The Burlap Soulmate

The updating has been pretty scant as of late. Chalk it up to the massive aura of sickness that has pervaded our home for all of 3 weeks. In addition to caring for a near incapacitated Staz, I've had to feed, water, and entertain four cats and a hyperactive beagle. (Oxymoron?) That is when I wasn't doing dishes, laundry, cleaning catboxes, vacuuming, and other general cleaning in a valiant effort to rid our little hovel of all germs, bacteria, and viruses. Oh, and I'm battling my own head cold too. Did mention I was looking for a job as well? It's been a slow go. But after 2 weeks of pounding the pavement, I do actually have two promising interviews next week, with a strong possibility for 3 or more. I have one monday and two tuesday, scheduled for the exact same time. This is obviously a flawed strategy and I need to correct this asap. Fortunately, we both seem to be improving, and not a moment too soon either. We've spent a ton of money that we really didn't have on drugs and doctor visits. If the diseases don't kill us, the resultant lack of funds likely will. But I am optimistic about this week. Two interviews which did NOT come through evil, vile, headhunters. You know who you are. We're even back on the wedding track again, making plans, feeling cautiously optimistic, looking at various affordable and nearby venues. A lot of new hope exists, and that is very unexpected.

It's that time again... Some women are football widows. Some are golf widows, softball widows, maybe even bowling widows. But my Staz? She's a Winter Olympics Widow. There are worse things to be I suppose. She only loses me for a brief two-week period, and even then only once every four years. Although my immersion is instant and incessant during those two weeks, and I'm liable to shout random updates at any given moment: He totally missed the cross-over in turns 6 and 7!
She's got the split at the 500 meter mark but can she keep it up?
That was an awesome Throw-triple flip * To her credit she bears these epithets in good humour. For a guy who has never done ANY of these activities, I sure seem to know a lot about them, almost as much as the blowhard announcers. I don't know what my affinity is for the winter games. It doesn't carry over into the summer games, which I find very ho-hum. I can think of a couple of reasons though. Growing up in the snow belt, it was always a challenge to find fun stuff to do outside in the snow, because, really, you do not want to spend 9 months inside with your family. The cold, snowy, icy part of the whole sports cavalcade was very attractive. Certainly, the extreme aspect is attractive as well. Nearly every sport involves hurtling at breakneck speeds, and the possiblilty of debilitating injury. (woohoo) But probably the most likely reason is that you can't see this stuff anywhere else. Summer games = pole vauting and high jump, stuff I did and watched in high school. But speeding down an ice-covered track on a sled? Thats something you don't see every day. That's pretty cool. It's also something I could probably do, as opposed to clearing a 14 ft bar. Fortunately, this phase passes quickly after the extinguishing of the torch. In the meantime, when is the doubles luge finals? * I admit with complete confidence in my masculinity and my sexuality that I enjoy watching figure skating. So go ahead. Give me your best shot.

There must be something in the air. In the midst of my current stretch of unemployment, I gave my old boss a call, hoping he might have some programming or design work that could make us a few bucks on the side. Turns out my old company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He tried to put a positive spin on it, as he always does, but bankruptcy is never a good thing. He says they will likely sell the Alabama plant as well as the street sweeper product line, which represents a HUGE chunk of enginering time and a lot of money down the tubes. He did say he was very interested in getting some work out of me, but I find it unlikely he will be able to sell that to upper management. Or that any work I do will actually be paid for. Then this morning, I receive a letter from our jeweler (I love saying that, makes us sound like elitist snobs: OUR jeweler) and was informed that he is going out of business and offering his special customers (like us) a chance at some early and significant savings. While this may seem like good news, it is really very sad and tragic. Aside from really liking the guy and not wanting him to endure the heartbreak of losing his business, we're simply not able to take advantage of this very kind offer right now. And how are we going to match Staz's engagement ring with her wedding band if the guy who sold it to us is no longer around? We just really feel bad for him, as he was so very nice to us, and seemed to genuinely share in our joy when I finally picked up Staz's ring and made everything official. In other news, we went ice skating today. That is WE went ice skating today. I not only got Staz but also her mom up on ice skates. (!!) They both did REALLY well for first timers so you should send some congratulations her way. For me, it was so tremendous to be outside with good friends and having so much fun. I really enjoyed doing my best to teach them and watching them make significant progress in a few short hours. As if that weren't enough, her mom was so happy with how well she did, she wants to go again. Too cool. At the moment, I'm tired, cold, stiff, and sore, but I had a blast and hope we can do it again. Maybe next time we won't have to mess with the rented skates.

So now that I've already confessed to being an Olympics geek, here are some more observations for you: NBC Coverage: SUCKS. 3 minutes of skeleton coverage, sandwhiched between 3 hours of Alpine events. I think there is a definite bias. After a while, all of the skiiers look the same and it gets really tedious. NBC commentators: SUCK. Dick Button, please shut the hell up. Your commentary on the figure skating is the most negative and downright mean I have ever heard. The skiing guys are just as bad. The good ones, and there are a few, know to only talk when necesary. Just let us watch and listen to the athlete, and don't make it about you. As for me, the whole uenemployed thing is getting old. In a new fit of boredom, I watched curling today. And something really weird happened: I started to understand it. Then I started to like it. Weird. I gotta find a job.

I don't do memes, well, unless you ask really nicely anyway. So here's one for Nicole Four jobs I’ve had: 1) Busboy
2) Bus Driver (how ironic)
3) Robot Programmer
4) Architectural Designer Four films I can watch over and over again : 1) Shawshank Redemption
2) Any Star Wars installment
3) The Paper
4) Hunt for Red October Four places I’ve lived: 1) Traverse City, MI
2) Ann Arbor, MI
3) Detroit, MI (Well, Auburn Hills anyway)
4) Cincinnati, OH Four TV programmes I love: 1) Gilmore Girls
2) Desperate Housewives
3) Grey's Anatomy
4) Medium (For the record, I am fully aware that these could all be called 'chick shows.' I don't have a problem with that. See 'Figure Skating' below) Four places I’ve been on vacation: 1) Manhattan, NY
2) Cape Hateras, NC
3) Moscow, Russia
4) Mackinac Island, MI Four of my favorite dishes: 1) Mexican casserole ( my own creation, and it's vegetarian too)
2) Veggie dumplings at PF Changs
3) Sweet and Sour Chicken at just about any Chinese place
4) Skyline chili (but only about once a month...ugh) Four websites I visit daily: 1) Hotmail
2) Monster
3) ofclan (clan site for an online game I play)
4) nbcolympics (just temporary) Four places I’d rather be right now: 1) In a cube, making TONS of money
2) On a beach with my fiance wife
3) Somewhere snowy
4) In a house that is NOT a rental. Four bloggers I’m tagging: 1) Whoever
2) Feels
3) Like
4) It

While perusing Sitemeter, I find that I am usually in the top three when you seach for: NBC and/or Olympic coverage SUCKS. I'm glad to see I'm not alone in this.