Still trying to fight off this cold.......

Had a pretty good birthday, though. Friday night I went out to the karaoke bar, as usual, and just after midnight I was called up to sing. Before the song started the host asked me if I knew what time it was. I played along with whatever he was getting to because I had no idea. He then announced it was officially my birthday and he got the crowd to sing to me as Liz brought out a home-made cake. It's not easy to surprise me and even though I was looking for little clues throughout the evening, I had given up and was caught totally off guard. It was nice. The cake was very good and I made a few of the bar flies feel old when I answered their question "how old are you?" The next day Liz gave me Garden State DVD and the soundtrack, took me to dinner at a local steak house "Bugaboo Creek" and then out for some more karaoke.

A few days later, it was Liz's birthday and I was sick and my car was acting up. I almost didn't even make it out to her gathering at the bar and totally lost out on anything special I wanted to do in return because I had been so sick.

Now I'm working on a few people's sites. Celia has added some new photos to her galleries. I helped Joel move his site from one host to another as well as update some things. I'm talking with another guy, Stu, about his desires for a couple websites including one for his band, The Rivers. So I have a little money coming in and some more on the way, because...

Get this... I was approved for unemployment benefits! It seemed like Aetna gave every reason they didn't want me to have it and the state found that I had a legitimate reason for being late upon the last day I was late which resulted in the termination. But Aetna would never agree since they don't accept any reason for an unscheduled absence other than serious weather conditions -- even still, there'd have to be a substantial amount of people affected by the weather in order to back up your excuse. Speaking of which, they never called me back after I filed a complaint that I am not being paid a $500 bonus which paid out to everyone else in my department just DAYS after I was fired. According to their eligibility requirements I had to be an active, full-time employee on November 30th with a hire date prior to June 1st. Nothing else contradicts that statement yet they say I'm not eligible because I didn't receive the bonus. Their logic says "Well, you didn't receive the bonus, therefore you're obviously not eligible." As you can imagine, I am not accepting that as an answer. I must remember to call them next week to follow up since no one followed up with me. (shh... its because they can't come up with a good reason.)