Pants

It was a rainy Sunday and spoke to the compound. He mentioned something about a special event at Sears. In my mind Sears occupies a weird space that is not Target and not Nordtroms. 

As I live in an apartment, my need for tools is fairly limited. 

Turns out everything at Sears was 20% off. Filed that info away....

Was going to run 8 miles but it was rainy and mostly rain around my complex, under buildings. I do not mind getting wet but do not like wet socks. 

Would have been a good King Tut day but I do not have access to a time mac hine or it is very limited and it only goes back to September 13th, 1985. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FarkwYDir2Y

Ended up going to Sears in San Bruno. I do not need loads of clothes because we are close to the future. Ended up buying a Kiss shirt, out of irony, some boxers (which were needed) and a pair of pants. When I rely the story the price of the pants will be less. In April, I may get a new dishwasher and fridge because of the cash for clunkers appliances...

Ran twice today, once in the early morning (2 miles) and in the afternoon (4 miles). I want to run 30 miles this week. I think I get a prize of some sort. 

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
http://www.marcusronaldi.com

3 phones

About 4:00 AM I heard a beeping in my apartment. Thought my apartment was on fire or I was being abducted by aliens. 

Quick question, if you had an opportunity to go on a spaceship, tool around about would you. I would be concerned about motion sickness but would do it.

I was happily not on fire but no aliens, it turned out my home phone was paging itself and I needed to remove the battery. 

Now you are thinking that how can I, someone that is on the leading edge of technology have a home phone? Next thing I would tell you is that I have stacks of yellow pages for all cities I do business in. 

The reason I have a home phone is that I work from home and its easier to conduct business on a land line with a headset.

So the day starts with a broken phone. Any calls need to be made on my cell phone and I needed to put them on speaker phone so I could type (I have never gotten into the blue tooth thing as I do not like Lobot) 

I make my way to Costco and I get the second phone. I get it home and discover no jack for a headset. Bummer!! 

So I go back to Costco and return it. I was expecting a miserable time, but it was not too bad.... 

Then I went to Target that I somehow found near where I lived, (this is a joke) and the people near the phones were neither rocket scientist or brain surgeons when asked about the presence of a jack. Luckily I was able to open the box and see they had a jack. 

Got the phone and it was all good. 

You are wondering, how is this the greatest blog? Aliens? No new information but simply, yeah I would go on the space ship but I may get sick? You are probably thinking of your own mortality and vowed to make every moment count and then you read this pointless story about land lines and alien abductions. 

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
http://www.marcusronaldi.com

13 years

It has been 13 years since I was called during a snow storm to see if I wanted to move to California. 

My first question was not about money or career path, it was "what is the weather" and the person said it was in the 70's.

I put the phone down and asked my two droogs playing Play Station, Hey do you all want to move to California? A few weeks later we all drove cross country in a Saturn. We did not know what time shows started on the West Coast. 

(we were all big X Files fans at the time, I considered watching Fringe...)

*If you are recruiting for a job where they are open to relocation, call during blizzards, I think I would have gone to Kuwait...

Then I bought a car, the Marcusmobile which is running. Kind of like the Space Shuttle with many new parts. 

In 1997 cell phones were much rarer, what was a text message, no Facebook and we tried to bind two 56K modems. 

Used to go to this all you can eat Sushi joint that was $6.99.

On another note, 75% done with the no drinking in January and February and I do not miss it all. I have not found that I am missing out on anything. 

A thing I started in 2006. It is way easier then the first time and not drinking is sort of like being the guy with the parrot or lizard. You save a ton of money and feel infinitely better in the morning. I am considering greatly reducing drinking going forward. Here are some possible guidelines

*No drinking while waiting, on occasion, if I arrive somewhere early, I will mindlessly go to a bar and have a few drinks. Find something else productive....

*No PBR or beers that are advertised during the superbowl. If I am going to drink beer, drink really good beer and maybe 2. If it is not available drink water. 

*No ordering more beer/drinks simply because it is on special (ie $1 PBR) 

*cool events like beer festivals, brews on the bay etc are good

*vacations and trips to Maryland are good...

If it is the weekend of Brews on the Bay, then drinking, pub quiz on Tuesday, no drinking...

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
http://www.marcusronaldi.com

Free Breakfast + New Tires + 2nd Place

I am a very frugal person but I avoid "free day" at anything because I will happily depart with some Hamilton's for a less crowded space.

Needed to take my Marcusmobile into the shop because it is making noise and I really do not want to buy a new car. My car will be turning 13. In 3 years, it will be able to get their own drivers license. 

I thought that Firestone would open at 7 but it did not open till 8 so I had an hour to kill so I queued up at Denny's. I am not sure what the challenges in your life are but I imagine that the two busiest times at a Denny's would be between 2:30 AM and 3:45 AM then on free day. I could not imagine either group of patrons being overly generous. I think far more people would go with the thinking that 20% of $0 is $0 than leaving a couple of bucks. 

The Marcusmobile at this point is like the space shuttle. Quite a few brand new parts including technology that did not exist when the car was new. I want to make it to at least 250,000 miles. 

For the first time in 2 weeks went to pub quiz at the Bitter End. It was way better than 2 weeks ago because it was not as loud. We finished in 2nd place which is fine...

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
http://www.marcusronaldi.com

Snow...

A big snow storm is heading towards the non-skiing area of DC/Maryland and everyone is going a bit crazy. 

Got me thinking back to some of the blizzards in the 1970's and 1990's. (I do not remember blizzards in the 1980's) 

In a weird way, I kind of miss the whole, "A big storm is coming!" because it is a shared challenge but not necessarily dangerous. 

Listened to Washington Radio via the Internet...

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
http://www.marcusronaldi.com