Working weird hours again

So I'm working odd hours again. Yesterday I went in from 8AM to 5PM and then again from 10:30PM to 4:00AM. I really really wish I got overtime, but alas. Again tonight I'm going in for the same time, but at least we're accomplishing a lot.

I'm also trying to keep cooking, though I'm running out of things to make. Diana and I have a couple of Southern Living Magazines and Real Simple Magazines that have some recipes in them. Some of them look pretty good and I think we may try to make one tonight or tomorrow night. In fact I may call her now to see if she would like to try one. :) More on this later.. also enjoy the new music video on the right. -===>

Fishing in Arkansas with Nick

So Nick and I thought it would be a good idea to fish in Arkansas on the Little Red River with some fishing equipment my dad gave me. We also took two tents and some other supplies (mainly beer) so that we could stay the night. Of course we didn't both to check the weather.. or to make sure we had everything. We were missing pillows and the tarp among other things including the bigger tent poles. D'oh! So we now had to set up a tent that was able to sleep two nine year olds comfortably. Great! Now Nick and I get to spoon and I can't even stretch out. We got to the camp site maybe at 5:00 PM. We had plenty of time to set it up before it started pouring. It so happens that the campground's power was out therefore we had to eat hamburgers at the camp ground restaurant. They were actually pretty good. That's when the rain came. We took cover under a pavilion that we weren't supposed to be under, but nobody knew or cared so that's where we stayed for hours as the rain came thundering down and filling our tent with water. I admittedly left the tiny window open for air circulation. Luckily there was one sleeping bag that wasn't too wet so we slept on top of it.

We awoke at about 6:15AM to start our day of fishing. On our way to Ramsey's Access, we passed the dam. There was an overlook with a great view. The dam wasn't generating and we took about 3 or 4 pictures from the overlook. This alone was worth the trip. There were many things that made me think the trip was worth it. The cold front that came through there was another reason it was worth going and the cool breeze that blew off of the river when we were near it.

First we went to Ramsey's Access where we of course caught nothing and the water was freezing! It made my feet numb. But we had a good time there. We also saw a Great Blue Heron, I think, in a tree across the river. Can you spot him? After that we decided to go to Mossy Shoals where my dad told me we should fish. He also warned me to keep my eyes open for signs that say that it was a catch and release area and not to use a barb on your hooks. I kept my eyes peeled. We had to walk through 5 minutes of utter hell to get to the river. It was like a bog with lots of high growing grass and tons of sticks. God only knows if there were any snakes in there. Luckily we did get to see a butterfly that landed near us once we got to the river. I took this as a sign of good luck... my mistake. If you look carefully in the picture to the left, you can see the Arkansas Game and Fish Warden in the background and Nick in the foreground fishing with barbed hooks. This is a recipe for disaster. Once again we saw no signs that said this place was catch and release. So the game warden came over and talked with us. We both ended up getting a ticket for $205 for using a barb on a hook. We still hadn't even gotten a bite and this was the nail in the coffin. It was time to go home and fishing is definitely not for me. There's way too much to do and it takes way too much trouble to actually fish for me. We both had bought licences costing $52 for the whole year. My paper that was printed expired two days before and the good ol' boys at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission failed to send me my actual licence and of course this is my fault. So the actual cost of the trip is as follows:
Two Fishing Licences with Trout Added: $104
Cost of campground: $18
Cost of Food the night before: $13
Cost of Gas: $35
Cost of beer etc (of which we have a lot left over because we cut our trip short): $50
Cost of two tickets given to us: $410
This all adds up to about the cost of our dignity. This is probably something I will never do on my own without someone else who provides a boat, the knowledge etc. But at least we saw a dam, Great Blue Heron, butterfly, felt a breeze, and went on a trip.

Part two of today's blog

OK, so here's part two of my blog today. When I was still at work with my coworker C, we were working hard on this new project that was recently assigned to us. Swizzle.

Next, after we picked up Luna from the vet we went to Ben and Rebecca's house near my old apartment at Poplar and Highland. Luna was doing pretty well, but she was out of it. She seems better now. We left our apartment at around 6:10PM and go to Ben and Rebecca's house at about 6:35PM.
So once we got there Diana was introduced to the dogs Kyla (the 3 legged dog) and Roo (the scared one). Ben and Rebecca also have a chinchilla named Gabriel and a rather large rabbit named Lilith. Lilith isn't really scared of anything and neither is the chinchilla. The chinchilla enjoys night time play for one to two hours,
many dust baths, and a raisin or two. Kyla is a very sweet dog who loves to lick and is really horny for some reason, while Roo is afraid of almost everyone and everything. He barks enough for both dogs for sure!
While we played with the dogs in the backyard we also walked around and saw their pretty garden on the side of their house. All the time we were out in the back yard, they were preparing a wonderful dinner in the kitchen. Dinner consisted of fettuccini with parmesan topped with browned mushrooms, steamed broccoli, and garlic bread. It was very tasty. I drank a lot of water I think because I was dehydrated. Finally, for dessert we had fresh pie that Ben's grandmother made topped with whipped cream. It was fantastic! We had some nice conversations about pets, movies, the new idiotic statue of liberty at the "World Overcomers" church near Diana and my apartment, and idiots in general. We had a really good time and we will have to have them over a couple of times in the near future. It was a good time to be had by all.

Moving on at work

Today is the first day that I've felt like I actually spoke intelligently about a sub project of one I've been on since December. I feel bad for the guy hosting the calls because he somehow knows less than anyone. C and I feel that he needs to actually go to the operation to learn the projects. We've been in the operation for almost two weeks now trying to catch up and learn about this porject (thanks for that upper management). Our group, does not like to involve us until the very last minute which makes it hard for us to support whoever needs it. Our upper management does not really back us up with the sole exception of our immediate boss. He's a good guy and boss. At least this sub project is on the upswing. I'm learning a LOT in a relatively small amount of time and get this... we're actually performaing our role. I'm glad we have direction, but not too happy about the fact that we have "advisors" in our group that just don't advise. That's unfortunate.

Tonight Diana and I are going to Ben and Rebecca's house for dinner. I'm really excited and glad that we get a night off of cooking. We will definitely have to have them over a couple of times in the near future.

In other news Luna, the dog, got spayed today and we have to pick her up at 5:30PM after work. Or rather right now. Gotta go, but may continue this later. ;)

My Apartment

I haven't ever posted pictures of where I live so I thought I'd do that now. Remember I just moved into this apartment June 26th, so it's still not completely done of course. This picture is the front of our apartment.



This one is right when you walk in.



Next is after you take a step down into the living room, our little bar area.



Now for a pic of the living room from the far side.



Now we take the stairs to the left of the entrance in the previous photo. Up we go, and we take the first left into the baby's room!



Directly across from the Baby's room is the master bedroom which looks like the following:



Then you take a left into our walk-in closet/bathroom which looks like this.



Next pic is of the bedroom from the far side.



Since we don't have the 3rd bedroom/office in order, I won't show it here. Finally, we go out the back sliding door.



And last, the whole back yard area.

So I hope you all enjoyed your virtual tour of my home. Stay tuned for more pictures. ;)

Feeling Better

I'm feeling better now. My appetite is back pretty much and I'm a little less stressed. We did spend a LOT of money this weekend on a washer and dryer among other things, but at least I have my music back thanks to the temporary use of the neighbor's wireless. My hours at work are back to normal and I'm beginning to work on a new project which hopefully will go pretty smoothly and help me learn this other gigantic project I'm on. I think tomorrow is payday! SWEET and FINALLY! I'm still looking for a damn "L" shaped desk like they have at Staples, which can be found here. The only problem is that Staples signed a contract with UPS and UPS refuses to deliver this particular desk to Memphis, TN so it looks like the customer isn't always right. Oh well, I guess I'll take my money that I would have thrown their way somewhere else. That being said, is there anyone out there that has an "L" shaped desk for sale?

Side note: I'm going to start adding more pictures to my posts. I think it will make them more attractive and easier to read.

So I got Butch Walker's "The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Lets-Go-Out-Tonights" and started listening to it. So far so good... nothing amazing yet, but I guess that's why I have Aural Review. ;) Tomorrow is the start of a new week. New earnings. New and better hours.

For those of you who don't know, I'm having a baby boy due October 5, 2006 with the most wonderful woman I've ever met. Our baby's name will be Elek Owen. We're not sure about a middle name quite yet. I suppose I should get back to the main reason I got on the computer in the first place and calculate some monthly expenses. Oh what fun. "Goodnight and have a happy tomorrow."

Something's Weird

So I've been working weird hours this week... 2PM to 12 midnight. I think maybe I'm a little depressed or lonely because I get to see Diana maybe 2 hours a day. I've lost my apetite and eat very little now, which is weird for me. I wonder what's going on. I've been thinking about it a little bit and the only thing I can come up with is that I haven't been able to do what I like to do in a while.

I was going to mooch off of the neighbor's internet, but I've decided to actually buy it since I want a stronger signal and faster downloads. Hopefully I can get back into my other blog called Aural Review. I kind of think that breaking that blog out of this one was a stupid idea since it's harder and more time consuming to manage two blogs than just one.

I am learning a lot at work, which is good, and makes me more of an asset to the company, though overall I'm depressed with the way things work around here. For example, recently we got our annual earnings report and we made something like 104% of our goal.. therefore our bonuses got a higher percentage so that means we get a larger bonus than last year right? Wrong. Someone thought it would be a good idea to mind trick the employees into thinking they're getting a better bonus, but they changed their obscure formula to actually pay out less than they would have last year if we had obtained the same goal. Great. I think I've decided to always speak my mind (i've done a good job so far) regardless of whose company i'm in at work. I may and probably will get in trouble, but who cares. I've already been wearing old tennis shoes to work for two months straight and now I'm at work wearing sandals. What a rebel. Anyway, I hope this feeling of being stagnant passes soon and my appetite resumes. "You have to let the world change you and then you can change the world."

I'm back.. finally

Finally, after exactly 2 months I'm back to hopefully start posting again. I moved into a 1600 square foot apartment with my pregnant girlfriend June 26, 2006. She was on vacation the whole week so guess who got to move all the heavy stuff. :P We're finally moved in and pretty close to being settled. We still need to buy some more things and get everything set up the way we like it. It's been a long tiresome project, but ultimately definitely worth it. I will post pictures of the place once its finished or maybe even once I get this wireless desktop card from Nick.

The other day Ben helped me (actually he did all the work) install a $30 programmable Thermostat by Hunter. It was really simple to install and now I can program the temp whenever I want so that way we can save $ on the utility bill. I haven't gotten to program it yet because I'm working some weird hours at work.

PS does anyone have a large yard and a desire for a cute 50 pound 7 month old puppy? If so, please contact me! We have one that we want to find a good home because the ba by is coming in October and we really don't need the extra responsibility of a dog AND the dog needs someone who will pay more attention to it than we can. A yard is a big plus. Until next time, you stay classy San Diego!