My impending divorce?

This is pretty funny. Thursday Jen comes home from work and goes to the cabinet below the sink and pulls out the windex. She starts spraying her hand with it and I finally have to ask what's going on. She tells me that her wedding ring has a damaged prong on it that needs to be repaired, and she heard that windex is better than butter or anything slippery to get rings off. She has never had the ring off and over the years of having kids and other weight gain she hasn't been able to, but she has started to lose a little bit the past couple of weeks. She windexed her finger and after a little bit of tugging and twisting it finally came off. She commented how weird it felt not having the ring on and was thinking of putting on another ring in it's place. I was kidding around and told her that I trusted her and that she didn't need to do that. The pain in the butt is that the ring had a lifetime warranty on it, but due to her lack of being able to get it off she couldn't keep up on the required "check-ups" so it is now void. I might run over to where we bought it and ask, you never know. I would take it over to my sister-in-law's jewelery store to ask for a free bee repair, but I figure it's probably not a good idea in the beginning of a divorce from my brother.
Anyhooo, Friday night my mom calls and Jen answers the phone. She tells Jen that she just got a few more details about Dave's divorce. Jen's ears perk up. "Huh? What? is there something that Dave hasn't told me?". My mom quickly corrects herself and says "no Dan's divorce". My mom has always (and will always) exchange Dan and my name on occasion. I find myself doing it with my kids too. Jen told me the story, and I said, "yeah I need to talk to you later.. :)... you aren't wearing my ring anymore soooooo"

Return of the tire nazi

So now that I am gainfully employed (things are going pretty good, thanks for asking) I can finally get a few things done that require money. The one thing that has been bugging me for at least a year now is the tires on the Saturn. The guys at the dealership have been bothering me at every oil change that it's time to get new tires, but couldn't quite afford it, and I didn't think the tread was that bad to warrant new tires. Finally at the last oil change I took a close look at the tires and yeah they were getting really bad. After getting my job I decided that there is no way that I wanted me or Jen to be driving in the winter on close to bald tires. But hey, they are only the original tires that came with the car 8 years ago. I figure that 92,000 miles is a pretty good lifespan for tires.I decided that it was time to go see the tire nazi again. In case you missed the first story about the tire nazi, you can read it here, or I can sum it up for you. Basically the tire nazi is a guy who owns a sh**hole of a tire place in Leo that sells tires dirt cheap. He is real gruff ala the soup nazi on Seinfeld. Leo isn't too far from Auburn so I decide to run over there during lunch on Tuesday. Along with the off brand stuff that he sells, he can also order brand name tires if you give him a day, so I decide to run over there and order the tires and then go back the next day for the installation. So I get there and enter the dump (I was kicking myself for forgetting my camera, crap) and just stand there at his desk waiting for his acknowledgment. Finally he looks up.
"What do you need?"
I need tires for that Saturn out there. I say
"Get the number" (in a ticked off tone)
Oh crap I forgot to bring the number in with me. So I run out and write down the tire number. I come back in and give him the tire number and ask for brand name tires. He tells me that it will be $280 for a set of four and the tires will be in in the morning. It would have been $220 for some off brand tires that he had out back. I thank him and take off back to work. The next day I run back over and again I go up to his desk waiting for him. "What do you need?" I tell him that I was there for the Firestone tires that he ordered yesterday. He asks me what the deal was. I say $280 for the tires. I am getting ready to hand over the keys like last time, but he then tells me to pull it around back. I pull it to the back and there are 4 high school /college kids start working on the car. I just stand there and watch them work on the car since I am not sure what else to do, and I don't feel like going back into the dump of a showroom. But hey it's a nice day outside. While I was standing there a guy pulls up that says he has a nail in his tire. I can tell it's his first time to the tire nazi since he is trying to be real friendly to this guy. The guy pulls back and parks it in the wrong place, which ticks off the tire nazi. "I didn't' want it there" he says. He looks at the guys tire and just reaches down and pulls a piece of metal out of the tread. It wasn't even a nail. So as the pep boys are putting my new tires on the tire nazi approaches me and says "$280". I motion to him that we have to go inside and start walking. He says "cash, check or charge" I tell him I need to charge it so we head in and pay the bill.
If it wasn't for the fantastic deals that I get on tires at this place I would never return to the place. It's not like I have to go there every year anyway. I figure the next time I would need to go would be for new tires for the mini-van in quite a few years.

Bowling for work

Last weekend some of my coworkers were in a bowl a thon for Junior Achievement. Since it was a work related activity I decided to go up and take a few pictures. Jen had to work (of course) so I was thinking of taking the boys with me, but Andrew was in true cranky form so I decided to drop the boys off to grandma and grandma's on the way up to Auburn since it would only be for an hour or so. The plan was to run up there, take some pics, hang out and head back. I show up just as they are starting the second game. They tell me that they are one person short and to grab a pair of shoes. HUH? Let's see.... I haven't bowled in over 10 years I think. Yeah I know it's not that hard of a game and looking at the scores from the first game, it was obvious that they were there just for fun. So I grab some shoes and find a ball. It's a little awkward since they all know each other and I am still learning names, but they are hooting and holering and having a fun time so it wasn't that bad. That and I had the luxury of their names being projected on the wall for their scores which gave me a bit of a cheat to remembering their names. It was alot of fun bowling again. It took me a few frames to remember the best way for me to throw a ball and the best mechanics to use. I just kept thinking that I was lucky that I didn't bring the boys with me. We ended up having a blast. I bowled a respetable 147 which was the second best score of the two teams. I hope that this is how things work with this company. Lotsa people having fun and helping a cause. I know that there will be things for the credit union that I will be doing beyone the 8 - 5, like a couple of parades coming up in a few weeks. I am sure I will be blogging about that.

That was only a week ???

Man it's only been a week at work but it feels like a year. I didn't realize how tired I would be working a full week after being off work for a month and a half. I purposely tried to stay to a schedule so it wouldn't be too hard, but it was. Unfortunately they have pretty strict restrictions on computer access so no blogging at work :(. They also don't allow surfing. They expect people to actually work during the day. WTH? The setup that I have is a little screwy. They have thin clients at everyones desk on a network, but the graphic program that I have is on the drive of this thin client, but I can't print to my printer through that so I have to turn the file into a pdf and print off the network side of the computer, so alot of back and forth. It's going to get confusing. I am supposed to get a laptop so maybe I can streamline it a little more.The graphic program is Correl Draw 4 which is an old, basic graphic program that I am learning how to use. I really wish that I could have quark or photoshop, but the version of photoshop that I have isn't exactly legal so it probably wouldn't be a good idea to put that on the network. The printer is pretty bad too. Maybe next year I can talk them into getting a better graphic program and printer.
The people that I work with are fantastic. Very friendly and helpful. Like any new job there is alot of stress of learning people names, proper procedures, trying not to set off alarms. Earlier in the week I was really stressed, but by today I was calming down a little bit more. The drive up there is actually a little less distance but about the same amount of time as my last job. I have tried a couple of different ways to go up there, but they both seem like they take the same amount of time. Either I get tied up with traffic between 69 and downtown Auburn or I get behind some yahoo going 40 mph on Tonkel. But hey, I don't have to punch a clock so it's not that bad.
Today I got a chance to take a road trip with some of the other employees to visit the other branches of the Credit Union. As we were leaving the branch in New Haven the conversation turned to eating lunch. We thought about just heading back to the office and doing our own thing, but I noticed a sign for Garno's in the complex across the street. I commented to everyone else how fantastic the Garno's grinders were and we ended up running across the street for lunch. I haven't had a Garno's grinder in years and was a little worried that it wouldn't be the same, but it was. I also found out that they make that monster pizza that they used to make. I think she said it was 29 inches across. Back in the day working at WOWO we used to take one of those pizzas and some grinders to different businesses who won a fax in lunch contest. That was a fun promotion to do. After lunch we visited the Garrett branch and then headed up to Angola. While in Angola I talked the others into heading to the butcher shop to buy some of that relish for that dip. The one lady who drove knows EVERYONE in Auburn and the surrounding area. I am going to have to get used to small towns where everyone knows everyone else.
There is good news and bad news about workng there. The good news is that I get all of those bank holidays off, but to get paid for it you have to work the day before and after, so no 4 day weekends with taking one day off. I have to work the day after Thanksgiving this year. I can't imagine that it will be real busy, but it was nice to have a 4 day weekend. oh well...

Halloween 2008

I was making every attempt to calm down halloween this year. The past 2 years we have been taking the kids all over town visiting friends and family until all hours. Last year I decided to put a stop to that and just stay at home and simplify the holiday. It almost worked out.....

The first hiccup came on a phone call late in the morning. With my new job I have to wait 90 days until I get medical insurance. The paperwork that I got stated that the 90 days started at the begining of the month. No problem, I thought, start the first of November and I would have insurance starting in February. We still have some coverage provided by my last employer, but after this month we either have to find some other insurance or rob a bank to pay for COBRA. Lucky for me the HR girl at the new job was looking out for me and informed me that the 90 days started on the First day of the month as in Nov 1st rather than just the first couple of days. Since my first official day was going to be Monday Nov 3rd that would mess up my ability for insurance for another month. She told me to come in and fill out paperwork for a couple of hours so they could credit me for the 31st being my first day.Again lucky for me Jen didn't have to go into work until the afternoon so we were able to arrange for grandma C to come over and watch the kids. So rush around and get ready to head up there. I was planning on staying a couple of hours but with all the stuff I was going over and reading and signing I ended up staying until 5:00. So I rush home to find out that my mom has taken over the kid watching duty. She was planning on being there anyway to help me with halloweeners. So I walk in the door and freak out. I am trying to do too many thing at one time for some reason. Feed the kids, answer the door, dress the kids up, put a cd player with scary music in the window, etc, etc etc. So finally I get the kids dressed up and we head out to go trick or treating. There are a ton of kids walking down the road. I know there aren't this many kids in the neighborhood so they must be getting bussed in. The boys did really well even though I had to keep reminding William to say thank you. Andrew was quite the socializer and he was striking up conversations with everyone. I had to carry Christopher since I had a brain fart and left the strollers in the back of the van that Jen took to work. We just went down the street a few houses and back again. The boys actually had more fun sitting on the front porch with grandma and handing out candy. It was a great night to be sitting on the front porch, probably around 61 degrees. The kids who came out early were the younger ones who were really having fun and dressed up really nice, the later it got the older the kids became and the ruder the little bastards became. When you get a trick or treater teenager talking on a cell phone it's time to call it a night. One girl actually came up and asked "how much can I have?" We said "one piece" and she proceeded to grab a whole handful. I stopped her and almost went out the the street to have a word with her mother to teach this little so and so some freaking manners. Mom finally called it a night after a bunch of these little crumb crunchers all came up (not in costume) asking how much they could have.

Again with my brain being mush I forgot to take the van with me to work so I could bring the boys to the mall to see Jen, so after we got back from trick or treating I took off and ran to the mall to grab the van, came home and grabbed the kids, and then back to the mall again. After visiting with Jen for a while we headed for home and I got the kids to bed at a pretty decent time. Halloween was a little better this year, but there was still alot of running around again. I think I will get it better planned out for next year. I worried about running out of candy after seeing the all the kids on the street, but we actually had a little left over.

Thanks

You can't see me right now, but I am doing my "I just got a job" dance. Trust me it's not a pretty site :)

I am now the marketing director of dekalb financial credit union. They have branches in Auburn, Garrett, Angola, and New Haven. I have a mixture of feelings right now. First is the "new job" feeling with meeting everyone and trying to get settled and second is the feeling of relief of being employed.

Of course it's funny that I get a job offer and then have to go pee in a cup for the drug screen. That's a new one for me.

I just wanted to pass along thanks to everyone who has sent good thoughts as well as their prayers for me and the family.

You are next mdh!!!

awww nuts..

No Halloween party this year at MR's.. darn it. I made it a point to take my scrubs from Christopher's birth in January home to make sure that I would have a costume in October. Seriously, I was planning that far in advance.... I can understand him opting out of the party since the attendance had been waning the past couple of years and you never know who is available to show up with all the kids and stuff. I still have the Christmas extravaganza to look forward to this year. Whoo hooo.

This year I am sticking to my word and we are staying home for Halloween and not taking the kids all over to different locations like the past couple of years. Jen has to work so I might load up the boys and trick or treat at the Disney store. Stay tuned for stories, pictures and hopefully some video.

Life Goes On

Saturday Jen tells me that the garage door won't go up. Now this is a problem that usually happens when it is bitterly cold outside. Even though it was very cold it wan't cold enough to cause this problem. I go in the garage and see that one of the springs for the garage door is broken in half. Son of a ....I thought that I just had those springs replaced a few years ago but upon further review I think I was thinking of the house on Traders Crossing. I spent the rest of the weekend manually raising and lowering the garage without the aid of the springs and holy crap that garage door is heavy. I did some calling around on Monday and got a few quotes from different companies in the area. Anywhere from $160 to $200 of money that we don't have to replace the springs. I called the one company this morning to make sure they took credit cards since that's the only way this thing is getting fixed. A little over an hour and a half later they had a van out here to repair the springs. The guy they sent wasn't overly friendly or talkative until Andrew started talking to him and then he got more friendly. While he was replacing the springs he told me that the top sprocket (spaceley's sprockets?) on the garage door was getting ready to break. Crap (again). He said it would be around $50 to replace the sprocket. I asked him if it was something that I could do to try and save a little money. The repair guy told me that I could try it, but if I messed it up that there would be another $80 service fee on top of the $50 for him to come back out again. Uhhhh no I don't feel that lucky. I watched him replace that sprocket and all I can say is thank God that I had him do it. He had to just about tear apart the whole garage door opener from the bottom up. He commented to me about other people who have tried to replace the part themselves and the things that need to be adjusted that they don't know about and parts that need to be transfered and etc etc. Yeah it was worth the extra $50. The garage door works great now and I think that the repair has actually quieted it down a little bit as well. It still vibrates in William's room pretty good, but its a little better.

There was another incident with Jen that I am not sure I am allowed to comment about. All I can say is that it's good to have insurance.......

Happy Breakfast

This is the way my mornings usually start off. Usually I am up by 7:00am due to Andrew and William, and grab my shower. For some reason they both have been sleeping in the past 3 days (Thank the Lord) so I had to actually set my alarm. Don't get me wrong, they still come into the bedroom in the middle of the night. It used to be just William at 3:00 or 4:00 am, but now Andrew has joined in and will come into the bedroom too for unknown reasons. Most times it just carry them back to bed, plop them in, cover them up, and walk away. So even though I still can't get a solid 8 hours of sleep it felt good to sleep in a little bit this weekend. I bring William and Andrew downstairs and give them their juice and cereal and they will sit in front of TV and watch the PBS lineup in the morning. Then the next half hour we tell William to get dressed for school about every five minutes. Finally we have to turn the TV off for the proper motivation. William gets dropped off at 8:00am to Our Lady of Good Hope and then I come home for a little breakfast. If Christopher isn't awake when I get home I usually will wake him up around 9:00 and bring him downstairs. He usually munches on Cherios while I go through my lineup of online job sites. He gives me input on the ones that I should apply for and usually just sits there and is happy as a clam.

I can't believe that it has actualy been about a month and a half of being unemployed. It doesn't seem that long. I serously didn't think it would take this long to get another job. I don't know if it is arrogance to say that or just that I didn't have a clue how bad it was out there. I should hear about the job in Auburn by Wednesday at the latest, here's hoping.

There should be a video of Christopher helping me find a job here, but Blogger is having video problems. I draw the line at 5 times trying to download a video before I give up. I might try later on again.....

Taking a Break

Don't get me wrong. I like being home with the kids and being Mr. Mom, but now I understand when Jen goes through and why she needs to have a job to get her out of the house (besides the extra money). Saturday I got an invite to get out of the house from some friends who were going to play golf. I debated about spending the money to play 9 holes on a chilly morning, but decided that I could use the break and get out of the house.The original plan was to tee off early so we could do other stuff with the rest of the day, but it was still hovering around the mid to lower 40's at 8:00am so we decided to try for 10:30. I drive all the way out to Eel River in Churubuso to meet my friend Wendy, Gina, and Gina's boyfriend Tom. I get to the couse and it's not busy at all which is fortunate since everyone in the group has only played a few times this year and Tom hasn't touched a club in a couple of years. I decided to be a little bit adventurous and use a set of clubs that I bought 7 years ago and had never played with. They were a set of used Hogan's that included the Hogan bag for $100. I tried to justify the purchase by telling Jen that I bought them for her in case she wanted to start playing golf. Needless to say I don't think the game interests her. Anyway we step up to tee of on number #1 in an almost empty course and as we are warming up two foursomes drive up to the tee. Crap, so much for a lazy day of golf. We all duff it off the first tee and struggle to play the first hole. We notice a couple of times, while searching for our scattered shots that the foursomes are waiting for us in the fairway. As we are heading to the number #2 tee we take a wrong turn and end up on the #11 tee, but we also notice that there is no one playing the back 9 at all. We decide to play the back 9 to get out of the way of the other golfers. Number #11 and 12 run right next to #2 and 3. After getting off the #12 tee we notice that the people behind us on the front 9 have now passed us so we hopped back on the front 9 to finish. Lucky for us it wasn't that crowded that we could do this but also that Wendy and Gina know the pro really well so he wouldn't get too mad at us. The scenery on the course was fantastic with the trees changing color. I kicked myself for not bringing the camera. The weather turned out to be fantastic too with the sun being real warm with just a little cool breeze. How did I play you might ask? Did I mention the scenery was fantastic? I played like crap. I was pulling everying to the left for some reason. I don't know if it was lack of practice or the different set of clubs effecting my swing. I blame both. As we were finishing the front 9 people started catching up to us again so we just picked up at #8 and called it a day. Of course on #8 is where I unleashed a huge drive that was straight and far. I got a few good shots in. We headed back to Gina's so I could look at her computer. I was just over last week and "fixed" it, but now I think it is really fubared. It was a freebee computer that I got to work, but I think the hard drive finally gave up the ghost. There might be one more chance to play golf this year if I can talk my brother into buying while he is home this week :)

On the job front I had a second interview yesterday (Wed) for a job in Auburn. This interview went so much better than the first. My sinuses weren't driving me nuts so I was more like myself and on my game. The people are real nice to talk to and I think it will be more like a family that a coporate gig. They will let me know the first of next week either way. Besides that nothing on the horizon, just lotsa resume's and emails going out.

Little did I know what a freak I was

When I was helping out at the charity event a few weeks ago, one of Jen's cousins had to cut down a gift certificate to fit inside a frame. I told her to be sure not to chew her tounge. She looked at me with a "WTF" look. I said you know the thing where when using sissors that you chew your tounge or open and close your mouth. She said she had never heard of it. When relaying the story to Jen I get the same "WTH" look. I thought it was a common thing that everyone did or had at least heard about... obviosly not. Now I notice that when I am feeding Christopher that I will open my mouth, like that will help him open his. I think I will do a little research to see how much of a freak that I am or if I have some kind of mental condition. (no comments from the peanut gallary)


** Image is of the characters from Freakie's Cereal, if you go that far back. I still have a collection of these plastic pieces that might be heading to e-bay

Carley Hoffman Benefit II

Last Saturday was the Carley Hoffman Benefit which is the 4 year old daughter of one of Jen's cousins. She is fighting stage 4 Neuroblastoma of her spine. I hadn't volunteered for anything on the day of the event since I wasn't sure if Jen had to work or not. Also my mother in law had told me that my father in law had volunteered me for some stuff. I called him Friday night to find out that he hadn't signed me up for anything, so I just decided to show up in the morning to help with set up and do whatever I could. I showed up to a madhouse of people so I just kind of stayed out of the way waiting for direction for whatever needed to be done. The bake sale was HUGE with all sorts of stuff to buy. They let everyone set their own price so it was quite a range from $3 for 3 (1/2 inch by 1/2 inch) small cubes of fudge to $4 for a whole apple pie. There was some deals to be found, and everything went half price in the afternoon. There were a ton of auction items to bid on (almost too many). There was a couple things that I would have loved to bid on if I would have had any money. The 3 foot Repalla fishing lure would have looked fantastic in my sea shanty basement. I started off slow just folding T-shirtsand moving tables,but when they started toward the stage to set up the sound equipment I felt a little more at home. They had three auction items near the stage (a cd player, a vcr/dvd combo, and an xm satellite system) that they felt the need to pull out of the boxes and plug in. I didn't understand why, but just did as I was told. I helped set up the sound system and talked to the guy who brought the equipment. When he found out I was an old radio guy we talked about old equipment and stuff that he used to have and just general sound geek talk. My father in law also runs a sound system at his church so with all of us we had the sound up in no time. After that I headed outside to help set up the kids area. They had a couple of moon walks and some other kids games to keep the kiddies entertained. I noticed that they had an old cotton candy machine too. I had used one of those many years ago at a radio promotion, so when they found out that I had some experience with the machine they dubbed me cotton candy man. I spent the next 5 hours outside making cotton candy. Don't get me wrong it was a fantastic day, but dang it was hot out on that parking lot all day. After a while Jen showed up with the boys. William had a blast in the moon walks, but Andrew was extremely cranky (we found out later he has an ear infection) so we spent most of the time carrying him around. We tried to get him into a moon walk but he wasn't too keen on that idea. Around 5:00 the crowd had really died down and there wasn't any kids ouside so I thought it would be a good time to take the family home. I felt bad that I wan't able to donate any money to the cause, but felt that I was doing my part in volunteering. Jen did end up buying some stuff at the bake sale so we did contribute a little bit. The event went well into the night with a live band and some other stuff to make money. Overall they made $21,000 for the family to help pay some of their bills. It's probably no where near what they will need when everything is finished, but at least it will help out a bit.

Que?

When we took the boys to see Wall-E we saw a preview for Beverley Hills Chihuahua. It looked like a bad/cute movie. Well the boys went nuts when they saw the preview, then they started seeing the ads on TV for the movie. I can see they they were excited about the chee chee wha wah movie (as they pronounce it). Well last week my mom treated the family to the movie. We got the extra bonus of seeing it at the Cinema Grill which means dinner and a show. Mom had never been to the Cinema Grill before so this would be her first experience. I wasn't too worried about a crowd being there since it was a Wednesday afternoon at 4:00. I think it was us and one other family. We got settled in and ordered our food. The boys got chicken strips and fries but were so mesmerised by the movie that they barely ate anything. My mom and I both got a small pizza and pitcher of beer, but we were both still hungry after eating this pretty tasty but non filling pizza. I think we should have got a sandwich like Jen. Anyway the movie was a typical cute/dumb/entertaining for children kind of movie. I don't recommend it without kids, unlike some other Disney movies that can be entertaining for adults too, this is not. (I think the beer helped) There is some humor aimed at older people, but not too much. I think mom enjoyed the experience of the Cinema Grill and will probably go again some time, just not for a meal. Next on the agenda of movies is Madagascar 2 which begins in a couple of weeks.

Carley Hoffman Benefit

Here is the info for those of you who did not get my email about the Carley Hoffman Benefit for this weekend. Carley is the 4 year old daughter of one of Jen's cousins. On July 23rd 2008, 3 year old Carley was diagnosed with high risk, stage four Neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a childhood disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the nerve tissue of the adrenal gland, neck, chest, or spinal cord, causing tumors to form. In Carley's case, the cancer appears to have started in her spinal cord.

On October 11th, 2008, at the American Legion Post 296 in Fort Wayne, a benefit event will be taking place, with all proceeds going directly to Carley's family.

1st Annual Carley Hoffman Benefit

October 11, 2008

11:00 am - 11:30 pm

American Legion Post 296

130 West Tillman RoadFort Wayne, IN

Cost: $15 per person or $20 per couple (children 12 and under are covered by an adult admission)

Family Fun Time will be from 11 am - 6 pm.

Adult activities will run from 6 pm until closing.

There will be:Food (while it lasts) - pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, baked beans, potato saladFun for Kids - moonwalks, face painting, caricature artist (11-2), magician (1-1:30), games with prizes, cotton candy, balloon artistSilent Auction - begins at 11 am, ends at 10:30 pm. Need not be present at end of auction. See Silent Auction page for more details.Baked Goods SaleT-Shirts (available for pre-sale - see right)Music 8:00 pm until 12:00 - Chris Worth CompanyCash BarTip BoardsAll proceeds will go directly to Carley's family for medical and travel expenses.

For more details click here: http://carleyhoffmanbenefit.info/Home_Page.html

If you can't make the event but would still like to make a donation, details can be found on the website as well.

FINALLY !!!

I have been waiting on word about that job I interviewed for over 3 weeks ago. The company is run by a board of directors and the hiring for the position was done by a committee that met pretty infrequently, so I kind of understood the delay, but I thought for sure if they put someone through a 3 and a half hour interview they at least call them either way. I expected an answer the week following the interview... nothing. I emailed the person who contacted me.. nothing. Finally while I was getting ready for an interview last Friday I came across a cell phone number. I called yesterday and left a message. FINALLY this morning I get an e-mail saying that they were hiring someone else. The typical non-specific blow off email that I am getting used to getting. You know, even though I think this job would have been a perfect fit for me, I don't think that I would want to work for someone who was that inconsiderate and unprofessional. I thought about following up with the person to try and find out where I was lacking in skills/experience but decided it would be futile. At least I can move on. I am hoping to hear about that other job either Monday or Tuesday of next week. I was planning on doing a follow up thank you email to the president of the company but I can't find the business card. crap.

Happy Birthday Andrew

Friday was Andrews official 3rd birthday. Wow, 3 years old already. We had him just before moving into this house but it just doesn't seem like we have been here that long. Andrew is such a different personality than William. We got used to William being a relatively quiet kid who didn't get into much of anything.... then along came Andrew, just the opposite. Reminded me alot of the personality differences between my brother and I growing up. All I can say is that I wore the white hat while Dan wore the Black hat. I don't know how my parents didn't ship him off to military school when he was 14. Chistopher is probably going to be a 3rd different personality in the house as well, but he tends to be pretty quiet and well behaved for right now. I look at my boys and it reminds me alot of my 3 cousins in North Carolina with the different personalities.

Anyway back to Andrew, we decided to have his party on Saturday. Jen had to work all weekend, but we could have the party and be done before she had to work. And like I have said before I have found out with kids birthday parties that people show up, eat and leave. They don't tend to hang out for hours like other parties. We kept the party simple (and economical) by cranking up the hot dog steamer and some quick snacks. Jen brought out a couple of cake pans earlier in the week and let Amdrew choose the character on the cake. He Chose Bob the buider again. We just invited mostly family for the party. I would have loved to invite the whole cast of characters and catch up with everyone, but we just weren't able to do that. Hopefully soon. We took things a little out of the usual sequence and openend present first, since the boys were staring at the pile of presents on the table. The hot dog steamer did its usual good job and I still had a couple of containers of coney sauce in the freezer. yum. After cake and ice cream it was quick clean up and Jen headed off to work. (someone has to) The toy carnage is spread out all over the floor of the fornt room and even Christopher is getting his mouth around most of them.

oh wait, Andrew wants to type a little something for this entry:

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaa7777bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb5oooooooooo qqqqqqqqqqmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzddddddddttttttttttthhhhll

oh man I might have started something there. Usally the computer is a hands off thing. At least the laptop is, the tower upstairs I have desinated at the kids computer. Oh well, it's probably good to start him early.

Happy birthday Andrew!!!

Darn you Carrie ... or is it thanks?

So I go up to my interview on Friday not feeling that good. My sinuses are really doing a number on me so I am not 100%. Just before leaving I notice that my cell phone was dead. "great". not like I will actually need it though. I was striving to get up there early, but made it just in time. I fill out an application for the job, but get to the area where I have to list my references. oh crud, those phone numbers are on my cell phone that is at home and dead. My head is spinning so much that I can't think of any other people or phone numbers at all. I end up just leaving that part blank and hoping that it won't come up. After filling out the application I sit down with the president of the company for my interview. Not an outwardly friendly guy, but not too stoggy. Not long into the interview he asks the question that is the worst interview question in the world. "What is your biggest weakness?" This is just a bad question since no one would ever answer it honestly without making themselves look bad. Carrie Q (of the Q collective) recently asked her blog readers for the best response to this question. http://caquincy.blogspot.com/2008/09/help-ideas-for-interviews.html
A couple of the responses to the question "what is your biggest weakness", were humerous and included the responses "chocolate" and "kryptonite". As soon as he asked the question, my mind started to swirl (or continue to swirl with my sinuses). Would he appreciate the humerous answer? After what seemed like an eternity I decided against the humous answer and opted for some made up B.S. I think he would have appreciated the humor, but we will see how funny this guy is if I get the job. I need to work on putting together questions to ask the employer. The Friday interview was scheduled for 3 hours but only took an hour and a half. I am not sure if I should try and fill as much of that time with inane questions, but the president covered every question that I had going in there.

Of the 50 resume's he recieved he is only interviewing 10 of them and I am one. After finishing the interviews he goes on vacation this week, so I won't know anything until the middle of October. Jen is getting alot of hours at Disney and working her butt off right now, which is fortunate for us, but unfortunate for her since she isn't used to that type of work schedule.

Yeah that 3 hour interview that I did 3 weeks ago? They still haven't told me if I did or did not get the job. I know they have not filled the position yet. I emailed her a little over a week ago to see the status, but didn't get a response. I came across her cell phone and might just give her a call. At first I was understanding that the didn't get back to me, but now I am starting to get a little ticked. Interview someone for 3 hours and not bother to let them know what happened is just not right.

I am not only the president of the company.. I am a member

So the latest project to work on in my time off is replacing all of the light fixtures on the outside of the house. Originally I was just looking to replace the yard light in the front since the top was hanging on by a thread and I had cut the wires quite a few times. So it hasn't worked for most of the time we have been in this house. My plan was just to replace the yard light head and re-wire the fixture. Yes the other lights on the house were made of this quasi-brass looking stuff that was real tarnished and looked like crap, but my idea was the most economical. Jen was looking for an exact match for the other lights, but do they really need to match, being 40 feet from the house and under a tree??? I was informed that they did.. by the boss. Well we had been looking around for a yard light over the past year, but none of them were what Jen wanted. Who knows were these lights came from or if they make them any more. My mom was over the other day and commented about the lights as well. Then she offered to help us get some new lights for the outside. Not only a new yard light but new lights for the entire front of the house (so they would match). So Monday mom heads out with Jen to go shopping (always dangerous). I have an opinion about the stuff that we buy for the house, but I figure that my taste is similar to my mom's to they will pick something good out. They come home with 4 new house lights and a new yard light. I figured that the only colors that would look good on our house (with the current paint colors) would be either brass or white to match the trim. They ended up buy white fixtures that I wasn't too sure about, but after putting them up, look real good. The new lights are a different open-bottom concept that put them a little lower than the current lights. On either side of our garage are two bushes that grow up to a point. They usually block the garage lights when they grow so I have hacked them back once already. I decide to hack them back again so you can see the lights. I get out the saw and cut the bush down about halfway, then proceed to trim the outer branches to try and make them even. So I am working on making them even and cut the wrong limb leaving a gaping hole right in the front of the bush. Son of a..... There is no way to fix that problem without making both the bushes look stupid, so I do the next best thing. I grab a piece of the freshly cut bush and put in the hole. Now I can say that my bush has a toupee. I know that the "toupee" will die eventually, but maybe I can cover it with webbing for Halloween and corn stalks for the fall. Either that or I am going to start taking pieces from the identical bushes in the backyard until it grows in again. Is there bush Rogain? The house light install doesn't come without it's little problems (like most of my projects do). The bolts that came with the kit to install the lights on the brackets were too long, and the bolts from the old lights were too short. After looking through my bolt collection I decide to hacksaw the long bolts to make them work. After getting over that little problem the installation of the other lights went pretty quick with only a few distractions including the boys "helping" me and a short rain shower (don't want to work on electrical during a thunderstorm). The lights look really good and match the house perfectly.
The next project the next day was the yard light. This would require quite a bit more work since it included laying new wire to the post. Also I had to replace the post since the new fixture was white and wouldn't go with the black post. I offered to just paint the post to save a little time and money, but was out voted by the womenfolk. First things first, I go out and rip the old head off of the yard light (God that felt good). I have been wanting to do that for years. Then I pull the post out of the ground with the wiring. Somebody actually got a clue and put a conduit under the sidewalk for the yard light which made it easy to go under the walk. The new pole was probably 9 feet tall which means I would have to dig deeper than the old pole, I decided to take this opportunity to move the pole away from the tree right next to it. I call the "keeper of the tools" (my father-in-law) to get a post hole digger, since he owns every tool known to man and to see if he has enough wire to do the job. I get over there to find out that he doesn't have a post hole digger or enough wire. Nuts, there goes my back. So a quick trip to Menards for wire and some connectors and head for home. I start digging my new hole. I get down to what I think is pretty deep, put in the pole, and see that I am at least a good 2 feet away from where I need to be. So I am pounding away at this Indiana clay a little at at time with a cracked spade and not going very far. Pretty tired and sore I go into the garage to see if I can find a pole or something to help break up the clay. There in the garbage can of tools is an old ice fishing auger that I saved from the auction at the lake cottage for whatever reason. hmmmmm. I wonder if it would work on dirt. I know it looked a bit silly using an ice fishing auger on dirt but it worked fantastic. I was able to cut down another couple of feet in a few minutes. I put in the post and leveled it up, then ran the wire up to the house. I connected the wires together with some waterproof connectors so hopefully it will be able to keep the connections from shorting out like it has done in the past. I button everything up and hit the switch and it works great. As I am putting away the boxes I find that the post came with an electronic eye to turn the light on and off, but I kept tripping the breaker so I will have to look up the instructions for connecting those. Overall it was about 3 hours to install the yard light with all of the little problems and again with the boys "helping" me. Thank God that Christoper took a good nap.
Not sure what the next project is going to be. On the job front I never did hear back from that interview two weeks ago even though I know they have not filled the position. I have a job interview on Friday, but besides that there isn't anything that even looks close to something that I would want to do. We will see.

I am a cheap Date

We have pretty much cut every possible non-needed expense during my unemployment. I have even given up (sniff) ... beer. (I am accepting beer donations at this time). So we aren't doing much of anyting these days. We are going to make a trip to the Zoo later this week since we had purchased a membership earlier this year so it would be essentally free. The other thing that we thought of is going to the dollar theatre at Georgetown. I think we can absorb the $1.75 per person for at least one night. We were hoping to see Indiana Jones or something else, but we found out that the third installment of the Mummy was playing. We love the mummy movies just for the adventure aspect of it and not necessarlily for the story, since they are usually pretty thin. So we call my mom over to watch the kids for a while so we can catch the movie. As we are leaving I decide to take my mom's convertable and pop the top down. I miss having a convertable and forgot how much fun they were. So we get to the theater a little late, but we figure they will have a few previews before the show and I don't believe that theater would be that crowded for a movie that had been out for over a month. I give the girl working the box office my $4 for the $3.50 admission and she gives me back a 50 cent piece. ahh the 50 cent piece, just about as usless as a penny since they aren't part of the usual change that you carry. I wonder what poor store I can stick this coin with in the future, since most places don't even have a slot in their registers for this coin. Maybe I will just throw it in the collection plate on Sunday. We go into a darkened theater and wait for our eyes to adjust and for a bright scene on the screen to see where a seat is open. We settle down in our seat just as the movie starts. Whew, good timing. Needless to say it has been years since I have been in an old theater like this that didn't have stadium seating, but the floors were just as sticky. It was wierd sitting in an old theater with everying being at a same level. The padding in all of the seats were long gone and I had a spring poking my butt the whole time, but hey you can't beat the price. The movie itself was pretty good. No it wasn't academy award winning, but it stayed pretty true to the "mummy' genre and was good-stupid and entertaining. After the movie we put the top down again for a chilly ride home with it being in the mid to lower 60's. One the way home we stopped by Burger King to grab something to eat. We had a gift card that covered most of the meal, but still a little over $9 for a fish sandwich, double wopper and two small fries is a little bit pricey. I decide this is a good time to unburdon myself of the 50 cent piece so I give it to the kid working the drive thru. He looks and the coin and just stares at it. Then he turns it over I think trying to look for a denomination on the coin. Finally I say, "it's a 50 cent piece". "oh, ok" I didn't think it was that unique of a coin. I told Jen the next time I was going to bring along some Susan B Anthony's, a saqagauia, or an old dollar coin and really mess them up. (I still have a $2 in my wallet for emergencies)We get home and eat our burger king and the boys help us eat our fries. Overall a pretty affordable night. We will have to do that again is they get some good movies in the theater...

TV full circle

Back in the teenage days I seem to remember a whole lotta TV shows that I just had to watch. Shows like Knight Rider, BJ and the Bear, the Fall Guy, Simon and Simon, the Dukes of Hazard and the A Team just to name a few. Of course none of these shows were very.. how to say it.. "intellectual". They didn't require alot of thought of what was going to happen next since it was pretty much the same formula every week. With Knight Rider it was more about the car and what it could do. With BJ and the Bear it was more about semi's (I loved semi's), a couple of hot blondes (it was close to puberty), and a freakin' monkey!!! Who couldn't love that. It's the same with the Dukes of Hazard with the car and Daisy Duke. With the A team it was about blowin stuff up and shooting things. I loved these shows as a kid. When I heard they were remaking Knight Rider I groaned a little bit since I remembered it now as being pretty stupid, but my curiosity was also perked at the same time. I missed the made for TV movie they made last month, but I heard that they were making a weekly series that started last week. Wednesday came around and I tuned it in. I thought I would see if the boys might enjoy it since there are cars running around which the boys love. Needless to say the boys were glued in front of the TV for the hour. They thought the car was very cool (and so did I), but the story line was pretty inane. I am sure the boys weren't really paying attention to that anyway. I have no idea who the actors are in the show and I am not sure if I would have started watching the show if I didn't have 3 boys to pass along the Knight Rider legacy. The next day William was trying to find a DVD the cabinet. I asked what he was looking for and he told me he was looking for the car DVD. So I pulled out the Disney "Cars" DVD, but he just looked at me and said, "no, the black car". I try to explain to him that we do not have a DVD of the show, whereupon he tells me that the "store has it" and wants me to go get it. This is the fun of trying to explain a weekly TV show to a 5 year old since everything they watch anymore is in the DVD format. So I am sure that we will be planted in front of the TV on Wednesday (much to Jen's chagrin) to watch this weeks episode of Knight Rider. I have heard rumors of a remake of the A-team somewhere either on TV or in the movies. They had already remade Dukes of Hazard, and I have heard that it was pretty good, but I didn't have a chance to watch it. It makes me wonder if they will remake BJ and the Bear. Probably not. It's good to see that TV is finally getting a clue and getting away from "reality" TV and back to Sit Coms and some other shows that even though they are pretty stupid, they are at least entertaining.