OK, here’s what’s been going on…

This is gonna ramble a bit, be forwarned…

The power has been a bit goofy as of late, and the UPS my TiVo was plugged into has been damaged somehow so the battery back-up side a) stopped switching back to main power when it came back on and b) has now stopped working entirely. I moved the TiVo over to the "filter only" side of the box so at least when the power does come back on the TiVo will too. So far I haven’t missed anything, but I’m sure I will eventually.

My dryer finally died for good. It’s sitting on my front deck waiting for the landlord to come get it and take it to the appliance recycling place. I guess I’ll have to use part of my bonus to get another one. Grrrrr.

I’m pretty sure I mentioned the spectacular camera my folks got me, and I just spent my Amazon.com gift certificate last night. I replaced three of my VHSs (Terminator 2, Men in Black, and The Rock) with BDs and bought Speed Racer on BD as well. I’ve seen bits and pieces of Speed Racer but the DVD I rented was damaged so it skipped around a lot. Critter wants to get a "special" cigarette and watch it. She’s been told it’s quite the experience, what with al the bright primary colors and quick camera moves. That’s OK by me. I won’t partake, and I won’t let her drive, but if she wants to I’d rather she did it here since I *know* I’m not gonna molest her, and I’ve got a place for her to sleep if necessary. And in case anyone is wondering that isn’t a frequent thing for her. It used to be, but she prefers Crown now since it’s, you know, legal. Replacing those tapes with BDs freed up space for six or seven BDs on the shelf, which is why I did it instead of getting four new ones. I’m running out of room and I can’t afford new shelves right now.

Nala (my date, don’t ask, it only barely makes sense to me) and I have been talking and texting for the past week or so. We’re still trying to find a time for the date. Actually it’s more me than her, it’s my schedule that’s screwed up. Things seem to be going well. I actually invited her up if she gets bored at her family Christmas thing later today. I’m making my traditional holiday lasagna. Well, "making" might be an exageration – I opened the box and put it in the oven.

My last night of work before Christmas (12/23 into 12/24) was a nightmare. We had lines that wouldn’t go away until 0200. Mego and I were both up on registers. The salaried manager in charge of that area (who was officially off at 2100) didn’t get to leave until 0100. We had a few more salaried managers in the building that were supposed to have left at 2000 or 2100 and they didn’t get out until about the same time. Wow.

Of course very little of the extra stuff we were supposed to do got done, but we did get the new freight out, so that’s a plus. I actually got out on time too, which would have never happened if Queeg had still been there. The back rooms were messed up, but there was nothing we could do to fix it. All the people that were responsible for keeping it neat and clean were on registers most of the night. Almost a third of the stockers were on register until right at 0200, which cost them five hours of stocking time each. The senior manager who’s watching the store until we get our new Facility Manager said "if last night had been a regular night I’d be yelling and screaming right now, but it wasn’t, and you did the best you could. Thank-you." Something else that would not have happened if Queeg had still been here.

Been playing Kingdom Hearts II some more. I’ve got three games going at the same time, but I picked a different item in each one of them at the point where your choice defines your character and abilities for the rest of the game. It’s pretty cool, I didn’t think the game play would be that different but it is.

I’m begining to wonder why I payed forty dollars for Dark Kingdom since I haven’t played it in almost five months and I wasn’t even done with *that* game. Go figure. I should probably see if Heavenly Sword is any good. I bought that one because Ember was interested in it but doesn’t have a PS/3. So far the few times she’s been over in the past six or so months she’s been occupied with other things.

I think I’ve covered everything. I have to go in tonight to start the store back up and get it stocked. There will be a separate team of managers and hourlies doing the transition from Christmas to Not Christmas. I had to do that last year and it was a disaster. Of course last year I had me and one other salaried manager plus two hourlies. This year they’ve got three salaried managers and ten hourlies. I think they learned their lesson.

One more real quick thing, the senior manager who’s in charge of the store right now said that if he was made Facility Manager at another store (he can’t promote in the same store or he’d try for this one) he’d take me as a Senior Manager in a second, without even thinking about it. That really does do me a whle lot of good after all the self-doubt and other issues Queeg has left me with over the past year.