crappy apartment. I’m freaking out that I’ll have nice people in my waterstained 3 room apartment – I don’t even know where we’ll squeeze them all in! There’s a reason that I don’t invite people over - I’m embarrassed at the crap we have crammed behind the couches and under tables. DaveGrips comes over to shit on the floor, so what do I care if my laundry lives under the kitchen table for lack of space. Toad isn’t too big of a deal either – he’s a total neat freak and I couldn’t live up to his standards, no matter how hard I scrubbed and cleaned. But DrJim & wife are like real adults who live in a nicely decorated house and always put out a great spread when we come over.

Blixx tells me to relax – we’ll only serve beer and maybe chips and watch the game. That CT upbringing tells me that we should at least serve desert. In fact, if we invite them for desert it is clear that no substantial feedings will be taking place and that they should eat on their own. Then there’s the cleaning – I was almost late this morning because I was trying to get the soap scum off the shower doors. We’ve got to get all the empties that are in a stack out of the kitchen, scrub down the bathroom completely, find a space for the crap behind the phone table….ug! I don’t know how I’m going to get all the cleaning and shopping done, while getting my car fixed, getting a haircut and preparing for the rest of the weekend’s festivities.

While all of this is going down, Blixx is working for Home & Garden TV. I’ll let you all know when the shows are on, because he’s actually shooting footage. He leaves the house at 5:30am and doesn’t return until 8pmish. He then has to check his e-mail and do business stuff, eat dinner then it’s time for bed so he can get enough sleep for the next day. When the guests arrive on Friday, I bet you that he won’t even be home yet! And, he wants me to socialize and bond with HighOctane. As you may recall, she’s a super nice person and it’s not that I dislike her. It’s just that she never ever ever shuts up. Not for a second, and when I’ve been drinking and smoking up a storm I need some quiet time now and again. On our camping trip, I learned intimate details of her life and marriage that I never needed to know. If Blixx thinks I’ll be off in the kitchen gabbing it up with her he’s out of his mind, and I’ve told him so. She makes my head hurt.

Back to solving the computer problems of the world…

(pause for work)

The f*cking part for the A/C is on backorder and Speedy won't be able to get it for several weeks! District Manager finally called me back after I left a VM indicating that I'm reporting them to AAA. He says they never should have touched my A/C in the first place! I'm getting the $60 back that I paid for the recharge and a $50 gift certificate. I plan to take the GC, set it on fire in a bag of dogshit and leave it on their front door. They suggest I go straight to a GM dealership to get the part directly.

I called 6 local (& out of the way) dealerships. Most said that there's a minimum 2 week wait on A/C repairs. The place where I got my car can squeeze me on on Friday, which means I have to take time off work. Blixx can't help me out with a ride because he's working, and I don't know anyone from here who lives on that side of Worcester. I can rent a car, but the dealer is going to charge me $125 just to LOOK at the damn A/C so I don't want to incur the additional expense. So I get to take a day off to sit in the waiting room of the Chevy dealership - I'll probably have Teacher and V pick me up and take me home, but it still means I'm without a car all day. Blixx would have to take me to pick the thing up either late Fri - which can't happen cuz people are coming over - or Saturday morning.

Take it out, it hurts!

Into the future...