Jasper Jones

Had the chance to try a new drink last night after work. New to me, anyways. The wait for a table at Longhorns was crazy long so we stood around the bar for a while waiting for our table ready beeper to light up. I didn’t really feel like drinking a beer right before a big steak dinner, so I asked the bartender for a suggestion and she came up with the mojito. Let me tell you - this is a great drink!

I watched her make it. She took a tall glass and dropped a couple lime wedges in the bottom. Then she sprinkled a couple teaspoons or so of sugar into the glass. Then she sprinkled some mint leaves in the glass and took a little stick-type bar tool and smashed the stuff in the bottom of the glass to mix it up. (Found out later that the tool was a “muddler.” Who knew there was a tool for this?) The lime juice melted the sugar into a thick syrup and mashing the mint leaves spreads the mint flavor through the syrup.

Then she fills the glass with ice cubes and pours a couple shots of white rum over the ice. Fill the glass the rest of the way with club soda, and stir. Now, that’s nice! Great for a hot summer day.

Now I need a muddler for my home bar and I’m ready to try this at home.

This weekend pretty much wraps up the month of June, which means my summer is already half over. I have the month of July to work as much as I can to save up my money and squeeze in a little fun, then I head back to school in August. At least this is my last year of school and I’m SOOO ready for it to be over.

I set up a large trunk to start gathering up stuff to take back to school with me and I’m planning out my budget to see if there is anywhere I can save money on all those pesky expenses that manage to pop up during the year. It seems like everything is going up in price just as fast as the price of gasoline.

One thing my mom suggested is to stock up on some things while I have the time and money to shop smart. She said to make a list of the important things and check them off as I go.

So I’m starting with my most important assets - my body and my brain. Got to take care of those.

Found out that prescriptions for contact lenses are only good for 6 months. So if I run out of my supply of contacts while at school I have to go to an eye doctor for another exam ($90) just to get another prescription for contacts. I’m sure by then they will have gone up in price, too. So I’m planning to buy an extra 6 month supply using my current prescription and that will get me through the whole year.

I’m wearing the new acuvue oasys lenses because they have a special formula for people like me who sometimes have a problem with dry, irritated eyes. I buy them online from LENS.com because I save so much money over the local sources like my eye doctor - the most expensive place to buy them - and even the discount shopping clubs. Trust me, if you can buy a 6 or 8 month supply online from LENS.com, you’ll save the most money.

Did you hear the drama about Kane West’s show at Bonaroo? It was a comedy of errors and a lot of people were really pissed off at him. Not only because of the gawd-awful delays in his show, but because of his arrogance and indifference to the fans. Here’s a clue, Kanye - without fans, you’ve got nothing.

Here’s another clue, Kanye. You don’t have a show scheduled for 8:15 pm that doesn’t even start until 4:25 am and ignore the fans who’ve been WAITING OVER 8 HOURS FOR YOU. The very least you could have doen was thank the fans for waiting and apologize for the delays. Don’t come out railing against the people putting on Bonaroo. These people have been doing this for YEARS without you and your prima donna ways and they do know what they are doing. YOU ARE THE DUMMY HERE.

Here’s a quote from the front page of Yahoo this morning. Unbelievable arrogance.

NEW YORK (AP) — Kanye West defended himself from criticism over his delayed performance at Bonnaroo, saying on his blog that the flak he’s taken has left him “the most offended I’ve ever been.”

West’s performance at the Tennessee festival was scheduled for 2:45 a.m. in the early morning of June 15. West didn’t take the stage until 4:25 a.m., angering much of the crowd who had stayed up late to see the rapper perform.

The delay was caused by problems setting up West’s elaborate stage set, which included an interplanetary landscape of a wavy black platform and a video screen above. Pearl Jam, who had performed on the main stage earlier that evening, also went an hour over its scheduled time. While waiting for West’s concert to begin, many in the crowd pelted the stage with glow sticks and beer.

To be honest I’ve never looked at any of the online dating sites. My social life has been pretty full, although a lot of the dates turn out to be just once and then the realization that I don’t really want to call that person again just we just don’t seem to click. But I try to make the dates more than the typical dinner and a movie. I like to go places and do things, like go to the aquarium for a tour or take a train ride someplace new just for the day. And there has always been someone to ask to go along.

So I guess I wasn’t much help when my buddy Jerry asked me for advice about signing up for a dating site, and then I felt bad so I invited myself over to his place after work and we got online to check it out. Turns out that there are a lot of dating sites on the web and each one is different in its own way. It was frightening, in a way, to try to figure out which ones to spend the time on. So it was good to find this one site called “Prime Dating Sites” that actually lists and reviews all the top online dating services.

They’ve made it easy to read a short profile of each dating site and get an idea of some key factors, such as whether the site focuses on casual dating, like Yahoo Personals, or on finding your soul mate, like eHarmony. To put it another way, if you are looking for lots of flirting and romance you might have better luck with a site like Friend Finder and if you are looking for a serious relationship you should probably sign up for Chemistry. And Prime Dating Sites helped my buddy figure out which way to go, which is good because I had never heard of some of these dating sites and had no idea this could be so complicated.

You may have noticed that I don’t go into a lot of details about my love life here on my blog. That’s on purpose, as I want a little privacy there and I’m sure that the person I am dating wants her privacy, too. So to everyone who’s been wondering, I’m fine, OK.

Would really like to go to the beach for a few days. It seems like all my friends are going to either Destin or Cancun and here I am at work instead of sitting on the sand watching the bikinis go by. It’s making me chafe a little, I have to admit. However, I have responsibilities and one more year of college before I can have all my finances in order and afford to take time off for fun and games.

Instead of driving 8 hours down and back to have a few hours in the sun, I’ve been making the most of the fun things that are around here. We have tons of parks and there is always the lakes and rivers. Lake beaches are not the same as ocean beaches, but they are sand and water and sun, with a few bikinis worth watching, too.

We had a little water emergency at work work today and needed to call a plumber. It was interesting to stand back and watch the warehouse manager and the white collar dudes run around all frantic while water was gushing out of the ladies room. How that even happened I couldn’t tell you, because we only have 2 ladies working here and neither one had even gone into the bathroom yet this morning.

Funny how no one wanted to go into the ladies room to deal with the problem, yet we couldn’t have water pouring out of there and flooding the warehouse floor. Eventually they found a volunteer to go in and turn off the water supply until a plumber could get there to actually fix it.

So I have to wonder how DO people go about finding a plumber? It seems my dad has always known who to call when something happens around the house. Well, now there is a cool website for anyone in the U.K. called “My Hammer” who needs a tradesman to get online and find the right company.

First of all, it’s a cool name for a website and easy to remember. If you need a tradesman, you look up “My Hammer.” Get it? Tradesmen include carpenters, electricians, gardeners, landscapers, painters, plumbers, and even people who come haul off your junk or detail your car. To use the site you post your job on an online bulletin board and the interested tradesmen can send you a bid on the work. You can post your job for free and sit back while the right people come looking for you. You review the bids and pick the Handyman that you want.

If you are a tradesman, this is the perfect site to find work. When you register (for free) with the site, any relevant job postings get emailed to you. Then you can follow up and send them a quote.
If you do the job you pay a small referral fee to the web site. That’s sounds pretty fair to me.

First of all, I don’t listen to the Don Imus show. I think he’s a jackass and I don’t waste my time listening to the kind of stuff he talks about.

But I was amused when he caught the media spotlight off his “nappy haired ho’s” remark. He needed to be reeled in, and to be honest, I was surprised that he got back on the air so quickly.

But now he’s put his foot in his mouth again. I wonder how much the station management will put up with before they require him to see a shrink or just retire?

He was discussing the Pacman Jones debacle with his producer, who is black, and he mentioned all the arrests and trouble that Pacman brought upon himself while he was supposed to be playing for the Titans. Imus says, “What color is he?” (which was his first mistake) and his producer answered, “He’s African-American.” Then Imus was stupid enough to say, “Well, there you go.”

The station management needs to show Imus the back door that dumps out into the alley with the rest of the trash and say to him as they boot his ass out, “Well, there you go!”

And the Titans should have done the same thing to PacMan last year instead of rolling over like a  ____________ (fill in the blank).

There used to be a huge store on the outskirts of the local mall that was all shoes and all at discount prices. I went there a couple of times to check it out but never really bought anything. I tried to once, though. I found a pair of Nike’s that I liked and I went to the checkout counter and they rang it up. I whipped out my checkbook to write a check and they freaked on me. No checks taken at that store. I said, “What? Who doesn’t take checks????” But they said no. I think it was age discrimination, to be honest. They probably weren’t expecting an 18 year old to have a legit checkbook. But I’ve been working summers since I was 14 and I’ve got money, honey. I could have paid cash out of my wallet, but I wanted to keep my spending cash. So since they wouldn’t take my check, I left the shoes on the counter and walked out. Eat it, shoe store!

Now I don’t even go into a “brick and mortar” shoe store anymore. I buy most everything online from a couple of places that carry good stuff. And guess what, they all take my check aka debit card.

Like, I needed some good casual shoes for going out on dates and maybe a few nice places with my folks. Sandals won’t be good enough for my mom if I try to wear them around her and her friends, and athletic shoes are just a little too casual for some things like a nice dinner date. I need something for when I have on my nice khakis and a golf shirt. A little style upgrade. You know what I mean?

So I decided to cruise a few internet stores. One of my favorites says what it’s all about right in their name: walkingonacloud.com

Now that means the shoes are going to fit well and cradle your foot in softness. It’s all about comfort and style, plus this place has ALL the brand names.

Anybody who knows me well knows that ordinary clothes and shoes don’t fly with me. I want style, and I really like to have things that no one else around here can get. So buying on the internet gives me that edge, too. Like, I could have some Doc Martens, but everyone has those. I could have some Rockports, but that’s what my dad likes.

I’m looking for something like Josef Seibel Shoes and here’s what I’m talking about. Here’s a brown leather, casual but sophisticated shoe, called the “Bancroft.” It has style and it really well made.

Smart guys don’t buy cheap shoes. Smart guys buy well made, quality shoes - and shop for the best price around.

Hanging around a warehouse can really broaden your horizons. I work with a lot of guys, of all ages, and a few women, too. The women tend to be a little more masculine than I’m accustomed to being around, but hey, that’s the way it is.

Sometimes I hear words or phrases that are completely new to me. I am the first to admit that I don’t hand out on downtown street corners to keep up with the street talk. Usually if you can hear the whole conversation you can figure out what they are saying just from the context of the convo and the inflection in their voice. Sometimes  I have no clue.

There is a website that helps with this, called Urban Dictionary. It’s a user contributed website, a little like the Wikipedia idea, where they throw up a word or a phrase and the users write in with the definition plus use it in a sentence or two to help clarify the meaning. I like the way they have a “word of the day” so you can stay on top of the newest slang. Or you can search for a word by spelling it out - if you can figure that out - or by just using the first couple of letters to search through all the entries. When you search by letter you come across some interesting side trips for words you never heard of before.

I’m amazed to find that people actually talk like this every day - they must all live in L. A. or Detroit or someplace very urban. Because I can tell you, I’m around high school and college age kids all the time and I don’t hear half this stuff used around here, and a lot of it would get my face slapped if I tried to work it into my own conversations at home.

Do you ever just click on sites and type in random word URLs into the address bar? I do it every once in a while and come up with some pretty interesting places.

Just poking around looking at car sites, I came across a web site for used cars that has a lot more on it than just listings of cars. I started out at this site because they have a blog. It’s been all things blog for me this summer. If a site has a blog then I’m reading it.

But the purpose of the site is to help people find a good used car and other things that are car related. So if you are looking to buy a car, check out Netcars.co.uk and you will find listings of thousands of cars. But wait, there’s more! If you find the car you want and need to buy insurance, this site can help with that, too. You can compare quotes from up to 50 different insurance companies to find cheap car insurance.

If you need help with financing the car, there are links to help with that. And if you want to check out its accident and repair history, there’s a link for that. They have news, reviews and a forum to share your questions or thoughts with other users.

This site also makes it easy to sell your car. You can advertise here, including posting up to 6 photos, for 2 weeks. If I was going to sell my car this is where I would advertise. All of these features are easy to find and easy to use. So if you are surfing for cars and ready to buy, this is a good place to start your search for all things auto.