cheese!! nuff said...

i love cheese. in just about all its forms and flavors. i tend to steer away from "non-traditional" flavors like chocolate (ew), or fruity cheeses. but just about everything else is all good! i found a store near my job that rocks! not only does it have just about every kind of fresh produce you can think of, including traditionally hispanic items, but its cheese selection en second lieu à aucun! sorry i had to drop in some french to go with my gourmand mood LOL so far my favorites have been a red wax hollow cheddar, and a smoked gouda. i'm typically a cheddar addict, so i plan on trying every variety they have. the store also puts out huge sample plates of select cheeses everyday! so you know i spend more than a few minutes in that section LOL cheese! its the perfect food :)

burn baby burn...

so, we had a fire. at the job. actually several fires. electrical apparently. luckily not too much damaged happened to occupied units. we are currently only at about 53% occupancy so that worked out to be a good thing in this case.

anyway, i was on my way home. my day was done. i was actually at the bus stop, headphones on, thinking about the weekend, when i saw a fire truck approaching lights blazing. so of course i'm watching to see where its going. right into the driveway of my complex. damn.

so i go running back up to the building as the firefighters reach the door. i'm yelling "hey i'm the manager!! i have keys!". they look at me and proceed to chop the door down. so i just run up between them and open the door. with the key. took like 1 second. all that damage for nothing. now don't get me wrong, i have nothing but respect for firefighters and what they do. and i know they know their job. but i really dont understand why they chose to destroy my entry unnecessarily when i was RIGHT THERE with the key in my hand.

anyway, it turned out not to be as bad as was initially thought. it was an electrical fire between two unoccupied apartments. exhaust fans probably. the firefighters ripped the bathroom ceilings out of both apartments. so we had that plus the actually fire damage, and then the water damage. but it was contained. the fire chief okayed re-entry for the tenants and we restored power to the building. i called the water extraction/clean-up guys. they came and got started. the red cross also showed up for the one tenant who was displaced due to water damage. after all that was taken care of i went home. totally drained. between the smoke, my asthma, running up and down several flights of stairs several times, and the stress of the situation, i was a deadman walking. all i wanted to do is get home and sleep. so thats what i did.

9:10pm. my "on call" cellphone rings. its the clean up guys. they say that the firefighters are back on scene. there's MORE FIRES!! i am beyond stressed cuz i do NOT wanna go back down there. i don't think i could have physically anyhow. so i call my boss. she immediately says she'll handle. she rocks like that. :) about a half hour later she calls me just to check up on me. i told her i was good just needed to rest and get my breathing under control. i was touched that she was concerned.

i woke up this morning feeling much better but not one hundred percent yet. at least i can breathe. can't wait to get insurance so i can see a doc. its about time for a visit. it's been like 3 yrs lol.

photography

these are some shots i took of some ice formations in puddles. i thought they looked pretty abstract so i wanted to preserve them. enjoy..

the job - week 3ish or whatever

so the job is going decent. i had an interview last monday. my trainers manager interviewed me. basically said she wants to hire me. which i think is good. more money, and a bonus apartment. free rent is always good. anyway, initially she said that she wanted to, but couldn't hire me immediately as i am currently a temp agency employee, as such, they are under contract with said agency. to hire me immediately, they would have to pay a large fee to the temp agency, which of course they dont want to pay. guess they like me, but not that much eh? lol so she told me i have to wait 60 more days, which sucks cuz i didnt plan on it taking that long for me to get hired somewhere permanent, plus i dont know if i can afford to keep working part time that much longer.

well all that became moot, when she told me friday that she thinks she CAN hire me now, as the temp agency kinda owes her company from a previous big screw up on the part of the agency. good news right? well kinda. cuz now i have to majorly accelerate the time frame of me paying off my ticket and obtaining a vehicle. the position entails a lot of car travel, not to mention having to go to ann arbor for training. so i'm kinda in a quandary and don't really have any prospects as to how i'm going to achieve this but... what else is new? God will provide right? if i don't have anything else i have faith :) so pray for me... and/or send donations! lol...

all that aside.. i may have to physically evict 2 people this week and i really dont want to have to do that. but its reached that point. the day they were supposed to be out is well past and the matter has been filed in court an assigned to the local sheriff. now all that remains is for the sheriff to contact me with the date and time of the eviction. then i'm told he'll show up with a deputy or two and watch over us as we put the tenants belongings on the curb. that sucks. but it's kinda hard to feel all that sorry for them becuz from the beginging (the entire process has taken over 2 months) they new what was going on every step of the way and have had every opportunity to seek assistance or make arrangments or whatever. neither one of them has chosen to do so, so here we are. oh well, maybe i wont get shot.. lol. no ... seriously.

old country buffet

bout a week ago, me and the kid went to old country buffet. in case you don't have one near you, its a classic all-you-can-eat buffet with a typical assortment of food americana. i like it, she loves it. i just enjoy they time we spend together although i've never been one to turn down a chance to get my eat on LOL

i always eat too much at these places. i say "i'm not gonna pig out. just get full..." but of course they have so many freaking things i like, and you just have to taste them all LOL it's one of the few restaurants i eat at that i feel i get my moneys worth!

she always hates it when i take pics of her eating. i told her thats what she gets for stealing my hat! plus its in the dad's handbook that i have the right to embarrass her at will. which i so delight in doing LOL

places...

thought i'd drop a few pics here of one of the trails i frequent near where i live. i was inspired as it was the first sunny and warm day we've had here in like forever! so please..enjoy :)

the job - week three "ish"

well things are moving right along. my "boss" has decided i know what i'm doing for the most part and has abandoned me to my devices lol which is definitely not a bad thing. kind of frustrating occasionally though when i need an answer and someone dosen't call/email me back quickly. i'll take it though to not have someone hovering over me. i'm used to being rather independent in my work environment. i tend to do my best work alone, not that i'm not a team player if it calls for it.

so anyway over the last week or so i've had to go to court twice for eviction proceedings. that whole setup is pretty automated. i basically show up, establish they owe rent and how much, they deny it, judge rules in my favor. done. i would feel bad if the reasons some of those folks give for not paying their rent weren't so asinine. but i digress..

i still like the job so far. there's some minor issues, like me doing the housekeeping part of it, but over all its a decent gig. my bosses boss is coming monday to interview me for the permanent position. hope she makes me a decent offer. pray for me.

i couldn't help myself...

ok if this isnt the cutest, most expressive little girl you've seen recently, then i wanna come live your world LOL

i have no idea what language she's singing in, but she is so serious about it! and she knows the entire freakin song! i am suitably impressed. this video makes me smile every time i've seen it LOL

decisions decisions...

as you may have noticed, my blog design has changed yet again. i'm a bit of a compulsive tinkerer when it comes to web pages. always trying to find a better to do something that should be fairly simple LOL

this time, i removed the clipcast module. it was just too big and cluttered up the screen. i added a bunch of tracking buttons and related widgets so i can get a better idea of who is reading what, if anyone lol i'm just curious...

anyway thanks for putting up with my chaos for a bit.

something new...

i've been working on a project for some time now. i've been trying to develop a unique strategy based board games. it has its roots in ancient games such as xianggi, go, and chess. my goal is simplicity of play, but challenging strategic maneuvers.

i have finaly reached a major milestone in the development process. i have a working prototype. the following show the prototype in unfinished and finished stages.

so now i'm in the "rules" stage. you know working out what will and/or wont work in play. the hardest part is finding that fine line between "challenging" and "so hard it's not fun". it's caused me many headaches already LOL well is anyone has any ideas feel free to send them my way. i'll make sure you get credit in the finshed product :)

battle creek.. home turf

SOMEbody was feeling a lil homesick and nostalgic about the hometown, so i thought i'd be nice and post some pics for her :)

just whatever

haven't been online as much lately. work has been tiring lately so that when i get home, i haven't found it worth it to go to the library for 1.5 to 2 hrs MAYBE of net time, then have to walk back home. i need to change that. working on. need to talk my old folks into letting me get net at home LOL

other than work not alot else has been up. well ... okay. it's been bothering me a bit so i might as well get it off my chest....

what do you do, when you've been friends with someone for like 100 years. i mean basically from 6th grade, till now. you've been best friends the entire time. but in the last few years I feel like i'm the only one putting in any effort to maintaining that friendship. i mean before there were miles between us and so that was an excuse for lack of communication and what not. but now we live in the same city. not 10 miles from each other. we both have cell phones, email, myspace, facebook, etc. but i feel like i'm the only one trying. i don't get calls returned on the regular. i email, no response. i text message... same deal. or we'll make plans to hang or whatever, and he'll no-show. i don't get a call or anything. he just wont show up. then eventually he'll show up or call me... a week later....like nothing has happened. i've been taking it in stride for years. i just figured thats the way he is, especially since we lived so far apart. i mean we've been boys since 6th grade!! or maybe its just me, becuase i have another friend i've had since like '91 and he kinda acts the same way. i don't understand it. am i acting like a wuss? or do i have a legitimate concern? i dunno. i just feel like i shouldn't hafta be the one to track them down all the time.

maybe its just me.

the job - week two

well. another week gone by. how was it you ask? well surprisingly uneventful, if you don't count the tenant who i had to call the police on due to the DENSE weed smoke billowing out of her apartment when i went there to verify that she was indeed still there (she's in the process of eviction, so i had to verify that she hadn't just up and left...wishful thinking).

anyway, so the cops showed up, and i escorted them to the apartment. they banged on the door and of course she was like "just a minute!". well nearly 10 minutes later she opens the door, and the hallway is flooded with the smells of weed and air freshener LOL. the cops just start laughing because it was so obvious. comedic dialog ensues..."i'm not smoking weed!" "we can smell it. it's like you smoked a tree in there!" "i wasn't smoking anything." "is there someone else in there that could have possibly smoked it?" "umm..uh...no" "is there someone else in there?" "um...yes, my boyfriend" "could he have smoked the weed?" "i just woke up" "could he have smoked it when you were asleep?" "no." "how do you know? weren't you asleep?" "i'm not saying i don't smoke weed. but i haven't smoked any today!" etc. etc.

after about 15 minutes of that entertaining banter, the cops basically called her an unfit mother and told her that they could call child protective services and have her kids taken. i swear she didn't even blink. couldn't have fazed her any less. taking those kids probably would have been the best thing in those kids lives. but i digress.. suffice to say that the cops didn't take the kids or the chick. but now its logged as a drug related call, and after 3 or so of those, the cops can enter without a warrant and search/arrest.

about an hour after the cops left, guess who comes down to my office? the weed chick. i'm surprised she didnt bring her boyfriend with her. LOL she's comes in all pissy (meaning her attitude, but she did also have a strong odor going on too, something like old sex and wet dog), and says "i feel like i'm being harassed!". i just looked at her. "you guys are already putting me out, now you trying to send me to jail!". I was like, i'm not trying to do anything but to make you stop smoking dope in my building. if you'd stop, you wouldn't have anything to worry about right? she's like "right. i know.", so i said "then we are done here. have a nice day." and she left. LOL clueless...

on a lighter (and better smelling) note, the company let the housekeeping guy go, so now am i not only running the office, but i have to do the housekeeping, light maintenance, and yard work. Kinda sucks. But I figure I'm earning brownie points to a permanent job offer. which my boss kinda sorta felt me out for this week also. but more on that later..

i am soooo friggin sick of snow! twice this week i found myself outside digging thru drifts of the accursed crap so that my tenants could walk safely to their vehicles. my days of manual labor are soooooooo behind me. it kills my back and knees. so we'll see how long i can put up with it.

on to week 3....