How ya doin’ this year? It’s not too cold up there at the North Pole is it? You didn’t send some of that cold air down here, did you? LOL How’s Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer? How are the Reindeer Games going this year? I heard they added curling for this years Games. I heard that the elves have an advantage there.

I thought I’d get you my Christmas Wish List a little early this year. I’m giving you a bunch of options to choose from. I don’t want you to think I’m greedy and want everything on the list. I’ll be happy with just one or two of ‘em. I just wanted to give you options. Well … let’s get down to business … here’s my list:

• candles (I really like this fragrance)
• MicroSD card for my cell phone (so I can have music on my phone)
• card reader to read that MicroSD card
• a cowboy
• iPod Shuffle (it’s kinda neat … and I could listen to it at work)
• Rubbermaid containers (mine are all pitted up and need to be replaced)
• memory for my computer (it’s gettin’ frickin’ S.L.O.W)
• a laptop … no specific brand … whatever is good
• gift cards for clothes … I don’t know what I want so I don’t expect to you figure it out … LOL. JCPenny is good or anywhere else too.
• a cowboy
• Cars DVD
• Talladega Nights DVD
• anything Dale Jr related
• anything Martin Truex related
• anything Paul Menard related
• cute cow figurines or small stuffed ones
• NASCAR DVD game
• a cowboy
• any of the CSI seasons on DVD
• Rachel Ray 30 Minute Meals cookbooks
• digital thermometer
• digital weather station
• NOAA weather radio
• have I mentioned a cowboy?
• Gone with the Wind DVD
• anything techy
• a makeover (I have NO idea how to apply makeup to make me look pretty …
• a membership to a fitness center (then maybe I’d work out)
• I don’t think I mentioned that I want a cowboy.

That’s about it. I think you should be able to find something on that list to bring me.

Mood: silly   Grey’s Anatomy / GH

One week ago at this exact time, I was loading up my car to head home for Mom and Dad’s for Thanksgiving, and I wasn’t wearing a coat. There’s no way in hell I would go out without a coat today. It’s 8° out with a windchill of -11°. What a difference a week makes … especially in North Dakota.

But I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. We still don’t have any snow on the ground. And I’m fine with that.

Mood: hungry   30 Minute Meals

I’ve been meaning to post about my newest toy since I got it, but I’ve been being lazy. I was taking a bit of a break from the computer this weekend. I was on it a little bit while playing with my phone, but that’s about it. But, I’m back now.

I was going to get a MicroSD card and reader to use with my phone, but now I’m not sure I’m going to. The main reason I wanted to get it was so I could get my own wallpapers and ringtones on the phone. But I can do that without the card. Since my new phone is a camera phone, I can get both text and picture messages. So … I’ve been using Verizon’s PIX Place to send myself pictures for wallpapers and MyxerTones to send myself ringtones. I really like MyxerTones … I can upload songs that I already have on my computer and create ringtones from them. All for FREE!!! I said I was a cheapskate …

Right now I’ve got a Dale Jr pic as the main wallpaper and a picture of my Dale Jr flag as wallpaper on the front. I can handle opening up my phone and looking at a hot guy.

I only really have one gripe about the phone. The front display isn’t on all the time. It’s only on for up to 30 seconds max after the phone has been shut. That means I actually have to open up the phone (or push one of the buttons on the side) to see what time it is or to see if anyone sent me any text messages or called while I was at work. When I go out to the bar, I use my phone as a clock since I don’t wear a watch any more. Now I won’t just be able to look at it to see what time it is. That’s gonna suck.

But overall, I really like the phone. I might eventually get a MicroSD card and reader or a USB cable so I can put music on my phone. But for right now, I’m not going to do that. I got a phone to be a phone … not an mp3 player.

Mood: blah   CSI: Miami

My phone is finally here. Actually, they tried to deliver it just before noon, but I wasn’t here. I was still at Mom and Dad’s. But I got back to town about 5pm. Grabbed the ticket they put down on the door, called FedEx, and then went to pick up my phone. I came home and looked through the stuff that came with the phone and FINALLY opened up the box with the phone. It’s charging right now. I’m gonna wait ’til tomorrow morning to activate it. I want to make sure that the battery is fully charged before I do that. I’ll have all weekend to play with it.

I’m gonna call Verizon tomorrow too. I got a letter in the mail on Wednesday that said something about 1500 bonus anytime minutes when you renew or upgrade your plan. Well … I just renewed mine. I want those extra 1500 minutes (not that I’ll ever use them … LOL). I also want to check on my text message plan. I think the one I had with my current plan carried over to the new one, but I’m not sure. And I need to check to see if that includes picture messaging or not. I don’t know that I’ll be doing a lot of picture messaging, but I might do something with that … at least to get the pics off of the phone (until I get that MicroSD card).

Well … I’d better go finish unpacking and putting my crap away. I haven’t done any of that yet. I’ve been all about the phone … LOL. And I’m starting to get hungry again. Lisa made a pizza about 3pm before I left. I ate 3 big pieces of that, so I wasn’t hungry. But I’m starting to get a little hungry. Maybe I’ll have a piece of pumpkin gooey butter cake. I left a bunch of it at home with Mom, but I’ve got some left for me too.

The sooner I get my stuff put away, the sooner I can get back to the phone … I’ll probably go thru the user guide tonite. I really wanna start playing with the phone now, but gotta let that battery charge up. I hope there is some indication on the phone when it’s fully charged. My current phone has a charger cradle that has a light on it to let me know when it’s done. This new one just has a cord. I’m sure it will beep or something. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Mood: okay

It’s finally on it’s way. And it’s scheduled for delivery this Friday. I guess I know when I’ll be coming home from Mom and Dad’s. I hope Mom doesn’t get upset about that. But I wanna play with my phone over the weekend.

I had to call this morning to get my tracking number. They say they send out a confirmation email when things are shipped. Bull. I haven’t gotten one, and it was shipped yesterday.

But who cares now. I’ve got my tracking number. I know when I’m scheduled to get it. Now I just have to wait.

Off to work. Thank goodness it’s a 4-day weekend.

Mood: awake   Today

Well, Verizon finally got off their asses and processed my order … at least according to the online order status website. And the dude I talked to when I called at lunch said it had been shipped. That was just before noon. However, I don’t have a tracking number yet. I tried to call their “Support Team” again, but office hours are 8am to 6pm … and apparently that’s Eastern time. Would have been nice if they had mentioned that in the email. Well, if that’s the case, then I’ll be calling them before work to get my damn tracking number.

I’m impatient … I wanna know when I’ll get my phone. I want my new toy!!

Mood: hungry   30 Minute Meals

I was hoping to check the status of my order today and see that it was shipped. But NOOOO. Verizon hasn’t even frickin’ processed my order yet. Yeah … I placed it on the weekend. But shouldn’t that mean that they’d process it on Monday?

I called customer service, hoping that they just hadn’t updated the web yet. No chance. They guy I talked to seemed completely clueless. Even after I gave him my order number, he was like … do you have “this” kind of number? I think he said a location number? Hello … all I have is an order number.

I was really hoping that I’d get my phone before Thanksgiving. Now it looks like I won’t get it ’til Tuesday of next week … that is if they process my order and ship it tomorrow. If they had had an option for faster shipping, I probably would have selected it … I mean the phone was free. But I didn’t even have a choice for shipping.

Talk about crappy customer service. Thanks Verizon. I’m only sticking with you because I’m halfway satisfied with the coverage around here. And I hate change too … LOL.

Mood: annoyed   Heroes

Today’s NBC broadcast of the final Nextel Cup Series race of the season really really pissed me off. And that’s putting it mildly. All they could talk about was Jimmie Johnson this and Jimmie Johnson that. I understand that the guy all but had the championship locked up before the race even started. But there are 42 other drivers out there on that track.

Martin Truex Jr made an awesome run during the green-white-checkers to end the race. He finished 2nd. And he lead laps earlier in the race. But could NBC be bothered to even talk to him? Hell no. The MRN broadcast interviewed him. Isn’t it customarily done that you interview at least the top 2 or 3 finishers. I guess someone should tell NBC that.

I was even so pissed, that I sent an email to NBC sports. I’m sure no one will even read it, but I felt the need to state my mind. And since I’m sure no one at NBC will care, I’m putting it up here (’cuz I can … it’s my blog … )

Subject: Comments on NASCAR coverage
To: nbcsports@nbcuni.com

To whom it may concern:

I just have to say how extremely upset I have been with the NASCAR coverage on NBC and TNT this season. I am extremely extremely upset about the Nextel Cup race coverage of the race on November 19, 2006 on NBC as well as the coverage of the Busch race on November 18, 2006.

Paul Menard finished 3rd in that race … he was the highest finishing NON-CUP driver in the race. Not only that, he finished 6th in points … again, the highest finishing NON-CUP driver. But TNT couldn’t even be bothered to interview him after the race. The MRN broadcast managed to interview him. Why couldn’t TNT.

And the same thing happened during the Nextel Cup race coverage. Martin Truex Jr finished 2nd after running strong all day long. But NBC couldn’t even be bothered to interview him. I understand that he wasn’t in the “Chase for the Championship”, but he did FINISH 2ND in the race. Again, MRN managed to interview him. NBC interviewed Jeff Gordon who wasn’t even a factor in the race and he didn’t even have a chance to win the Cup.

I guess I’m not surprised. The coverage by NBC and TNT the entire second half of the season has been extremely sub-par … and that’s putting it mildly. Unless you’re one of the limited number of drivers, you don’t bother talking about them. And you wonder why interest in the sport is waning. It’s because of the very poor coverage.

I’m sure this email either won’t be read or will fall on deaf ears. But I had to say my piece.

A VERY disappointed fan,
Becky XXXXXX
Fargo, ND

I’m watching NASCAR Victory Lane on the Speed Channel right now HOPING that they’ll have an interview with Martin. But I’m not holding my breath.

I’ll get down off my soapbox now. It doesn’t do any good to get all worked up over this anyways.

Mood: bitchy   NASCAR Victory Lane

When I woke up this morning, my eyes weren’t as dry as they have been lately. I didn’t use that eye ointment last nite since I used it for the previous 4 nites or so. I wanted to give my eyes a break. But I don’t think that not using the ointment was a factor in the less dryness this morning.

I really hope that this is a sign of good things to come. I’m hoping that the situation stabilizes and improves. I really want to be able to wear my contacts to work again. I had no problem with them yesterday … and I was on the computer almost all afternoon and nite. I’ve got ‘em in again today. So far so good.

Mood: anxious   NASCAR Race Day

As I mentioned the other day, it’s time for me to upgrade my cellphone. I wasn’t really sure which one I wanted. I looked at what Verizon was offering and picked out a few that I wanted to check out. I looked up reviews online and browsed the HowardForums. I kinda narrowed things down to the Samsung a870 and the LG VX8300.

I dared to venture to the mall this morning (just before noon) to go check out the phones in person at the Verizon store. I checked out a bunch that were on my list, not just the 2 I listed above. After playing with the phones, I was definitely leaning towards the VX8300. I did some more searching online tonite at reviews and in the forums for more info on questions I had. I FINALLY decided that the VX8300 WAS the way to go for me. I placed my order for the LG VX8300 at 10:24pm tonite. Yeah … I didn’t jump the gun on this one. At least I hope I didn’t … LOL.

The only remaining sticking point was if I was going to order the microSD card right away or not. I think that will be the best way for me to get ringers and wallpapers on the phone (since I’m too cheap to buy any). I found the same reader they have on Verizon for $19.99 on the Best Buy website for $13.49. They don’t have the same 256 microSD card online at Best Buy that they do on the Verizon site, but they do have a 512MB card for only about $10 more than the 256MB at Verizon (actually, I don’t think it’s even that much more). I just checked the Best Buy site and if I buy both the reader and the 512MB card, it will cost me $47.68 total (including tax). And according to the site, both items are in stock at the store. So I could just go there and pick them up. Not bad … a brand new $149.99 phone + $19.99 card reader + $39.99 512MB card for just under $50. Even a cheapskate like me can handle that … LOL.

Now I just hope I get the darn thing BEFORE Thanksgiving. Verizon said it takes 2 to 5 business days for delivery (normally). 2 days would be Tuesday. With Thanksgiving in the mix … 5 days would be a week from Monday (Nov 27) IF they consider the day after Thanksgiving a business day. My luck it would show up on Friday. I won’t be here. I’ll be at Mom and Dad’s. So I wouldn’t get it ’til the following Monday anyways. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’ll be here by Wednesday at the latest …

And maybe … just maybe … I’ll get lucky and they’ll have either the card or the reader on sale next week. I doubt it, but I can hope.

Mood: chipper   CSI: Miami