Easter Sunday!!

Normally, I'd be sleeping at 8:33am on a Sunday morning; especially after going to sleep at 3am.

However - I woke up and decided to buy my annual purchase of water. This year's purchase was a little tricky though because Staples.com has raised their pricing on water from a unit cost of 16 cents per bottle to 27 cents per bottle.

But but but- they sent me a coupon in the mail!! Muahahaha. Their coupon states that if I spend over $20 in the store, I can get $10 free and if I spend $100 online, I can get $20 free. Well- that sounds like an excel chart waiting to happen to find the lowest cost per bottle!

And so on Easter Sunday at 8:30am, I did my little excel chart. I mapped out the costs and everything else to find the lowest unit cost of 16 cents with an in-store purchase and 21 cents with an online purchase. My blended unit cost per bottle weighing in at 20 cents.



All in all - $97.80 for another 480 bottles of water at 20.375 cents each. And how much did that save me? $33.60

Meh- not bad I guess.

So yeah, this is what a guy does if he plays with Excel everyday at work.


c.

Although it may sound 'immature' I thought I'd share something that struck me as odd when I came home today.

I pulled up and there was a beer keg in the garage. Now for those of you who have been to the house - you may know that I have a keg and I keep it on the backyard patio. Although I don't drink, I put on a few miles with this keg 2 years ago when there were parties galore here at the house and for some reason- I still have it.

Well, I was wondering why one of my roommates would move the keg to the garage so I made my way to the backyard to see if there was something its place. Much to my surprise, the original keg was still there!

So now I have 2 for some reason.

Very odd.

The speed of light...
So I put brighter lights on my car the other day and was telling my friend Angie why I needed to get them and how they're already having a few problems. I was telling her about the time I went up to Prescott to play poker. I was driving at night and I wasn't comfortable with how far my old lights were shining out into the darkness.

Her reaction: 'Well Clifford, I'm concerned. I'm not concerned that your lights are having problems, I'm concerned that you're going the speed of light and that's why your old lights aren't fast enough to keep up with you.'

Haha! We laughed on the phone for a whole minute. In fact, my stomach was hurting because we laughed so hard.

*sigh*

What the heck is our country coming to when Congress attempts to intervene in this case of euthanasia for Terri Shiavo??

As if our country doesn't have anything else to fix? I understand that there is a bigger picture and that there may be cases similar to the Shiavo situation all across the country however I don't think it's in the country's best interest to have Congress involved considering the precedence that it makes will only affect a small segment of the population. How about the deficit??? How about Social Security??

This is a ridiculously small issue that should have been taken care of in a counseling session with a therapist in some small room. Not something that has spread its way across all media mediums and wasting our tax dollars in Congress.

In a corporate environment. This is the equivalent of some cashier at Walmart asking the Board of Directors of the entire company if he/she should change the printer cartridge in his/her cash register.

I agree with Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, who happens to be a Republican, that Congress shouldn't have made its way into this issue. Here is an article on him.

As I write this post, my body is digesting alcohol. I know- weird huh? Tonight I went to a school play to support my friend's daughter and I honestly didn't think it was going to be an interesting night but it was. I was driving home from the play and got an invite to go hang out with friends at Sapporo, a sushi bar/club whatever on Scottsdale road.

So I go home and change and go out. Why not? It was 9pm and the night was still young.

I get to the sushi bar, club, whatever you want to call it and my friends are there in a big crowd and they're having a lot of fun. I put on the Clifford charm, mingle with them, and suddenly I find myself drinking a bud light on an empty stomach.

Not good.

I didn't even have to buy the beer, I made a new friend and she was buying everyone drinks. Very odd. I suspected that she wanted to get me drunk and then take advantage of me because she was all over me but I held onto my last strings of soberness with all my might and escaped with only a few kisses on the cheek.

What an odd night.

It's nights like these when I envy those who are married. They've found their special one and they're happy as kids in a candy store. Maybe I have a rosey picture of what marriage is but I want the good marriage. The marriage that lasts forever. Blah- this alcohol is making me sappy.

c.

There comes a time when the ordinary blog posts of a person's daily life become a little boring. To rescue all of my readers from that boredom, I've delved deep into my past to bring back a story of my childhood...

In the beginning, there were dinosaurs... and then some time went by when suddenly the world realized that there was a Clifford in its midst. This Clifford wasn't like other Cliffords, this Clifford was interested in being the Lewis or Clark of his
neighborhood in Phoenix, Arizona.

I was about 5-7 years old when I used to play in my parents' old house off of central avenue. My friend Bill and I would climb around all over in the ditches
behind our houses and would get ridiculously dirty. It didn't matter though, I didn't really have a definition of 'clean' in my head and sitting on the dirt where the irrigation water would normally flow to all of our lawns... in retrospect, I'm surprised we never got really sick since that water is barely filtered by the city. But when you're 6 years old - it's no big deal. It was just dirt afterall. I
remember my friend Bill and I would explore the ditches behind all of the backyards that belonged to the houses in our neighborhood. We would play games and pretend we were soldiers and make little weapons with popsicle sticks and rubberbands (we had really good imaginations) and even sets of wooden chopsticks we would get after raiding my parents' kitchen. It was pretty dumb to do now that I look back on it but
at the time, we were soldiers! So we'd make these little weapons, run around and just get plenty dirty.

It was a ton of fun until Bill moved away. I find it so funny now because now I'm not really an outdoorsy kind of guy. I don't mind getting my hands dirty when
working on the car, the lawn, making projects, or whatever around the house but it's interesting because when I eat- I much prefer to use a knife and fork if
all possible. I rarely ever use my hands unless I absolutely need to like when I'm eating ribs or chicken wings. Even chicken tenders I'll eat with a
fork and knife. Is that so odd?

So anyway- that's enough about that. Next time I'll share with you something about the ever clever Andy Mclory.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Today I realized how wonderful it is to see the Arizona sunset. To experience the cool Arizona air running over your skin and seeing the sun tip toe over the horizon. I love that experience. It's the first thing I look
forward to when I leave the office and walk to the car. It's something I've come to love ever since I would run out of class in 6th grade when school was over.

Haha!! And to think some of you suspected I was never enrolled in school...

A quick photo of Ed and I running around San Diego 6 months ago.



Larger photo

In other news...

I'm sad for these people.

In almost everyone's daily life, there's a moment where a person thinks consciously or unconsciously that whatever they are doing right at that moment- they feel they could do forever because it's so enjoyable.

What is it that you do?

This is the epitome of disappointment.

How did I miss this?

Last weekend I was in three different airports in one day and there were so many people ending their cell phone calls with 3 special words... So I've been thinking about these 3 words that sound so good coming out of one's mouth, hearing, or even typing out on a computer.

I love you.

I know - it's such a pansy thing to say but hey- I'm feeling a little pansy-ish right now. I keep thinking about my friend back in GA who is probably working furiously on her laptop right now as I write this. Maybe she'll see it and e-mail me - maybe she'll be too busy to check this site out.

So anyway- what is a guy supposed to do when he meets the smartest gal he's ever met, changes his life ever so slightly with her in mind, and adores her like crazy because she's so adorable?

POST PHOTOS OF HER HITTING GOLFBALLS!!



Bravo! Bravo! What a natural!

The "wind-up"!

The LPGA champion was so happy and swung so hard, she did a little spin after her hit.

When my lovely friend isn't showing golf balls who's boss, she's sashaying her way down wedding aisles all done up.



Four words: What a pretty lady.



Guess who I'm thinking about...

No offense to the Irish but...
I hate Irish pubs.

So I tried my hand at cooking fish. Angie and I cooked up some when I was in Atlanta but my catfish experience was kinda boney and hairy. Yeah, it had a piece of hair stuck to it that I found after it was cooked.

Cooking fish tonight wasn't that bad. I wanted to test out my cooking skills and I think I faired nicely. I cooked a piece of salmon that was about the size of a pair of hands placed together palm to palm and it was only 3 bucks! I also made rice with cheese ($1.29). For my friend who's closest to 0,0 - sound familiar? :) I also steamed my veggies ($1.99) in my rice cooker and they tasted quite yummy. So in the end - fantastic dinner for super cheap.

In other news, I saw the oddest spoiler on a 190e Mercedes the other day. It was so ugly- I felt compelled to take a photo.




Here are some photos from my trip to Atlanta.















Now here's a quality place that lets you keep a pair of chopsticks at the restaurant!

Atlanta...
I'm at the Container Store. This place was named as the best place to work two years in a row according to Fortune magazone.

So here I am in Atlanta, Georgia...
This morning I woke up and popped out of my room at 7am... it was 5:30am Arizona time.

I was casually waiting for my host to wake up and at the time of this writing, she still has yet to awake. Oh well, no biggie. So I was reading a local magazine and I realized that last month was Black History Month. But isn't February the shortest month of the year? Interesting...

Why I love working at GoDaddy.com.
For years I've always liked the idea of personal publishing and the sharing of one's life online with friends. The ability to do so naturally starts with a domain name and of course, that's where Go Daddy comes into the picture.

So anyway, today I'm going to Atlanta Georgia to see a friend. I met her through Go Daddy actually because she happened to call in one day a few years ago about her domain names. As I was walking through the airport with my Go Daddy shirt and laptop bag, it was interesting how many people noticed my shirt. I even had the security personnel asking about what Go Daddy was and what did it do. He had seen the commercial but he still wasn't sure what we did so I took a few minuted to explain what we did and put together a hypothetical scenario of what he could do with our services. He was so excited and asked me for my card. Unfortunately I didn't have any on me so I just gave him my e-mail address and told him to contact me if he had any questions.

I love that. I love evangelizing about the possibilities the web has to offer and turning new people into the web so they can experience it in a new manner. As opposed to just having info come out of the web, now they can put their own infiormation onto the web and complete the communication circle.

So anyway, I'm on the plane and I'll be landing in North Carolina for a stopover on my way to Atlanta.

So lately I've been thinking about relationships.

I used to pursue them when I was looking for something to fill the times where I had nothing to do and nothing to think about (back in 2001-ish). My last relationship crashed and burned like a Ford Explorer on Firestone tires. It happened way too fast, got way too serious, and I was way too young to be thinking about marriage. I had a good time though. I learned what I liked and didn't like and learned that even if a person has an Ivy League degree on the wall doesn't mean things are all 'ok'.

I think I could have been 'ok' with her though. It was just bad timing really. And relationships are all about just that... timing. I'm in no rush to jump into a relationship. Many of my friends have significant others and although I'd like to be in a serious relationship sometime- I don't think I'd want to do that right now. Maybe I haven't met the right gal. Or - maybe I have but the timing isn't right. Eh- who knows. Maybe it's the added pressure of having to take into account another person's life plans when planning mine. Eh- like I said- who knows.

What I do know is this... although I'm not looking - the past few weeks have presented some interesting situations here and there.

Example 1) I'm talking on the phone with a gal regarding work stuff and she compliments me on my voice. I don't really think much of it but she proceeds to hit on me via e-mail. Quite interesting. I let it slide - I try not to mix business with pleasure.

Example 2) A few weeks ago I'm out at ASU and this amazing 22 year old gal who is really into martial arts teaches me her dance moves from her dance class and talks a mile a minute about her majoring in psychology. She's pretty cute and somehow I end up with her number by the time we part ways. I've yet to call her.

Example 3) I'm eating at some sports bar with Tim and the waitress spends an unusual amount of time at our table and Tim kinda mentions that he thinks she may be interested in me. I brush the thought away and don't think much of it until I get the check and somehow I end up with her number when I get the bill. Again, I've yet to call her.

Example 4) I'm eating at the same sports bar with Tim and this asian gal looks over a few times while Tim and I are watching the Suns game. She looks a few more times and then comes over to make some small talk about working at Steamers at the Biltmore and how she's kinda new to Phoenix from Pennsylvania. Again, somehow I end up with her number and again, I've yet to call her.

So what does this all mean? I really have no idea. All I know is that I'm not really looking for a relationship right now - I could probably benefit from a few dates here and there to get my mind off of work but I think that's just about the extent of what I'm looking for right now.

It's interesting how my perspective has changed.

In other news, I picked up a pair of Velodyne subwoofers for the house. I already had a couple of Sony subs but I thought these new Velodynes would blow away the Sonys.

They don't.

So on that note, I'll probably end up selling them, giving them away to either my parents or my brother or maybe I'll end up using one in my bedroom. Who knows.

Speaking of my brother, he hums this song that is so infectious... It's by the Beatles and it's titled 'In My Life'.

Here are the lyrics and the song can be downloaded here.

There are places I値l remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I致e loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I値l never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I値l often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

Though I know I値l never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I値l often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more