this can only happen to me...

I finally gave up and just called about the job offer. I waited two weeks, a full week longer than I was told it would be... "oh, glad you called, you need to go in for a pee test"... jebus, were ya gonna tell ME? so I left work a little early today to go pee in a cup. I was told me new boss was leaving at 2, so I knew he wouldn't be there. he won't be back until tuesday, so I won't know any of the details (pay, vacation, etc) until we talk about it then. not like I can give notice now anyway, my current boss is gone til tuesday as well.

I went in for my pee test tho, rarin' to go given the liter of water I drank right before hand.... I made my pee, gave the sample to the tech lady. she filled the little sample tube dealie, and then promptly spilled the rest of the pee all over the paperwork. she went on and on about how that had never happened to her in twenty years, and how pee isn't a biohazard so it should be fine... the top page went into the envelope with the sample, and it took the brunt of it. the bottom page, which had the least pee on it, went back to the employer. I briefly debated whether I should tell them about it, and decided not to. it had dried by the time I got back.

this is likely an omen. this job will suck too. I always end up in jobs that suck. but hopefully it will spur me to go back to canada in a few years, when all the debt is paid off. in the meantime, I'll feel like I'm getting a $300 a month raise, because I won't be eligible for 401k for a year. the money that had been going towards retirement will instead go towards debt. that's either the car or two credits paid off a year early. realistically, some of that will go towards a new puter, and maybe an elliptical trainer for the house. but it should still allow a lot of extra money going towards the debt...

how is it this shit always seems to happen to me?

kicked in the balls.

first kickball game went pretty well. I'm on the indy team, which means it's anyone who signed up without a team. we've got a mixed bag: some good people, some bad, mostly in between. we have more women than men, which will likely be a disadvantage. I was named team captain. while I'd like to say it was acheived by a bloodless coup (all smothering), it was more like I lost a game of "1-2-3-NOT IT!" we had to pick a captain, no one would step up. I said I'd captained a couple softball teams, and it was handed to me. our shift colour is red, so the team name was voted as "Red Tide" (which I think is lame). I wanted "Red Shirt Freshman" or "Mean Reds" or "Little Red Machine" or even "Dirty Commies"... but alas, I was over-ruled.

we lost tonight, 6-1. it was actually really close until the last inning, when the wheels fell off and we gave up four runs. the other team was a bunch of jerks tho. their pitcher whipped the ball in as hard as he could (which the ump said is "technically" legal but greatly frowned upon, especially for a team of rookies), and they yelled at the ump at least four times on close plays. I was stuck pitching (no one else would/could), and I'm not very good. one guy actually walked, which is also frowned upon. all of their girls bunted every chance they got (again, legal but not kosher). after the game we find out this team used to play in the hardcore league, but dropped down to the fun league. given how "good" they actually were, I'd say their skills don't match their competitiveness. which is the worst kind of athlete... if they were good, they would have just beat us but done it without trying to humilate us. they only won because of their pitching (we couldn't get a rally going), they didn't actually field or kick any better than us. but they sure did get pissy whenever anything didn't go their way. the ump called a good game, too. close calls went both ways. I was proud of my team that they didn't whine, bitch, argue or yell when they went against us. hell, I was probably the worst sport on our team, and I just got fed up. it's bad when the pitcher makes over half the plays (because every girl bunted nearly every time). hell, they even yelled at me for throwing at one of the girls who bunted. from three feet away, and gently.

I went one for two with a double and a pop out. I pitched okay, but definitely got tired towards the end. my arm will be sore in the morning. I also go a couple nasty blisters from my cleats. I won't bother with them next time, the field isn't very good and they didn't make a difference.

I need to look into a practice field at some point. we could use it. I also need to prepare better for the next game for the lineup and fielders. it was tought today 'cos I didn't know anyone's names. we also have several people with the same names (two jeannes, two jennifers, three davids, etc), so we need some nicknames. I'm hopeful the rest of our games are more fun and less competitive. I honestly don't care if we lose every game, so long as we're in it and we play well. I really don't want to win at all costs like the team we played tonight... they were just petty little dicks.

in other news, my dad is supposed to get a call tomorrow from the DM of the branch I'm trying to get hired on it. I have no idea why. they haven't called me back yet. it's a weird company tho. my old boss called me to tell me about the position I'm going for. my old boss is married to my potential new boss. she's also the mother of my last boss there, who was the dick. my dad was telling me that all the DMs know he's a dick tho, so they won't hold that against me. still seems odd that my dad will not be getting TWO calls about me, rather than have them just call me directly... they called him when they wanted me to go in and "interview" too...

we spent a lot of money this weekend, too. miyuki got a DS lite and a couple games. I got a shitload of music DVDs, including four of the directors series... also got a couple new CDs. it's nice that we can actually spend a bit of money right now and not worry about it. there have been some lean weeks since she moved down, and I'm hoping we're past them.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

I'm trying to decide which is a better comparion to my work: mickey mouse or keystone kops... it certainly feels like a mickey mouse outfit.

some of the latest hijinx:

my worst shop monkey failed to show up until 9am. he's supposed to start at 6. he was also supposed to fix his fuckup first thing, in which he forgot to include several parts in about 85 repair kits he built up and we had shipped out. it was already handled by the time he showed up. no explanation was offered to me (his supervisor), but he told a coworker he had to drop his girlfriend off at work. he then left at 3:30. I asked MY boss if I could have those hours. he told me I needed to speak with the dumbass in question. however, I have no authority to actually discipline him, and I've already talked to him about his behaviour, his attendance, his work ethic, countless times. it does no good. several people have speculated he's actually trying to get fired so he can collect unemployment. always a positive thing when you figure he's building propane vaporizers that are essentially large bombs filled with volative gases.

that wasn't even the high point of my day tho. we had finally finished up a large ($30k) job and were ready to ship it out, a week late. in the final inspection, it was noted the wrong fabrication was used to build it. it required a special fab that had only arrived the day before. problem is, this fab didn't have a special part number or anything, it was just a note written on the bottom of the order. it took over a week to build the damn thing. so I got to watch the president of the company, the director of engineering, and the tech support guy all work with the shop guy trying to tear apart the wrong unit and reassemble it on the right one. amazingly enough, they actually got about 80% done. the unit didn't ship tho, the customer is pissed, and we look like idiots. which is fair. we are idiots.

I went in wednesday to speak with my old employer, but a different branch. the manager there asked me to come on, and just needed to run it up the flagpole. I should have an answer early next week. I imagine I can switch back to the old job shortly after labour day. it will be a different position, one with hopefully less frustrations (quotes, not purchasing) and a different branch, which is only fifteen minutes away. it's sad how appealling that place looks right now. the grass certainly wasn't greener. in fact, I think it was only spray painted green on this side...

and in other news, I broke down and posted a personal ad on craigslist. I'd responded to several. one led to my kickball league which will hopefully start next weekend. another led to ann, who we've been bowling with almost every weekend. she's good people. one was a dead end (two emails then silence), and several were non-starters. I posted my ad a few hours ago, and I've already received a few replies. it's encouraging, it means we may actually develop a social life in seattle! yay!

san francisco: final thoughts

it looks like maybe we should have cut our vacation shorter than it was. we haven't been doing anything our last night here except watching tv in the hotel room. I've come to the conclusion that we're pretty much homebodies, so this isn't surprising. I think our next vacation should be going to visit some friends in port townsend, and staying in a bed and breakfast. it's more of a small town, supposedly very pretty, and with nothing as touristy as alcatraz or fisherman's wharf.

we had lunch today at top of the mark. the walk there was brutal, especially for miyuki in her dress shoes. I was annoyed to see that the "dress code strictly enforced" wasn't. hell, there was one girl there in ratty jeans and flip-flops. miyuki could have wore more comfortable shoes, but we thought we should play by the rules. the food was really tasty, even if the sammiches cost $17. but the view was incredible. we had a great view of alcatraz and fisherman's wharf, we really did get the nice half of the city to look at. we also got dessert, and I don't think I'll be able to eat chocolate for a week, it was so rich.

we went up to fisherman's wharf this afternoon, but couldn't catch a cable car either way. they were too full every time we tried to catch one going up the hill, and here was an hour wait coming back. we ended up taking a cab each way, for the same cost as the trolleys. sure, it wasn't as kitschy, but it was a helluva lot faster. the trip home we went down lombard street, but I suspect that was more the cabbie trying to pad his fare that anything. he must have tacked on two bucks in a block and a half. we did manage to get a sourdough round from boudin sourdough company, that will be a tasty breakfast tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to heading home. I'm tired of being a tourist. we're going to pack up everything tonight and shower and all that, so we can check out and leave first thing in the morning.

we'll be stopping at my parents' house again tomorrow night, and heading home wednesday morning. when we finally get home, I'm supposed to go back into the old employer and talk about a new job. I'm not sure what to expect out of everything, I don't know if I have a job waiting for me to accept it, or if there are more hoops to jump through. they know what I'm capable of, both good and bad, so I imagine they know what they're getting into by calling me back. guess we'll see. I've been talking about it with my family, and I've realised that I'm not just blinded by current job frustrations. I remember how much the old job sucked, the politics and how shitty the benefits were... it just happens to be the lesser of two evils.

SF, take two.

this town seems hell bent on taking my money away. and I don't just mean because it's all overpriced, I knew that going in. it's the extras.

when I booked our hotel, I opted for the "parking package"... the room was $89 a night, parking was $24 a day. parking package just combines the two on one bill, so we're paying $113 a night. when I checked in, he tried to charge me for parking again. I corrected him.

last night at dinner, we got screwed on tea and crappy rice, as I'd already lamented over.

today, we made our way over to the nihonmachi japanese street fair. miyuki got some earrings, we saw some t-shirts that we may order online later. we went to lunch at a japanse place nearby, and they completely screwed up out order. miyuki orders chicken katsu and got something completely different, and her salad had no dressing on it. I ordered a "tuna tango" roll, which was spicy tuna, cream cheese an avocado, plus two pieces of inari. they brough out two rolls for me. I didn't realise it at the time (it was a $9 roll, I figured it may have been big), so I started eating. lunch ended up costing considerably more than I had planned, and I left three pieces of sushi on my plate (miyuki ate two herself).

we then bussed out to the japanese tea garden. the garden was beautiful, the tea was shite. I had imagined high end tea (the kind we have at home) in a serene setting... instead you have a loud, bustling common area full of tourists, who are served shitty pre-bagged teas for $3 a pop, with rice crackers. we didn't even stick around for the tea, and instead wandered around the quieter parts of the garden. I think I got several good pictures of the landscaping and bonsai, but it was really difficult to frame the shots without a bunch of people in them.

I had hoped we could hail a cab back to the hotel, but had no luck. we took the bus back instead, but ended up having to walk several blocks through what I can only assume was the 'crackton' neighbourhood. unfortunately, our hotel is right on the cusp of crackton. that's what $89 a night plus parking gets you in SF. ironically, one of the other hotels I had looked at (the miyaka) was in the middle of the street fair. it also cost twice as much and was out of our price range.

miyuki isn't overly impressed with the city, so we probably won't come back. she wondered if we just weren't in the right part of town, or if it's just a dirty city. I think it's a little bit of both. we've covered a LOT of the city... chinatown, haight-ashbury, nob hill, union square, japantown... tomorrow we'll head up to fisherman's wharf after lunch, and I think our misadventure will be complete. we may or may not take the cable car to go there.

I also found out we haven't been on the golden gate bridge. that's on the other side of town. we just crossed the bay bridge between oakland and SF. I need to figure out if there's an easy way for us to cross golden gate on oru way out of town... I don't think there is.

san francisco: first impressions

we're in SF. while miyuki is in the shower, I thought I'd reflect on our first night in town...

the drive down here was long and boring. nearly 12 hours, and that's just from portland. in parts of northern cali it must have been over a hundred degrees. was quite pleasant to get to SF and find it to be in the 60s.

the main route into SF, I-505, has ONE sign leading up to it, and it's right at the exit. we didn't see the sign until it was too late because of a semi in the right lane, and had to drive ten more miles round trip to get to the exit again. maybe it's just me, but you'd think that a major interstate highway, and the quickest southbound method to get to SF, would have a bit more notice. I really didn't feel like driving an extra hour to go through sacramento, thanks.

the golden gate bridge is a toll bridge. I seem to recall that. what I don't recall is that it costs three damn dollars to cross. doesn't that seem a tad insane for a toll? especially since there's gotta be people who cross that EVERY day?

traffic in california sucks. drivers here suck more. there are shitty drivers in washington, sure. but not many of them weave in and out of traffic (that's going 70mph) at 110mph. motorcycles are even worse. we saw several driving in between lines, right on the divider line. unfortunately, none of them seemed to get killed. fuckers would deserve it for being idiots.

after we got checked in, we wandered around for awhile. miyuki heard there was a night market in chinatown, so we went that way. we couldn't find it, so we opted for dinner at "chinatown restaurant"... seriously, that was the name. I'm not sure waht to think. the service was terrible. I mean really, truly awful. the steamed BBQ pork buns were tasty. the spring rolls were so-so. the green beans and tofu were hit and miss, green beans were REALLY tasty, tofu was kinda gross. and the little hidden charges were DAMN annoying. they asked what kind of rice we wanted with our entree, but when they brought out the steamed rice, it was long grain (and overcooked). that cost $2. the tea, which I had to ask for twice, cost $4. the water, which I also had to ask for twice, showed up twenty minutes after the food (and 45 after I originally asked). and we had some stupid fucking little kid behind us that had to kept telling the same stupid story about how one of her friends pronounced "chicken" as "shicken"... she told the story at least eight times. then her sister had to start mockingly ask for the "shicken" dish to be passed to her. I wanted to slap them. oh yeah, and the reason we went into this restaurant was because someone handed us a flyer for 20% off and free potstickers. we got the free potstickers, but not the discount. our modest dinner (one entree and two appetizers) cost over $30. I wouldn't be recommending "chinatown restaurant" to anyone, even IF leonardo dicrappio ate there (it was on the flyer we were handed).

today we're going to explore japantown, try to head over to the japanese tea gardens, and otherwise wander aimlessly. tomorrow we have lunch at "top of the mark" and will try for fisherman's wharf. tuesday we head home...

what a load of crap...

swiped from bree...




does anyone else think this is total bullshit? the familiarity, the anal planning, the lack of fashion sense, sure... but being accepting of others or understanding their situations? I'm a complete git when it comes to crap like that. charismatic? wide circle of friends? careful of who I trust? I have a small circle of friends and I trust far too easily...

the epitome of futility.

miyuki and I played a linked game of dr mario on our gameboys. she handicapped me ten levels, starting at level fifteen to my level five.

she destroyed me.

there are not words to describe how much I suck at video games. at least games that require any sort of reflexes or coordination.

the only games I'm decent at are very basic sports games, button mashers, or turn based games like KoL that allow as much time as necessary to make your move.

guess this means I won't be taking a gameboy this weekend when we go to san francisco. I'll have to take a book or something instead...

A 'four things' meme

Tagged by Peter, I present to you a 'four things' meme. I can't exactly offend my gigantic audience, so I better oblige...

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1 Library Monkey
2 Burger Monkey
3 Warehouse Monkey
4 Glorified Secretary

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1 Searching for Bobby Fischer
2 Ikiru
3 Empire Strikes Back
4 Lost in Translation

Four Places I have lived
1 Vancouver, WA
2 Olympia, WA
3 Burnaby, BC
4 Seattle, WA

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1 Red Dwarf
2 Invader Zim
3 House, MD
4 Sports Night

Four places I have been on vacation:
1 Ocean Shores, WA
2 Hawaii
3 San Francisco
4 Diz-Knee-Land

Four of my favourite foods:
1 Thai cashew chicken
2 sushi
3 mom's banana bread
4 Mooki's spinach pie

Four places I would rather be right now:
1 Canada
2 Japan
3 Finland
4 sleeping

Tag, you're it:
1 Paul
2 CHA!
3 Mooki (yeah, right)
4 Ann (ha! found you!)