Taking tomorrow off because Brian and Tasha are getting here sometime in the afternoon on their week long vacation to Myrtle Beach.
Going to drag the boat around to the house and get it shined up and the battery in it and probably install the new stereo in it as well. I think it also has Aux inputs in the back, so I'll probably wire up a 3.5mm female jack somewhere flush on the wood part of the dash by the stereo so that we can plug in an MP3 player.
Brian said we'd get the motor running reliably, so I believe him even if I'm pessimistic due to how much trouble it's given us the last couple years. Hopefully it's just a valve timing issue or something like that. Best part about him working on it is I can watch him tear it down and learn to do it myself for the next time it needs work.
Shined up the truck tonight also. Been a LONG time since I gave it any TLC, so I washed it, waxed it with the new Turtle Wax Ice, vacuumed, cleaned up the inside plastic, and hit the leather seats with some leather cleaner/conditioner. The new Turtle Wax Ice is all right... it's interesting. In some ways it's better than standard wax, but in others it isn't. It feels (and basically is) mineral oil. The bottle even says "Contains petroleum distilates." It's nice that even in the SC heat you can use it well unlike regular wax, but it leaves weird lines on plastic parts and you have to wipe everything down afterwards, then with a clean new cloth buff everything again. The result is great and being able to use it in the heat is nice too, but the extra step taking it off is kind of annoying. Still not sure how good of a wax it is either - how well it'll bead water... I'll have to find out when (if) it (ever) rains here again. -8.2" deficit for the year so far.
Not trying to jinx this weekend though, so *knocks on wood*. Tomorrow night we're invited over to Jane and Wendell's for a pool party. We'll see if Brian and Tasha feel up for going when they get here. Should be a good time though. And Saturday I think we're going to try to go out on the lake... Brian said he was bringing water skis.
Should be a fun weekend that leads into my week at that training class starting Monday. Between that and taking off tomorrow, I won't be back at work for 11 days.
Also, my latest deal I got online: Circuit City put the HD DVD version of the Complete Matrix Trilogy online for $19.99 on accident. I happened to check SlickDeals.net (link is on the left side of my blog) one night before shutting down the computer and going to sleep and the deal was posted there. Turns out Circuit City decided to honor 1 set per person. Got them the other day. They retail for $79.99... not a bad deal.
My job the last couple days has turned into being a photographer. Still, it's a nice break from the computers.
Yesterday I shot photos at a meeting for Christina's group out at 5 Points, then went out to our Speech and Hearing Center to get some photos of their kids for their website, and then yesterday afternoon went back to Christina's group for their awards ceremony at the Governor's Mansion here in Columbia. And this afternoon I'm shooting a presentation in one of our auditoriums.
The meeting photos from yesterday were boring because it's a meeting, but here's a link to a gallery of the images from the Healthy SC Challege awards:
We had a movie night last night... turned out to be a lot of fun. Most of the people invited couldn't come for one reason or another, mostly out of town this weekend, but the ones who did enjoyed it. We watched Accepted, the movie about the kids who start their own University. Not the funniest movie ever made, but it's definitely good enough to watch. Especially since everyone in the room worked at USC, we especially got a kick out of a few different things in it.
Went out afterwards to shoot some pool for a couple hours and get some food. Would have been a much longer night with more folks though... and I know Kristi would have liked to stay out longer since her husband Tim was out of town and she had an all-night babysitter for the kids. But, the others were dragging a bit, so we called it a night around midnight or so.
I think we'll end up having a few other movie nights this Summer... something to pass the time during the Dead Period (span with no big College Sports until Football season starts). Maybe next time we'll do an outdoor movie night like the outdoor tailgate game nights we do and we'll play a kids movie so those with kids can bring them over too instead of having to find a babysitter for the night.
For the first time in over 5 years I'm heading back to school.
Not USC, just some Microsoft training courses in town. Work approved me to take the first of 4 courses towards an MCSA certificate (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator). No real need to get their MCSE (same except Engineer instead of Administrator) in my job since it would require 3 additional courses and exams. For starters, I'll just take the first course and then I'll see what I think of that... see if it's worth the time and effort. I figure I'm going to know a lot of the material already looking over the course outline, but I'm sure there's a good bit in there I don't know.
Still, at around $1,600/course, I'm glad work is covering it instead of me. Now if it only worked like teaching where you get guanteed raises upon completion of new certifications...
The course runs from June 4th to the 9th, so I get a week away from the office if nothing more.
Life lesson #143: Don't buy beer at your local gas station.
Brian invited some folks over to his place Saturday to have a beer... he had a fire going outside and the weather was perfect for it. So, I thought since it was Cinco de Mayo that I would be cliche and so I bought a 6-pack of Corona at the local Hess station over by his house. $10.59. Bah.
Anyway, Saturday was still worth the hangover on Sunday - had a good time just bullshitting about nothing sitting around the fire.
However, staying up until 3am that night and just about 1am last night makes Monday suck pretty hard. Need to get out of the office, so Christina and I are going to go get lunch. I have a meeting set up with our Associate Dean this afternoon to discuss a few things going on in our group and see if she knows anything more about Robert, so I need to wake up anyway.
My wonderful girlfriend and I had been dating for over a year and so we decided to get married. There was only one little thing bothering me. It was her beautiful younger sister. My prospective sister-in-law was twenty-two, wore very tight miniskirts and generally was braless.
One day "little sister" called and asked me to come over to check the wedding invitations. She was alone when I arrived and she whispered to me that she had feelings and desires for me that she couldn't overcome. She told me that she wanted to make love to me just once before I got married and committed my life to her sister.
Well, I was in total shock and couldn't say a word. She said, "I'm going upstairs to my bedroom and if you want one last wild fling, just come up and get me."
I was stunned and frozen in shock as I watched her go up the stairs. When she reached the top she pulled off her panties and threw them down the stairs at me.
I stood there for a moment, then turned and made a beeline straight to the front door. I opened the door and headed straight towards my car!
Lo and behold, my entire future family was standing outside, all clapping!
With tears in his eyes, my future father-in-law hugged me and said, "We are very happy that you have passed our little test. We couldn't ask for a better man for our daughter. Welcome to the family."
The moral of this story:
Always keep your condoms in your car...
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Dog food diet
I was in Walmart buying a large bag of Purina Dog Chow and was in line to check out. A woman behind me asked me if I had a dog... (DUHHHH)
I was feeling a bit crabby so on impulse, I told her "NO I'm starting The Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn't because I ended up in the hospital the last time." "But, I lost 50 pounds before I woke up in intensive care with tubes coming out everywhere and IV's in both arms."
Her eyes about bugged out of her head.
I went on and on with the bogus diet story and she was totally buying it. I told her that it was an easy, inexpensive diet and that the way it works is to load your pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The package said the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again.
(I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled with my story, particularly a tall guy behind her.)
Horrified, she asked if something in the dog food had poisoned me and was that why I ended up in the hospital.
I said, "Oh No!, I was sitting in the street licking my ass when a car hit me."
I thought the tall guy was going to have to be carried out the door.
