Oils Changed?

Cam came over yesterday to do his laundry and mentioned that an oil change place in Brighton had a now hiring sign up. He thought it was Valvoline or Victory Lane or something of the sort.

Dragging my tired ass out of bed this morning I threw on some clothes and headed out, much to Jen insistence. I crused up to the Valvoline place up town, which is the only oil change place in Brighton that my mind remembers. Not only where they not hiring they where rather rude about it. After a moments pondering I realized that Cameron works on Old 23 and maybe it was one in the little automotive strip right there, Cruize in Oil or what ever. I popped in and asked the tech there, who said they where not hiring but I could do an app all the same. Right on, never hurts. I took the 2 minutes to fill out the 2 sides of paper, then decided to head towards the 7-11 on Pleasant valley cause they tend to need weekend people a lot. They didn't, but I left an app any way. I'm on a roll so far I guess, 3 stops with 2 apps turned in, the ass at Valvoline wouldn't even give me one. On my way back home I drive by the Victory Lane that I tend to ignore because it's on the 'cluttered' side of Grand River. They have a big 'Now Hiring' sign up.

I pull in, walk in the door and wait about 5 minutes for the guy to crawl out from under the car he is working on. He pokes his head into the office, tells me someone will be right with me. I wait another minute or two before the manager comes out. I tell him that I saw the sign, and could I please get an app. He says sure, and if I get it back in today he can look it over. I pop out to the van, fill it out right quick and give it back to him. After looking it over and asking me a couple of questions about my previous employer, I told him was Tim's company and I did all the service work on his trucks. Which isn't a lie, it was all true for the 2 months I worked there.

I'm told that it all looked good, that he had one position open. He's going to start calling references on the few apps that he has then make some interviews in the next couple of days

Cam if your reading this, then remember your my #1 reference. I worked for a landscaping company, and I serviced all their trucks. I only put Tim's (Michigan Environmental) for 2 months, before that it was all LaFave Enterprises, where I again serviced the trucks. Which is also not a lie.

At any rate, this is the first application I've turned in that seems hopeful. But maybe it's because it's the first one I've turned in that I got to talk to the person in charge.

Or perhaps it's just because he put it in front of his computer on his desk, instead of filing it away.

Idiocracy

Jen, Cameron, and I just finished watching what has got to be the dumbest movie of 2006. Idiocracy staring Luke Wilson.

The whole plot of the movie is that Luke is put into a cryogenic sleep chamber and forgotten for 500 years. When he wakes up the world is in ruin and everybody is stupid. Making him the smartest man in the world.

It had a couple of comical parts, but for the most part it was pretty dumb. And super scary because I know quite a few people that dumb. Makes you wonder what the world will be like.

Stupid is as Stupid does...

In the hunt for a job I drover into Howell today. The Staples next to Lowes is hiring. I popped in quickly to fill out the application, only to be informed by the service manager that applications can only be filled out online. Not a problem, I can do that, I like on-line applications.

Get home, pop of over to staples.com, follow the links. Up pops the message...

Unsupported Web Browser or Operating System
To ensure all functions of the Staples application perform correctly, you may not apply online using an unsupported Web browser or Operating System. You may not proceed with this application unless you use one of the Web browsers and/or Operating Systems listed below.

Not a big deal, it's happened before, just gotta switch from Firefox to IE. Open IE, pop in the address and refollow the links only to get the exact same message.

You have to be running either Netscape or IE on one of the following operating systems.

Supported Operating Systems:
* Windows 98
* Windows 2000
* Windows XP
* Windows NT4


I tell ya, no love for the Mac user. And this is the office supply place that has the 'easy' button.

No love!

And she's off.

Jen is off for her MRI, I'm not going with her for a verity of reasons. Not the least among them is me not feeling good. I've had a perpetual headache for the last 2 weeks or so, it never seems to let you.

She getting two MRIs done, at an hour each with 45 minuets between them. Which means she should be home between 10:30 and 11:30. She wanted me to stay behind and sleep cause one of us will have to keep Mike for the night and she'll need to sleep when she gets home.

I feel kind of useless with her going to the doctor, they won't let me in for the MRI so I'll just be sitting in the waiting room alone. Not even able to comfort her for them, at least she has a book. I can't even driver her there and back because of my license, with the snow on the ground it makes it a really bad idea.

Ah well, she's got my cell if she has any problems. It'll all turn out well in the end.

Love you babe.

Pan's Labyrith

Jen and I just got home from seeing 'Pan's Labyrinth' with Cam. Jen's really been wanting to see it and it looked like it would be pretty good so we figured what the heck. All the reviews I've read or seen about it has put it on par with 'Lord of the Rings', at least effect wise.

I was a bit skeptical when we got there and the lady behind the counter informed us that it was in Spanish, but there where English subtitles. I'm not a huge fan of foreign speaking films, or anything I have to read while watching. I love to read, but for the most part it distracts from the movie.

I think that 'Pan's Labyrinth' may be the exception to the rule. If it had be dubbed in English it would have taken away from the movie. The whole thing takes place in a Spanish community so it makes sense.

I'll try not to spoil it for you, but you might want to skip this part just in case. Visually it was a stunning movie, it surpassed 'Lord of the Rings' by far. The effects of the creatures and the people in general was astounding. It is by far the most realistic fantasy type movie I have ever seen. Even with the words distracting from it you can't help but love the effects. The story is excellent, and well told through both the acting and effects. For me at least most of the movie was spent wondering if the 'good guys' where in deed good, and if the 'fantasy' was there or just in the kids head. It's not often I come across a movie that can keep my wondering through out it.

All in all I have to say it's the best movie I've seen sense 'The illusionist'. It was far better then 'Ghost Rider', and I think it may have surpassed any of the 'Harry Potters. I wouldn't go so far as the put it above 'Lord of the Rings' for story, but it's effects where great.

On a side note, as I sit here plugging in the links on this blog Jen is rubbing her feet on the carpet and holding a finger out for Patches. The "zap" was loud enough to be heard across the room. Serves the cat right after the shock he gave me this morning while I was unsuspecting. Little fucker snuck up and got me on the big toe. I think he does it intentionally.

Ouch?

Springboard

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He's who's son?

Mike: Dad can you put in a movie?
Me: Sure, what movie do you want to watch?
*Mike walks over and looks at the shelf.*
Mike: How about, "Way of the gun."
Jen and I: "NO!"

Freaked out.

Patches is officaly freaked out. I have all of the sheets and blankets off the bed in the bed room because I am washing them. So I have to door closed against the cat. We don't want cat hair all over the mattress. It's a pain to clean off, and it'll void the warranty.

So patches is stuck in the living room, or bathroom. Except that both the washer and dryer are running in the bathroom. Loud noises are bad, he won't go near them. Which is okay, he still has the living room.

Of course, I have the vacuum in the living room. It's not running but he's knows it makes loud noises and he afraid of it. Add to it the fact that he hasn't gotten used to the new furniture and you have a really freaked out cat.

I expect that he will go hide in Mikes room any second.

The vacuum is fun, I can run it for about 30 seconds before I have to stop and clean the brush off. So far I have pulled 3 hand fulls of hair out of it. It get tangled up and stops the brush. I'm hoping once I get the all the hair up I can change the bag an get to the dirt. Not holding my breath though. Never thought I would say this, but I'd like a "Rainbow" right about now. Don't think they are worth $2000.00 but they are brushless and bagless. They would suck all the crap right out of the floor.

Just waiting on the dryer to finish so I can put the blanket back on the bed. Poor cat can't even see out the window now. Guess I could stack some pillows for him.

To couch

It only took us about an hour to move all the couches around. The large, comfy couch is safely tucked away at Jes and Liz's place. I'm interested in seeing how their place turns out with all the couch and toy's.

We now have two love seats and a chair in our living room. I think we have just as much seating as before, but our living room is a lot more open then before. Of course, it may just be that we have been cleaning it sense we got home. The floor is even vacuumed thanks to Jes and Liz. Though about 30 seconds into it the vacuum stared smelling like burnt rubber. I had to stop and clean the brush out. Even then it smelled.

The house, or at least the living room is coming along nicely. Spent some time backing up the macs. After mine died I though it would be a good idea to get our stuff backed up.

Happy Birthday Jes!

Job Hunt

I'm allways amazed at home many of the 'work a home' jobs you can find on Career Builder. You could make $100,000 a year, but you have to send us $11.00 first for the information how. It's simple, just become a bulk mail spammer like us. Blah!

Just finished applying for positions in Washtinaw county for landscaping personnel. As well as at True Green Chemlawn. Along with UPS as a package handler. And a few other low end labor jobs. It's hard to get a job when you don't have a valid drivers license. Every job I look at says they do a driving record check.

Blarg.

If find it funny that any job search I try on Monster brings up lots of hits in the navy reserves, but nothing else.

Ahh well, guess I'll have to go hit up the party stores and gas stations.

Movies...

Below is a list of movies coming out this year that I feel I must see. They are not really in any order.

Pan's Labyrinth: Trailer | IMDB

The Invisible: Trailer | IMDB

300: 300 | IMDB

Hot Fuzz: Trailer | IMDB

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Trailer | IMDB

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Sufer: Trailer | IMDB

Black Snake Moan: Trailer | IMDB

Grind House: Trailer | IMDB

Spider Man 3: Trailer | IMDB

Ghost Rider...

Jen and I just got back from seeing Ghost Rider. Cam took us to it tonight. I have to say it was a lot better then I was expecting it to be. I thought that it was going to be cheesy for the most part, after all the guy has a flaming skull for a head.

The effects where great, the story line was a good for a opener movie. It left its self open for more movies.

Cage did a good job I think, doing both Blaze and the Rider. Though I think we could have done with out the one liners. The Devils Bounty hunter shouldn't say things like 'Your going down.'

Just a thought though.

Snowman?

Mike and I went out side in an attempt to make a snow man today. Unfortunately the snow didn't agree with that plan. The snow is not packable. Or at least the top two inches of it are. If you get down deep enough it will pack. But we could 'roll' a snow ball to make it bigger.

We did lump a bunch of snow together into a pile, give it a head and tail and call it a dog. After digging our the underside a bit it has 'legs'. All in all good, cold fun. I'd take pictures but our camera still has not made it back to our house yet. It's awaiting some downloading.

2 years and 11 days.

It has been two years and 11 days sense I started this blog. And I haven't even topped 300 posts.

Guess I'm just not the blogging type of person. Maybe I should to Book Reviews or something.

Mike is in his room playing, we are about to watch Shrek. Jen made breakfast this morning, pancakes and sausage. They tasted good. We currently have dinner cooking in the slow cooker.

With Mike having a 4 day weekend this will be adventurous to say the least.

I LOVE YOU!!!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY BABE

I LOVE YOU!!!

The Quickness...

As some of you may know my MAC died on Monday. The display just stopped working for some reason. Not sure what the problem was for it. Jen looked up some ideas on the Apple site and we went though a whole list of things to try. When none of them fixed the problem we decided to call Mac. Which I did on Tuesday morning. The tech guy walked my through the same process for getting it fixed then Jen did. When none of that worked he told me I could take it into the Apple store and have them look at it, they would box it up and send it in to get fixed. His systems where down, so he really couldn't do anything to help.

After informing him that the nearest apple store was Novi, and that they where about useless we came to the conclusion that I should just call back Wednesday and have them send me a box. Which is what I did, I got the box the next day and called DHL to have it picked back up. I had already missed the pickup for Thursday so I'd have to wait for Friday.

I waited all day Friday, they where supposed to be here before noon, but the lady on the phone said he may be as late as 5 depending on the weather. He showed up at exactly 5:00 to get my Mac.

Apple told me that once it was picked up it would be 7 to 10 days before I could expect to see it back. With service and shipping it could take a while. So needless to say, I was not expecting it until Friday at the earliest, really I was expecting it next Monday or Tuesday.

As I sat here listening for the bus, waiting for Mike to get home there came a rapping on my chamber door. Or, a pounding on the screen door at least. It was DHL, and a very apologetic driver. It seems that my Mac was supposed to be here before 10am today. That it was late was because of the weather. The driver was polite, and begging of forgiveness because of it lateness. I explained to him that I wasn't expecting it until Friday, so really not having it until 4:00 today wasn't a big deal. After all, it's 3 days early by my books.

On to the technical stuff.

I have a list of things they did to the computer, parts that they replaced. Though I don't know what they are because it's just a list of serial numbers. Though it's obvious that I have a brand new keyboard. Anybody that has ever used my mac can tell it's new. You can read the "A" key again. And it feels new. The display is not mine either, or if it is they fixed it. There was a scratch on it that is gone now. And the whole computer seems to be running 'smoothly'. I am impressed by Apple, the service was fast and more then expected. And free, I love the free. They also tested the battery and told me that it was okay, or rather it wasn't faulty so they couldn't replace it under warranty. But at least they checked.

It also appears the whole thing has been cleaned, it's back to being off white. It the 'red paint' from Mike's boat is missing from the shell.

And in other news...

In a completely unfair turn of events I am apparently comming down with what ever Jen has. My itchy throat has been getting worse all day long, and now my nose is stuffing up.

I've already had the flu once this year, I don't want it again, especially when Jen is still sick.

Blah!

Dead Cat...

So, I decided last night to try to burn 'The illusionist' to DVD. Using IDVD I got it all set up and let it run. I don't know if it's my computer, or if it Idvd or what, but I let it run for over 24 hours to encode the video. I started at 6:00pm last night, and it was still going at 6:00 today when we sat down for dinner...

24 hours into burning a DVD...

At some point, between when we sat down to eat and when I finished the dishes the cast managed to unplug my mac. You know, the one that has less the 2 minuets of battery life. So, needless to say, after 24 hours of encoding my mac shut off before burning the DVD. On the bright side, it didn't ruin the blank DVD. On the down side, 24 hours with out using my computer for anything.

I am on the brink of Murder with the cat. We will soon be catless.