Been too long since I've last written. There is quite a bit that has gone on. Some good and some bad.

The first good thing that happened was I had an interview for a promotion at work. Things felt like the stars were aligned and I had a great inside track on the job. Sadly, I soon discovered this was not to be. The part that really pisses me off is the arsehole they promoted in my stead. They gave me a line about what sort of person they wanted. They guy the hired, to me, is the antithesis of everything they said they wanted. oh well, theoretically if the stars align correctly, I'll have a shot at the second position (and possibly a third) coming open soon. I'm trying, very, very, very hard not to get my hopes up on this possibility. I can't tell if my boss thinks I'm worth promoting, but need more work or if she doesn't like me and thinks I just need to STF Up.

Went to a house party in Raytown (near KCMO) and saw s00j with her mates gingerdoss and Bekah Kelso. They were absolutely delightful. Jen and I left the house late, only late because I'm anal and actually think there is such a thing as a schedule. We had a good trip to KC and Jen even took a nap on the way. I tried that but she kept complaining about driving off the road! Just out from the event, we found a Mr. Goodcents and had food. There was a liquor store next to the Goodcents. We got Jen a 12 pack of Bud light lime. While we checking out the clerk made the comment, "The DD is buying the beer? I gotta get me some new friends." I couldn't help myself and said, "I do get other benefits" and then ducked out the door car. We then managed to wend our way to the house where the concert was taking place. I was a bit antsy, since the concert was billed as starting at 1900, and we were pulling up at 1905. Turns out the bit of rain that we were having caused the event to relocate inside. We were to the almost an hour early as they were resetting up. We managed to hook up with some friends we haven't seen in a while and meet some new ones. While we were waiting for things to happen I managed to knock my soda over. I didn't notice until I moved my leg and realized I was sitting in it for a while. Needless to say for the rest of the night I was standing up.

The house was not set up for a concert and Jen and I sat in the living room during the first set. We could hear fairly well and I got to stand in front of a fan. During the intermission we bought some souvenirs. The gracious s00j happily signed them for us. Then we decided to try to get in the main room with the party. We found a seat by the door, Jen got a back rest and I could stand up. We had a really good view. I rotated out to let people loom in the doorway, like I was. The music was good, the company was great and towards the end a nice young lady (whom I'd moved out of the way for) knelt down to let me see better and I got a great view of her slight dusty bare feet. What a night!

We stayed until almost 0100. Sadly, we still had to drive home, so we had to hit the road. We made it safe and sound.

The fourth of July has come and gone. We had a really good time. We went down to Jen's grandparents. Mostly I sat out of the way and didn't speak until I was spoken to. Then we stopped by her folks. Her mom asked us to take Jen's nephew to work. We were a bit delayed to our friends. We drove home and headed out to Suavo's. We had a wonderful night. Jen and Suavo managed to make things go boom!

Not long now and the rest of my family is heading back to England for my cousin's wedding. Sadly, Jen and I can not go. However, we're getting back on our feet financially.

Still, I think I'm over being pissed about not getting the job.

Mostly, I'm trying to answer the question what do I want? I'm really not sure I know the answer.

• 12:52 Job interview went okay. #
• 12:52 Had a GREAT time at S J Tucker and the Traveling Fates show! Thanks everyone for making it a wonderful time! #
• 22:00 @okayprettygood If you haven't had it yet, you need to get yourself a margarita! #

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• 19:15 Attempting not to stress about job interview on the morrow. #

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• 19:47 Apparently those who read these things agree I need to better myself! #
• 21:11 @reverae Looks awesome I hope you enjoy. #

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• 19:44 I have decided I need to be a better man. The difficult part is how? #

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• 14:31 @matociquala LOL Funny my editor, better known as my wife, is at war with commas as well! #
• 18:48 Pondering how much I self censor the more people know who I am on these sites. #
• 22:15 I need to blog. Why haven't I? #

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• 22:00 Pondering the existence of me #

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• 19:28 @anidifranco any chance of a MO addition? #
• 20:41 @RealCliveBarker may as well ask why do people play with a sore tooth #

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• 20:47 @moonfrye reading #

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• 21:37 @okayprettygood I'd love to give you all of that! #

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• 19:57 @jeweljk Not to be creepy, but with no people around, I'd be naked! #
• 19:58 @matociquala Amen! The whole story doesn't make sense if Han don't have to redeem himself! #
• 20:13 Had some lousy BBQ. Had fun playing some bad pool. Reading internet peoples updates! #

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• 12:23 Pondering how the cool kids like Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) always make it look so easy! #

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• 19:30 @scottmccloud I actually love Pixar because they embody the old Disney spirit of trusting kids to actually be okay with dealing with life. #

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• 21:28 Pondering how much the Arthur mythos would change is Guinevere was a lesbian and Lancelot was helping her cover it up? #

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• 21:30 Drove home barefoot and I loved it. #

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Been a while since I've written. Partially this has been lack of time, partially due to lack of inspiration and mostly because I'm lazy.

I've managed to acquire a second job in the last few weeks and lose half my hours. I'm the only guy I know who can need a second job for the money and three weeks in go from 20 hours a week to 10 hours a week. I still need money and my plan to only work for 12 short weeks has been thwarted. I'm guessing I'll need to keep working for at least 26 weeks. Oh well, what are you going to do, right?

Still, things aren't so bad. My second job is back in the P&P Command Center, where I used to work. I like to think I'm getting back into the swing of things. But, who really knows. I like to delude myself quite a bit.

Work has gotten interesting. My workload has gotten heavier. By itself this isn't a good or bad thing, but it has made life a bit more interesting. My co-worker has been detailed to work in our unit in the morning and in a different unit in the afternoon. I think the work flow should have been more similar to this all along. But, we'll see how this all works out. i don't claim to know all the answers, hell I barely know any of the questions.

Oh well, this started out as a much longer blog. But, this is all I have in me right now.

What a week it has been here. My week started off finding out one of my co-workers had flown out on Sunday to be with her boyfriend in New York state. No worries, but a bit of a shock as she'd said she wasn't going on Friday. That made work a bit different as we were a person down, but the more important part is I needed to work closer with my nominal supervisor. Again, not a big deal but it is a bit more than I'm used to. Still, I managed to get quite a bit done this week.

On Tuesday Jen and I went to see the Eagles. I am so glad we got to go. Since Jen is an employee of the University of Missouri we got tickets at a reduced price. The concert was awesome. They've returned to the original, electric, version of Hotel California. I took years to adjust to the Hell Freezes Over album version. I've now gotten to the point where I like it. The concert was wonderful. They looked liked they were having a good time. I really enjoyed seeing Don Henley and Glen Fry play live. Joe Walsh was amazing. Although I'm convinced Joe has no idea where he is most of the time. I didn't know Timothy B Schmit before Tuesday, but he was excellent. I didn't realize that he contributed lead vocals on several of the Eagles tunes.

After the concert Jen and I stayed behind to let some of the traffic clear out. I was amazed at that small army that emerged to breakdown the stage and associated equipment (the media pit and hanging screens). The worst part of it was seeing all of the garbage that was left behind. I was really disappointed in the amount of detritus that was left for someone else behind for someone else to clean up.

We left the concert and still had a few errands to run. We stopped by Walmart to get milk, QuikTrip to get petrol and by McDonald's to get some fuel. We didn't get to bed until almost 0130.

Wednesday was a tad rough. Jen had a meeting that she had to lead at 0700. Poor girl. We got through the rest of the week relatively unscathed.

Friday we watched both the Penultimate and the Ultimate episodes of Battle Star Galactica. I was very impressed. Even thought I do agree with assmonkeydiary that there was a high level of the Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Saturday Jen and I watch more telly and then headed over to Danny and Elaine's place for Exalted game. Things are going along well there. Although I'm not sure that we are going in the direction Danny wants us to go. Still, I think he's rolling with the punches very well.

Sunday we watched more telly and eventually went to G&D's Steakhouse for dinner with Danny, Elaine and Grace. We had a good meal. Then we went and got some custard and then headed over to their house for a bit. They were watching The Celebrity Apprentice. We came home and finished some laundry. Then it was bedtime.

The week at work was very difficult. Sadly with the day off we had the dual problem of the same amount of work to do in a week and one less day to do it all in. To be fair, the week wasn't all that bad, but I felt the pressure of time. Jen didn't have Monday off and had to still seemed to have less time to get things done than she needed.

When Friday arrived Jen and I came home and watched our regular line up of Friday night shows: Monk and Psych amongst them.

Saturday morning Jen and I were sitting in the living room watching television when the telephone rang. We didn't answer it, but I wanted to be sure I didn't miss anything important. I stepped in and listened to the answering machine. Best Buy was calling to inform me my computer was not going to be repaired so I should come down to the store to discuss replacing it. After a while Jen and I got dressed and headed out. We went to lunch at G&D Steakhouse, which was wonderful but the state wrestling tournament was in town and they were very crowded. We stepped over to Best Buy when we were done. We had to sort through some paperwork to get things ready. We were told they were going to replace the computer with something equivalent to what we had bought in November '06. (Go ahead and laugh, they don't make 'em that slow any more) We told the lady we had just bought a new Toshiba on Sunday and if it was acceptable we'd like to replace our old one with one of those. You guessed it, I'm writing this while watching the Oscars on my new Toshiba laptop.

What a kick in the pants the last week has been.

Monday (9 February) the car started rough. This was funny, because it had run just fine on Sunday. The check engine light stayed on. We went about a block and pulled over. The car sounded rough, but usable. we decided to chance things. We go to the top of the road and decided to look under the hood. We found rust on the last spark plug (we started at the top and worked down). We decided to go home and beg assistance from David. We go home and Jen talked with David. She asked for $200 and he generously gave us $300. We cautiously took the car to Ewer's. We waited around for about 45 minutes and then walked up to David's bank. We'd stopped and checked the hours of operation on the way in. Jen got the check cashed and we happily walked to the shop. When we got to the shop we were told they had diagnosed our problem: bad spark plug wires and coil pack. They could do the entire repair for $386. We explained we only had $300. They were reticent, but we got them to replace the spark plug wires. They told us that was what HAD to be done and hopefully the coil pack could wait. We got on the road and I dropped Jen off at work. I motored down the road and arrived three hours late for work.

When I got to work things were a mess. They are going to replace a printer and had deleted the profile. However, we still need to use that printer. So, I spent some time on the telephone with ITS. The guy added the profile back, thinking about it now I hope he doesn't get into trouble! That night Jen asked David for an Extra $200. Sadly, we have fallen into the payday loan trap.

Tuesday morning we cashed David's new check. We went to work and the day went smoothly. I raced home and made a payment on the loan. I was very relieved.

Wednesday was uneventful.

Thursday I had the day off. I took Jen to work and went to my doctor's appointment. Unfortunately, I arrived before the doctor. I read in the waiting room, then they took my vitals and roomed me. The chronic disease nurse practitioner came in and saw me. I guess I'm managing my diabetes quite well. I'm now on semi-annual visits. My doctor seems pleased with my management. I left my appointment and stopped by and saw Jen. I went up and sat in the car until lunch time. We had the Pizza Hut buffet. I took Jen back to work and headed home. On the way, I stopped at Anytime Fitness and managed to get a quick tour and a price quote. Then I headed home for the unpleasantness of the day. I had to clean the oven. I put the Star Wars soundtrack on and spent a couple of hours scrubbing out the oven while taking liberal breaks to play on the internet. I didn't get the oven clean, but it is cleaner.

Friday started with good news, our Federal tax return was in the bank. We got better news at the mailbox, our state tax return was in. We cashed the check and headed to work. The day was both fast and slow. I was busy which made the day fast, but seemed to drag on as there was a three day weekend awaiting. I picked up Jen and we invited David out to dinner. I knew we were either going to Olive Garden or Longhorn's for food. We decided on Longhorn's and I enjoyed people watching while we waited. I can't believe the amount of people dressed for warmer weather complying about how cold they were. I especially enjoy the women with flip-flops and shorts on and a sweatshirt on. I almost laughed out loud. Dinner was wonderful. We enjoyed ourselves immensely. Then we headed home.

Saturday I woke up when Jen came back to bed. I don't know what happened, but I was awake. She was reading and for some reason the minuscule amount of noise she was making kept me awake. I got up and checked to make sure we could access the tax refund we could and my paycheck was there as well. I paid our wireless bill, now it will come out automatically. Plus, subscribed us to Wizard 101 (an online game that is quite fun) and bought some crowns (an in-world currency). We laid in bed for a while and then moved to the living room. I decided since we were up I'd get the car repaired. I called Ewer's and they told me to come in at 1100. We watched some telly and Jen played on the computer. I threw on some clothes and headed downtown. I gave Ewer's the car and headed up to Lucy's for breakfast. I talked with my sister, she'd called while I was pulling into Ewer's, while I waited for my food. I ate a delicious breakfast and walked back down to Ewer's. I saw my car had been moved. I wasn't sure if they'd finished work or looked at it, moved the car and were waiting on a part. I walked in and my cell phone rang. Ewer's was calling me. Thinking the guy behind the counter was calling and answered and hung up. OOPS! The guy used the intercom to call Dean who came up and checked me out. I was on my way shortly and headed home. Jen and I hung out watching telly for the rest of the afternoon before heading out to Danny and Elaine's for Rifts.

Sunday I woke up and headed out to play on the internet for a while. Sometimes a wanderlust comes over me, usually I don't mind laying in bed sometimes I have to get up for a bit. I played around looked at various sites. I closed the computer lid and I heard a crack, but thought nothing of it. I went back to bed and read for a while. Jen and I were talking and I remember what I originally had gone out to look up. I went out and saw the right hinge had broken through the top of the case. The left hinge was already broken. I made the decision to get a new laptop. When we had discussed having Best Buy repair the left hinge we had been told to expect a three week turnaround. We got up, went to QuikTrip for gas and news papers, Cracker Barrel for lunch and then to Rock Bottom Comics (ya gotta have your bi-weekly dose of comicy goodness.) Plus we like our comic book guys. Then it was off to Best Buy. We got in line and waited. I saw a young woman come in with a thin tee-shirt, shorts (showing lots of leg) and flip flops.Now Sunday was a nice day, but not quite that nice! Still, I enjoyed the view. Once we got to the front of the line things went quickly. They found our policy, took down what needed fixed and we headed out. Back in the computer department (the placement always reminds me of the cashier cages in a casino all the way at the back!) we quickly found the computer we wanted and made our decision. We got the computer and the accident protection package (hey I'm fairly sure it was gonna pay for the other commuter to get fixed!) and were on our way home. The rest of the day was spent setting up the computer, watching telly and generally enjoying.

Monday (16 February) I took Jen to work and then went home and relaxed. I washed the sheets and generally did nothing. Jen was correct, the new laptop was nice. I played Wizard 101 and surfed my sites while I watched The Man Who Wasn't There. I mostly watched because I'd seen Scarlett Johannsson was in it. I'm not a big Billy Bob Thornton fan. Then I took Jen to lunch, Pizza Hut buffet again. Then home to watch Sling Blade and the first part of Footloose. (I know I've never seen it!) I finished my book while I was waiting for Jen. We came home. I watched the end of Footloose. An okay film We had dinner and watched XIII (a mini-series based on a comic book) and then crashed.