Another dumb thing

Building an arena at Cal Expo.

Seriously? Do the NBA and the Maloofs have the money to reconfigure the entire Business 80 Freeway? If not, they need to just stop the madness. That stretch of freeway has to be the most screwed up in the Sacramento area. One tiny little blip and it's completely jammed. I was stuck in traffic on that freeway at 10:00 am on a Tuesday once. It made no sense.

Besides, Arco Arena is fine. It's not crumbling like Candlestick Park. How that football stadium hasn't fallen into the San Francisco Bay is beyond me.

Are they high?

As you may or may not know, Cal-Trans will be shutting down parts of I-5 in Sacramento at the end of this month. Apparently, Cal-Trans has been having community meetings to help people understand the impact that the roadwork will have on the daily commute.

Basically, they said that if people don't alter their travel patterns, the surface streets around Sacramento will be unable to handle the usual traffic that will be diverted off I-5. During these community meetings, I've heard that Cal-Trans recommended the following alternatives (my reactions in parentheses):

• Take public transportation (Hide your valuables!)
• Change your commute times to leave earlier or later (If I could do that, I already would be doing that!)
• Telecommute (See comment above)
• Bicycling (HAHAHAHAHA! Are they serious?)
• Go on vacation (For three months?)

How in the blue hell are you supposed to ride a bicycle to work if you live out in Elk Grove or Roseville? These suggestions are ridiculous. I would love to go on vacation for 3 months, but since I have no trust fund or rich husband to support me, I have to go to WORK.

In a few weeks we'll see just how awful the traffic will be on the surface streets around I-5. My guess is that there will only be a small percentage of people who are able to change their daily commute habits and thus it will have no impact on the gridlock in the future.

Mark your calendars, May 30th will be here soon!

Thanks for the Reminder

To the dude parked in front of my garage this afternoon,

Your deafening music serves as a reminder as to why I am happy to move out of this neighborhood. I'm not really sure who you are trying to impress. Maybe you just want to feel like you are living in the middle of a concert. Either way, I will be glad to be away from the ambiance you create.

To my upstairs neighbors,

The constant rumbling of your steps will not be missed by me. My neighbors at my new house will not be living above me. Only the birds will be living above me. Nor will I miss the confetti of cigarette butts littering my patio. I will not miss the incessant yapping of your kick size dog. The next tenant will have to deal with your idiosyncrasies. My term is about up.

Adventures in Craigslist

Well, I'm officially moving. The lease has been signed, so there is no backing out now! The next step is to hire movers. Someone at my office suggested craigslist. I wonder if the cheap rates offered by the ad posters are too good to be true. My luck I'd get some dude who would hold my stuff hostage until I paid him an outrageous amount of money (which I don't have).

Maybe I should just be safe and surf the Better Business Bureau website. I'm too tired to think about it right now. All the packing is wearing me out.

Lists are Lame!

Some "blogger" over at Yahoo threw together a list of the Top 25 Hair Metal Bands. Seriously, shouldn't Bon Jovi be number 1? How the hell did Vixen rate higher? Ask anyone which song they like better "Wanted Dead or Alive" or "Edge of a Broken Heart" and there is your answer! Better yet, ask them to name four songs from each band. Guess which one will have more responses!

Guns 'N Roses really isn't hair metal. Just because Axl's hair is all frizzed out in one video does not a hair band make. And Ozzy, Queensryche? Not really hair metal either. Ozzy was in Black Sabbath for chrissakes! That's like calling KISS a disco band because they put out ONE disco album.

How about an alternative?

I was watching something on TV and it said that the average American wedding costs $18,000. What the hell?!?

There is absolutely no way I would expect my parents to spend that much money on a one time event. If they had that much money to give me, I'd rather use it towards the down payment on a house or invest it in the stock market. It just seems so frivolous and wasteful to use that money on a freaking party.

Did I just see?

Is the real Iron Chef back on the Food Network? Totally Awesome! The American version just isn't as interesting as the original. I personally enjoyed the cultural difference. It was interesting to see the weird ingredients featured on each show. Live turtles were the ingredient once! It was awful, yet entertaining.

How much less can I drive?

Any ideas on cutting down on gas consumption? I've read all the lame ass Yahoo tips. I need some real world examples.

Right now, I'm done with going out to lunch. Unless I can walk there, I can't afford to drive my car to the various local eateries anymore. Walking is tough at my house because shit is so far away. At work it's a bit easier on the feet, but the homeless will harass a single walker, especially of the female persuasion. Trying to find a walking budding can be tough.

No more impulse shopping trips. I'm going to have to actually need more than one item before I spend the gasoline to get to the store.

I refuse to go over the speed limit. Since I don't have any fires to put out, I also refuse to get to the speed limit as fast as possible.

I do have alot of stuff in my trunk. Cleaning it out will probably only help with the gas mileage. If I had a tire gage, I'd check my tire pressure regularly. But then again, I probably wouldn't know how to inflate my tires if they needed it.

Someone in my office said her family spends about $1,000 a month on gasoline on their two cars. That's almost how much I pay for rent!

Something I Noticed

I'm watching the A's game and some one in the stands has one of those big plastic horns. I haven't seen them on the TV, but once in a while I hear the distinct toot. It's not too hard to hear since there are probably only 1,000 people in the stadium (including both teams).

It seems that back when I was a kid, the big plastic horns were a little more prevalent at a baseball game. Of course, they would NEVER be at a Giants game. Giants fans are too cool for school and would never do something like toot a big plastic horn. Heck, in all the years I went to a Giants game, never once did anyone even do the wave. They might spill their Merlot in their sushi.

What was that?

At dinner the other night, my dad mixed up a bunch of different sodas at the all you can drink fountain, "I put in Diet Cherry Coke, Sprite, lemonade, Mr. Pub..."

Mr. Pub! I think that's the one trying to be like Dr. Pepper, but tastes a little like beer.

Funny because it's true

If I wasn't laughing so hard, I'd be crying at how close this hits home.

Area Man Makes It Through Day

SCHAUMBURG, IL—Besieged on all sides by such opponents as suburban conformity, inner emptiness, and virus laden spam e-mail, Adam Blume managed to survive another 24 hours.

Twitting on Twitter

Apparently, I am a sucker for new technology. I can't otherwise explain why I signed up for Twitter. Do people really care that I'm stuck in traffic, my brain is fried from work, or that I'm watching TV? Seriously, my life doesn't seem interesting enough to blog about it every second of the day. I guess I'll have to get more creative.