Not much new to report.  I have to take tomorrow off from work.  I just found out that I hit the maximum vacation accrual back in March, so I haven't been banking any time since.  You'd think I would get a note or something.  Anyway, I'm taking the day so I can accrue a little bit.  Kinda pisses me off that I could have taken three days over the past few months and still be at the same place time-wise.  I didn't realize that the cap for employees over 10 years was six weeks.  Yes, I have six weeks of vacation saved up.  No need to comment on the fact that I never take time off. 

I terminated my Direct TV service as of the 26th.  I finally got fed up with their crappy customer service.  It started from the day I had them install everything at my current apt.  First they put in the wrong kind of dish, then they were going to leave it there and put the HD dish next to it.  I had to argue with them forever to get them to take out the one they put in by mistake.  Then I found out in December that, for a year and a half, I didn't have HD service I was paying for because they never installed the HDMI cable.  Since I've never had HD before I didn't know until there was a notice on my tv screen after an update.  Finally, in May I got an email saying that they just debited a payment and I thought, "that's weird, I just paid it".  So I called three times and finally got a nice lady who went over my account.  She credited my account for the extra HD payments and put in a priority credit notice to the bank for the extra payment they took.  She was so nice!  I waited two weeks and the credit never showed at the bank, so I went online to get the phone number to call.  While I was online, I saw that the account credit had been taken back.  Weird!  So I called, went through the same thing, and finally got another nice lady who put everything back (after being on the phone for an hour and change).  This time I waited two days and checked my account.  They took it all back AGAIN!  Back on the phone.  This time the woman I got was rude and told me that the extra payment wasn't extra because it would have been due anyway and then wouldn't give me a reason as to why they wouldn't credit me the HD service overpayments.  I told her to terminate the service.  She had the gall to try and sell me different packages!  I don't even really watch TV anymore and I'd already told her that.  For over an hour I fought with her.  I told her to send the boxes  for the receivers now because I wasn't going to change my mind.  She still kept trying to sell me packages.  I told her that the only way I would keep the service would be if they returned everything they took.  Not an option apparently.  Then she said "Are you going to leave us for another provider?"  Was she kidding?  Was she going to try and twist this to look like I was leaving because I got a better deal elsewhere?  BAAAAAH!  Weird thing is, while I lived in Koreatown, I had the best service with them.  For 9 years they were aces.  It wasn't til I moved to the Valley that it all went to hell.

Oh well, like I said, I don't watch TV much anyway.  I can always hook up my laptop to my TV (with the HDMI cable that I bought for my Direct TV), and watch TV online.  If I do decide to get cable back down the line, I'll probably go with the provider I have for my internet.  I checked, and for what I paid for my basic Direct TV, I can get my internet and HD cable.

My friend gave me a ticket to go see Keane tomorrow night, so I have that to look forward to.  Should be fun.  Not much else going on.  Apart from picking up my contact lenses Saturday, I don't have any plans. 

I've been doing a lot of painting the past few months.  Nothing spectacular or anything.  I usually end up covering what I've done with white paint and re-using the canvas.  I've also tried to make a few stencils and things like that.  Since the things I paint freehand have to be abstract, I've decided that using stencils can help me paint other things I'd like to hang on my walls.  You know, flowers and stuff.  I had been using plastic page protectors, but my friend Deanne gave me all sorts of stuff to use to make really good stencils for my birthday.  Martha Stewart brand and everything!  I also got some gold leaf I want to try out.  Hey, it fills the time!!!!  I've also uesd printed drawer liners and framed them.  Believe it or not, they actually look kinda nice.  I drew a black silhouette of a cat on one of them.  It's not perfect, but it will do for now (untill I can draw or trace a better one!).  I would like for it to look like Gotham, but the tail came out too fluffy-looking.  The ink kept bleeding, so I had to do something to disguise it.

I need to go to thrift stores and look for more frames.  I don't think there are many near me.  I'll have to look into that.

I need to get cat litter too.  Maybe I'll do that on my days off.  If I can handle the excitement!

I know, I've been horrible about posting stuff (as always).  People were expecting me to blog something for my birthday last week and I let you down.  Sorry.

So, birthday.  Yeah.  I turned 42 and it came and went with no pageantry.  I went out to lunch with Sam, which was really nice.  Then I went home and did a load of laundry and that was it.  My dad called and sang to my voicemail, which I get a kick out of every year.  I got an email from a sorority sister of mine (shut up, yes I was in a sorority) that I hadn't heard from in a couple of years.  She's working here in downtown, so we're going to try to get together for lunch.

My best friend came out the day after my birthday and we went to dinner at the tavern around the corner from my place and then she took me (as a surprise) to see the musical "Fellowship" (based on "Fellowship of the Ring").  It was playing over at the old Steve Allen Theatre.  It was really funny.  I really needed some laughs and it provided a ton of them.  If you have the chance to see it, please do!  The whole cast is hilarious, even the understudy who played Aragorn was awesome.  As a "celebrity" bonus, Cedric Yarbrough from Reno 911 plays Gandalf and Galadriel.

I have an update on the work front, I interviewed for a new position here at the office.  I probably won't get the new job, but I felt like it would be stupid if I didn't even bother to interview for it.  Talk about weird!  I haven't really interviewed anywhere for 12 years.  I was very rusty and it was really scary.  You guys know about my self confidence issues, it's kinda hard to convince someone that they should hire you when you don't have any confidence in yourself.  It was good to do though.  I really like and respect the people I met with.  The new job would be really hard and more along the lines of what I did before my current position, but for more people.  My hours would probably be different (no more getting up at ungodly hours or taking the train to work in the dark) and the pay would be better.  Anyway, I don't want to jinx it.  Keep your fingers-crossed for me though.

What else is going on?  Not much.  I've been keeping a really low profile as usual.  Been broke, so keeping close to home every day.  I've been working on a few paintings, not really happy with any of them.  I'm going to add some gold leaf to one this weekend.  The gold acrylic paint I've been using doesn't "pop" enough.  I've never used gold leaf before, so it should be an interesting experiment.

What's up for the weekend?  Sam has been kind enough to lend me Bugsy Malone, so I'm probably going to watch that tonight while I'm doing laundry.  I saw it in the movie theatre when I was a kid, I hope it's as good as I remember.  Other than that and working on the paintings, I need to clean the apt and color my roots.  In other words, not a whole heck of a lot is going on at Casa Robin.  I might add grocery shopping to the mix, just to keep it interesting.

Have good weekend you guys.