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April 27, 2005
comedy for grown-ups
i've been TiVoing "The Daily Show" on comedy central again lately. i forgot just how funny the entire show is. mostly covering current events like politics, the papal election, and havard dorm-room cleaning (gotta see the show), jon stewart and his staff do a tremendous job. the guests they have on the show are always a good interview. the new reporters in the field they have are pretty funny, so the departure of steve carrell and beth littleford has not been too painful.
for those of you who have never watched it, give it a try for a week. new episodes are on comedy central at 11 PM sunday thru thursday, with repeats throughout the day.
DISCLAIMER: this is cable. grown-up comedy awaits, both because of off-color jokes and the fact that you have to actually read news somewhere in order to get the jokes.
DISCLAIMER 2: if you're not 18 yet (ren tukys, and other football players/students who read my blog), make sure you ask mommy and daddy if you can stay up past your bedtime and watch it. (HINT: if you promise to get in your jammies early, they are more likely to say yes.) :D
Posted by eburke at 9:49 AM | Comments (4)
April 24, 2005
i hate the midwest
last week, it was 80 degrees outside. last night, it snowed. and some stuck. this sucks. fortunately, it will be 50 tomorrow and 60 later in the week (albeit accompanied by rain and storms). but still, this sucks.
Posted by eburke at 7:48 AM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2005
i didn't quite catch that
as a coach, i might buy one of these. it would give new meaning when i say that i'm inside a player's head.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050422/ap_on_hi_te/hypersonic_sound
Posted by eburke at 7:04 AM | Comments (1)
April 20, 2005
carpet saga, part 2
so you remember the carpet saga that we were having. well, i was supposed to get a call back from the dude on friday. he PROMISED. friday came and went, no call. so i called monday and left him a VM saying how disappointed i was and he will call me by end of day with a solution to my problem. 5 pm rolls around, still no call, so i call back. the girl tells me he's not in for some reason, sorry. #%!$#%!.
tuesday 10 AM, still no call, so i call him back. he says that the correct carpet is on order and when it comes in they will come and install it. you're taking care of it? i ask. yes, he says, we're taking care of it.
well, score one for them. and it only took a couple calls and no yelling. i might actually give them more business!
Posted by eburke at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)
i like this system
so i finally got around to cleaning out the garage. garbage day came and i put a ton of stuff by the curb, including a bunch of big cardboard. i just hoped they would take it. about 5 minutes ago, the garbage truck pulls up. a minute later, i hear "HELLO?!?!?!" from outside. the window was open so i went to it to see what was up. one of the garbage collector guys is there. he tells me that the cardboard should be cut up or tied up for them to take it. he then proceeds to say that i could bribe them with some "cold drinks". hmmm. all i have is mike's hard lemonade, how's that? sure, he says, that'll work. we try to remember people on our route, if you know what i'm saying.
so, apparently for a mere 3 mike's hard lemonades you can completely abandon any rules and policies related to garbage collection. i like that.
Posted by eburke at 10:00 AM | Comments (2)
April 14, 2005
a sad day
i attended a wake today. ordinarily, this would not be remarkable. death is a part of life. most wakes i've attended were for older people, those who died at an age where it was not uncommon. however, the wake i attended today was different.
todd schoenheide was only 17.
todd was a player on the football team i coach. he was taking time after working at a bike shop on a nice, warm sunday to take a long bike ride down to ann arbor. on the way back, at around 8 PM ON A SUNDAY EVENING, a drunk driver with a BAC of three times the legal limit broadsided todd going 50+ mph. todd died instantly. five seconds difference on either side, and this tragedy would not have happened.
i did not know todd very well because he played defense and i coached offense. however, i rarely saw him without a smile on his face. after seeing all the memorials set up at the school and at the wake, and talking to some of the students and other players, it was clear that he was a happy, upbeat guy all the time. he clearly touched the lives of many people. he will be missed.
i am not going to get up on my soapbox about drunk driving. my only hope is that todd's death will serve as a teaching moment to all those whose lives he touched. at age 17, kids should still have that feeling of invincibility. for todd's friends and classmates, that was taken away by someone who behaved recklessly, took a life, and impacted countless people in the process. i can't think of any act more selfish.
as the father of two small children, i can't imagine going through what todd's family is going through. i begin to think about something happening to one of my kids and i just can't go there. my heart goes out to todd's family and friends. i hope they will keep todd in their hearts and minds, and find strength in the memories they shared.
if you are interested, here are links to a couple articles.
http://www.detnow.com/wxyz/nw_local_news/article/0,2132,WXYZ_15924_3691435,00.html
http://www.detnews.com/2005/obituaries/0504/13/C02-148801.htm
Posted by eburke at 12:04 AM | Comments (1)
April 13, 2005
yes brandon, everone is dumb
this is related to bfuller's latest post.
so we've been waiting 2 weeks to have our basement carpet installed. it finally came in and the installers were coming today, so i quickly got the rest of the floor sealed so they could lay the carpet. the installers showed up nice and early to get going -- they laid the tack strip and pad, everything was going smoothly. i went down to check up and they had carpet in the office already. sweet.
a little later i went down again to check it out and they were unrolling the carpet for the main room. wait -- that looks too dark. hmmm, let me look at the office carpet again. DOH! the office carpet should be in the main room, and the main room carpet should be in the office!
of course, the rooms are much different sizes and the carpet was measured for the space it was going in, so there's no trivial solution like just switching the carpets. *sigh*.
on the phone with the sales lady. what the hell happened? all it says on my invoice is "autumn mix" and "harvest". whatever -- i told you i wanted lighter carpet in the main room and darker in the office. we went over it 4 times. clearly you made a clerical error. ok, she says, i'll have the customer care dude call you back.
customer care guy calls back. ok, he says, sounds like we have a small problem. no, right now it's a REALLY BIG PROBLEM until you fix it. he says, well, you signed the invoice. look buddy, i quadruple told the rep what i wanted. i'm not supposed to have to decipher your damn invoice for obscure color names to get the right product.
he says, you have a few options. number one -- we can send the carpet back but there's a restocking fee of 30% and a freight fee of $1.25 per yard each way. well, dude, that ain't happening. he says, let me talk to the owner of the company and see what i can do. the owner's husband is having medical issues so i'm not sure when i can get a hold of her. if you don't hear from me by 3 pm tomorrow, call me back.
now, jenn was ready to just get carpet from home depot (same stuff), but i insisted we go with this place because they were doing our vinyl and did our whole upstairs and took good care of us. again, the rep was great -- matched home depot price and gave us the good installers -- except she messed up the order. so fix it. (i'm into them for $14k in the last year so they better come give me a little backrub every night or something.) at this point i'm pissed because they aren't jumping to rectify it and i have to sit and wait for some lady who's probably not in the mood to deal with some customer when her husband is about to croak.
all i know is i'm not paying another cent for this carpet.
Posted by eburke at 5:28 PM | Comments (1)