Welcome, and Enjoy.

this blog is one outlet that i have for my thoughts and emotions, an online journal if you will. it is my life, or that is what it has become. i started out with not knowing what i wanted it to be. at first it was a place to just relay some funny things going on in my life like the Chick-Fil-A Chronicles. then it turned in to a place to post quizzes and the like that i thought amusing as time has gone on i have shared much of my person life. and after a few years of writing i realized what this blog is about. it is about me. all these thing that i have written about are about "where i am in my life".

* note - i almost never capitalize anything and i do not spell very well, and my grammar is not the best.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Chick-file-A Chronicles Appendix

so I have had some input about this story and one of my co-workers offered the title of "The Bread, The Meat, and The Pickle." I thought that "The Lion. The Sandwich, and The Wardrobe" was a better fit.

also I did have another Chick-Fil-A story that happened between these two road trips. I and different friend few to Houston TX. to pick up a car and drive it back to Omaha. while we where in Texas I saw a sign for Chick-Fil-A. so my friend indulged by craving for chickeny goodness and we went. he did enjoy it a great deal and so did I.

Pinakidion and I hope to write a thank you letter to the corp. office and to the story in Charleston WV. but we have not had time to get together and work on it. and to all you luck folks that have continued access to the chickeny goodness, enjoy.

Oh and as a point of reference there is a Chick-Fil-A in Omaha, but it is in the Mutual of Omaha building and to get in you have to work there. so close and yet so far away.

Chick-file-A Chronicles part 4

ok back on the road high on the intoxicating chicken sandwiches. we drive on. as we go we start singing songs of adoration for Chick-Fil-A, mostly parodies of other song. we do this for most of the rest of the trip. we arrive in N. Carolina at my friends dad's house around 5:30-ish that night. so his dad and step-mom and older brother come out to meet us. now i have to point out that before we had left Omaha me had about 12" of snow fall in the previous two day's, both of us have the ingenious decision to pack the sodas with snow for the trip, I had done so, and it worked great. by the time we had reached his dads home most of the snow was melted and the soda was still cold. I took this opportunity to have some fun with his brother and throw a snow ball at him. with very little effort the snow hit him in the shoulder and spattered onto his face and jacket. it was wonderful. we spent 5 days in N. Carolina seeing the sights and having a great time.

for those of you that are board by computer stuff skip this paragraph. while there I set up his dad's home network and did some work on his computer. the main computer was slow, so we assumed that it was software related,ad-ware/spyware. so I and my friend checked the task manager to see what was running and found that the only thing that was running and using all the resources was a program that he used for his business. I did some move research into the computer and found that it only had 128Mb of RAM so we went in search of some more RAM. being on islands that are tourist driven, there are no computer store on the islands. so we had to go to the mainland. we decided that Tuesday, the day that we were to leave town, drive to Norfolk VA. we would stop at a computer store and we did.found the last stick of memory available for his computer in the store and installed it in the parking lot. while I was working on the computer his brother asked "how long will this take?" my friend replied "not long" as I said "done." this is just a part of the trip that I find interesting.

now back to the real reason that you are here. so Tuesday we fly from Norfolk VA. to Atlanta GA. we know that there is a Chick-Fil-A in the airport. and we have a hour and a half lay over. we land in terminal B, Chick-Fil-A is in terminal A, and we are leaving from terminal C. so we start looking for a directory of the airport and finally after about 15 minute find one. then we take the train to "A" and look for the Chick-Fil-A and order 6 more sandwiches. then we take the train to "C" find our gate, sit and enjoy yet again the chickeny goodness we love so much. we both decide not to eat the last two sandwiches until we are on the plain. yeah like that was going to last. we ate them anyway. but we were happy. now we are back in Omaha NE. with the nearest store a mere 90 miles away.

after telling the tale to many of my closest friends we are going to plan a trip to Sioux City again to introduce them to the chickeny goodness. I do not know when but I hope soon.

Appendix

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Chick-file-A Chronicles part 3

so where did I leave off. ah, yes the ya'll's.

so we head out from the Waffle House. after a while I start looking at the map.
"where is the next Chick-Fil-A?" my friend asks me.
" I am looking that up actually," I said "looks like it is Charleston W. Virginia."
after studding the maps and planning the timing we arrive in Charleston a little after 8:00 a.m. upon closer study I discover that the beloved Chick-Fil-A is in the mall. but malls are not open at 8 a.m. but we figure we can wait. so we pull in to the mall parking to find that it is $1.50 to park. and we are again undetured. so we pay the lady. and she utters words of sweet reflection "you have a good day Darlin'." as we drive a way my friend, with glossy eyes, utters "I'm home." now the cause of the glossiness of his eye is still to be determined, whether it was the darlin' or from lack of sleep. we park and walk to the entrance of the mall.

the mall to our surprise is open, or at least the entry doors are. all of the stores are closed. it is key to note that my friend wife had called as we were circling the mall. since he was driving I answered the phone and asked if he could call her back. after the call the phone died. so all the stores are closed. but we checked the directory anyway. found the Chick-Fil-A on the third floor. we decided to go up and atleast look at it.

as we came up the escalator we found that the Chick-Fil-A is open. it is the only store that is open in the food court. so my friend goes in search of an electrical outlet to plug in the phone and call his wife. I on the other hand went to Chick-Fil-A. as I waited in line I looked over the menu. I stepped up to the counter and said "can I get ten chicken sandwiches?"
with a gaping look the guy behind the counter repeated "ten?" then continued "we are still serving breakfast. but I will check if they will."
the lady behind the counter on the other hand was not so optimistic. how ever in the end love of the chicken prevailed. and the were going to make our ten sandwiches. so I told them of our trip and that they were the first open Chick-Fil-A that we had found. they were amazed that we had come all this way to have Chick-Fil-A.

they did inform me that it may be a while before the food would be done, so I waited off to the side. then this man in a tie walks out and says "there's ten of you?"
I replied "no, two."
looking puzzled he quickly removes some item from the bag he is carrying. and introduces himself as the owner and hands me a bag of calendars and stuffed cows. he starts talking to me about where we are going and blah blah blah. so he leaves, then a another lady walks up to me and asks "can I take you picture for our wall?"
side note I do not like having my picture taken. but I said ok and posed. a little while later my friend walked up so I told him the story of what happened and showed him the swag. he was in awe. so again the owner come out and talks to him. and thanking us to coming to there store. then the camera lady come back to take his picture.

shortly after that the sandwiches were done so we said our good byes and headed to the car. we get to the car and decide that we need a sandwich. neither of us are hungry after having breakfast only a few hours before, but we eat anyway. so both of us, bags in hand, open them and breath deep the smell of peanut oil and chicken. we enjoyed a sandwich each, even if we did burn our mouths because they were hot. then set out yet again for N. Carolina.

...To Be Continued

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Chick-file-A Chronicles part 2

my next trip to Chick-Fil-A takes me across the country. in march of '06 my same friend as before sold his car to someone in N. Carolina, so as to get out from under its financial burden. so he and I drove the car to N. Carolina. now if you visit the Chick-Fil-A website you can find the closest store to a given location. you can also find all the stores on a given route. so we did, we mapped every store from Omaha to Virginia, where the last store was on the route (55 total). and so we headed off.

we got a bit of a late start, so the first Chick-Fil-A was in Columbia Missouri. but we would not make it before they closed. so my friend having researched this further knew that there was one in Overland Park Kansas, only one hour out of our way. not knowing exactly where it was, other then it was on the college campus in Overland Park. we went undetured. by a strange twist of fate of kismet or what have you we chose the second exit off the interstate. made a few turns and ran right into the college. I know you are thinking that this is just my way of making it sound magical or a form of destiny, but that is exactly how it happened. so my friend went in to scout it out. he came back about 10 minutes later to tell me he had found it, and it was closed. the only serve lunch and close at 4:00. so we went to Taco Bell. both of us like Taco Bell but it is not Chick-Fil-A. so we drove on through the night laughing and talking and having a good time.

about 5 A.M. we entered W. Virginia and came across another great restaurant that we both loved, Waffle House, again another place that is missing in the Midwest. so we stopped in for breakfast. for those of you that are unfamiliar with the Waffle House. it is a diner that specializes in breakfast type food. I should also mention that this is the type of place you doctor does not want you to go. I am still trying to get my cholesterol back down. so after a good breakfast and coffee that could wake the dead we set off on our way.

my friend by this time is starting to feel right at home as we venture south and east. three times the server uses a term that made him feel right at home. she said "Ya'll".

...To Be Continued

Friday, April 07, 2006

Chick-Fil-A Chronicles

with growing up in the southwest and having lived on the east coast there are things in the Midwest that we do not have here that I miss. the first is sweet tea, another is Rallies hamburger drive threw's, and mostly Chick-Fil-A. now like all things I did not miss them until I did not have them, there for taking them for granted.

three and a half years ago I found a friend and we became roommates. he is from the south and missed some of the same things that I did. so in sept. of '04 just before he got married we found out one fateful Wednesday that there was a Chick-Fil-A in Sioux City. so that saturday we made a road trip to the Chick-Fil-A. now Sioux City is about 90 miles away, but we did not care. we were going. none of our friend nor our co-workers could understand this almost magical draw to the chicken sandwich, but we did not care. we arrived in Sioux City around lunch and order a few sandwiches each and we did not speak until there were no more sandwiches. then felling that it was two early to return home we searched the mall for something to do. we decided to attend a movie. we saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. not bad not all good either. after the movie we decided to grab some sandwiches for the road. all in all it was a fun and fulfilling.

later in august of '05 my friend and his new wife went to Sioux City and brought back some chickeny goodness. I shared my bounty with my children who where now hooked on Chick-Fil-A.

the week before I stated this blog I took a trip to N.Carolina. another Chick-Fil-A story...

...To BE Continued

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Origin of the Name

I know you are all wondering where did I get such a fabulous name as MRTool. I was given the name tool by a former roommate, and the story goes a little like this.

Three and a half years ago my friend Pinakidion (not his real name) moved here from N. Carolina. I am prone to bad jokes and puns. This of couse of odd to him. So he would count the number of bad jokes or puns in one day. On one afternoon he had counted to 29. Figuring that this was not deterring me from my habit he decided to try something different. He said that my jokes had several layers of wrong to them so he used the analogy of an onion of wrong. He would then unfold his hands as if peeling an onion. This he found only encouraged me. So he resorted to a physical method of determent. He has is really big NC State ring that he wore on his left hand. He would place his fist on my shoulder and press against me with the ring. Now I know what you are thinking, how cruel, but it did not hurt. This alas did not work either. So he gave me the name tool.

now tool is like calling your friend a dork, geek, dweeb, etc. So ofcouse I did not mind it at all. I rather liked it. So now you know where the tool came from, know as for the M R.

about a year ago I started another email account for spam. So I chose to use my new nickname, but it was to short. So I turned it into a statement. M R TOOL (hiM aRe Tool). It was shortly after that, that I realized that it was a double entendre, it could be read as Mr. Tool, and this I like even better.

so that is my name in all its glory (or something like that)

First Blog

As the title implies this is my first ever post on my blog. In my defense i am not much of a writer, so i do not expect to update often, nor am i a good speller, but i will take comments that may help my ability to spell.

i do not know what this site will be for. though i have been assured that blogging is therapeutic(?)