In Which I get a job / Monday, April 26, 2004
That didn't take long did it? I went in this morning to Convergys, and they gave me some tests to do and told me the training is going to start in two weeks. It's a call centre, not really what I want to do, but the hours a flexible and they'll help me pay for my education, and it's just down the road from where Ash works. So it's all pretty handy really. I've got an interview tomorrow for a job I applied for. I can't really remember what the job was, so I guess I'd better find that out before I go!
I realized that there is a risk with driving with your windows down in this country. Bugs. Those little critters seem to like flying into moving vehicles, and if your driving down the road at 60 mph it's quite a shock when on of the little barstards flies straight into you chest and look down to see a stunned beetle in your lap! It's just as well none of them are bullet shaped... A couple of days ago a wasp hit me in the face and got caught in the space between me and my sunglasses. Fortunately it was stunned so it didn't sting me or anything, but it was a close call! Anyhow, that's just an observation.
It was a nice day today, I went to the lake at LSU for a while on my way to pick up Ash. There was this lady there with a couple of doggies, she was throwing the balls in the lake and they were jumping in to get them. On of the dogs came over to me and dropped the ball in front of me, so I thought "What the hey" and threw the ball in the lake. He kept on coming back (his name was Colin). Then the other dog came over to me, so I had a relaxing while playing with some stupid dogs that like to get soaked. Fortunately the avoided shaking their wetness on me!
/Hopped!
10:02 PM
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In Which I Quit / Saturday, April 24, 2004
Yep that's right I quit. They were going to cut my pay from $5.50 to $2.18p/h. That is literally nothing, even with tips I'd be lucky to bring home $120 a week. So now I'm in full-time job search mode, I've already apllied for about four jobs, and I'm going to drive round and apply at places tomorrow. I'm not fussy in what I do at the moment, just as long as it earns me money.
That's all the news I've got. Besides, it's late. I've got a busy day tomorrow.
/Hopped!
1:24 AM
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In which the wife explains the Englishman's absence / Thursday, April 22, 2004
Using some gift vouchers given to us by the Easter bunny, we went to Circuit City and got SimCity, a computer game that allows you to design your own city from the ground up (and underneath as well). Since we have arrived at home from the store, it has been near impossible to separate Pete from the computer. And who said he needed a Playstation 2?
Mummy Sue, he's fine, we're great, and still busy working at the church. Pete is somehow magically losing his beer belly, I think from giving up beer during Lent. However that has passed and I'm finding more beer bottles in the trash can again. This time it is low carb beer, so perhaps that is a good sign. We both miss you dearly and wish to see you soon. Send more chocolate/wheat crunchies/kisses.
Aunty Marian and Uncle Bill, we got into a lengthy and enjoyable conversation with an LSU professor of History about public transport in the United States. Pete quoted his Uncle Bill a lot in terms of how we would manage to build a reliable and useful public transport system. Seems that he pays attention to his Aunty and Uncle! We miss you both and hope that one day you can leave darling Ruth to come visit!
To the other few folks who read this from time to time, leave us a message so that Pete will know others read his blog and he won't feel so sad. And the deadline for saying yay or nay on the Florida trip is SOON! Please come, even if you don't like the beach. It's about getting mates together and letting Pete know that his mates haven't forgotten him. He's gutted that y'all don't keep in touch.
And Linda, come back, we miss you already! And um, bring more of that Solpadene please. Sweetie says "meow!"
/Hopped!
10:29 PM
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In Which I Have a Decent Link For Y'all! / Monday, April 19, 2004
Hey! I haven't really done much today. I took a mental health day off work, and slept for most of it. I tidied up all of our wing as well. Ash and I went to dinner at Olive Garden, and that's about it. I wouldn't've really bother posting today at all if it wasn't for me finding this excellent link. Here you go:
Operation Slaps
Goodnight!
/Hopped!
9:29 PM
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In Which I Have a Busy Week / Sunday, April 18, 2004
Boy, Am I tired! I've been busy all week, working, giving Ash lifts to and from work, and partying. The work bit isn't too interesting, I did meet a lady from Essex. I guess she's glad to be away from all of the Essex girl comments! It's always good to hear another English accent, there aren't too many of them over here. It's not fun being an obvious foreigner every time I open my mouth, especially when they speak the same language, unlike if I was living in France or where ever. I'd just be ignored. Here however the reply is either "I like your accent", "Talk some more" or "I've been there, I love it. Have you ever been to London/Stratford upon Avon?" Which gets a bit tiring. I mean "I love your accent"?? What, is that a compliment? I've had it all my life, it's not like it's a talent of any sort. "Talk some more"? How about trying to engage me in a conversation rather than tell me to talk more? If they went up to anyone else and said that they would get the same response I give: "What do you want me to say?" Anyhow, that's just me bickering about something not very important. There's a lot of nice people here once they get over the initial shock of me coming from England.
Partying. I know that's what you want to hear about right? Well on Thursday Ash's cousin, Brian, was in town looking at LSU to do his doctorate. He's also applied to the University of London and the University of Wales, I said London would be better (who wouldn't?) We went out to play pool at a place called Rickochets. It was a pretty cool place. It was Brian, Gordon, Ash and me. I had a few drinks, so I didn't win every game this time! Sobriety helps the concerntration! It was all good fun.
The last night there was a neighbourhood crawfish boil at the neighbours house. That was good fun, we all ate crawfish and drank. Apart from the Mormons. They just talked. There was this guy who's a professor of history at LSU, he told me that in the 1860's there was 400 something miles of railway in the south, but in the north there was over 14,000 miles of it. So maybe the lack of public transport is just a southern thing. That was about it really. It was all old people, and they didn't party beyond 10:30 though. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!
I think that's me pretty much up to date. I'm going to do the comics and go to bed. Goodnight!
/Hopped!
9:23 PM
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In Which Ash the Wife speaks for Pete / Friday, April 16, 2004
Pete's been a busy man, working and playing with his new guitar and music toys. I'm glad that music shop has finally closed. Now I can get him to save money again for new tires on the truck before we start sliding instead of driving to work. It's getting pretty close. The tires are so slick they should be against the law, and probably are.
Last night we had a great time. My cousin Brian came into town to visit LSU as a possible place to study for his chemical engineering PhD (he's a smartybritches). Pete and I both had work/meetings until 8pm so we met up with him about 8:30pm with Gordon, my sister's husband, at a local pool hall and we got to talk and play pool all night. Normally Pete and I can play some pretty good games of pool, but since it is soon after Lent and Pete decided to take this opportunity to drink ALL the beer he had missed in those 40 days (okay, so maybe he just drank 10 or 12, it's a lot to man who went 40 days without recently). So we had some sloppy play, but good conversation, and fun was had by all.
I took my over-refreshed husband home around 11:30pm, but first I had to drive to the post office to mail off my tax return. For you Brits, it's similar to when you have to send in your tax forms to the Inland Revenue. April 15th is our deadline, and it just has to be postmarked by then. There was one post office in Baton Rouge that decided to be open to midnight, and I joined a loooooong line of procrastinating cars to drop mine in the box. Pete was amazed by the number of slackers, but I told him that we were just looking at ALL the slackers in the southern part of this state. That's probably half a million people, and we were with the slackers of that portion, because everybody has to mail this in.
Anyway, I'm sure Pete will get back to y'all soon. He's probably very hungover today and is at work once again. I miss all of y'all, and wish you would comment more often so that Pete knows he has some readers out there - otherwise he'll stop doing this daily journal thing full stop! So... is anyone out there?
/Hopped!
1:17 PM
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In Which I Watch Kill Bill Vol. 1 / Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Great movie, lots of chop soky action! That's about all to say about it really. Only a few more days until I can watch Vol. 2! Hurrah! I like the ending, very soap operaish. I mean the very ending, the end fight bit is just wicked, reminds me of The One Armed Swordsman, but more stylish.
Well, what else have I been up to in these past few days? I did the church thing, it went alright. The Alpha thing wasn't on this week because it's Easter, so all of the leaders met up to discuss it and have dinner. That was very enjoyable. Something pretty interesting came up there, there's this guy called Mike who is the leader of my group. He met up with this guy Billy. Mike is in constant conversation with God, He talks to him all the time. Billy is a preacher-in-training kind of. Well it's a bit hard to sum up without getting really personal about the guy, but he's not really the kind of guy who works for a living. Actually maybe I shouldn't tell you about it at all really, it's all kind of personal. I guess I can't really leave it like that though... So I'll just give you highlights, Billy found himself homeless. He came to church and met up with Mike. Mike took him to a trailer he has somewhere out in the country so he could stay there. The real interesting part is that Mike asked God what he should do. Mike really doesn't know Billy very well at all, they've met at Alpha, but they're not in the same group or anything. Anyhow, Mike asks God what else he should do, and he hears God loud as a bell say "Give him $500" Mike says "$500? Are you sure? Isn't $200 enough?" God:"Nope, $500." So he goes to Walmart and buys groceries for Billy (as directed by God) and gets $100 cashback, goes to a cash machine and gets out another $200. Usually the maximum amount you can get out in one day. Mike says to God "There's $300, and I'm not sure I'll be able to get any more, is that enough?" "Nope $500, try again." says God. The cash machine gives him another $200. So he gives $500 to Billy and leaves him in the trailer.
Interesting eh? I guess that shows Mikes faith in God, It takes a lot for a man to part with $500.... I don't know if I would do the same in his situation.
Monday I just worked. Although I did finally enjoy a beer after work, been as lent is over. After 9 hours of being on my feet I don't really have to tell you that it was much appreciated!
Today I worked, went to Michaels Music store again, bought a proper harmonica case, a Boss Distortion pedal and 40 picks for $50. The pedal would've been $150, the case $50 and the picks, oh I don't know $20? So I saved me some money there! I'm going to go along early tomorrow morning, it's 95% off everything, and they have a Fender amp there (possibly, unless someone bought it) Which I'll be able to get for $35... Only $700-odd off the original price! If that's not there there's a conga which will be about $4, and some other stuff which will just be too low to refuse!
That's all I've got for today, Maybe I'll write tomorrow, who knows? I'm getting a bit lazy these days aren't I? Sorry! It's late so I'm still going to be lazy about the comics for today. I'll tell you next time I do them. If there's a post here there's a good chance there will be new comics up (but not today, as I just told you). 'til next time!
/Hopped!
10:51 PM
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In Which I don't do much Again / Thursday, April 08, 2004
Hi, sorry if there's a ton of typos on this post, I'm on a laptop which is about 6 inches too high for comfortable typgin. So this one is going to be a short one.
Just as well really, I haven't done anything today anyhow. I worked, went to World Market to get some Heinz Beans, played some guitar, napped... that's about it really.
I did spend alot of today sitting in traffic, which was very frustrating, it took me one and a half hours to get to the mall and home from work. Grrr...
I recorded a version of Ring Of Fire tonight, with kazoo instead of trumpets. It's very funny, I'll put it on my website as soon as I get a chance, so you can get to listen and laugh along!
That;s it, I guess I'll try and do my comics tonight, I haven't done them in a while, and I know that mother must be missing them...
/Hopped!
11:30 PM
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In Which Not Much Happens Really / Wednesday, April 07, 2004
I haven't really got much to report. Ash and I went to the bankruptcy hearing yesterday, it all went as it should. We've got to wait for it to be closed, and no-one knows how long that'll take. I made another website, this time with music on it. Go
here to see it. For some reason the title picture isn't working, and because of the bandwidth limitations you'll only get to get on it once, so listen to all the songs first time round. Some of the code is slightly wrong as well, apart from that it's alright!
Umm... That's about it. I went to a rehearsal yesterday for church. I think it's a bit better learning the songs well before rather than the night before, I can practice them. Maria, being a pianist, keeps on picking out piano songs, so there's about four chord changes in every bar, it makes it very difficult to keep up on guitar. Still, it's a challenge, and it's got to be improving my playing. I just want to be able to feel the music rather than having to concerntrate on it so much.
Anyhow, the wife is nagging me trying to get me to go to bed, so I'd better go. Therefore you can blame the lack of comics on Ash! Goodnight!
/Hopped!
9:41 PM
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In Which I Go On A Shopping Spree! / Monday, April 05, 2004
Yup, time for me to shop! I went to Michaels Music Shop and Spent $280 on:
A Zoom 1010 multi-effects pedal (retail $220)
A Big Muff distortion/sustainer pedal like Jimi used ($112)
A Danelectro Talk-Back pedal ($170)
some leads ($20)
6 harmonicas, a harmonica belt and a holder so I can play guitar and harmonica at the same time bob Dylan/Neil young style (about $200)
Now tell me it wasn't worth it! Do the math! Over $700 worth of stuff for $280! Is that cool or what? Unfortunately the Talk-Back pedal has already broke, so I'll have to use the warranty on that already. It sounded cool while it worked though, it played the guitar backwards through it. The Big Muff is not only a truly amazing sounding pedal, it's also got a funny name! Hee hee! Muff! I haven't got the 1010 working yet, I need to get a power adapter for it (that's why I only paid $90 for it). Michael is closing down see, and he's selling all his stuff 60% off. I'm going to back next time I get paid to see if he's knocked it down to 70% off, and the time after to see if it's 80% off. Then I can get the fender amp/digitec multieffects pedal/Washburn guitar if they haven't been sold already.
Well that's my exciting news for today, yesterday and Saturday were busy days. On Saturday I had work, and there was a kids fair at church which I went along to straight after, then I had to practice for the church service. Sunday was the church service, followed pretty soon after by Alpha. It was all good fun though. Still I remember when my weekends used to be relaxing! Someone told me that I'm in the Army of God now, it's a 24/7 job. They weren't kidding! This evening I've been trying to get a religious song by the Waterboys down so I can play it solo on next Sunday if Maria likes it enough. It's not super religious though, so I'm not sure if she will. It's still a wicked song (Universal Hall is the name of it) and I've put a little harmonica solo on the end of it using my new toys: a harmonica in E and my little holder thingy. Well there you go, I've caught up, and it's time for bed. No time for the comics, sorry! At least you have the knowledge that I'm happy playing with my Big Muff to cheer you up!
/Hopped!
11:23 PM
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