ode to a fish sandwich

with lent underway, look forward to seeing more commercials for mcdonald's filet-o-fish sandwich. i think they've been running the same one for a few years now, and you never see it until lent starts. i bet if you go into mcdonald's in say, november, and ask for a filet-o-fish, they don't even have them. anyways, this seems strange, because, as a catholic, i feel like less and less catholics live by the no-meat-on-fridays-during-lent rule. old-schoolers, definitely. the people who grew up pre-vatican ii, and couldn't eat meat on any friday ever. but i think the new generation of catholics are more flexible about forcing down fish on fridays.



so i've come to the conclusion that catholics who eat filet-o-fish (or fish sandwiches from white castle, they are basically interchangeable) are actually using lent as an excuse to enjoy a tasty, greasy, fried fish sandwich. i mean, what other time does that sound good, except for the time that you can't eat any beef, chicken, turkey or pork?

i'd like to share with my readers a little bit about my new job. i really like it so far, so don't misinterpret what may come off as disdain.

for the past few weeks, i've been working on compiling information on zip codes. yes, zip codes. zip codes in orlando, austin, houston, virginia, maryland, st. louis, dallas, tucson, odessa, santa fe, sarasota, naples...you get my point.

luckily for me, today was supposed to be a big presentation, that would likely end my zip code research.

unfortunately for me, the meeting was cancelled and we found out that there are 15 more areas that need to be analyzed. so that's been my ENTIRE day. minus a lunch break for salad+soup+breadsticks at olive garden. $5.25, can't beat it.

needless to say, my brain cannot function anything other than zip codes right now, and it's really scaring me. i went online to kill a few minutes and give myself a break, and found myself looking up zip code maps to find out just how far some zips are from others. it's like i can't stop.

and the good news is that i'll be working on it all day tomorrow too. the meeting isn't for another 5 days. i might go insane.

but in case you ever wondered, Washington DC and surrounding areas are made up of approximately 2,000 zip codes. For reference, st. louis has a little over 200. what do they need all those zips for? it must be like one building is it's own zip code up there.

man - this post sucks.

AI is on tonight...at least i can look forward to that.

random thoughts for presidents day

-why isn't the entire country off on presidents day? i really think we should get our holidays straight, and make them mandatory. that means, if they government is off, everyone is off. because how can you do business when mail isn't being delivered? so take your pick of optional holidays throughout the year and make it official. the only benefit of working on a quasi-holiday is that there's no traffic.

-it would have been nice for the weather at mardi gras to be more like today. just can't seem to get that right...that's two years in a row of chilly-ness. that's why i prefer st. pat's.

-britney spears shaved her head, did you hear? it must be her overly stressful life, being a single mom (cause she can't afford any help) and going through a divorce (did she really think that was going to work) and being a major WT slut (duh). man is she ugly without hair.

-lent starts on wednesday. i'll be giving up skipping the gym 7 days a week. my goal? be there at least 3 days a week. and only eat lunch out once a week. we'll see how it goes.

i regret to inform my captive audience that the above unentertaining nonsense is the best i can come up with today. i'm sorry to have bored you to death. i will leave you with this picture, because it's effing hilarious. good ole' George + George.

generation tech

i've been thinking lately about how much time i spend online. this first occurred to me one day at work, i checked my gmail account, and saw that two people had posted comments on my myspace page. i could barely wait to get home to check what they had written (myspace is blocked at my work. made me very angry at first, but i've come to realize it's probably the best decision a business can make). then, i get home and check myspace, only to move on to facebook, watch an episode of grey's anatomy on abc.com, check my email, my bank account (all of which i had done just 3 hours before at work) and eventually sign off.

and at work, we were discussing when we started relying on email. i'm the youngest person in my department, and some were saying they didn't use email until college, until their third job, until they started at a different company, whatever. i chime in and say that i had my first email address in 8th grade. they looked at me like i was some kind of internet slut. feefee18@hotmail.com. that's what it was...i don't think it works any more though. (i remember when i got it too. i was into yahoo chatrooms and such - my god, that sounds terrible - and some kid that i chatted with for 5 hours told me about hotmail...and i was nervous to sign up, because i thought someone would be able to trace me to my house)

so after lunch today, i was perusing facebook.com, and found a group to join, made up of people that went to my grade school. i took a peek at the members, thinking, "i'll know everyone in this group!" low and behold, there are people in the group that are graduating high school in 2010. that means they'll be done with college at the earlist in 2014. i'll be 32. but they all have pages, and have pictures they've posted (some of the girls are really slutty looking too...i don't think i looked like that when i was in 9th grade) needless to say, i don't know any of them.

so someday, i'll be sitting at work, talking with my co-workers about my first email address at age 13, and someone 15 years younger than me will say that they had an email address when they were 7. and i'll feel just as old as the people i said it to.

depends, really?

many of you have already heard about the astronaut who was plotting murder against another astronaut, for having an affair with her astronaut boyfriend. (just the fact that i could legitimately use astronaut three times in that sentence makes me smile)

if you haven't, read this.

if you don't feel like reading the whole article, i've pulled out the best part below.

"Nowak, accustomed to wearing astronaut diapers during the space shuttle's launch and return to Earth, wore them on the drive from Houston so she would not have to make bathroom stops as she raced to confront Shipman at the Orlando International Airport, police said."

i'm not sure why #1) the daipers are necessary to the news story or #2) they tried to justify it by saying she's "accustomed" to it or #3) if we'll ever see adult daipers in a high profile news story ever again. i sure hope so.

world wrestling entertainment



last night, my very good friend miss forrest opened my eyes to the wonderful world of monday night raw. now, i have to admit, as a young child, i watched hulk hogan and randy savage wrestle on KPLR 11 on saturday mornings. this was accompanied by pretending our pull out couch-bed was a wrestling ring, and trying to do flips off the side of it with my brother. (note: he always got to be hulk hogan, and i had to be randy savage. jerk)


to my surprise, pro wrestling has not changed much at all. matter of fact, some of those old guys are still doing it. (see: rick flair, right) in case you weren't aware, he is 58 years old. he started wrestling when he was 23. that's completely insane. he started before hulk hogan, AND is older than him. part of me respects the guy for sticking with it, and part of me pities him for still doing it. and then another part of me is disgusted with his old man body.



so aside from ric flair, i had my first experience with 29-year-old john cena. now, as a newcomer to WWE, i have always pictured all of these wrestlers to be what they were when i was young: beastly, sweaty, sporting mullets...you get the point. low and behold, this guy is actually hot. he's even going to be in his own movie with the blond ex-pornstar from nip/tuck. it's a small small world. way to keep up with the times WWE.

moral of this story: thank you, christy, for bringing wrestling back in to my life. i dedicate this blog to you.