Fast Five

So tonight Dale, Bridget and I went to see the movie "Fast Five" at the theater. It was great!! I was afraid that this series had run out of new, exciting tricks. As it turns out, they have not. There were a few twists and turns that I did not see coming.

At one point in the movie there is a fight between Vin Diesel and "the Rock" and Bridget and I were trying to guess who would win. She said the bald one would win. My vote was on the one with large biceps. We both turned out to be right!

I am very excited about this movie. I really enjoyed watching it and I hope to see it again soon. If I don't see it again in theaters, I will find it when it comes out on DVD.

Greatest birthday celebration!

So this past few days I've been celebrating my birthday. It has been great! I've been able to see a lot of people I've been missing.

Let's start with Sunday...
I was scheduled to work until 7am. At 6:40, I got a call from my relief saying that his car wouldn't start and he'd be late. I finally got out of there at 8:15. I hurried home, took a nap then got ready and hit the road. When I got to my parents' house, I took another nap.
When I got up we met at grandma's to head to Donatos for pizza. I've missed Donatos pizza! We had some great pizza and chatted for a while. Afterward, my sister, brother and I went to Friendly's and picked up a Moose Tracks ice cream cake. We took that back to grandma's and served it up! With that and birthday presents for dad and I it was pretty fun.
This concluded Sunday. I went home and happily went to bed.

Monday.
I woke up and got ready for a ride-along with NRPD (my hometown police department.) Patrolman Neff and I patrolled the city for a few hours. We didn't do a whole lot of major enforcement, but it being a Monday morning, I wasn't surprised. While I was at the station I got to see many officers that I haven't seen in over five years. It was a great blast from the past.
After I was done with my ride-along, I picked up Bridget and we went to Lakewood to pick up Jessey and Bella. We all then wandered off to Dave and Busters for some game time. Through the evening we were joined by a few others... Allison, Jamie, Alex, Moe and Julie all ended up there at some point in the evening. I haven't seen many of these people for at least a few months. Julie came in after work and ended up taking a nap on Tom after having dinner.
Everyone ended up leaving with some awesome prizes and we all played some cool games. It was a great night.

Tuesday.
Bridget, mom and I all woke up early (it wasn't fun) and started a surprise attack. We went to grandma's church and since we were a little late, we snuck in the back. ("God understands, Father... not so much") At communion we slipped into the pew in front of grandma. She was quite surprised to see us there. After mass we went to breakfast and chatted with grandma and her breakfast group. It was rather entertaining.
Afterward Bridget and I went home, packed up and hit the road.
When we got back to Michigan we started up our Fast and Furious marathon. We had just finished the third movie and realized that we didn't have the fourth ready. We went to the movie store and rented the fourth one (on got snacks, of course) then got settled back in and watched the last installment. After that, I went to bed... I was sleepy.

Wednesday
Dale had to work at ten, so I ended up getting up around nine and hanging out with him for a bit. After he left for work I woke Bridget and we got out the door for the day's adventure.
We went to Somerset Collection to wander around for a bit and see what we could afford.
We started out searching for the "right" parking garage. I wanted the one by the food court and we couldn't seem to find the right one. In the meantime, we wandered and took pictures of the scenery. Mostly the photo subjects were clouds and cars, but one crazy bird adventure also made it.
When we finally found where I wanted to be, we grabbed a bite to eat and watched the valets who were working so hard. (The Maserati was a gorgeous thing to stare at.) We ended up hitting up the Sweet Factory, The Detroit Shoppe, and the Lego Store.

After this adventure, we went back to the apartment to relax for a minute before heading out to Dave and Busters. This time the group ended up being decidedly smaller but we still had lots of fun. I ended up turning a bunch (almost all) of my tickets for a HUGE stuffed gorilla. (It's a toy, not a real gorilla. Don't want any confusion.)
After we left Dave and Buster's we wandered over to National Coney Island for some grub. After a couple of 99 cent coneys, we called it a night and I headed off to work. Work was pretty slow, but with the upcoming trip to PA, I couldn't afford to miss any time.

I had a great birthday celebration and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing so many people that I haven't seen in a while and playing at Dave and Buster's was such a blast. I see why Bridget takes people there every week or so.

27!!!

Well, my birthday is officially over, but the celebration has just begun!
I have tons of plans for the whole next week. I'm going to see a bunch of people that I haven't seen in a while and it's going to be great!
I don't have much else to say right now except that I have had this feeling for a while that 27 will be great!!

The last straw

So Dale learned at his work exactly how precarious his position was. His company just let go a whole bunch of people of the same title as he has. So he made up his mind.

He is going to look into what type of industry he wants to go into as a career. He doesn't want just another job any more. He is now researching what type of career he would like and is planning on going to school in the fall for whatever industry he decides on.

We are going to a job fair in a couple weeks, and he will be gauging his options. I will be exploring what is out there for me as well, but the main purpose is to help Dale set a directions for his future.

Wish us luck!!

Project Progress!

So now that Dale and I are all by ourselves in the apartment now, we can truly make it our own. With the other bedroom available, I have all sorts of ideas and plans for the extra space. It'll be a great place for a workspace for Dale and his R/C car projects, and the extra closet space will house out of season clothes and other clothing that is not worn as often, and even as a guest bedroom!

Well, a few days ago we moved a twin bed into the room and set it up. Today the bedding I ordered came in and Dale made up the bed while I was at work. He sent me a picture and it looks great!

Yesterday I cleaned up a whole bunch of clothes that I had no place for in my room. It made a huge difference in the appearance of the whole room! I overloaded my hamper with all of the clothes that needed washed and hung up a bunch of hoodies and my pants (I haven't had a place for them before) and put them in the other closet. Now I feel like there is SO much less clutter!

I think that mindset is what helps me become motivated to keep the rest of the apartment tidy. I living room is pretty well straightened up and the kitchen counters are all clean, I do the dishes so that there aren't any sitting overnight, I even make dinner more often since I feel less claustrophobic in the kitchen.

It's funny how one thing leads to another. I'm loving this new freedom in my own home. Sure, it's not a house, but it's what I have for now and I like the changes.

Tattoos on children

On my way home the other morning, the radio show was based on a story about a man who, while drunk, tattooed the letters "DB" onto his three year old son. "DB" standing for Daddy's Boy. I was disturbed by this on many levels. Why would you have tattooing needles near your toddler? How could the drunk father be the only person attending his child, and if he wasn't why did nobody stop him?

Then a listener called in with some comments that concerned me further. His five year old son has a tendency to draw on himself. His favorite is to draw the Old English "D" that represents the Detroit Tigers, and many have taken it to represent Detroit as a city. He loves to draw this, as well as a five year old could, on his own chest.

This child's parents are seriously thinking about having this tattooed on the child. The father has the same tattoo and was in a conundrum because he was concerned that he would be a bad parent if he DIDN'T have this tattooed onto his little boy. How does THAT logic go? Think about it, dad, he's probably trying to emulate you. Cover up your own tattoo for a while and see if he stops. He's five and you want to put him through that pain? How in the world could that make you a good parent?

I just got so ticked listening to this show that I had to turn it off.

Great vacation!

I had a week off from work and Dale and I went to Alabama for a get together with a bunch of people from a forum I hang out on. It was a great trip! It made all my crazy running around worthwhile.

On the way down, we stopped at the original KFC location. It incorporated a normal KFC and a mini-museum of the history of Colonel Sanders and the restaurant. It was really cool to see that it started as an addition to a motel.

When we finally got to our destination, we were exhausted and were glad to go to sleep. But since we were sleeping in a car, I kept waking up. Every time I woke up, I looked at the sky and remembered just how much I missed them. Now that I live in a metropolitan area, I rarely see stars any more. I miss them.

In the morning, we went to the Riverwalk in Columbus, Georgia. Last year it was flooded so we didn't get a chance to explore too much. This year, I took tons of pictures. We even went right up to a hydroelectric plant that is right there, and kinda checked that out. It looked really cool, but kinda run down at the same time.

That night, we took the Subaru down the drag strip. I had a blast! Between Dale and I that car went down the strip five times. But watching the MINI and all those big trucks going down the track was fun. We had barbecue there and everything. Doghouse sponsored the whole track even that night, so it was great.

The next day we chilled out and worked on trucks most of the day. Dale even helped one of the guys do ball joints on his truck. We had a date planned for that day, but with it raining off and on, and Dale and Jake preoccupied with working on vehicles the date kinda got canceled.

That afternoon, we had a 'dirty santa' raffle. It was a blast! The alcohol kept getting stolen and that got interesting. I ended up with a new roadside kit for DEX. It's compact, complete, and cute! It has the Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep logos on it. Dale ended up with a car wash kit.

We ended up leaving the following day so as to give us plenty of time to get home and relax. We wandered as far as Tennessee and got a hotel for the night. The next morning, we drove to my parents' house and spent the next night there. I have missed hanging out with my family, so it was nice to see them. The next morning, we drove home, unpacked the car, put most of that stuff away and hung out the rest of the night.

It was great to have time to hang out with all these people, but I realized that I missed hanging out with Dale. With our work schedules, we hardly see each other. I didn't realize that until this trip. I'm hoping to find a way to spend more time with him without us having to work on cars.

Big goal, big prize!

Lately, I've been looking at getting a new car. Not just new to me, I want actual new. I've been looking into the Kia Soul and I want one. I've test driven two at different dealers. One wasn't brand new, but really close as it had 33,000 miles. It had the options I wanted like fog lights, moon roof, and the better sound system and in addition, it had leather seats. I'm not a big fan of leather seats, but it was still really nice.

Now for the downside... There is no way I can afford the payment as well as the insurance payment. The law requires that I have both or neither, so I ended up with neither. I even priced out a lease plan for it, and it was just out of reach. This makes me very sad. I feel like I've worked so hard, and I can't have anything nice for myself.

So, on to the plan. Remember that one of my New Year Resolutions was to pay off my high-interest credit card bill? I'm doing well on that one. So I came up with a plan. Now I will have an incentive, but for a huge incentive, I have to have an equally huge goal.

< drumroll, please >

If I pay off ALL of my credit card debt, I can have a new car.

*Whew!*

I have a total of three credit cards and all of them have a balance. Total balance for all three combined is a whopping $8,200. I feel like if I can pay that off by the end of 2013, I've earned a new car.

I have been working hard for a very long time, and I will continue to do so. Now I have set a goal for myself and I plan on reaching it. I have been at my new job for six months already and I still work a couple days a week at the Zone, so I will just keep my nose to the grindstone for a couple more years, pay off my stupid youth, and then I will have earned such an adult thing as a new car.

Wish me luck and lots of overtime!

Pay commensurate with workload

So the topic has come up twice with two different examples over the past few days of how some people get paid so much, while others barely get paid.

The first example I came across was professional athletes (football, in particular was noted) who complain when they don't get paid more than a couple million dollars. I understand that this career is hard on the body and is generally short-lived, but what they make in one year many people can make last the rest of their life. Why squabble over a million dollars when we are still very obviously in a recession? That money could be better spent elsewhere. Examples include schools, homeless shelters, charities that benefit the homeless, and employing displaced workers.

The second example was politicians (named were the salaries of those in the Senate and House.) How can these people, in good conscience, make more than twice the AVERAGE salary? I think their pay should be commensurate to their constituents. Again, I understand that this may be a short-lived career, but there are career politicians. I would imagine that this job includes a lot of problem solving skills, but so does a law enforcement job. And law enforcement professionals have to make life and death decisions in a split second while politicians take years to pass a law.

I wish I had any of these people's salary for just one year. I would have my bills paid off and most likely have a reasonable savings. Instead I will continue to sit here in my office making split second decisions regarding deliveries and whether a plant will have to close because I can't get their parts to them in time, while they lose millions of dollars every minute they are not running. Too bad I don't make the low end of the national average salary scale.

The Irony

This morning, Dale and I went to breakfast and the news was on the TV. One of the stories was about a church group protesting at a military funeral. Really?
First off, this is a CHURCH group. I would think that they might have the tact to leave the dead in peace to rest. How ticked would they be if someone picketed the funeral of someone close to them and the picketing was because of the job of the deceased?
This person most likely died in service to this country. He died for your right to free speech. Do him or her a favor and stay silent for a moment to appreciate this. I hope this moment is long enough to allow the family and friends attending the funeral to properly say their goodbyes to someone who was taken from them way too early.

Just, RAR!