Drew Lane Returns to WRIF in Detroit

In Sept '07 Drew took "some time off" that turned into a permanent departure. Well, it seemed permanent. I, along with thousands of loyal listeners, went through the 5 stages of grief:

1. Denial - this isn't happening
2. Anger - why would he leave us?
3. Bargaining - I'm sure he'll be back soon
4. Depression - he's never coming back and I'm pissed
5. Acceptance - ok, let's just move on.

And now I found out yesterday he is coming back July 13. This is great!

Parking Problems

Today I had to take the boy to work for the morning because our sitter is on vacation. The boy needs toys, diaper bag and other essentials to keep him occupied so I can be productive at work.

During the past week our office building has been doing some major renovations to the main entrance so it is closed, along with the main parking lot. So we have been parking in the side lot which is much smaller. If that lot is full, there is a much longer walk.

Today I was late because of the boy and the side lot was full...except for the 4 spots "reserved for building management." So I decided, what the hell, I'm parking there. I had to carry in the boy and all his stuff.....

About an hour into the day, I received a call from the building manager who politely asked me to move my car out of their reserved spot. I was so shocked I didn't even argue or question it as ridiculous as I thought it was. What was even more shocking was that when I went out to move the car, there were still 2 open spots reserved for management!

I've worked there for 5 years and have never parked in their spots. It isn't like I've made a habit of it...And really if the main parking lot were open I never would've considered it...

In summary, why is the building management staff more important than their clients (the tenants) and why is it so urgent I move my car when they weren't even using the spots anyway??????

Jack Lalanne Juicer Rocks!

I love it. I bought mine at Costco for $89.99 (cheaper than the infomercial!). It is as good as advertised. I've used it just about everyday since I got it.

We've been eating much more vegetables as well, plus it is fun! I'm one who has never been a big veggie eater, and probably never got in my full 4 servings a day but with the juicer it makes it a lot easier to do so.

Vacuum Update: Central Vac is a Waste!

If you haven't read the prior posts, start here then here.

I am officially declaring victory over the wife in the Central Vacuum debate. We have a cleaning service every other week and I use the $49 dirt devil in the off week, which gets the job done. The cleaning service brings their own vacuum anyway, and I get some sick enjoyment from vacuuming with pretty much the cheapest vacuum on the market knowng that I am saving about 2 grand by doing so.

After everything I've been through, I consider myself a vacuum expert so if you need a consultant give me a call:).

Cheap Haircuts Expensive Haircuts

I have fond memories from when I was a little boy going with my dad and bro to the barber. We started at the Okemos Barber Shop with Tony and Zea. After a few years I found out the friends were going to Ace Barber Shop in Haslett so I convinced my dad to switch to Ace which featured Ray the barber. Ray was awesome. He charged $7 and you always give him a $2 tip. And he was always very grateful for the tip. It's not like today where the tip is expected and they don't even say thanks. He was genuine. Ray sold out years ago to some ass (Vic) who used to take smoke breaks in the middle of your haircut. You would be getting your haircut and then the next thing you know the guy was outside smoking and you were like, WTF?

So now my boy needs haircuts (he is 20 mos), but instead of me taking him to the barber on saturday mornings, my wife has taken it upon herself to make him appointments at her salon. This has happened 3 or 4 times and it didn't hit me until now that I am taking away precious memories for him if I don't act immediately. The father-son haircutting ritual should be cherished!

Furthermore, I pay $12 for an adult haircut today. The boy pays $15 for a kids cut at the fancy salon. Something is wrong with this picture.....

Should I continue to allow this???

80's Tee-Shirts

I found out about 80stees.com from an ad in Maxim last year. For someone who grew up in the 80's, this is the best site ever!

Some of my favorite shirts include:

Karate Kid "Sweep the Leg"
Rocky IV "I Must Break You"
Rocky IV "If He Dies, He Dies"
Rambo
Red Dawn "Wolverines"
Goonies "Truffle Shuffle"s!"

I have to admit that $20 is a bit steep for a t-shirt, but I am willing to pay $40 to get "Sweep the Leg" and "If He Dies, He Dies" so I can be like Johnny Drama. Did you ever notice he always wears 80's t-shirts?

Slickdeals.net

I love it. I used to visit this website all the time dating back to 1999. But for some reason I took a few years off. However, recently I've been back.

Here are some of the slick deals I've found:

1. Baskin Robbins - buy one blizzard get one free. Since BR is a HUGE rip-off, this is a sweet deal because it puts the price within reason. (this one is still good)

2. Restaurant.com - I just bought a $10 gift card to liberty pub in plymouth for 60 cents. Yesterday I bought a $25 gift card to LaBistecca for $2.00. (this one is still good)

3. JC Penney - Got a $10 off $25 purchase - this was perfect because we were buying some window treatments. FYI - window treatments is not window cleaner (to the goons out there.)

4. Lowes - 10% off your entire purchase. This has saved us a lot since we have the new house and lots of trips to Lowes.

Sesame Street Fun

Hunter loves Sesame Street, so we always make sure we have 5 episodes on the dvr at all times (they are even in HD). Usually we break it out when he is upset about something.

Today I noticed at the beginning of every episode the camera pans through the neighborhood and eventually settles on one of the "humans" going about their day. After a few seconds of action, they turn towards the camera and say "oh, hi there" as if they didn't realize a camera was in their grill and they didn't expet it to be there.

Subtle, but cracks me up.

Also, Bert has the most ridiculous uni-brow I've ever seen!

Bennigans V Burger King

The other day I went to Bennigan's with a friend for lunch. They have a 15 minute lunch guarantee and literally put a stopwatch on your table and start it after you place your order. If they take longer than 15 minutes, your lunch is free. I wasn't in a terrible rush and wasn't looking for a free lunch (I was redeeming a gift certificate!) so I wasn't really paying attention to it. But when the food came so fast I had to look at the stopwatch - just 8 minutes for our burger orders!

Also recently the family and I attended Burger King in lovely Canton. We had a simple order and it took forever! When the food finally came I looked at the receipt which had a time stamp and 11 minutes had elapsed.

How the hell can Bennigan's crank out burgers fast than BK??????

Nothing Runs Like a Deere

Now that we have grass, it is getting time to start mowing the lawn. I have yet to make my 'inaugural' cut, but it will be very soon. The sod has been in place since May 22 but it is not sticking too well yet. If you cut it too soon it can cause permanent dammage.

Speaking of acting too soon, in other words a lack of patience, this happens to be one of my character flaws. I have no patience.... No patience for store clerks, no patience for automated phone systems, and no patience when I'm excited about something.

I bought my used mower on craigslist about 3 weeks ago. Since I am excited to use it (mowing the lawn the first couple times will actually be fun for me since I have the new mower) I wanted to test it out at the back of the property line where there is grass and weeds.

Big Mistake.

It turns out the terrain is VERY rough and uneven. The blade is totally killed. I thought maybe I caused even more dammange, but it looks like a $20 blade will do the trick (I hope).

Moral of the story - exercise patience and listen to your wife (picture) (she told me not to take it for a test run).

AT&T is officially the worst

Read last week's blog first.

Now after spending 41 minutes on the phone with India confirming what I already knew, they scheduled a service tech to come out Saturday Morning from 8am to noon.

Nobody showed up on Saturday - no call, no-show.

So I called today, and again, they show no record of my appointment. Un-Freaking-Believable!

I gave them order/ticket # from last week and they actually found the original order from two weeks ago. WOW.

Today I spent 30 minutes on the phone trying to reschedule. This time again I was speaking with India but I started a fit. I demanded another appointment with a senior technition and I demanded to be the first appointment of the day. No more bullshit about 8am to noon.

FYI - there was no documentation from my 41 minute call last Wed!!!!!!