Wisconsin Billboard Fail

Wisconsin Billboard Fail: "

They are pretty ugly.

Submitted by: Kayla Watters via Fail Uploader

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Why I was happy

Normally at lunch I either watch a show I've recorded or read at the park for an hour.  I try to get away from the office so I can clear my mind a bit.  Today I didn't feel like reading and I didn't have anything to watch, instead I went to an antique shop and bought some pennies.

First, I'm not an antique shopper.  Last weekend Jen had a tax class and I didn't want to sit around the house so the kids and I went for a drive and ran some errands. While out the kids got hungry and wanted hot dogs.  Even though we were by the mall and could have gone into the food court for a quick dog I decided to check on my phone if there were any hot dog joints near by.  Urbanspoon came up with a place called Pittsburgh Willy's which I had never heard of before so we went hunting for our dogs. I was surprised when we found Pittsburgh Willy's because it was in the middle of a large antique/consignment business called Merchant Square.  The dogs were great and we had some time to kill before Jen would be home so we tooled around for an hour or so.  Both kids had a blast even though we didn't buy anything.

So when today I had nothing to do for some reason I went back to the weekends memory.  I did a quick Google Maps search, found there was an antique shop, Golden Bird Antiques, a couple of blocks over and off I went.  I had no intention of buying anything but once I got there I found something I couldn't pass up.

I collect elongated coins; ECs; pressed pennies; squished change.  I didn't start collecting ECs alone.  My daughter and I started to collect them together on our first trip to Disneyland but she grew out of them and I didn't.  Most of the coins I have I've gotten while on vacations, approximately half of them are from Disneyland.  I've received some from other collectors and recently I received some when I joined The Elongated Collectors. Yes, there is a club.

ECs generally are not that expensive.  Most machines cost 51 cents per coin; two quarters are the cost and then the penny for the pressing.  When a machine goes away it's considered retired and retired coins are considered more valuable.  Older retired coins are considered even more valuable and of course the oldest ECs that are known to exist are valued the highest.

Today when I entered Golden Bird Antiques I started talking to the owner about elongated coins and I was very surprised when he said he had a few.  He prefaced this by saying that while he only had a few they were probably ones that I would be interested in.  He was right.

The oldest known ECs are from the 1893 Columbian Exposition.  The event was essentially a worlds fair in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus discovering America.  At the convention there was the first known pressed penny machines and there were 4 different coins being made.  What I purchased were two of those four coins.  I've seen the coins for sale on eBay, and I never really planned on buying them but once I saw them in person I had to have them.  The price seemed right and while I knew I'd be in the doghouse I still bought them.

And that is why I was happy.  I'm still happy but I was right about that doghouse.  Crushed my mellow a bit but I deserved it.  Hopefully I'm not in the doghouse for long.  Not a lot of room here.  Little lonely.

I'm So Happy...

...happy happy happy!

No time to explain now, just wanted to say that I am happy!

Planning a Meeting 101

Just a few quick tips for planning a meeting, whether it's a phone call or in person;

1)  Invite the right people
All too often I'm invited to a meeting where there is absolutely no reason for me to attend, and it's not because I'm not important.  I'm kind of a big thing around here (toot toot).  More often then not is because people assume the roll I play and don't truly know what I can and can't do. The solution; if you're not sure if someone should attend give them a a quick call, tell them what you are meeting with others about and see if they feel it would be important to attend.  If they chose not to and they should have then the blame falls on them.

2) Be prepared
Why should I care about what you have to say if you didn't care enough to prepare for your own damn meeting? I didn't schedule it so don't think I'm going to run it.

3)  If I need to contribute let me know ahead of time
If your idea of a meeting is to have me provide details about XYZ then give me a heads up.  I shouldn't have to walk blindly into the lions den with nothing more than my good looks and a Papermate.

4)  Show up on time
Again, if you don't care than I don't care.

5)  Keep your cell phone in your pocket
During our meeting the most important thing should be what we are meeting about.  Unless the Commissioner is calling and needs you to save Gotham City keep your attention on one thing and one thing only, the meeting at hand.

Off the top of my head those are the 5 big peeves I have.  Of course there are others, like stop printing out 90 page docs that no one is ever going to look at or make sure there are enough chairs in the conference room, but 5 seems like a good place to stop for the time being.

And yes, this rant started with a useless meeting invite.

Been a long time, been a long time....

....been a long time but not a lonely one.  For all of my loyal readers, dare I say followers?, I apologize for not posting in such a long time.  My idea about posting about obsessions cured my problem of obsessing.  The miracle of blogging! Praise blogger! Praise Google!  But now I have guilt and feel bad for leaving you alone in the dark for so long.

Guilt is gone.

I decided I can still write whether I'm obsessed or not and who knows, maybe I'll share an interesting thing or two, so I'm back.  For now. Can never tell with me. I'm like a ninja.  That types slow.  And has horrible spelling and punctuation.  But still a ninja and what does a ninja care about commas and periods? He's a frickin ninja!  Everything starts with "....." and ends with "!" with a ninja.

SO when I find something I think is cool that I want to share with more than just my wife I'll post it here.  When I feel like going on a tangent I'll post it here. When I'm doing something totally wicked awesome and I want to brag to the world I'll post it here.  When I'm sad I'll keep it to my damn self because I'm a man and that's what men do!

So expect;

1. Awesome
2. Nerdy stuff (cause deep down I'm a manly nerd but still a nerd all the same)
3. Rants and Raves (expect cursing)
4. More awesome

Do not expect;

1. Emotions (unless it has to do with sports, family, puppies, little tiny kitty cats being saved by puppies from a burning kitty orphanage, puppies being saved by tiny little kitty cats from a burning puppy orphanage, and cheese )

.......   !

Pung