He's a maniac, maniac...

Today was good. I went to Bible class and learned about self-control, which currently I have none of. I sat next to a really nice lady who's in her 30s and has a cute little kid. She comes to our singles class and I really think she's nice. It was nice to have someone to sit close to. After church, the preacher invited me to eat. That was fun...and free.

I came home and cleaned house some. I mostly did laundry and ironed. I then did something I am super proud of: I ran almost 2 miles. Yeah, that's right. I strapped on my camelback and took off running. It took about 20minutes, but that's okay. I am not going for the land speed record, just endurance and calorie burns. I showered and went to a small group Bible study and although the actual discussion was lame, the people there were nice. One guy is younger and a coach and he invited me to a ball game Tuesday. It's nice to have something to do that I dont have to plan myself. I will probably see if the guys want to go and maybe this girl I met at work. Her name is Katie, she's 25 and has a kid ( I think). She's pretty cool and a little wild, but that's okay. I am trying to bring her into the circle of friends so we have some female presence. I miss hanging out with girls (especially one in particular whose name will not be mentioned here but begins with a V).

Other than that I was a wreck today. I've been really lonely or something lately. I just feel like my life goals and ambitions are crap. I worked for four hard years and I am not using a single bit of my education. That's aggravating when you sweat blood in a degree program only to not use it. I graduated cum lade with honors and I am writing planning and looking up stuff in an inventory system that makes dewey decimal look like a genius (he's the one that came up with the numbering system on books, FYI). Plus my friends are hard to get together (there's only about 4 of them), so we don't do a whole lot anymore. When it was warm, we were hitting the frisbee and golf course. Not so much now. Boo! I am ready to move out to somewhere awesome. I just need to get through the next...um...20 months. I could have fathered two kids and have one on the way in that amount of time. Here's a big no to that one. Ugh. I am random because a recent decision (a small, trivial decision) has gotten me stirred up. I will leave it up to you to figure it out. Whomever "you" is. There's not a whole lot of "you's" anymore. Oh well.

what a N-E-R-D

That's what my cousin said about my mentor at work. He's a nice guy, but such a dork. He cracks me up by his ability to laugh at his own jokes. That makes me laugh just thinking about it. While we're on the topic of work, I had my year-end review with my manager today. I got a "successful contributor" rating which apparently makes me eligible for a big(er) raise. I don't know what we're talking about but I am hoping for 100%. Wouldn't that be nice? "Blair, you work really hard and always dress so nice. I think we're going to double your salary. Would that be okay?" Dreaming is great. Speaking of dreaming, I am not going to get the extra that I was hoping for tomorrow. We're working the next two Fridays so we don't have to work the 22nd and 23rd. Woohoo! I get a full two weeks off, plus my week of vacation on the slopes. I am already counting down the days.

I am really down right now about work, though. It just makes me so mad to know I worked my tail off in such a hard major to come here and not use it. people keep telling me that is how life is, but I refuse to accept it. I've been thinking more and more about going back to grad school in Fayetteville in a year and half when/if Vanessa goes up there for pharm school. I just enrolled in a master's degree operations management program from the U of A, but it is mostly for the business side of my work. I think it'll be useful, but I really want that MSME. Any comments on my plan?

I love my church here. It is so much fun and the preacher is the coolest guy ever! We're talking about Christian finance and how to invest wisely. He took us on the web last night and showed us all these cool sites for investing. As soon as xmas is over, I might try to scrounge up some loose change and invest a little on my own. It's exciting! Also exciting is that fact that I am about to start working with the middle school here on the LEGO robotics competition. I was supposed to go get the kit tomorrow, but since I am working I don't know when I will get to go by. Ugh...work on a Friday. How lame?

Time for a shower and to read some more of the book the preacher gave me. It's called "How not to marry a jerk". It is really good so far, although most of it I have heard before when I was on the prepare-for-marriage-even-though-it's-far-away spell I was on last summer. I read some cool self-help marriage books in Joplin. I am a D-O-R-K, I know. Peace out.

Almost December

Wow I can not believe how fast time has gone by. I graduated half a year ago. In that time I went to Mexico and Ukraine, got security clearance, started work and bought a house. Man oh man! I can't believe it.

This past break was nice. My entire production crew left early Wednesday, so my lead let me leave early and I got home before dark. We had a big Thanksgiving dinner consisting of homemade rolls, shrimp and some other stuff I don't remember. Thursday we got up and changed out Cory's busted tail light and drove to LR. I rode with Cory and we had a nice chat. We had another Thanksgiving meal at my aunts and watched some good football on their 50+" TV. It was amazing. I played a few rounds of two-hand-touch and then we checked into a hotel, right as Cory left for Fayetteville to going skiing with his gf. I was jealous. I swam at their indoor pool and then went out for some good Waffle house burger and hashbrowns. Yummy! Friday morning my parents were up and out at 4:30 for shopping. they got some stellar deals and I got to sleep late. It was nice. We then drove to best buy and got some more stuff. DVDs for less than $5 is insane. And they were good DVDs.

My parents then took me to the stadium for the cold, rainy football game. And it was AWESOME!!! I wore my rainjacket, but still got cold and wet. It was well worth every second though. V and I stayed for the entire time, although she did retreat to the concession area during the halftime downpour. My voice is gone and I had so much fun with the local drunks at the game; we cheered super loud.

Saturday I just chilled around the house and watched all sorts of college football. We burned some brush, cleaned some stuff and then went to the Egleston's for one of the best meals ever; they had shrimp, mac-n-cheese, buffalo wings, potato wedges, rolls, white queso, crab dip, bbq brisket and...ice cream. Wowie! We then watched "I am Legend". They were quite scared at times and I enjoyed being prepared for most of the startling parts...most. Today I went to church and drove home. It was cold in the house, but not as bad as I thought it would be.

I just got done working out and now I am getting ready for a shower. This week will be good as we're working on a contract and I am heavily involved. Work is not too bad as long as I stay busy. When I am not busy and I have looked for stuff to do is when I really dislike work. I am going to start asking my lead for more stuff to do, so I can get back into the habit of working every available minute; I like that much more.

Three weeks until break and 35 days until I hit the slopes. I got my 5th day lift tickets today and now I am SUPER pumped. Need to get back to training. Have a great day!

Wow, what a weekend!

So this past weekend was AWESOME!!! To start off, I met with my mentor on Thursday and we got to tour the rocket facility. It was really neat and they actually do some serious engineering there; I think I might try to get transferred over. Then when I got home, V was waiting on me. We quickly packed all my stuff into her jeep and took off towards Dallas. Filled up for 1.94, which was pretty amazing and grabbed a bite to eat at Sonic (which now has the brownbag special again, woohoo!)

Friday morning we got up and headed to the stock yards, but not before Gege cooked us a great breakfast. It was gorgeous weather and we got to see the cowboys herd the longhorns down the road once we made it to Ft. Worth. While we were there, we decided to hit up the zoo. We had gone to the LR zoo two weeks before and had a great time, so we talked to the info booth and they hooked us up with some sweet deals and we headed south to the Ft. Worth zoo. On the way to the stockyards, I passed about ten buses and thought it was kind of strange for buses to be out at 11am. Turns out that they decided Friday was the perfect weather for the zoo as well. We admired the lions and tigers and apes while kids of all ages whistled and hooped and yelled and said "here kitty, kitty". It was fun. v and I took our pictures in one of those cool little photo booths, but they didn't turn out too great. oh well. We capped off a great day by knocking back a few Krystal burgers and headed back to McKinney.

Saturday was college football. My grandma is a HUGE sports fan and we enjoyed sitting around watching the games. V and I went to the $3.25 movies and saw the movie about the guys who get community service with two "different" kids. Can't remember the title, but the movie was super funny. We took Gege's car and dropped the top; it was gorgeous weather again. We decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner that night and took Gege along. When we got there, LSU and 'bama were duking it out and people were going crazy for LSU to win and knock off an undefeated team. Didn't happen, but sure was fun to watch. We made it home just in time to see the *yawn* Texas Tech game.

Sunday we went to church and a ton of people my grandma had never met came and talked to us. I talked with an older man who was an Arkansas Alum. Cool guy. We had some disgusting Mexican food for dinner. Around 3:30 we headed back to Camden, but only after getting in some small shopping sprees. Nothing eventful happened on the way home. Went to work on Monday and got sick about three hours in and went back home. I probably would've toughed it out normally, but since V was there I went home. After taking a nap, I felt worse and decided to sleep late Tuesday. V left Tuesday morning and I headed into work. It was a long, slow day (most of the week has been) and I wished I were still sleeping.

That brings me to today. I just got back from El Dorado. I go every Wednesday and buy groceries, eat at Wendy's and go to Bible study. I really enjoy the church there and go every chance I get. The preacher and his wife teach the singles class on Wednesday and we're going over Christian finances. It is some cool stuff and I am learning tons.

Speaking of learning, I am about to start working on my master's degree. I plan on enrolling soon for a master's of operations management. It's a BS degree, but it'll look good on the resume and teach me some business practices. Hopefully I will finish it in about 18 months. Through online, video and live classes, I can crank out some hours.

Got a 360 a few weeks ago and still spend my small amount of free time on it. I have also started working out again and can tell my body needs it. Just like it needs sleep right now. Goodnight!

It's been quite some time since I last posted and a lot has happened. My house is coming along pretty well. I am mostly finished painting and now I just need to touch up some trim. I ended up getting $300 from the termite place to replace those hardwood floors they tore up; it was not a lot of money but I feel it is sufficient. I am still eating dinner in my living room, but soon I will tile in or hardwood in my dining room and start eating in there again. I'm waiting on some blinds for my office and dining room and the job will be complete. The bathroom is posing some small issues with the tiles not staying down and the time fitment, but I am mostly done with it. My bedroom is 100% as is the den (minus a big TV).

Enough about the house. Work is going well. I am loaded with stuff now that I am covering my area and another guy's area. We're trying to gear up for a busy 2009 and I am looking forward to seeing if we've prepared enough.

My birthday was Tuesday and it was good. I went with some people to work and drove down to El Dorado to hit up some Applebee's. It was good, except the waiter never could get the tickets right. It all worked out for the better, though; I got a free appetizer and a free drink. We have been playing ultimate twice a week and have anywhere from 6 to 9 people. It's been really good with a bigger group. Tuesday I am going to my church in Eldo to play some basketball in their gym. I think a few people from work are going to go as well, so that should be fun.

I'm getting an Xbox 360. I have put it off and put it off, but it's killing me now. I have been browsing for a few weeks and I am telling myself to wait for those Thanksgiving sales. I just don't know if there will be better deals then or not on 360s. But I am getting one, mark my words!

I had an old friend send me a message today and it really rattled me. I haven't talked to this person in some time, due mainly to the fact that when we last talked I left with a flood of emotion. I was filled with the memories of those last days and it rattled me to the bones. I suppose I never really healed from it all...I'm not sure I ever will.

It was a Chamber of Commerce day in Fayetteville

Man campus was great on Friday. It was awesome to just chill and not go to class or have things to study for. I went to the ME building and logged into the computer there. I saw my old boss from the FEP and printed off some stuff from the library. We then proceeded to hit up some B-dubs and watched Iron Man at Kristin's apartment. It was bittersweet to be there again crashed out on the couch. I remember all the movie nights we had there and the great parties we put on. Ryan, Kristin, V and I considered going to the Hper to ball it up some more, but decided we'd rather just eat some ice cream at Cold Stone.

Today was fun too. It started out with rain and cold, but by game time the weather had cleared and it was great. V and I sat next to some cool guys who were up cheering and throwing out all these Razorback stats. The game started pretty good; the hogs played some good defense and actually moved the ball. I thought the hogs had some great plays and showed me that they can actually play. Their biggest problem was just keeping the ball moving. They'd have some awesome plays and then drop it in penalties or just stall out. We never miss a chance to shoot ourselves in the foot. But yeah, at halftime we went over to the student section and cheered. I thought a few times that we were going to pull off an upset, but during the fourth quarter, we just died. It was cool seeing Tebow play and the gators did a decent job. I felt like Tebow didn't really play until about the third quarter. He seemed to be holding back.

Anywho, I'm at V's for the weekend. My car is getting some tune-up work on the suspension, so I'm probably not going to be at work on Monday. Fine by be; I could use the extra sleep.

I am not going to lie; I am struggling. Yeah I miss being able to walk to V's house but more than that I miss being around people my age. I enjoy work most of the time, but there's just not college-age presence here. I have quite a few good friends that are either co-ops or new hires, but they're a big stretch on my Christianity. I never knew that f*** and s*** where publicly accepted but apparently they're okay. I have always considered them hardcore words. I digress. I drove 30 minutes to church today and that wouldn't be such a big deal if I didn't have at least four other churches of Christ that were closer. I've tried most of them out but none of them have anyone between ages 18 and 28 and the few that are close to that are married or engaged or have kids. Ugh. The church in El Dorado seems promising, though, so I look forward to going back there.

I am excited about going snowboarding this year and having money. Woohoo! I might even consider buying some gear. Oh yeah... I need to start training though. Ultimate frisbee twice a week is helping keep me from balooning, but I need to work a bit harder and start lifting some more.

This weekend I worked over 2o hours on my house. I put in tile in the bathroom and hall, painted the dining room and waxed the floors. The hardwoods in the bedrooms look soooooo good. I will post pictures when we're totally done. I can't believe the difference once I painted and changed the floors. Night-and-day.

Have a great week. Today was such a gorgeous day and I enjoyed the drive down to Eldo. I've been in a great mood all weekend; the only thing that would've made it better would've been if a certain little lady would've come down and helped. (geez there are a lot of would've in that sentence)

Everybody's working for the weekend

We worked on the house this weekend. Mom, dad, Chelsea, Ted, Susie, Patsie and I all busted it on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and still have more to do this weekend. I will be glad when we're done updating, so I can start not spending more money than I make.

Work has been good. Rather slow this week until today but I am starting to enjoy it. I have some problems with management, but that'll be resolved soon. I don't really sit back and watch things happen that I don't think is right and that's probably going to get me in trouble. I've found some really cool guys at work and they're helping me out extensively on all sorts of stuff. One guy at work was just saved a few weeks ago and we talk about God and church quite a bit. It's a nice reprieve from the excessive cursing and crude jokes everywhere else.

I can't wait for the football game Saturday and next weekend. I am going to eat myself sick on sushi in Fayetteville. That's really one of the biggest things I miss about town. That and a more contemporary church; going to mine makes me want to never go to church again. Ugh...

Oh btw, the first picture shows what the previous owners did about water problems. Who knew that toilet paper could be such an effective water blocker. It's gross because we find it all over the place, stuffed in holes. The wooden floor is where the termite people tore up my hardwood and replaced it with that plywood and the other picture is outside my living room, which has eight total windows.

Busy man

Wow it's been forever since I posted. I've been quite busy. I started an ultimate team here and we're playing twice a week or more. I only live about a mile away, so I normally just jog over to play. We have about 8 or so, but I'm talking to a lot of people about coming. Scheduling is just being a pain. Besides that, I'm working on my house to get ready for all the week we're doing this weekend. I'm repainting, repairing the floors and laying tile. I had hoped to get some tile from some people who built a new house a few years ago, but it was all broken. :( It's crazy how much money you can drop into a house and still find other things to drop money on. I'm hoping to at least be content after this weekend, although I know I'll still need to repaint my room and the bathroom. Oh well.

Speaking of my house, it's a mess. The termite people came in last week and left everything just sitting around. There are all sorts of fast-food cups and dust and the carpet isn't fixed. The carpet was on top of hardwood floors, but they replaced it with plywood, so I'm fighting the company to come back out and put down real floors again. I can't imagine how they could take one thing out and replace it with something totally different. The whole process has been somewhat stressful, not much, but a little. I just want my hardwoods back. I dropped something like $600 last weekend on paint and blinds and just having that 100 or so for hardwoods would be nice. Like I said, it's expensive owning a place.

Work's getting better. I got promoted this week, but no change in title or pay, just more responsibilities. I don't quite understand that, but oh well. I did get a nice shirt though. I am now the head ME for final integration...I think. I don't do a lot more, but I'm the go-to guy for all sorts of new things. I am really developing some good relationships with some of the guys at work. Today one of the engineers and I talked about Jesus Christ for about an hour. He said he'd be interested if I wanted to have a Bible study at my place sometime. He's a new Christian and it's great to see his passion and his trials. He's probably in his late 30s and going through some tough times. He's cool though. Another guy works on the floor and he's really nice, but not a Christian. We talk some about church and such, but mainly I can just feel my presence making an impact on him. Just since I've been hanging around him, he's reduced his cussing quite a bit. One day he was saying something or another and I told him to settle down and watch the language (real nonagressively) and he said sorry and that he really needed to clean up his language. I was impressed. He works almost right up until break and I talk to him about meeting production goals and he's really gung-ho about it. Inspirational, really.

Anywho, I've got to get some sleep. I start work at 6am on most days, but on the Fridays and Saturdays I actually work, I start at 5. Woohoo!

BTW, if you saw the explosion at Aerojet in East Camden, that is less than a mile from my office. We didn't evacuate, but one of the other Lockheed facilities did. Crazy huh?

There is a 100% chance of rain for the next 24 hours. How crazy is that? The rain here has been so calming; not that I've been stressed or anything, it's just amazing to sit and listen to it. I sat in my car for about 10 minutes when I got home and just took it all in.

I finally know what my parents meant when they said it never ends. I painted some stuff today and found more stuff to fix up here. I'm starting to like my house much more, although a bigger AC unit will help me like it faster and more. I guess I'm really just happy to have my own place. Camden's not great and I probably won't get out of this house with much of a profit, but it's not too bad. I like walking around my place in my undies or playing my music as loud as I want. I can watch TV in the morning or TV at night, although I only have rabbit ears so I don't get many channels. It's just nice to always have something to do. At the same time, I'm utterly exhausted every night. I've gained some weight and my feet don't like it. I don't know what I've been doing different, but I'm determined to lose the weight. I just started working out a few times a week and that's already making an impact. It's weird because I look better than I've looked in a while, but I weight more.

I'm pumped about the game this weekend. I love LR games when I don't have to drive there from Faytown. I've got some coworkers who are throwing a tailgate party, so that'll be fun.

Good luck paddling on the river tonight.

My house part 1

I only took a few pictures but here's a good couple of shots of the house before we start doing much. As you can see, it's a mess. My stuff is laying all over the place but slowly becoming organized. The bedrooms are so packed with stuff right now, I'm not going to post any pics of them. They're carpeted with the same stuff as the living room and dining room. I pulled up a corner of the carpet in the front bedroom and found hardwood flooring. We're going to pull up carpet slowly and one room at a time and I hope we find some beautiful floors. This weekend we'll start painting and working on the bathroom. I've been power washing the exterior and it's making a huge difference. I am basically finished cleaning the outside, I just need to clean a few spots a little better. Next I will start working on the yard. It's got a ton of potential, I just don't know where to start. I tell ya, between work and this house, I sleep like a rock every night. My feet are sore, but I suppose that has something to do with standing out on the cement floor with production so much.

Camden's really not too bad. There's not much to do, but since I'm so busy with work and the house, it doesn't really matter. There are some good little restaurants and all the catfish I could ever want. I'm looking forward to fall and spring to hit up some of the local campgrounds. There are supposed to be some decent ones down in Louisiana.

It's starting to sink in that I will be here for a little bit. Stress "little".

Wowza, it's 1:30

My microwave just shorted out, my a/c isn't big enough for my bigger house and I don't have a garage, but you know what? I have a/c, I have a kitchen and I have a car to park in a garage that doesn't exist. While I'm on the topic of my house, I've got a funny story. A few days ago, I roach bombed my porch. I had seen a few roaches here and there outside and maybe two inside so I thought I'd give it a try. After playing around with the bomb, I went inside. Lo and behold, they ran from the porch into my laundry room! There were four or five (actually three, that I could kill) and they were WIRED! I smashed them and have been finding dead roaches here and there ever since. I plan on bombed the attic and crawlspace this week, but I've got to keep them out of my house otherwise. This is going to be messy.

I went to El Dorado today to hit up some home improvement stores, a super center and to get some food. I really enjoyed the trip there; it's four lanes at 65 and quite pretty. I cruised along and took it all in. I can't wait to go back down there during the fall and camp down in Louisiana. I haven't spent much time in northern Louisiana, so I'm interested in seeing what it's like. I have heard a lot of good stuff about Shreveport-mostly the boardwalk there.

Anywho, this place is almost up and running 100%. It's at about 60% done; I need to paint, put in fans, fix the bathroom and I'll be done. The Eglestons and my family are coming into town next weekend to spend a day working this place over. The yard needs some cleaning and clearing, but it's going to be gorgeous this spring. The previous owners spent a lot of time on it and I plan on bringing it back to that point. "Plan" being the key word there. You know me...

The workin' man

I tell ya, between working 10 hours a day and fixing up the house, I am super busy. I have only done a few small things to the house and it already looks a lot better. I spent another couple hundred this week to get some more stuff for furniture and general repairs. It's kinda cool being in my own place because I can paint how I want, carpet how I want and fix stuff that's broken and it actually helps me out. Plus it's nice putting money forward on something that's mine; I'm not throwing it down the drain. I still have a long ways to go to getting it where it's home sweet home, but it's definitely growing on me. The biggest issue is going to be working on the bathroom. Replacing the floor boards and redoing the tile is going to be a nice all day event. Mom and Dad and the Eglestons are coming down on Labor Day weekend and so we'll knock out some serious work then.

Work's been good. I worked Friday and Saturday this week, which is overtime pay. It's picking up quite a bit, but I still have to find things to do from time to time. I am really enjoying spending time with the production crew. They're a cool bunch of guys with all sorts of personalities. I am sad because all my cool co-ops left. Chuck and Megan were from Texas Tech and Marty was from Wisconsin. We enjoyed a good weekend in Fayetteville and plenty of good times in Camden. Their last night we went to the Sand Bar and had some good food. I got crab legs and some Texas toothpicks. Both were amazingly good.

Peace out!

The house...

So I signed my life away today and now I'm in my own house. Not a rental, not an apartment, this is my house. It's really cool, but at the same time it's a big investment. I am hoping Camden will eventually pick it up and I can sell this place for what I paid for it...or more. There's a lot of work to be done, but I'm pumped about getting my hands dirty and making it a home. I got a lot of my stuff moved in, but I'll be moving in for a while.

Today I'm in Little Rock helping Vanessa move in. She's got a nice little apartment, but the people that live around her are shady. She got some really nice new furniture and her room mate has a pretty nice tv. Now that she's moved in, we're heading to the IMAX to see the Dark Knight again. I'm really pumped about that, almost as much as I was about seeing Vanessa...but not quite.

That's really all I've got right now. I worked yesterday and I'm tired.

Somebody wrote me...a nasty letter...but they didn't sign their name

...I think I know, I know who wrote it. Well I recognize, recognize that hand. It's gettin warm, oh so warm, it's so warm...

Monday-up at 5, Tuesday-up at 5:15, Wednesday-up at 5:20, Thursday-up at 5, Friday-up at 4, Saturday-up at 4:30. This week has been great! At least I got overtime on Friday and went fishing today, so it's not all lost. I took a nap nice today and feel pretty good at 11:15pm. I close on my house this Friday, which I probably won't be present for, since I'm going to be working. I'm going to try to get off this Saturday (assuming we work) and go to LR to help V move in. I'm excited about her getting a nice apartment with a golf course and pool and such. I think I will have that road to Bryant memorized. I'm also excited about my house, although that does tie me to Camden for at least a year or two, while I pay it off. No biggie, just enough time to save up some serious bank! woo hoo!

Work's been picking up, as you can tell. I've been pretty busy with all sorts of issues. Basically everything that goes wrong on the floor now goes through either me or the one other ME. We see tons. I got to work a lot in the test building on Thursday and Friday, which is where they test the truck (go figure!) Those things don't seem like much when they come in, but boy I'd hate to be around when one fires. Since they've been around for a bit, they're not too classified, but I am waiting for that folder to slip onto my desk. I really can't wait until we have upkeep on the field trucks; that's going to be a blast. Hopefully I can check up the ones in England or something. Gotta get my bearings here first.

Went to a seafood buffet tonight and boy was it good! I had catfish, boiled shrimp, fried shrimp, hushpuppies, onion rings, chicken, ribs and...that was it, I think. Oh yeah and an amazing yeast roll. I tell ya, there aren't many clean, nice looking places in town, but that doesn't mean there isn't some awesome food. I've had some of the best catfish in my life since I've been down here. In a few weeks, I'm heading to Monroe, Louisiana to get some good Canjun food. I can't wait!

Goodbye and goodnight, Fayetteville

This weekend I went to Fayetteville with some friends from work and we had such a good time. We had a cookout on Friday here in Camden and then left to head to my parents' house. WE traded my car for the truck and trailer and then headed to Faytown. There we ate at Jose's and then went to Brewsky's. It was so funny to see my friend Chuck order a $17 bottle of beer and then proceed to take an hour to drink it all. On Saturday we packed the trailer and cleaned the house. It didn't take long to clean, since V and I cleaned it so well earlier this summer. For lunch, we met up with Miranda and ate at Hugo's. It was sooooo good. I slowly ate my burgers and then we went to the Prominade in Rogers. The temperature was a million degrees, but it's so cool walking around that place. I bought some clothes and browsed at Borders for about an hour. Two of the people with me left and went on back to Little Rock to spend the night. Chuck and Cory and I went back to the house to chill and shower. For dinner, we met at Kobe's to eat with Brad and Libby. It was AMAZING! The best sushi I ever ate in my whole life!
Saturday night we hung out at another house and played Call of Duty. Sunday I went to see the church at Mount Comfort and I was so glad. The singing was amazing and it was great to see everyone. We all got together and ate at the Wet Pig and had some super good bbq. All in all, this was a wonderful weekend. Gas prices weren't too bad compared to how they have been, which was good since I only got 10mpg! Sunday night we got back real late and I'm still catching up with my sleep. It's been a decent work week so far and stuff is really picking up. I am working on a couple of good projects, so that makes things go better. We are behind schedule so we'll probably be working Friday and maybe even *gasp* Saturday. It's just a maybe at this point.

The House: Getting a loan is proving to be lots of fun. I'm filling out more paperwork that I've ever filled out in my life. I'm probably going to end up borrowing from my parents and once the house comes through I will transfer everything over. It's all gravy, but a bit nerve-wracking. I'm ready to get inside and start buying some house stuff (ie. '360, big tv, furniture). Woohoo, let's get this sucker rollin.

what?! A house...

So it's almost official! I placed an offer on a house here in Camden and the counteroffer came back asking for just a bit more. It's super exciting! The place needs a little bit of work, but overall it's pretty sweet. I will post pictures eventually, once it's mine.

So V met up with me this weekend and we chilled in Little Rock Thursday and Friday. We got up early on Friday and went to see The Dark Knight. I mean super early! There were quite a few people, but not as many as I would've figured on opening day. The movie was so cool. I was grinning the entire time. Heath Ledger played a great, crazy joker. I don't know if he deserves an Oscar, but he did a great job. The movie had a good plot and the action sequences were soooooo sweet. The batmobile was as cool as ever and the other new toys were neat too. Like I said, I was grinning the whole time. Since I'm not sure who reads this, I will quit talking about the movie before I give it away.

Work's getting better. I've been staying busy and that helps. I'm also working a lot with some other engineers, including some young new hires. Right now I am doing some IE stuff, but I enjoy it and get to apply my mechanical mind to it. This weekend we're getting together and having a cook out at the river with most of the co-ops and new hires. I think it'll be a great chance to get to know the people my age and make some good connections. Friday night we'll head up to Faytown and load up the remainder of my stuff. It'll be bittersweet, but I suppose it's time to do what needs to be done. Goodbye Faytown, hello Camden.

Camden

So it's not too bad here. I've decided that it really doesn't matter where you live, it's what you make it. I am living with some people I am distantly related to and I enjoy their company. Tomorrow I'm looking at some more apartments that are only about 5 minutes from my cubicle and about 10 mins from Camden. It's really cheap and hopefully will be a good place to chill until my house plans finish up.
Work started off horrible. I did tons of boring computer training and nothing was unlocked for me to access. Today things went berserk. My boss is overworked and so I'm helping him do all sorts of stuff. Today I did some work with a few IEs and then got my hands dirty with taking apart some drills. It was fun but I ended up staying late and after checking out some more houses, I didn't get home until 630 or so. After running and showing, I'm where I am now. Woohoo. I'm so happy I get off work on Fridays.
Okay so my fourth story is quite interesting. We shot all sorts of bottlerocks and smoke bombs and ect. all day. I would bundle up about 20-40 bottlerockets and then shoot them. That was fun, as was throwing them into the crowd of people at my house. The best part of the entire holiday (short of being with my family and girlfriend) was lighting an artillery shell and then running for my life. I don't know why I didn't realize what it was when I lit it and then seconds later I am running and people are screaming. It was GREAT! We laughed and laughed.
That's really it for now. My feet hurt and so I'm going to bed.

Oh one more thing...I get paid Friday and I've already seen my paycheck and baby I am EXCITED!!!

Ukraine, NYC, Dallas and Camden

What a trip! It started with a three hour layover in Dallas in which I had to check out of customs, take a bus to a remote lot and exchange bags in the car, change clothes, check back in, go through security and catch my flight to Kiev. Once I landed in Kiev, I waited and waited and waited and no one showed up. After about an hour and a half I found an internet cafe (which didn't take American money), exchanged some money (at a horrible rate) and got on the internet. I emailed my loved ones and the missionary. about 45 minutes after that, I got back on the 'net and the missionary was online. He thought I was supposed to be in the next day. Anywho, he sent some nice ukrainian people to pick me up and it all worked out fine.
The next three weeks were tough. Ivankiv is the furthest town north before the "no-go" zone from Chernobyl. They actually rinsed off trucks from Chernobyl there before they went further. Crazy huh? The town had a market in the mornings that had a ton of stuff and we only had to walk about a mile to get there. The town is a neat little place and has a nice park and some nice little stores. The camp is in Kolentsi, which is about 6 miles away. Every morning, the missionary would pick us up (sometimes 2 hours late) and all six of us would cram into his Sante Fe and head to the camp. The area is all sand. It's like a nightmarish beach, with no water and mosquitoes which carry off small children. We would work from about 10 until about 5 or 6 or 7. We dug ditches 5 feet deep and 30 feet long, poured cement out of huge trucks, mixed cement, built wooden "roads" out of old wooden planks, and chopped up just about enough wood to keep a house warm for an entire winter in ukraine...just about. The work wasn't too bad, but sometimes it did get old. I don't consider myself the strongest or toughest guy out there, but even I impressed myself with the stamina I maintained. Every day we had grilled whole chicken, bread, tomatoes and cucumbers with either cherries or strawberries. All the food was amazing and we would wash our hands and then use the table as a plate, it was quite unsanitary but when you've been digging ditches in sand, everything tastes good. I LOVED it!
The Christians there were amazing. They all had interesting stories and interesting names: like Big Cola and little Cola. They couldn't speak much English, but we found ways to communicate. The first weekend I was there, we went to a party in the park where we had shashleek (AMAZING) and a feast set for kings, including calamari, potatoes, bread of all types, tomatoes and chicken (shashleek style). We played a game called "blindfolded, dizzy with scissors" in which a kid was blindfolded, spun around and given scissors. In front of this kid would be a fishing line with other lines tied to it hanging down with prizes. The kid had to cut the prize off the line. It had to be one of the most dangerous and amusing children's games I have seen.
After not being able to go to Kiev on Saturday, we skipped a church meeting and went to Kiev one Sunday. The town is amazing. All the guys helped pour cement the day before and so we were really tired (it had been a 6 day work week) but we trudged through and ended the day with a nice dinner at TGI Fridays. I took lots of pictures, but I am still debating if I will put them on facebook. Once Carrie, Steph and Britt get done, there will be more than enough photos of Ukraine online.

Cancun

This place is amazing. We went to Tulum on Friday and ended up headed towards Chichen Itza. The road we took was a toll road so it was super empty. We FLEW in our little PT Cruiser. once there, we hired a guide and he was so cool. He spoke five languages and knew a ton about the ruins. The place was so cool in it's "advanced" technology of telling time. The temple is just so awe inspiring. I just envisioned the Mayans being there and doing their rituals. AMAZING! That's really all I can think to say.

Yesterday we went to a resort for a spill about time shares. They gave us lunch and took us on a tour and about an hour later we left with $180 and no timeshare. If you can say "no" then you're set. It was on the way to Tulum, so we went ahead and completed the trip. Funny story- there are speed bumps everywhere the speed limit decreases and yesterday we got caught off guard and hit it at about 40-50kph. The car hit and I swear we got airborne. Some people on the side of the road were just standing there with their mouths gaping. Chelsea had taken the role upon herself of bump detector and every since then, she's been yelling out "bump" if there was any chance of a bump. Our poor car will never be the same. On to Tulum-it was AMAZING! this place is a bunch of ruins right on the ocean and it was gorgeous. Chichen Itza was nice, but man this place was friggin amazing. I got some good shots of the ruins with the beach in the background (the beach is okay, but the water is the most amazing blue ever). There's a tropical depression here right now, but it's still so cool. Our hotel is super nice (although most here are). The stuff isn't that cheap, but in some of the smaller towns (which are full of those bumps) the stuff is real cheap.

Dr. Pepper is hit and miss here. Few places have it, but it is around. I am currently addicted to the apple juice here; it tastes so fresh and real. I love going into the small markets and speaking Spanish to get the deals. We finally quit using American dollars and converted to pesos, which makes things much easier. Luckily 10 pesos equal a dollar, so conversion hasn't been too tough. Anyways, we're taking today off and since it's raining on and off, I decided to post. I'm sitting in a really nice McDs right now using some one's internet. I enjoy not having it in the room and I especially like not having a cell phone. It's freedom.

UKRAINE in 4 days.