Woke up this morning thinking, today is like Thursday, yea! Then I got to work and all hell broke loose. WOW, what a shitty day so far. how’s it going for you guys today?

Happy birthday to Anthony “Tony” Dombrowski!! Have a good one bro!

This should be a relatively uneventful week. As far as work goes, it’s short. We’re off Friday for Christmas. We actually ended up with a pretty great holiday schedule. We have this Friday off, and next week, we only have to work one day. We will be running a skeleton crew, so only one person from each department has to be in everyday. I requested Monday, and got it. So 4 days this week, and only Monday next week. I’m going to try to figure out what I want to get accomplished over the next two weeks. Probably nothing.

Didn’t get it with our pay…..crap.

Thursday has arrived. There is a bit of optimism in the air. Maybe it’s just hope. Today marks the last payday before Christmas. Historically, this is the day that the bonuses are given out. Everyone is kind of on-edge around the office today. No one is sure. But there is still hope.

If they don’t come today, it’s not our last chance. It is our last, best chance though. Why make a seperate check run next week? Personally, I don’t think we’re getting anything. Not because for the first time ever, we didn’t get a coupon for a free turkey at Thanksgiving. Although a lot of people took that as a bad sign. I’m pessimistic because I just don’t think that a bonus for us is priority right now. I don’t think it’s right, but I think it might be fact. Maybe I’m underestimating the higher ups. Hopefully.

Isn’t it always the way though, the one year I could really use a bonus, is the year I probably won’t get one. Last year, the year before, I never needed a bonus. Damn irony.

Oh well, I have my Christmas playlist kicking on the iPod right now, trying to keep me in the spirit, and it’s doing a pretty good job. We’ll see if that stays that way after the paychecks show up.

This is pretty cool. Back in 94 I worked at Meade Lexus. One of the mechanics, or techs as they called them, was one of 6 liscenced technicians that could work on Lamborghinis. Anyone who knows me has heard my story about getting to drive one of them around the building and back into the garage. For those that haven’t, here’s a recap:

People around the area would bring their Lambo’s to Lexus for service. There were actually more of these cars around than you would think. Not a lot, but more then I thought I would see. Anyway, in 95, PPG had a Lamborghini Diablo VT that they were using as a pace car for the Detroit Grand Prix. Two nights before the car had to be down in Detroit, PPG flat bedded it to Lexus. My guess is they bought it from there seeing as how it was also one of the only dealers around. The first night the General Manager took the car home. He lived on a dirt road, and actually trashed the car pretty good. When he brought it back the next day, we had to clean and detail it. This was a big deal to me. First, they NEVER let you touch a customers Lambo. Only the one tech could do that. Second, this is the ultimate car. I mean, at the time, there was nothing higher. From the top down, it goes Lamborghini Diablo, then everything else. So we get to detail the car, inside and out. Then I ask if I can be the one that pulls the car around the building. My boss, who told me he hated those cars, told me he didn’t care. But the guy I worked with said he was doing it because he had seniority over me. Just as he was getting in the car however, he was paged that he had a phone call. It was great. I told him that was Jesus telling him he wanted me to drive the car, and for him to go get his phone call. So I hopped in and pulled the car around the building. When I pulled it around all the guys in the shop had stopped what they were doing to see if the 18 year old porter was going to crash the $300,000.00 car. I didn’t, pulled it into the garage, and finished the detailing job just before some photographers showed up to take some pictures.

This leads me to today. Ken and I are talking about cars this morning, and we stumbled upon this story. Just for shits and giggles, I looked up PPG Lamborghini on google. Wouldn’t you know, there is a picture of the car I drove! How crazy is that? Here it is:
1995 Lamborghini Diablo VT

I love it that I found the actual car I drove. The internet is fun.

Another Survivor season is over. Chris ended up winning the million. My girl, Twila, came in second. She was such a piece of crap, I was actually voting for the other guy. Ah well. We were talking about the next Survivor last night, and we decided that Survivor-Belle Isle would be a fun one to watch. I can see Jeff Probst wearing his bullet proof vest standing in the middle of a picnic area.
“Well survivors, you’ve spent 3 days on Bell Isle already, and it’s been a tough three days. We’ve already lost 4 contestants to drive-bys. But here you all are, and welcome to your very first reward challenge. Ready to see what you’re playing for? (pulls cover off table) The winner of this challenge will take back to camp a 9mm Berretta and a box of ammunition. At least now, you can shoot back.”
We’ll start off with two tribes. But for this Survivor we’ll call them “gangs”. They will be the red and the blue. After the merger, they will become the “Purple Gang”.(Detroit gang reference, you like that huh)
We’ll drop the people off at the Belle Isle zoo with nothing but the clothes on their back. They will then have to stake out a picnic area, and control a barbecue. That’s how they will make “camp”. From there, it’s all survival. This will also be the first time that the survivors themselves will be shooting the show, as the network won’t find anyone dumb enough to be a graveyard shift cameraman for this show. For this reason, all tribal counsels will either be moved to the morning, or Probst will conduct them via satellite. I still haven’t worked out how he’ll tally the votes though, I’ll let the networks figure that one out.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’d watch it.

So, how was everyones weekend? Mine was okay. Waking up this morning with snow on the ground was a highlight, that’s for sure. For a second I thought that skiing would be right around the corner. Then it all melted. Oh well. We went to Elaines house today. It was their family Christmas and Kel wanted to give little Megan her Christmas present from her Godmother, of fairy godmother as Megan calls her. We were in and out of there quick though. Like holiday ninjas, as we wanted to leave before the madness of the gift opening started.

We watched Dodgeball yesterday. I don’t know why people hate that movie so much, it wasn’t that bad. I admit that Vince Vaughn saved the film. His monotone character countered Ben Stillers over the top reject character perfectly. Without having the Vince Vaughn character, I think Stillers would have been too much. As it is, it was entertaining enough. If you go in thinking that it’s going to be an ocsar winning movie, of course you’re going to be dissapointed. Go in thinking it’s going to be a campy, goofy film with modern day pratfalls, and stupid humor, and you will have fun.

Last week we played poker on the old lay down that I used to drag everywhere. It seemed like a more personal setting then what it had been lately. For some reason it hit me today why. When we play at the shop at the big table you’re kind of sitting far away from the person directly across from you. Not so much on the middle of the table, but definitely at the ends. Since the old laydown is round (octagon actually) everyone is an equal distance apart from each other. What happened was everyone was in the same conversation. There wasn’t 10 separate little conversations going on. There have been times that I’ve played poker with people at the shop, that I never even got to talk to because they ended up sitting at the other end of the table. Not that I don’t like the table at the shop, but I’m enjoying this personal setting again. It’s nice when you’re playing poker with 5 buddies, and you can talk to all 5 of them.

Did anyone else realize that this Sunday is the last last day for Survivor? I’m still in the pool though, Twila could pull this out of the bag! Too bad I don’t like her. I would like to root for myself, I just can’t bring myself to rooting for her. In fariness to the old milk shake, there really isn’t anyone fun left. Although I will say that CBS did a great editing job on Thanksgiving night. That was the best tribal counsil I’ve ever seen! I was totally blindsided by the person voted out. (whatever her name is)