Eight Legged Freaks.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the latest specimen that I have confronted. Legs extended, it is nearly the size of my hand. Feel free to identify if you can. I only let it live long enough to take the photo.

I still haven't stopped shuddering at the thought of that thing. I think I'm going to have to nuke my house from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Aargh

One month of tests.

Down the drain.

Because somebody sent us the wrong additive.

I'm going to go home and drink now. Afterwards, I plan on working with power tools.

I'm not stupid... I'm advanced!

Oi vey. I'm having flashbacks to skool. For the last several weeks I've been trying to learn about cement (specifically, wellbore cementing). Fun stuff.

No, really, it's actually interesting. The problem arises from me having no relevant background with the stuff, and combining the learning process with the ongoing QC. It's starting to all merge into one massive mental ball of... stuff that I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around.

On the plus side, if I ever feel like pouring an extension to my patio, I'm fairly sure I can get a good deal on the supplies...

The heat comes and goes down here. And this weekend it came. I originally planned to use the weekend to get a bunch of work done around the house. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men. Saturday started off good. I managed to trim back the jungle in my yard and unloaded nearly a ton of rock so that I could set up a garden section in my yard to transplant my herbs into. Sunday was supposed to be about cleaning the house (I swear things get dirtier quicker down here than in Calgary), and installing a few organizing racks in the garage, but I woke up with a splitting headache that never really went away. When combined with the heat I ended up saying "screw it" and loafed around for the day feeling miserable. Good times. All praise the inventor of central air conditioning.

I also suspect that I have raccoons hanging around my place now. I can't be positive, but I don't know of any other animal that would actually try to steal my birdfeeder. I came out one morning to find it gone and the pole it was mounted on bent over. After much searching, I found the thing wedged underneath my back fence.

Oh! New bug alert! I haven't seen one of these since elementary school.

The second pic isn't great, but gives a better idea of the size.


No, the ash-can isn't mine. Neither is the bug. It was found up by our warehouse. I was tempted to take it home as a pet.

And in case Amy hasn't been notified of this article already: The Ultimate Knitter

Wokking in Memphis

The last few weeks have been busy, to say the least. We're starting up a new service line down here, and meeting the technical requirements have been rather trying. I've been bouncing back and forth between the two lines trying to learn how to run the new equipment while at the same time trying to keep up with issues on the frac side.

We've also had a fair number of people come down from Calgary to train us on said new equipment. It's been good to see some old familiar faces. The flip side of that, though, is that I've been eating out more than usual. This is not entirely a bad thing, as it's allowed me to find a couple of new restaurants and at least one really good pub* out and about.

After living down here for six months I finally got around to seeing Memphis. At a mere two hours away I probably should have gone sooner (say, for Memphis in May) but c'est la vie. Myself and a compatriot from the Calgary office crossed the Mighty Mississippi into the town. We visited the National Civil Rights Museum**, the Rock and Soul museum, wandered Beale Street and in general gorged ourselves on the food there***. Good times.

No. Graceland was not visited. Maybe next time.

The weather down here has actually been relatively mild. According to the locals we should be pushing 100 F daily with no rain. Instead for the most part it's been overcast, raining nearly every evening or night (we went through a week where we had hour long downpours start at 5 pm on the nose), and only about as hot as Calgary gets on its hottest days - if that. That might have started to finally change if yesterday was any indication.

And I made another ridiculous purchase. Behold!

I know. It's not a John Deere, but on the plus side I didn't have to take out a second mortgage to pay for it either. I finally got around to giving it a workout yesterday and it was... satisfying. Not necessarily fun, but definitely satisfying. The fact that it will go through the underbrush that's in the unsodded part of my lawn and not even slow down was immensely gratifying****.

So now it's poll time, ladies! Do you think my tractor's sexy? I just need one of you to say yes so I can hum "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" while I mow my lawn.

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*75 different beers on tap = much fun.
**I was quite pleased that neither myself nor my compatriot - both burly white men with extremely short hair (me) and completely shaved head (him) did not get even one strange look going through there. In all seriousness, though, if you're ever in Memphis go see it. It's definitely worth it.
***In the unlikely even that I ever open my own restaurant I'm hiring a baker. Free fresh buns will be provided to all diners.
****Seriously. Parts of it haven't been mowed in two months or more and some of the weeds growing in it are taller than me and about an inch in diameter. I figured I'd need a machete and a British accent to cut my way through it.

Happy Canada Day

Hope everybody had a good Canada Day/day off in lieu. I myself took the opportunity to take up the game of whackf##k*. Definitely an enjoyable experience and one that I'm going to endeavor to continue with. It was actually very good weather for it. We had to drive through a rainstorm to get to the course, and it threatened to rain all morning but never did. It just stayed overcast and a pretty reasonable temperature - if still somewhat humid. It's good to finally have another hobby that actually requires physical exertion. I went to a doctor a couple of weeks back and wash shocked - SHOCKED I tell you - to find out how bad a shape I'm in.

Anyhoo, after said game I had a barbecue for some ex-pats down here helping us set up our latest operation. I've discovered that I really enjoy cooking over charcoal. It's something that I never did in Calgary - we always used propane - but I find it quite funl. Pizza and flatbeds were a blast. The smoked ribs I cooked for Canada Day turned out great - especially for a first attempt. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the summer I'm trying to bake cookies on it.

And I ended off the evening with fireworks. Hopefully the neighbors weren't too confused by them going off a few days before the fourth of July. I knew that fireworks were legal and a lot more available down here, but I was surprised by the sheer quantity. It seems like every mile there's another carnival tent stocked selling "Crazy Larry's Black Market Fireworks" or such. I guess that it's a good thing it is so damp down here. If it was drier one spark would cause a lovely chain reaction of ammo dumps.

My house and yard slowly continue to come together. I decided a while back to hire landscapers to finish my lawn. It doesn't need much - just to be leveled, have all the weeds killed, have a bunch of trees planted and then be seeded or sodded - but it's a large enough job, and it's hot enough here that I figured it would be better to get it done right the first time. Besides, the ground is hard enough around here that I'm going to definitely need some heavy equipment if I want to get it done before next year. I can't dig down more than a couple of inches with a spade.

So all in all, life ain't going too terribly bad down here. I seem to have pulled myself out of the malaise that has been affecting me for the last few months - whether this unnatural cheerfulness will actually continue I don't know, so I'm going to milk it for all it's worth now.
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*Those who are actually good at the game more commonly refer to it as "Golf".

Going Buggy

The flies. They're everywhere.

I hear them in the distance. Always buzzing. Always taunting. So smug.

They stay just out of range. Daring me to swat them before flying off. Even if I kill one, two more take its place. They circle my head at night, keeping me awake. They don't just seek to defeat me. They intend to drive me insane. But I won't let them. I'm too strong for that. I'll find a way.

What's that, mother?

Burn the house, you say?

Yes. That will stop them.

Uninvited Guests

Last week I discovered that I had a new house guest squatting on my front porch.


With a little prodding, I was able to get the little buggers ID.


I initially left him/her/it alone but then realized that it probably wasn't a good idea leaving a poisonous spider on my doorstep, and gave it the boot.

It's funny, but it's little things like that that really make me realize that I'm not in Kansas (or Canada) anymore. The heat, the humidity? Annoying, but they don't really stand out, for some reason (I notice them, of course. They just don't scream to me: "Hey! You're in Arkansas!") Ditto for the accents. The wildlife, however, is another matter. The other night I also found this lovely specimen in my backyard.


The strange part is that I was more disturbed by the katydid than the black widow. Bugs of all type (spiders especially) creep me out, but I was all "Kewl! A black widow in MY house!" .

Also saw a flock of vultures on the side of the road, something else that I'd never seen live before. Huge birds. Honestly though, I don't know how armadillos aren't an endangered species yet. You can practically measure you driving distance by counting the dead ones on the road.

Leaving Las Vegas (And Getting There, And Staying There)

Day 1

Due to a combination of excitement about seeing my buds and paranoia about sleeping through my alarm and missing my flight I didn’t sleep at all the night before my flight.

Body: “Wanna sleep.”

Brain: “Shut up. We’re not going to miss the flight because you oversleep.”

Body: “But I’m really tired. Just a few minutes please?”

Brain: I said shut up. Now have another coffee before I really give you something to cry about.”

I managed to drag my butt to the airport and make it to Vegas (via Memphis) with minimal trouble. Arriving in Vegas I very quickly realized how much I’ve become accustomed to the humidity in Arkansas.

It’s strange, really. I might have grown up in a relatively large city, but in the last few months I’ve gotten really used to the solitude and quiet of a small town. Compared to that, Vegas felt both incredibly real and surreal both at the same time. Still, I was impressed at how the city managed to incorporate walkways everywhere so that pedestrian and automotive traffic have as little effect as possible on each other. I was also impressed/surprised/stunned by the amount of construction going on. Buildings going up all over the place, and each one with an army of construction workers and equipment.

One thing that did disappoint me was the real lack of patios to just sit and drink at in the afternoon on the Strip. Plenty of places indoors to drink or grab drinks to go, but almost nothing that allowed me to take a load off of my rapidly aching feet and relax with a drink. Still, I eventually found a place to grab lunch and beer before continuing my exploring.

And so I wandered up and down the strip for a couple of hours. Looked around the casinos, checked out what was showing where and generally tried to get my bearings. I was rapidly feeling the effect of my lack of sleep, combined with the heat and the alcohol. I was also discovering that I’m not used to walking for long periods of time, as my blisters were starting to attest.

I eventually headed back to the hotel and amused myself for the rest of the day by gambling and checking out the casino and restaurants. I only dropped $100 at the blackjack table. The dealer was actually very nice about it. After watching me make some stupid bets she looked at me and asked if this was my first time playing blackjack (it wasn’t, but the last time was a few years back and I had some coworkers at the table helping me out). She then proceeded to explain what a decent strategy was and point out when I was about to make a stupid bet. I still lost money, but it took longer.

Finally, my buds arrived. Siochain knocked me off my feet with a big hug, which is only fair since I do the same so often. We grabbed something to eat and then headed back to the hotel where I discovered that my blisters had blisters. I crashed immediately, and managed to keep them awake all night with my snoring.

Day 2

Up with the dawn, and feeling much more awake, we all moseyed on down to a café in the casino for breakfast and enjoyed some incredibly good coffee (remember Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction? Yeah. That good).

We then, much to the protest of my feet, began exploring. Just up and down the strip. Siochain got her picture taken with the surliest Elvis impersonator ever. We hit the shops in Planet Hollywood and the Venetian, where M picked up a very stylin’ hat. I also discovered that somewhere along the way Siochain apparently became part lizard. Seriously, the girl was freezing in the air conditioned casinos and it took here about 10 minutes in the sun to warm up. That’s just not right.

I loved the paint scheme inside the Miracle Mile at PH. If you haven’t seen, they’ve done the ceiling up like the sky, which doesn’t sound too impressive until you’ve actually seen it with the lighting and realized how realistic it looks. It’s also rather confusing when you spend a couple hours in there, thinking that it’s around sunset and then walk outside and find that it’s still noon.

I imagine that to most people, going to Vegas and not gambling or seeing a lot of shows or exhibits seems nearly heretical. For me, though, I really couldn’t care about most of that (There’s a few shows that I want to see there, but that’s about it). I’m just happy that I was able to hang out with my friends and not have to worry about being at X place at time Y.

The water show at the Bellagio is pretty impressive. I’ve seen it in videos but they really don’t do it justice. The scope of it is pretty massive. I also find it very humorous that, in a city in the middle of the desert that so many of the casinos have massive water shows.

Unbeknownst to Siochain, her beloved Treasure Island show had changed since she was last in Vegas. No longer is it a swashbuckling adventure with pirates fighting each other and falling into the water. Now it’s been replaced by “The Sirens of Treasure Island”. A more adult themed show, chock full of scantily clad women and single entendres (“I’ve lured many a salty seaman into my cove” – brilliant!). And the songs? Pure poetry. With lines like “You take a little bit of sugar and a little bit of honey and you shake it… Shake it!” Shakespeare had better watch out. The expression on Siochain’s face was better than the show itself.

Day 3

Hit the Bodies exhibit at the Tropicana. Not exactly my cup of tea, being as squeamish as I am, but still fascinating from a medical perspective. M & Siochain really liked it though, which is the important part. If I haven’t mentioned it already, I really couldn’t give a crap where I was, as long as I was with my friends.

Did some more wandering. The nerve endings on my feet were pretty much fried by that point, so my feet weren’t doing to bad. Fortunately, the rest of my legs were burning by then so I didn’t get too comfortable.

The highlight of the day was definitely O. It was the first and so far only Cirque de Soleil show that I’ve seen, and was a hell of an introduction. I’ve seen clips of Cirque here and there but, like the water show at the Bellagio, the videos don’t do Cirque justice. Of course, the Bellagio show doesn’t even come close to comparing to O. Seriously, go see it and for the love of god spend the extra money and get good tickets – something in the first few rows. I would quite happily go back down to Vegas just to see the show again. Each act in it blew me away more than the last one and left me thinking “there’s no way that they’ll be able to top that”. Of course, they did manage to top it. I find it amusing to note that there were parts of the show that could be considered boring due to the fact that they were merely incredible, as opposed to mind-bogglingly stunning like the rest of the show. It’s not unlike what M was saying while leaving the show – It made Vegas seem mundane by comparison. Watching O was actually an emotional experience. If you see it and aren’t moved, I declare that you are not human.

Day 4

The last day was a pretty big blur. We basically just fit a few last minute things into the trip – nothing special – and then went to the airport. Saying goodbye this time, though, was infinitely harder than a few months ago. I think that the last time I left I was too distracted by work and my impending house purchase to really appreciate how much I missed these two. I’ve known them for twenty years now and they’re more than family to me, they are a part of me. Fortunately, I guess, I was giving a temporary reprieve from my depression while I discovered that my place was going to be an hour and a half late, forcing me to miss my connection in Dallas. After much frustration, I decided to head to Dallas on my flight and get the first plane from there to Little Rock in the morning rather than overnight in Vegas. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t sleep much in Dallas either and I’m still trying to get my body back on time.

And that’s pretty much it. I had a blast with my friends, but I’ve got to be the only person on the planet that can go to Vegas, not lose loads of cash, and still manage to be depressed when I leave.

I miss 'em already.

My Feet Hurt... With Destiny!

Back. Very tired. Vegas was interesting. "O" was indescribable. Seeing my buds was phenomenal. Flight home was not so good. Plane was delayed and I missed my connection and overnighted in Dallas. Very tired right now and busy getting stuff ready for work tomorrow. Will write a more in depth review soon.

Viva Las Vegas!

There's nothing quite like a 16 hour work day to prep you for a vacation.

Of course, there's also nothing quite like learning how to read, which would have saved me from finding out last night that my plane tickets land me in Vegas at 9:52 a.m., and my friends land at 9:00 p.m.

Well, I guess I have to keep myself entertained for 11 hours. I hope I can find something to do.

The Train Keeps A Rollin'

And I'm not sure how to get off. Not that I want to bail out or anything, it's just that it's starting to get really busy down here and next week's even busier. If I'd known that about a month ago when I booked my vacation I probably wouldn't have done so, but it's probably best that I didn't know because I need a vacation in the worst possible way right now.

I've finally got blinds for my house. This is good because a.) Nobody needs to see my pasty-white fat ass, (not that I make a habit of wandering around my place nekkid); b.) There are a fair number of children in the neighborhood and I really don't fancy being thrown in jail for accidentally exposing myself to kids (again, not planning on wandering around naked); and c.) I like sleep. I really like it. I don't like waking up on my days off as the sun begins to peek over the horizon. I'm really looking forward to being able to sleep in tomorrow. Of course I'm now able to indulge in my habit of waking up at the crack of noon, which is not a good thing either.

In addition to looking for a few other major appliances, now that I can afford them, I'm also trying to find a landscaping company down here. I dont' really want much done to my yard - just lay some grass down and plant a dozen or so fruit trees. The problem is that the yard, as it stands, is currently a pretty good disaster. The non-sodded area (probably around a half-acre) doesn't have much for topsoil. We're right down to the red clay already, and while stuff seems to grow pretty well in it (the weeds love it, at least), I'm guessing that it's going to need to be turned and loamed before I can actually get it properly seeded. I tried digging into it on the weekend, and that's pretty much a no-go as well. Thus, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll have to hire contractors to do all the work in the hot sun while I sit in the shade sipping fruity alcoholic drinks. Maybe my guild complex will kick in, but I think I can kick it out easily enough.

I've also discovered that I might have an addiction. When I first planned on moving down here, my dad, a relatively avid amateur birder, was thrilled at the prospect of all the different birds down here (he's still hoping that I'll take a trip into southern Arkansas and find an Ivory-billed Woodpecker). I pretty much shrugged off the possibilities. I don't mind birds, but for the most part I find them pretty forgettable - pigeons, magpies, gulls, etc. In any event, since the first time I saw my house when it was still under construction, I've seen a few colorful birds in the backyard. The blue jays were nice, and seemed slightly brighter than the ones I've seen in Calgary and Red Deer, but it was the Cardinals that really made me go "Oooh! Nifty!". About a week or so after I moved in, I bought a feeder and some black sunflower seed which, according to the bag, is supposed to attract nearly every type of bird around these parts. Sure enough, more jays and cardinals showed up. And a few Mourning Doves, and some sort of yellow finch thingy showed up once.

So I decided to expand. I bought more feeders - a finch feeder with nyjer seed and a hummingbird feeder. The finch feeder seems pretty devoid of customers, but the hummingbird feeder attracted a couple in less then a day. Then I bought a bird bath. I also bought a bird guide, but haven't had much luck identifying most things. The birds don't tend to stay still long enough, not that this really bothers me. I'm just worried that I won't stop - or worse, I'll expand. First the feeders and bird bath. Then bird houses. Before you know it, I'll have descended into madness and purchased the dreaded lawn gnomes.

I've also had a bit of fun with cooking down here. Not the style itself (although I enjoy the act of cooking and am really looking forward to getting a barbecue) but the ingredients themselves. In addition the the fresh fruit that I'm enjoying gorging myself on, I'm having fun with new and interesting things. I cooked with okra for the first time the other day. It was, suffice to say, an interesting experience. I had no idea how slimy that stuff got when when chopped up, even before it was cooked. I'm also having fun with collard greens. No idea what will be coming up in the future. With the weather as hot as it is down here (is everyone in Calgary enjoying the snow that they got yesterday?) cooking is less enjoyable. Raw fruits and vegetables are much more my speed at this temperature.

But for now, I get to relax. I've got a long weekend and a vacation coming up, and even get to enjoy them for the most part for a change. Block party tonight. My company's having its Grand Opening tomorrow, Sunday off, Memorial day Monday off (a holiday off in the field? Inconceivable!). Work Tuesday (if I'd realized that it was a long weekend I'd have booked it off as well), then it's off to Vegas on Wednesday for 4 fun filled days that I plan to not be able to remember. I'm meeting up there with Big Daddy M and Siochain - my brother from another mother and my sister from another mister so to speak, both of whom need to remember that no matter how old they feel, they're still younger and better looking (and saner) than me. They both also need to eat a sammich or two.

I'm Rich!

The money finally came through (thanks dad)! I can finally pay off bills and loans and buys stuff again! I can furnish my house! I'm solvent again! I CAN BUY AND SELL YOUR VERY SOULS! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

But for now. I think I'll celebrate. Who's up for root beer?

This Is No Longer Funny.

They turned off the power to my house.

Again.

To say that I'm unhappy is a slight understatement. Apparently they were trying to shut off the power to house 111. There's only one problem - house 111 doesn't exist. I'm in 113, next to me is 107.

Fortunately for the power company, they have hired creative people. If they can't shut off the power to 111, I guess the nearest house will do.

Idjits.

I Love A Rainy Night

I'm right now enjoying the hardest rainstorm that I've ever seen. I don't think that I've ever seen it rain so hard for so long. The water level in the drainage ditch in our yard (my company's) has risen about 4 feet in the last half hour. It's kewl. The best part is that the weather is still warm. Definitely a nice change from the cold rain in Calgary.

(BTW, the pic is not from here, but is still a relatively accurate depiction).

Weekend was decently enjoyable. We've been having weather in the high 70's - low 80's (that's mid to high 20's in real temperature). I discovered both a farmer's market and the asian food market (I doubt that there's more than one), so life is somewhat more tolerable now. Spent the weekend happily cooking away and doing a little more unpacking. And discovering the sheer joy that is the mojito. Seriously. I think I'm through with Gin & Tonic as my summertime drink.

On the money front, I'm still lacking in funds. Apparently one of the checks that I wrote to myself was sufficiently large enough to warrant further scrutiny. Surprisingly, the hastily scrawled signature on my cheque did not match the one in my account when I opened it about 20 years ago (and was likely told to sign neatly and clearly). I've therefore taken the drastic step of asking my folks for help. I'm sending them some cheques to cash and then they can send me a US money order for the proper amount. I have a good feeling about this. It could work.

That just leaves me with the problem of the other, slightly smaller cheque that I wrote to myself. The money for it disappeared from my Canadian bank account 2-3 weeks ago but has yet to appear down here. My bank here is saying the 15th of May. I'm saying that if it's not there by then I'll look at suing.

It occurs to me now that I might have been able to transfer the funds just as easily through my pay-pal account. Anyone out there that can give me a reason that it wouldn't work?

More as it develops, but for now, I think I'll head home.

I Have Little Choice But to Laugh.

My next door neighbor moved out last week. This is relevant.

On Tuesday I came home for lunch and found that my water had been turned off. I phoned the water company, and it turns out the person they had sent over to turn off my neighbors water turned off mine instead. No biggie.

Last night I came home and found my house without power. We have been having thunderstorms for the last couple of days, so I phoned the power company to see if it was an outage. They said that there was a power outage and that they expected it to be restored by 8:00 that night.

Around 8:00, with the sun rapidly setting and my power still not back on, I phoned the power company back. While talking to them I realize that my other neighbors have power. After going through various rigamarole and discovering that my circuit box has been locked by the company, they agreed to send somebody out. About an hour later they came by, unlocked the box and turned my power back on, mentioning that the yellow tag on the lock means that the power has been deliberately shut off to this residence for some reason. When I phoned the company today to confirm the status of my account, I confirmed that they had in fact shut off the power to the wrong house.

I suppose it's a good thing that I don't have any more utilities.

Where Does the Time Go?:

Is April nearly over already?

The last month has streaked by far to fast. I am now unpacked and semi-moved in to my new place. I say "semi-moved in" because there are still a few relatively important (though not essential, I suppose) appliances and pieces of furniture that have yet to be purchased. Thanks BMO for attending the Air Canada school of customer support.

I suppose that the blame shouldn't be put entirely at BMO's feet. I should have been wary enough to make sure that I had the paperwork all taken care of before I left Calgary. I'm also not too thrilled at my current bank down here right now. When I learned that I couldn't arrange to wire my money from Calgary without being at the BMO in person I wrote myself a couple of cheques. The bank here said it would take two, maybe three weeks to get them deposited. We're now into the fourth week, and I found out on Friday that they've changed their tune and it's now 4 - 6 weeks. My rage is endless.

Anyhow, on to happier matters. As I said, I've unpacked. I suppose it speaks volumes about my cooking geekery that it took me longer to unpack my kitchen than the rest of my house combined. I actually managed to get through the extended version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy while doing it and still have more kitchen unpacking to do.

Also, I found that unpacking is a lot like Christmas morning with all of the niceties thrown out the window. The movers packed everything up themselves, so I had no idea what anything was. It was somewhat fun to try to guess what the heck most of the stuff was as I unwrapped it, and more than a little liberating to go "why the hell did I keep this?" and throw some of the stuff in the trash.

Weather down here is improving. We went through a cool snap last week (I think it was last week) but it's been getting better since then with mid to high 20's since. The humidity's also been rising relatively steadily. It's not bad now, but I imagine in another month I'll be soaking.

Of course, with the heat and humidity comes bugs. Mosquitoes haven't been too bad down here but they've got some pretty good sized beetle-type things that are everywhere. There's also a lot of spiders. Personally, I don't have too much of a problem with insects in small amounts, as long as they stay out of my house. It seems like every day, though, there's 3 or four spiders or smaller versions of the beetle-things crawling around in my place. I keep hoping that I've killed the last of them, but every time I come home there's another one. Fortunately, I haven't woken up with a Brown Recluse spider on me yet.

The weather also seems conducive to growing plants. I took some time last week to get my herb garden planted (I'm going to wait until I get my money transferred down here before I work on the orchard). So far, only the cilantro isn't doing well. Not too bad considering my past history with plants. I do wonder about the coincidence that I first started seeing rabbits in my back yard about a day after I got my herbs. I'm not too worried though. I'm waiting for the little buggers to try chewing on the serrano peppers that I'm growing.

Last weekend was one of the few that I've had down here completely off. I celebrated by stocking my fridge & liquor cabinet and spending the entire weekend cooking. It was glorious. Of course, now I have to do something with all the food in there. I'll have to think these plans through a little more thoroughly next time.

Home Sweet Home

Signed the papers earlier today. I am now officially in financial debt. I can't really move in quite yet (the moving truck broke down in Denver, so my stuff won't get here until tomorrow night or Thursday morning), but I don't mind. It will give me time to start on the landscaping - I finally took a really good look at where the survey flags are and suddenly realized how huge my yard is. As a matter of fact, I imagine most of my spare time will be going into landscaping. I'm actually looking forward to stuff like the planting the trees and setting up my herb garden. It's the weeding that's really going to try my patience. I've got over a half-acre of weeds & quackgrass laughing at me.

And one little private message to the Bank of Montreal before I forget: F**k you. I've had enough of the run-arounds, lies, and outright screwjobs. Thanks to you it'll be about 2 more weeks before I can actually get some appliances into my house. 2 more weeks of restaurant food. Thank you so much.

It's amazing what a difference a week can make. During the time I was back in Calgary the weather down here has improved dramatically. We're still getting a fair amount of cloud cover (and rain), but the temperature is much warmer - around 20 - 25 C during the day, and warm enough at night that I still don't need a jacket. Not too bad. It's also noticeably more humid now, but nothing I can't handle*.

I did the inspection on my house the other day. I'm pretty happy with the finished product, all-in-all. There are just a few minor fixes to take care of** - scuffs and such. Everything's shaping up for me to be able to close on it by the end of the week. My stuff's scheduled to arrive on the weekend (which for once, I won't be working), so with any luck I can call myself moved in by this time next week. We've caught up with our customer's schedule at work and in fact jumped ahead of him, so I've actually got a slow week coming up, which is not a bad thing in my opinion. The 80 hour work weeks were starting to get to me.
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* I don't doubt that August will be a different story.
** Who forgets to make a vent for the dryer?

No Turning Back Now.

Well, terms have been agreed upon, my apartment is packed and on it's way down, and I'm back in Arkansas awaiting it all.

Thanks to everyone out there. A week was not nearly enough time to say goodbye to you all, so get your buts down here to visit me, dammit!

One Last Hurrah.

If I've ever experienced anything more depressing in my life than packing up for this move, I blocked it from my mind long ago.

Honestly, the deliberate act of going through all my accumulated junk and deciding "That goes with me. That gets thrown out. X can have that, (s)he can make better use of it than me" is less like getting ready for a garage sale and more like getting ready for my own funeral. Unnecessarily morbid? Possibly, but true nonetheless.