In Which I Do Even More Catching Up, And Nag A Little / Saturday, March 19, 2005
Okay, so I'll get the nagging out of the way first. Apparently only two people actually read this! I have two addresses in my new address book. I know I'm not the best at replying to emails, especially now with work and swimming and whatnot (oh I didn't tell you about me swimming did I? I will once I'm done with my nagging!) but I do let you know I'm still alive, and where I'm living and stuff. I'm not asking for much, just an address. Forget the paragraph. I'll just make up whats going on in your lives in my own head. You lot have been coming into my dreams quite a bit recently, which is just as well because otherwise I'd forget what you're names were or something even more drastic which I can't think of right now! I'm hoping it's because some of you can't be bothered to read the whole email (which doesn't really surpprise me, I'm not the most interesting guy in the world) which is why I put it at the start of this one see? Anyhow, it's not as bad as it once was, there used to be one of these daily, now it appears to only be fortnightly!
Nag over, on with the things that are going on in my life....
I am trying to swim at least twice a week. There's a REC centre down the road from me which is pretty convienient. It's not under used either, most nights there's sycronized swimming in one end of the pool, aquarobics at the other end and swimming lessons in the middle. There's only about five lanes open to public swimmers! I started three weeks ago and I could only swim for about twenty minutes. I've been pushing myself though, now I can happily swim for an hour. It's definately helping me to loose weight. I'm sure that the things I gave up for lent (beer, fast food and fizzy pop) is helping me out too! I'll try to take them back up in moderation after lent. Well, apart from beer! I miss the old amber nectar!
So, the exciting thing that happened this week is I crashed the truck. Alright, don't panic, I dinged a car parking. It's not the easiest thing to park you know, there's alot of guesswork and hoping going on. So I hit this car on the front wheel arch. I did it while I was delivering a part to a body shop, so they gave me a quote. Have a guess how much they quoted me (answer at the bottom) so I phoned up my insurance company and they sorted everything out. I thought I was going to have to pay the deductable, but that's only for damage to the truck, which is kind of cool. Oh, by the way, there wasn't any damage to the truck.
Ashley has gone out of town for the weekend, on of her friends mother died and shes gone to the funeral in Richmond to give her some support. They're going out drinking tonight so I think her friend will have to return the favor tonight. ba-dum! Sorry, was that disrepectful? No disrepect meant, I just thought it was funny!
What else.... Oh, we got rid of half of our free furniture, the only things we've got left are the dining table and chairs and sofas. Slowly but surely we're Ikeaing the place up. Gosh, I can't really think of anything else to write. Sorry. I should eat anyhow, it's 10 o'clock in the evening and I haven't even started cooking!
The answer is $1200. For a ding?! The insurance guy got it down to pretty much half of that. Blooming cowboys.
/Hopped!
8:14 PM
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In Which Some Catching Up is Done / Thursday, March 03, 2005
Okay, it's been a while, so here goes.... You'd better put a good half an hour aside to read this....
Mother has been and gone, as has mother-in-law. We had a splendid time. Mother appreciates the public transport and pavements. It means that she wasn't stuck in the apartment all day while Ash and I were at work. I got a few days off to spend with the old girls though.
Mum and I went into DC for a couple of days, we went to the Museum of American History. It's very big. We did one floor (almost) we did the war bit up until the civil war, but it was a bit too depressing to look at any of the other wars. An awful lot of people died in the Civil War. Then we looked at a few other bits. We went to Union Station to eat, they have a huge food court there, there must've been at least 20 different places to eat. It's a very fancy station. I noticed it had a cinema! I don't think there's one of those at Paddington!
We went back in the next day and looked at all the memorials. The FDR is my favorite, it has lots of water features and is generally a nice place to sit around and relax in. We also saw the Lincoln and Jefferson ones as well, they're kind of fancy really. We went to the Vietnam War and the Second World War Memorials too.
Oh, on Saturday Mother, Ash and I went to the spy museum, that was very interesting too. They actually made cigarette and umbrella guns! It said that the spy agencies actually got some of their ideas off of Bond films. I always thought it was the other way round!
Mother helped us out by buying us all the important things we needed (as well as groceries for the week... Well acutally we're still eating those groceries now, two weeks later!) which was very nice of her, and much appreciated. She also cooked us dinner for when we got home form work, which was very nice of her as well!
Oh yeah, Mother flew into BWI. Can I just give a suggestion if any of you guys decide to come over to help keep my sanity? If you are going to fly into BWI please try and do it in the middle of the day, not at rush hour! It's only an hour away non-rush hour, it's closer to three at rush hour. The airport of choice to fly into is Dulles, then Regan and the BWI. BWI is actually closer to Baltimore than Washington, at least the other two are in DC! It is a lot cheaper to fly into BWI though, so it's not a big problem flying in there, just try and get a flight that arrives before four o'clock please!
Dianne flew into Dulles. It would've been fine, if my wife could tell the difference between a 6 and an 8. we go there on the 16th to pick her up, wait about for a couple of hours. Dianne calls her dad, he says that she's arriving on the 18th! Doh! So we go home and come back on the 18th and there she is.
She bought an air matress with her which we've now aquired, and mother bought a sleeping bag with her that she's left here, and we have some extra blankets and stuff. Also, unlike Louisiana there are actually things to do here which don't involve getting drunk (there are plenty that have that option, but you don't have to do it) There's no barbeques here though, and no Joe to cook steaks unfortunatly, but apart from that everything is fun up here. I only thought about asking Dianne to bring some of Joe's steaks with her after she go here and by then, it was just too late. Anyhow, I got sidetracked. The point of this paragraph is... come and visit! It's fun! Only one flight, so it's cheap and less hassle! Have I sold it enough?
Anyhow, I digress. Dianne got here, that weekend all four of us went to the Air and Space Museum in Dulles (there's two of them - on in DC and one with all the extra big stuff the couldn't fit inside that one in Dulles) There's a Blackbird there, a Concorde, and a space shuttle. It's all very exciting!
We went to the mall, because - well you know chicks.... We went to Sam's to get some stuff and Dianne bought me a PS2 as a belated birthday present! Woohoo! It's one of those new tiny ones, just a smidge bigger than a dvd box. Well you can what I've been doing with my spare time can't you?! I've got five games, Gran Tourismo 3 and Jak 2 came with it, and I've also got Tony Hawks Underground 2 (that's no surprise is it?), The Simpsons Hit and Run, and Jak and Daxter. That one was secondhand and the disc is a bit messed up so it won't let me past a certain bit, and I'm not going to start playing Jak 2 until I've completed the first one.
We went to Ikea with Dianne and she bought us a couple of pieces of furniture and a couple of lights and some other stuff. I went back and spent our $100 per month furniture designation (yes, we've budgeted!) on a TV stand thingy. So all we need for the living room is a coffee table and some end tables. Oh and some new sofas, but that'll wait until my credit get better.
Oh yeah! I should tell you about that too. Just when you thought there was no way our landlord could be any nicer, he's put my name on his credit card and in about three months I should have a good credit rating. He has a credit rating of 800 (I think that's as high as it goes) so that should rub off on me! What a nice guy!
While our Mums were here Ash had a sinus infection and I had a cold. So we had two mothers looking after us! I think secretly they liked looking after us as much as we liked being looked after. After all mothers are very good at mothering, and I'm sure they've been missing that!
I think that's about it really. Oh yeah, it was our wedding anniversary yesterday (the 2nd) I cooked Ash steaks and bought her some flowers, and she bought me a subscription to Uncut! (the English music mag I read when I can get it... Which'll be every month now! Woohoo!) We're going to go out ring shopping this weekend, so we can finally get some wedding bands. Well we'll at least get one for Ash, mine might have to wait for next month, it depends how fiscally challenged we are. One things for sure though, this month we're going to be almost definatly in the black this month, and hopefully every month after that. Ash will have finished paying off for the truck at the end of this month which'll save us $300-odd. So, yay!
Oh, and one more thing, a favor to ask of you guys. The other day I got a new address book, and I gather that I am not the only person to have moved... So (at the risk of being upset by getting no replies to this request) I was wondering if you could send me your addresses to my email address, just in case I decide to get all prehistoric and write with a pen and paper in stead of on the computer. You could also add a little extra paragraph telling me how your doing if you wanted (is that asking too much?) Thank you!
That's about it, I hope to be hearing from y'all soon.
Oh there was one thing that happened to me today which was kind of amusing. I was out in the sticks a bit and I had to stop and get some fuel. It was one of those old full service pumps with the little whirly numbers. So I went in and there was four guys, one big fat man with a truckers cap sitting behind a desk, another guy on the radio to someone, and the other two were leaning up against the counter. The counter was just a shelf on the wall with a till on it. There was a couple of racial slurs while I was in there as well. Proper real life hicks! A little slice of culture there. Oh and also the dispatcher I'm working for is from West Virginia and he has 10 vehicles in his front yard, only one of which is road leagal, and there's one more that actually works, and a bike that works too. He also has a couch on his front porch. I think that that a real country boy there!
That really is it, I'm off to bed.
/Hopped!
7:20 PM
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In Which I Let You Know I'm Still Alive / Tuesday, March 01, 2005
/Hopped!
8:51 PM
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