You are lost

Sara won a mattress set during a work event, so we now have a brand new Bamboo mattress to sleep on.  It usually goes for around $1,000 so free is pretty sweet, but most importantly it’s pretty comfy.

They put a 2nd Stacker machine in the mall, so now we have 4 to raid in the area.  I probably haven’t had a chance to mention yet that our household, Matt in particular, is pretty damn good at Stacker.  Our haul so far?  An electric scooter, a Nintendo DS, a Creative Zen M Mp3 player and 2 GPS systems (one is a Tom Tom, I don’t remember what brand the other is).  We’ve maybe put $50 – $70 into the machines since we started playing so we’re pretty pleased with our success thus far.

So with the help of Larry’s mechanical prowess we changed the starter on my car.  It was a long procedure that involved removing the exhaust manifold to get at the starter but in the end I learned many things.

The most important thing I learned is about shims, and how they don’t belong next to the flywheel ring gear.

For those of you who are as confused as I was here’s a breakdown of how it works:  the starter receives a jolt of electricity from the battery when you turn your key.  This causes it to spin.  A small gear meshes with the gear of the fly wheel which cranks your engine and everyone is happy.  A shim is a spacer.  In order for the gears of the starter and the flywheel to mesh properly you have to have the right amount of space in between.  My shim had come loose and was in the flywheel housing, bent to shit and eaten away from grinding on the flywheel gear.

Hahaha I feel enlightened.  And sunburned.  Proper sun protection is important if you’re going to spend most of your day outside working on a car.

“You can’t place faith in material things / material things will fail you” -Machines Of Loving Grace

So my day was exciting.  I had to go to Flagstaff for management level food safety testing and certification.  Before heading out I tried to check some things online but the power supply on my computer decided to go wonky and I got blue screened instead.  Whatever.  So I head off, take the course, finish the test, and having completed my mission prepare to set course for home… but my starter isn’t engaging.  Yay!  Stranded halfway across the state!

Anyway, I beat my starter in to submission with a crowbar and made it back home.  As for my computer… it seems something had come loose so after checking all the connections it’s working fine.

Still not fixed.  Hmm.

It’s been 1 week of not smoking.  So far so good.

Explored around Prescott and Prescott Valley a bit more lately.  Found some neat areas.  I’ll have to take some new pictures soon.

Fallout 3 is great, and the soundtrack is wonderful too.

Full of buffet… must digest.

Seeing as it’s way past time for an update here goes.  I’ve been working a lot.  We’re down 2 people in the kiosk at the moment, one of them being the boss.  My boss was promoted to distribution.  So now, with the blessing of everyone in the store, I vie for her job.  Interviews will be conducted sometime after July 1st so I won’t know for a while.

The other night I found a Tiger Centipede in the middle of my kitchen floor.  After collecting and identifying it I went to smoke.  While smoking I saw another strange insect that I trapped and identified to be a Wind Scorpion.  Fortunately neither pose any threat, but they’ve given me the creepy-crawlies for the last couple of days.

Aside from that not much new.  As I don’t really use this site as much as I thought I would, I am pondering disabling it.  It’s not a yes or no yet, I’m just debating it.  I’m not big on myspace, but it’s free, whereas this is not.  Hmm.

Anyway, always more to do.

It seems that days off come with 20 million things you should/need to do.  Today is no exception.  While I drink my coffee and debate my desire to tackle the mountain of chores ahead of me I thought I’d write a little something.

It’s spring here.  My lawn is coming up, trees are blossoming and the cats are being mocked by a pair of house sparrows who decided to build their nest right outside the window.  I’ve been relaxing with a copy of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles:  Ring of Fates, which has proved to be very enjoyable (yay video games!).  There’s a little carnival in town, which I’m tempted to go to tonight.  Riding a Ferris Wheel sounds pretty relaxing.

Money is still pretty tight, but there have been some improvements that allow me a little more room to breathe.  Sara has paid off her medical bills and I’ve taken care of one of my credit cards.  Although there’s still a long way to go to be out of debt (and I’ll be focusing on that primarily) I can spend a little on… living.

Now on to some cleaning before I lose all motivation.

Some updates:   My car is fixed.  We had to replace the Idle Air Control which only cost around $50 and took all of 30 minutes to do, including the trip to get the part.  My computer is also fixed and will be back up over the weekend.  This will allow me to do some updating, post some new photos perhaps, and most importantly my cats won’t have to fight for lap space with my laptop.

I haven’t ranted in a while, to explain the last post.  I’ll try to do it more often as well.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must tidy up some lose ends before work.

So in addition to all the previous distractions that keep me from updating more frequently, my computer got aids.  Bad aids.  Shut down your computer and won’t let you in to safe mode aids.  Keylogger trojans and viruses aids.  Big fat pile of suck, fail and aids.

So my ever increasing list of things I need to do gains another item in the important/immediate sector, right next to win lottery and fix car.

It’s become chillier down here.  We had some snow for about a day.  Despite lack of snow and warm sunny days it gets pretty cool in the evening, and chilly when the wind starts blowing.

Not much else to report on at the moment.  I’ve been working alot, and my time in between shifts isn’t very eventful.  It’s pretty quiet around here, until we start up the video games and war-gaming.

Since it’ll be a while before I post again:  Seasonal greeting type things.  Enjoy winter if you have one, throw some snowballs and drink some schnapps.  Slip on the ice, fall on your ass and remember, you can’t do that any other time of year.  Unless of course you’re in Montana where it can snow in June.  In which case stick with the schnapps.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted.  Here’s what’s new:  not much.

For the last month I’ve been working, doing laundry, sleeping, cleaning the house, cooking dinner, washing dishes, playing with the cats and all the normal stuff I usually do.

Sounds pretty boring huh?  Yeah, not too exciting.

Work is getting better though.  I’ve had 5 100% secret shops, I’ll be getting another raise on my next check (still in my probationary period and I’ll be over $10/hour) and I’m now assured 40 hours a week.

On nights where time isn’t a concern the men of the house (and sometimes Linh too) have been playing Risk.  Is good times.  Someday soon I’ll get them all to play Diplomacy.

I’ve been spending extra time reading the news and studying up on Asia.  This is where the majority of my free time which I was using for updating the site went.  Wake up, get coffee, read news, research, smoke, shower, go to work, come home, cook dinner, play with kittens, play video game/ read, go to bed.

I realize I’ve still got some unfinished posts for the long story thing… which I had intended to finish first.  I figured I’d at least post to say hello and all that.

I meant to spend today sitting and reading, but instead I called a few people, did some yard work and spent a good amount of time trying to identify some of the insects I’ve seen the last couple of days.  I set up another bird feeder with some larger seed in the hopes of diversifying my sightings (and attracting birds that eat more insects, I have a lot of grasshoppers and locusts).

For now I’m kicking back with a ramune soda Sara procured for me from the import market.  Ah, sweet luxury…

I have to wait until Tuesday to find out if I got the job (I probably did).  I’d be working in the meat department of Safeway.  Not exactly what I had in mind, but it’ll suffice to start with.  The pay is decent, lots of opportunity for promotions and regular raises and after 9 months (if I’m still there) I get full medical, dental etc. plus stock options and 401k.  Not bad.

Daylight is interesting when there aren’t any people involved.  I kind of like it.  No traffic, no customers, no unfamiliar faces, no faces at all.  Just me, some birds and butterflies, some dirt and a shovel.  A chair, a bottle of water, the cool breeze carrying the smoke from my cigarette across the plains.  Quiet.

I think I’m going to do some reading.  Maybe play a video game.  I haven’t done that in a while.