Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

Earl revealed to me this weekend that he doesn’t like my face as much without my beard. I have to admit that I’m a little taken aback by this because he usually doesn’t comment on this sort of thing. I’ve been bearded for the majority of the past couple of years and I went with this clean shaven look for the past week for something different.

Come to find out, he doesn’t like it. Apparently he likes the “big mustache” look I was sporting over the last half of the summer the best, with the beard coming in second.

I’m glad that he took the time to tell me this and have promptly begun growing my beard back. After all, I can’t get to the big mustache without having a beard first. I shaved my head again too, since neither of us was enjoying the gray showing up. Who put that there anyway?

I’m just happy he was honest with me.

Daylight saving time has finally come to an end and once again my body is in sync with what ordinary human’s deem the proper time. I hate Daylight Saving Time. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves. I think this whole concept a flinging hours and minutes about in an effort to “enjoy more sunlight” is stupid.

Here’s the concept of time and how it’s suppose to work. 12 noon is suppose to be when the sun is at it’s highest point in the sky. Due to the restraints of our society and the need for relatively synchronized time, this makes the original concept of “noon” nearly impossible because everyone’s noon would be at a different time.

Many tout the benefits of energy conservation from daylight saving time. Since there’s more daylight when most of us are awake, we’re not using electric lights to see what’s going on. I guess we’re suppose to ignore the fact that in the summer we are using more energy to power air conditioners because we’re up and about when it’s hotter.

One thing that makes me crazy is when someone says “it makes the day longer.” No it doesn’t. The day still has 24 hours in it and the sun is going to be in the sky just as long regardless of the fact of whether we’re in daylight saving time or not. It might be perceived as longer in the narrow view of the declarer’s world, but for those that strive to see the big picture and think outside of the box, it’s a nuisance.

Just think, starting next year Daylight Saving time starts on the SECOND Sunday in March and ends on the FIRST Sunday in November.

I’ll have a whole extra month to be cranky!

It is raining like crazy. The wind is hitting gusts of 50 MPH, with higher gusts predicted for later this afternoon. Luckily, the telephone network is holding together at the moment and on-call is keeping itself under control this weekend.

Rick and Helen (Earl’s stepbrother and girlfriend) are up for a visit today and tomorrow. They must think this place is hell on earth because the weather is always like this, if it isn’t snowing, when they visit. Right now we’re all just chilling out in the living room, complete with Tom parallel parked on the arm chair next to me.

I just got done speaking with my sister in Moscow. I like to check in with her from time to time when she’s traveling abroad. She and her boyfriend are expected back for a little while next week. We look forward to getting together with them. She told me about their furnished apartment and how it is decorated in orange suede and gold, with a chandelier hanging in every room. Sounds pretty.

The only other excitement that has occurred today is a visit from the cable guy because our internet connection has been all screwed up again this week. He replaced a connector and told me that the new cable company is upgrading all the equipment and it’s going to be like this through January.

As a geek, this is not lovely. But I guess I’ll just have to deal with it.

Earl’s cake did not win a prize yesterday at the company hee-haw harvest dessert contest. While people were polishing it off in great numbers while I was there, no one was voting for it. Not even after I broke the ice by voting for it myself.

What do they know?

You know what did win in the Great Dessert bake-off? First place went to candied/caramel apples with your choice of nuts, candy corn or chocolate flakes as a coating and second place went to a a lively frosted dog made out of twinkies.

First of all, the caramel apples were brought in by a saleswoman who didn’t have to leave halfway through the gathering so that the other half her department could go to the party. So she had the opportunity to work the crowd by cutting up the apples and walking around offering them to people. Show a little leg and score yourself another vote.

Now the dog made out of twinkies was cute but I felt it was a rather low blow by going for the cutesy cartoon approach coupled with the use of twinkies. My friend Christine (who brought two delicious chocolate cakes) says next year she’s throwing some frosting on a cardboard cut out of a dessert to see if she wins a prize that way. I’m glad she’s going for the effort because I’m not stepping foot in another work sponsored dessert bake-off again. These fools would be happy with a McDonald’s Apple Pie for goodness sake. Maybe that’s what I’ll bring next year, McDonald’s Apple Pie.

Luckily, I’m not as bitter as I really could be because my co-worker Ryan made a delicious rum cake where he had tripled the amount of rum called for in the recipe.

So let’s toast to the desserts that should have won and all have another piece of rum cake.