Life

Hello all! (See how I say that like people actually read this?) So, what's new? Well, I had a birthday back on the 15th. Yup, I'm now 26 years old. It seems like time is going by fast. I hear it just gets faster the older you get. Also, I finally got those pictures from my sister! She wanted me to come over and jump start their car and she was kind enough to burn them to a CD before I got there. Speaking of my sister, Happy Birthday! :) Okay, so she probably doesn't read this, but it is her birthday today.

I went to the Vanessa Carlton concert on the 14th. It was really good. In fact, it was better than I thought it would be. I don't enjoy a lot of performers live because their music just doesn't sound as good. I think her soungs sounded better in some ways. Plus, it was over at Nita's Hideaway which is a pretty small place which I think makes it more enjoyable. Of course it also means they have a dirt parking lot. Soft powdery dirt no less, so my car has been really, really dirty since then. It was outside and a bit cold, so I ended up getting sick. Very sick, I had to call in to work and felt like crap all weekend. I still have a cough from it. Despite that, I thought it was a really great concert and I enjoyed myself. I'd do it all again in a second, although I might bring a jacket next time. Heh.

I have been spending a lot of time playing The Sims Online the last few days. It's in free public beta untill the beginning of December sometime. I'm going to go play now. I'll see about getting those pictures up in the next few days. Take care all!

Okay, I'm still working on the pictures. I took the camera back to my sisters house, but forgot to bring a CD-R with me. I'll try and get over there this weekend to get the pictures. (Of course, when I say weekend, I mean my days off, Sunday-Monday)

Yesterday I went out and got Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the PS2. I should have waited until next paycheck, but what the heck. Brent at work was telling me about it and it sounded really cool. I have to say, I am not dissapointed. It's really fun so far. A lot of driving around and stuff (of course) but now you can ride motor cycles, and it looks like helocopters and planes too! A bunch of new weapons (Chainsaw anybody??) and a rockin' 80's theme complete with 80's music!

Work has been really, really busy the last two days. I guess NASCAR weekends are always like that, but this is the first one I've worked. We don't have any cars on the lot to speak of, and there's like 50 more cars going out today than being returned. I guess they're hoping for no-shows. *Shrug* Anyway, we've been running our butts off, but it's good.

Oh, and on the way home from work today, I got my unofficial welcome to the Subie club welcome! I was driving down 75th and some guy in a white WRX sedan with a wing was checking out my car at a stop light. Hehe... How cool is that? That's the first time I've ever noticed anyone checking out my car. I waved, but I don't think he saw me.

Well, that's what has been going on. I think I'm gonna go play some Vice City... I need to beat the heck out of some guy with a golf club.

What's new? Well, I got a new car. : ) It's really cool and I'm happy with it. It's a 2002 black/silver Subaru Impreza Outback Sport. Basicly is't a little station wagon with all wheel drive and a 4 cylinder 2.5L boxer with about 165HP. It's fun and sporty without being an actual sports car. It gets decent gas mileage (A whole lot better than my truck). It looks good and it has a CD player. I'm still getting used to driving a manual. I've never owned one before or driven one for any great length of time so there's a learning curve involved.

In other news, the camping trip went great! I think everyone who showed up had a good time. I know I had a good time. I did some hiking and shooting. Mostly we sat around the camp fire talking about guy stuff. Brian and Robert canceled at the last minute. That was kinda shitty, but what can you do? Actually I would have been quite suprised if Brian had shown up. He's said he wanted to go before, but he's NEVER come with us. As for Robert, I thought he had a pair... I guess his woman has taken care of that. Oh well, we had fun without them.

Also, the Farewell Harvey BBQ at work went well. We all overstuffed ourselves. Then moved like "lead turds" when we got back from break. Harvey said all his good-byes. Then a couple days later he took off to Alaska. On one hand, I'm sad to see him go. He's a good friend and one of the few friends I have who will actually get off his butt and go outside once in awhile. On the other hand, I'm happy for him and hope he has a great time. Not everyone gets the chance to live in Alaska. I think it will be a lot of fun for him. He says he's going to come visit in February and he wants me to go visit him next summer. That would be a lot of fun, but it remains to be seen if it will actually happen.

Anyway, I think that's all the new stuff happening. Work is pretty much the same, although I did get moved up into the lead attendant position since Harvey left. I guess if I sayed long enough I could make supervisor before too long. After that though, there's nowhere to go. I've been sending out resumes again. Oh yeah, I took pictures of the camping trip, pictures of the car, and a picture of me with short hair. I'll be putting those up in the next week sometime. That's all for now.

Almost a month with no update. What can I say, not a lot going on. The Rush concert was awsome as expected. They played two 90 minute sets with a break inbetween. They played a lot of old stuff that rocks and a few new songs from Vapor Trails. I talked Chris into going with me at the last minute. I hadn't seen him since graduation, so it was really good to see him again. The microwave is up. *G* Frank did all the hard work while I stood there holding it. Very exciting stuff there... What else... I went to the store today and bought a router/firewall/wireless access point/print server. Okay, so I don't have any wireless network devices, but I figured what the heck, I might some day. It's actually pretty spiffy, and the firewall is nice so Zone Alarm doesn't have to field all the port scans. Also I got a ticket to Vanessa Carlton on November 14th. Due to the overwhelming response from people who wanted to go to Rush, I just bought one ticket and poop on all of you. *G* I figure it should be pretty cool, and it's the day before my birthday too! Other than that, workin' workin' workin'... Anybody remember the Doogs from Star Controll 3? I need to go do a camping update on the main page, then try to gt a few hours sleep before work.

Wow. Okay, no update in awhile because we moved! Yay! All the hard part is over. Well, we still have to install the over-the-stove microwave tomorrow. But after that, we're all moved in and up and running. I finally got Cox turned on today, all the appliances are in, my bed is all set up, the animals are adjusting well. There's lots of little stuff to do. Boxes to unpack, pictures to hang, stuff like that. We have a new phone number now, so if you try to reach me at the old one, you'll get to talk to Cathy or one of the kids.

Here is a link to the story about the sheep bridge as promised (Although a little delayed due to the move) Sheesh, it seems like so long ago now. Last weekend was like one long day with two hour naps here and there. A lot of sleeping on the floor since my bed was all packed up. Ummm... Yeah. I think maybe I'm still in shock. Or maybe the new setting around the computer is messing with my vibe. Or something like that.

Well, I had a good time this weekend. I went up to the sheep bridge North of Seven Springs. I stared to write about it here, but it ended up getting really long. Actually, it would have made a nice addition to my trips page, but I didn't have a camera with me, so I don't want to put it there. Of course, if I had a camera, I probably wouldn't want to post some of the pictures... Uhhh... But it's all in the story. I will finish it up and post a link to it here in the next few days.

The house closed. It's a done deal, now all we have to do it move in. Mom has been calling around getting utilities, cable, and such turned on. She went and spent a bunch of money on new appliances the other day. Next week, she's off all week to move in and be home when the appliance deliveries arrive. The movers come Tuesday to move stuff over to the new place... I think she's pretty excited about it. Me on the other hand... I still haven't decided which bedroom I want. I guess I'm not all that jazzed about the whole thing. I know it will be nice once we're in, a lot less crowded and all that... I guess I'm just used to this place. I've been living here 10 years. Then I have to go and pack up all my stuff... Yuck. Oh well, what can you do? Anyways, I need to go get ready for work...

It's been almost a month since my last entry. Kinda sad really because there's nothing going on. The last few weeks have been quiet, just working and relaxing. I haven't even gone anywhere. I guess I need to go do something interesting so I have something to write about. *G* On the up-side, this means I haven't spent any money. I'll get those student loan payments caught up yet!

A few weeks ago I saw Estela and Judith! They're both funny and great to hang out with. I hadn't seen them in almost a year! We went out to eat and mostly talked a lot. At Bennigan's they stopped serving us (I guess they closed our section or something). After a lenghty discussion on where we should go, we decided to go for coffee but ended up going to Swenson's to eat and talk more. It was really nice to catch up with them. Hopefully it won't be another year before the next time.

Hmmm... What else? The new house is proceeding nicely. The inspection went well. The only thing he found wrong was a broken tile on the roof. Last I heard, mom was going to take next week off work and we were going to start moving in. I still haven't decided how I'm going to decorate my room. Heck, I haven't even decided which room I want. Oh well, I'll figure it out when I get there.

Bye-Bye July! Last weekend was HexaCon. It was pretty fun, although I only showed up on Saturday this year. I wasn't in much of a role playing mood so stuck to games like Frag. They also had a computer room this year but they were playing Unreal Tournament both times I was there. It was great seeing Chris, Chris, and Matt again. For that matter, it was good to see Jason who I hadn't seen in like a month, Robert who'd been even longer, and Brian who I hardly ever see anymore. I didn't care for the layout at the Embasy Suites. The con was scattered accross a bunch of rooms. I like having one big main gaming room but all in all it was a good time.

Other than that, just working. We were going to go shooting this weekend but now Harvey is saying we're getting together for a LAN party. I'd rather go shooting. Jason and Robert will likely want to play Neverwinter Nights, which doesn't really interest me. Medal of Honor is fun but we've played it to death at the last two LAN parties we had. Warcraft 3 might be fun. I just got it last night. Mostly I got it 'cause Cathy wanted it but I played it some at HexaCon and it seemed fun (A lot like Warcraft 2 which was fun.) I should install it and see how it runs on my computer.

I saw the new house last weekend too. I don't think I've mentioned it here before, but it looks like we're going to be moving. Most of the paperwork has been taken care of, mom just needs to have the final inspection, do the walk through, and sign on the dotted line. The new place is nice. It has a garage which is really cool. The bedrooms are tiny. I don't think I'm going to be able to fit more than a bed and night stand in my room but mom says we can put the computer in the living room. Most of all, it will be nice to get away from the kids and into a nice quiet place. I love my niece and nephews but they are quite loud right outside my room when I'm trying to sleep. I'm not really looking forward to actually moving my junk though. Why do my friends and family always end up moving in the middle of summer? Heh. Go figure... Anyways, I'm off to install Warcraft before bed.

Well, the short hair thing is working out well. So well in fact, that I really want a convertable. I need a new car, I had an $800 repair bill for my truck. Ouch. It's getting old and showing it's abuse. Anyway, a convertable would be swanky. There's not a lot to choose from and most of them are really expensive. The Mazda Miata's are pretty cool looking, but I wanted to get an american car. *shrug* Oh well, maybe if an american company would build a neat economical little roadster I'd go for it, but it's not happening. I don't really want a Mustang or Camaro (2002 is last year for Camaro anyway) so that leaves a Chrysler Sebring. We have them at work, and they seem pretty nice, but they're a bit bigger than I wanted. A Jeep would be cool, and is kinda like a convertable with the soft top. The Jeep would also solve the off-road problem since I will have to trade in my truck when I get a new car. I don't know. I'm still thinking about it. For now I need to pay down my student loans. They're all like 4 months over due. Blech. The new car will have to wait several months (assuming nothing else pops up as it likely will.)

I don't know if this is making any sense. I have to go to bed and stuff, it's been a long day. Oh, did I say I got that job at National? Well, I did. I get to wash cars and drive them all over the lot. It's fun so far. Today was long though. Only two of us working, and a bunch of cars to do. Usually it's pretty laid back. I work 3rd shift, so it's not hot out and I get paid more. Also, I'm getting pretty good at driving the manual cars. The BMW Z3's are pretty fun. Okay, I'm going to bed now...

Well, I finally did it. My long hair is no more. I guess this means I don't look like Jesus anymore. Everyone wanted to know why I did it. Hehe... I guess they figured it was part of some grand plan I had. Nope. I was just tired of having long hair. Tired of it getting tangled whenever I drove with the window open. Tired of ending up with a rats nest whenever I went camping. I wanted a change. I had been thinking about it for quite awhile. Since before I graduated even, but I wasn't sure. As time went on, I grew more and more tired of it, until the other day, I was sure. I wanted it gone. I figured I had better get it done before the interview at National though. I didn't want to go to the interview with long hair, then if I got the job, show up for work, and have noone know who I was.

Oh, and I got the job. Harvey called me up tonight and told me. I guess they wanted me to start tonight, but couldn't get ahold of me. The phone and kids don't mix sometimes. Anyways, I have to go down tomorrow morning and get my snazzy green National shirt and I'll start tomorrow night. The interview process was kinda a joke. I guess I've gotten used to interviews where they want more than a warm body with a pulse. Oh well, it's better money than I make now. I can start paying off my school loans.

Hmmm... Maybe I should move the indent class to the main style sheet...

I was surfing the net the other day when I came accross someones personal page that had this cool truck called a Pinzgauer. I have seen one once before when I Harvey and I went out to LukeDays 2002 and they're really neat looking. I began going through links and doing searches, and found out quite a lot about them. Now I want one! They come in several configurations. There's a 4x4 (710) and a 6x6 (712) 5 door hard top (k) and 3 door canvas top (m). There are several other models including ambulance, firetruck, etc. The one I like the looks of is the 712m (6x6 canvas top). It's a true 6x6 with locking diffs in all three axles. Currently the 712m's are running in the $16,000 ballpark. So I won't be running out to get one anytime soon. But the price is do-able if I ever get a job.

On that note I have an interview tomorrow. I sent in an application to National Car Rental where Harvey works. Hopefully I'll get a job as a lot attendant (parking, washing, etc) It's not the $35,000/year job I was expecting to get when I finally graduated, but at this point I need something. Besides, after 9 beginning-term parking nightmares at DeVry, I should be qualified to park cars. See, that education was good for something afterall. Oh well, we'll see how the interview goes. In the end, I don't care how much I make, as long as I enjoy the work. It just means I'll have to save a little longer for that Pinz.