A less informed person would shrug it off as a fluke. I know better. Someone is spoofing the user agents and driving up traffic on my site and it appears for no good reason. It’s really just obnoxious since I don’t think I’ve had this much traffic in 7 years.

If you’re legitimately interested in what I have to say stop spoofing the search engine crawlers so I can see the traffic for what it is and then I might be motivated to supply new content. If you’re secretly copying my blog and photos for more nefarious purposes, then stop because if I can’t make any money off of my life then nobody will.

So we walked in and before we step two feet in the store we were headed off by someone asking us what we needed. Before we could tell him anything he told us that he could “squeeze us in”. Confused we inquired about his curious choice of terminology. Apparently shopping at the AT&T store in Kendallville requires an appointment.

It’s not my doctor’s office, it’s not my hair stylist. I shouldn’t need a bloody appointment to go buy a cellphone accessory. It’s just a freaking case! Granted the case costs $50 but still. It’s not some major life changing decision where I need to consult a specialist or sign legally binding documentation. The process is not irreversible, and it certainly isn’t going to cause some sort of harm if I do it wrong.

You can “squeeze me in”? Are you freaking kidding me?

This is one of the reasons I never went to the VZ store. I would go in, they’d schedule me for an appointment, tell me I had an absurdly long wait time and then make me hand over my phone number so that they could text me when my appointment was next.

Is this what I have to look forward to now when I need to go to the store and purchase an accessory or new phone? Why is it so complicated? Everywhere else has it down to a science. I go in, grab what I want off a shelf, I pay and the store takes my money. Immediately afterward I am allowed to leave. Nothing should interrupt or deviate from that process.

After fighting of the itis we played the game of things and that was a riot. The premise is that someone reads a topic, everyone else writes down the first thing that comes to mind, and then you go around the table and one person tries to guess who said something. Depending on the group of people you get together things can get pretty far out there.

After having nearly two weeks off of work for the holidays it’s been tough to get back in the groove but I’m back to work and I can honestly say I’m ready for the weekend again. It seems as if having all that time off has made me more tired. I’m honestly feeling sluggish and lazy. I’m not really comfortable feeling that way either but it’s just so hard to get motivated for anything with the cold and the snow and the darkness all the time but that’s winter I guess. I’ll give it a few more weeks, either winter will end and I’ll snap out of it or I’ll just get in such a groove with work that I’ll stop noticing it and then by the time I do summer will be here.

Second, I’m at the in-laws waiting to go to church. I’m not particularly thrilled about it, not that I have anything better to do it’s just that I’d rather be anywhere else.

In an odd twist of events we’re opening presents tonight instead of tomorrow which is fine with me. I don’t care when we do it but if I got something cool then I’m glad to get it early. This year is an extremely low key Xmas so most of our presents are from each other and that’s fine because we buy each other nicer things that way.

All this time at the doctor’s office and the ER had really taken a toll on her schooling. While her teachers seemed to be understanding, one of her teachers was genuinely concerned her her well being and her education allowing her to make up missed work and exams. With the other instructors being less flexible Sarah had to restructure her schedule for next semester but nothing terrible.

On one of my trips to a remote office for work I had Sarah tag along. It was on this trip that Sarah hit it off with one of the managers where I work who happened to need to staff the office we were at. After an interview Sarah got the call that she would start work on December 1st.

The second thing is that even though we’re just making it we need to take some time and enjoy our lives. We’ve been spending lots of time with our friends down the block but my family hasn’t seen the house yet. We decided to have a huge party at the house inviting neighbors, friends, and relatives to come see the house, drink beer, eat, and see the new (small) pond I put in the back yard.

My sister came over and stayed with use for a week in August as well. We celebrated her birthday, had family photos taken and took a trip to a wild animal refuge together. It was just a really good time. I hope I can do it again next summer and do it better.

Although our problems awe still have fate waiting to crush us, we managed to hold off for a while and just enjoy life.

With Sarah still searching for work we decided the only logical thing to do was to add another financial burden to our lives and get a puppy. We bough Slugger at like 9 weeks old from an Amish out in the middle of nowhere. Slugger is half Australian Shepherd and half Black Lab. In infancy slugger was the quietest most well behaved puppy and I could hold him in the bottom of my hand.

Anyhow the puppy seemed to make Sarah happy and help with the loneliness of me being gone for 12 hrs. a day. In July we ended up meeting a wonderful couple that lives just two houses down from us. With their 7 children they’ve become some of our closest friends. Our life has definitely become better since we met them.

With medical bills mounting our regular expenses are even starting to seem daunting. Things are looking bleak after months of no interviews and my inability to find a part time job to pick up the slack.

Never let it be said that there is no such thing as being “over qualified” because that person is a dirty rotten liar.

The summer seems to drag on and on and due to everything going on we had to forgo our annual trip to Chicago for the Taste of Chicago. Such a downer.

If you weren’t already depressed, you’re almost certainly reaching for some wellbutrin at this point.

Despite shit rolling down hill it has to stop at the bottom or at least an outcropping on the way down.