The Friday Five is all about work.

1. What was your first job?
The first jobs I had were working for farmers bailing hay, detasseling and walking beans; it wasn’t really a “steady” job, though – only when they called. My first job NOT working like that was a construction job where I laid sod for a builder.

2. How much did you make?
It was a whopping $2 per hour. Hey! At the time it was more than minimum wage!

3. Describe your least favorite co-worker of all time.
Two summers while working at J&K Button Factory, one guy I had to work with had the WORST hygeine. You could smell him from about 15 feet away; it looked like he never bathed or changed clothes. He was pungent – very hard to work with and I had to interact with him almost every day.

4. What is your dream job?
I’m working it now. Tech support where I can play with a lot of new toys and test them out as well as troubleshoot problems others are having.

5. What do you currently do and do you like it?
I currently work in computer tech support and I really do like my job.

Wow; Thursday already? It’s time for the Thursday Threesome.

Onesome – If You – If you were given a million dollars, what would you do with it?
I’d pay off all our loans first. Then I’d pay off all the kids’ loans. Then I’d pay for our families to come to a vacation at Play del Carmen!!

Twosome – Have To – What is it that you have to do today? Or is there something you’re dreading to do this week?
Jeez, do you want a list? I have many things to do each day. Today I need to mail rebate forms in, I need to check on a desk for my nephew, I need to be ready to play a church-league softball game, I need to push out an Internet Explorer policy package to our LAN users, I need to investigate why a problem continues to recur with our terminal emulator, (Whew!) among other things!

Threesome – Go Away – Where’s that place you’ve been imagining to take a dream trip to lately?
So with all the stuff above you think I have time to dream?! My dream trip is to go back to the Playacar area for a week. Just lay around on the beach with plenty of cerveza!

I just saw someone with a “Sam’s Choice” can of lemon iced tea and I got to thinking. Just who the heck is “Sam”? It it is Sam Walton, then do we really want the choice of a dead guy?

Wednesday… Are you more… Here we go…

01) The Times Roman font or the Courier font?
I do all I can to avoid the Times Roman font. Yeah, I like some of the related fonts, but that one is bad. I choose Courier.

02) Garlic bread with cheese appetizer or french onion soup appetizer?
ANY kind of bread is a great appetizer. Can I get bruschetta with the garlic bread?

03) Preferring the really hard core porn or preferring the light soft core porn?
Depends. Some of the older “hard cord” stuff actually attempted a plot; those are OK. Any more all the hard core is as many people trying to screw each other’s brains out so it has to be soft core. I actually like some of them that have a plot line and sort-of stick to it.

04) 2-ply facial tissues or 3-ply facial tissues?
3-ply. You only use it to blow your nose, right? Why risk boogerhands?

05) 2-ply toilet paper or 3-ply toilet paper?
Again, 3-ply. Toilet paper has one use and I don’t want dingleberries on my fingers!

06) Likely to enjoy a Disney (non-animated) movie marathon or a Jerry Bruckheimer movie marathon?
There’s some overlap here. At least two movies (National Treasure and Pirates of the Caribbean) are both non-animated Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer movies; maybe more. I vote for Jerry’s movies, though. He also did Con Air among many others.

07) Special or ordinary?
I’m pretty much an ordinary guy.

08) Preferring to drink water that’s on the verge of freezing or preferring to drink water that on the verge of room temperature?
On the verge of freezing. Room temperature water just doesn’t do it for me.

09) A fan of Spider-Man or a fan of Batman?
Batman. Especially after watching Batman Begins!

10) Likely to buy an High Definition (widescreen) TV in the next couple of years or likely to hold off buying one as long as possible (until your current TV breaks)?
I’d like to think I’d get one in the next couple of years, but maybe something will come out that’s even BETTER!

Happy Birthday, Connor!

Look who’s 29 again! Happy Birthday, Sue!

The weekend trip was a success on all fronts. KC got to go scuba diving and Breezomatic got certified for scuba diving. Also, I picked up a few items at TigerDirect. I also have a special item purchased from Fry’s; it’s supposed to be a surprise, so I’ll not say any more about it until later.

My brother Al took the trip with me and suggested Portillo’s for lunch. If you’ve never had a Portillo’s hot dog (which I hadn’t before this weekend) you aren’t living! Anyway after going to both Fry’s and TigerDirect there, we went to Portillo’s for a late lunch. After a quick dessert stop at Dairy Queen, we went on home and I started putting together the “new” computer.

You’re stranded on a deserted island. Somehow, magically, you knew to bring the following five things to make being stranded somehow bearable. (You’ve got it… it’s the Friday Five)

1. What form of entertainment would bring with you (eg: a certain book or a badmitton set)?
I’d have to take a deck of cards. You can keep yourself and up to three others entertained for a long time with a deck of cards.

2. What tools would you bring with you?
Hammer, hand saw, screwdriver set, axe, shovel and solar-powered satellite-connected laptop.

3. Who would you bring with you?
Of course, my best friend and lover: KC. I’d also like to bring along my friends Bob and Norma because they are so involved in scouts that they’d be a great help. You know, “Be Prepared” and all that.

4. Name one grab bag item you would have with you (anything you want).
Probably have to bring Diet Mountain Dew as my grab bag item. Maybe about 1,000 cases of it… that’s right.

5. Name one thing you simply couldn’t live without on the island.
There is no doubt in my mind that I could not survive for very long without CHOCOLATE!

Looks like I’m going to have a Road Trip weekend. KC and Breezomatic are going to some lake in Wisconsin for Breezomatic’s qualifying dive; she’ll be SCUBA certified. I know Breezomatic is fired up and I believe KC is pretty stoked for this, too.

All this leaves yours truly alone for a time this weekend. So I’m going on a road trip. I’m headed to the western suburbs of Chicago. First stop: Downers Grove… Fry’s Electronics. There aren’t too many stores that are bigger geek toy stores than Fry’s. I don’t know that I’ll buy anything there, but I will comparison shop against things I can price at my second stop: Naperville… TigerDirect. This is another of the geek toy stores, this one pretty much concentrates on computers. So this weekend is one where I’ll probably spend some money!!!

Sounds like a strange title, but it’s the Thursday Threesome title!

Onesome – I’d give up: Is there anything you’ve given up that you’re proud of? Or something you gave up on that you wish you hadn’t?
Well, I did take up smoking during college (for about two weeks) and I gave that up. Coach had brought in some basketball recruits and after about three trips up and down the floor I could hardly breathe; I was thinking “These HAVE to go!”

Twosome – Chocolate: What’s your favorite way to treat yourself? Would you kill for chocolate or would you rather have something else?
If you check out item #4 on the 42 Things About Me, you’ll see that I definitely treat myself with chocolate… in ANY form. Hell, I’d probably eat poison ivy if you coated it with chocolate!

Threesome – But I’m no quitter: Is there anything you think you should give up, but you refuse to do it?
I suppose the big bowl of ice cream smothered in chocolate sauce that I like about 9:30pm each night. That goes a long way to explain why I have a hard time getting rid of my “spare tire”.

It’s Wednesday so off we go with Are you more…

01) One who would prefer no rain even if it meant a drought or one who would prefer rain even if it went on for a month without stopping to save the crops?
I prefer the rain; have you ever noticed how wonderful it smells after a rain storm? Of course if I had “my druthers” I’d prefer to have an optimal amount of rain each night, say from 3am to 4am. Then everybody would be happy.

02) Someone who mows their lawn like clockwork or someone who dreads cutting their lawn and sometimes skips a week?
There are worse things than mowing the lawn (you know, like testicles in a vise), but it’s a short list. I HATE mowing yard.

03) Good looking or a fun person to know?
You’d have to be pretty warped (or pretty blind) to think I’m good looking, so I MUST be a fun person to know!!

04) Likely to sit by the phone and wait for him/her to call even if they’re not nice to you or likely to cut them lose as soon as he/she proves to be insensitive to your feelings?
Geez, this sounds like a dating question and I haven’t done the date scene for so long I don’t know how I’d answer this question.

05) A hooker with a heart of gold or a school marm with a heart of stone?
Hooker with a heart of gold. Prim and proper means nothing if there is no caring.

06) One who sets out a jack-o-lantern and that’s it for Halloween or one who gets dressed up and does up the house because your just LOVE Halloween?
I LOVE Halloween. I was the one who took the kids trick or treating. I am the one who STILL gets dressed up and waits for kids to ring the bell now. It’s GREAT!

07) Likely to punish/chastise a child doing bad things even though they’re not yours or likely to not say anything because they’re not yours and you don’t relish the thought of getting sued?
It used to be that I’d say something to the kids when they were acting up. Any more, with society as sue-happy as it is, I just ignore such things and move along.

08) A person who does the swan dive off the diving board or a person who does the cannonball/jack-knife/ass-cracker off the diving board?
I’m definitely a cannonball man. The swan dive is for those who are elegant.

09) One who enjoys playing golf or one who enjoys going bowling?
I enjoy both (not at the same time, silly!), with the right people. Of course, the last time I really screwed up my knee I was bowling. Yeah, that’s right, BOWLING! I play basketball, softball and such and i hurt my knee BOWLING. Still, it’s fun.

10) On Tom Cruise’s side of the post-partum-depression medication fiasco or on Brooke Shields’ side of the post-partum-depression medication fiasco?
I’m definitely on Brooke’s side. How the hell can you be on that moron Tom Cruise’s side? “You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do.” Yeah, Tom; right. Whatever. Get over yourself. I’m not trying to nail my Christian shoes on you; you keep your scientology shoes away from me. And while you’re at it STFU.

Just got this from Judy and thought it was pretty good. Read on…