31 October 2008

sleeping on the floor

sir barksalot was doing her thing last night.  she barked continually from 9:45p until sometime after 11:00p.  (she might have taken a small break in there somewhere.)  i put in a call to the knox sheriff’s non-emergency number again.  i don’t know what time they drove by, but the owners weren’t at home when i headed to my sleeping bag around 10:30p.

i rolled it out in my office to get some relief from the noise, although there was no comfort in the location for the night.  it was not a good night’s sleep.  i am not sure when the patrol car went by since i needed to get some sleep.  when i woke up this morning at 5:15a, the owners had returned.

i’ve called animal control again today to continue the process of having them deal with the dog.  i still subscribe to the reality that the only permanent resolution to this problem now is to have the dog removed from the owner.  their inconsistent addressing of this problem shows that is the only way.

30 October 2008

restructuring pay days

a note with attached pdf document including full-color examples was delivered to our inboxes this week to let us know that the semi-monthly pay plan (the fifteenth and last days of the month) are being switched over to an bi-weekly cycle.

first, thanks for the heads up.  second, thanks for making life much harder for all.

as gmoney points out, does anyone have bill that aren’t based on a monthly cycle?  answer:  no.  but now i  have to take extra steps to make sure enough is allocated for the etched-in-stone pay dates set up by the rest of the world.  those were based on specific days in a month not weekly cycles.

i do not know if this somehow makes their life easier.  it might, but since i don’t speak accounting i can’t say.  gmoney also points out that it is more costly to have a two-week cycle than it is a semi-monthly.  and he’s right:  paper cost for all the transactions, bank fees, transaction costs, postage fees.  they are all on being done 26 times a year rather than 24.  not much of a difference, unless your company is big.  then the pennies add up.

i suppose i should just be happy i have a job.  and i’ll admit to a certain laziness when it comes to personal finance management.  nothing like playing payment timing games to keep you on your toes.  we’ll see if i can blog about the positives into next year.

28 October 2008

the dog saga continues

on sunday night when i was getting ready for sleep, my neighbor’s dog, abby, was still out barking in their backyard.  i feel asleep around 10:30p and was abruptly woken to the sound of sir barksalot’s rousing vocals.  i got up and checked out my kitchen window to see if the owners would address her barking, as prescribed in the ordinance.  nothing.

i went back to bed.  i feel asleep again.  around 11:00p, barksalot woke me again.  this time i got up, checked for the neighbor to address her barking (prescribed by the ordinance) and found no activity.  it was my turn to be active.

i telephoned the sheriff’s non-emergency number and reported the “noise problem.”  he got address of neighbor and told me it would be passed on.  thirty minutes later, a cruiser swung by his house.  dog was put in a flash.  it took less than two minutes to put her up.

i went to bed at 11:30p and slept the rest of the night.

at this point, all i have to do keep reporting the dog to animal services, and they will continue to address the problem.  i am mostly convinced that the only way for me to find real relief is if the dog is removed from the owner, which is unfortunate.  but since this owner has a track record of not being home all night yet leaving the dog out, there is no guarantee this matter can be permanently fixed by the dog staying.  history has proven there will be change for a limited time and then a return back to annoyance.  i just don’t think he gets it.

so, my plan is go to bed and plan to sleep the night.  if the dog barks, i call sheriff’s department and/or report the matter to animal control the next day.  they will be able to solve this problem the right way.  i’m counting on it.

14 October 2008

full moon



full moon, originally uploaded by mocktech.

this is the first time i’ve ever gotten to photograph the moon like this. it was a lot of fun to get these shots. i had some help from my friend aleece who had learned how to do this the night before.

this was taken with 300mm lens. now, i think i would like to photograph the moon with a 500mm lens.

11 October 2008

bacon friday

yesterday was unofficially bacon friday. i took the day and tried various bacon recipes and tried them out to see if they were indeed good or bad ideas. the question exists: can bacon really make other food items better?

my first attempt were the bacon cinnamon rolls.  these turned out to taste as good as they sound.  if you think they don’t sound good, you have to do a bit of logic:  you eat bacon for breakfast, you eat cinnamon rolls for breakfast, both are good, they should be good together.  and they are.  i approve this recipe.

next was to prep some bacon chili for the evening meal.  i couldn’t find a decent recipe for this at foodnetwork.com.  so, i modified my old standard recipe and added bacon to the crockpot of chili as it cooked.  this turned out well, too, but the bacon flavor wasn’t strong enough.  next time, there needs to be a stronger bacon presence.  i believe replace one of the two pounds of beef with a pound of bacon will help.  breaking the bacon into smaller pieces is also advised.

the final baconized treat was the bacon brownies.  these turned out to be fantastic!  i recommend this recipe be attempted by all who love brownies and who love bacon.  two great tastes together!