Car woes

So we're looking at purchasing a new car. Mine is running a little rough, and I'm not sure I awnt to go through another winter, worrying everyday whether or not it's going to die on me. I could sell it now and maybe make a couple of grand, or drive it until it dies (in the next year or so) and get nothing from it and have to scramble to get something else. I can get something now while there are good deals, and fix up my car and sell it, and there's alot less pressure.

But it's a lot of extra cash outta our pocket every month. $300-350/month, which is actually pretty awesome, but that's $3000/year that we could be putting towards student loans. Sacrifices...decisions... Why is being an adult so hard? /sigh

So we are debating between a Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, or Nissan Versa, but I think the Versa is out. All the reviews I'm reading have it quite a bit lower and it's usually a battle between a Fit and a Yaris. The Fit is a little more expensive, so I leaning towards the Yaris. We took it for a test drive the other day, and I quite liked it. I want to hit up the Honda dealership and check it out though. Kari and James have a little fit, and it's just so cute and fun, and I love the way the seats all fold down. It's got better handling and it seems to be an overall better car, with some of the best passive safety features, so that's one of the debates of price vs. safety.

WTF?!?

So there's this lady, or rather girl, in our Edmonton office who has been talking about getting a little dog. She was looking at getting a little shi-tzu or bichon.

Yesterday she found a lady giving away a pair of them, male and female, 2 years old, and it was okay if she split them up. So she went and looked at them, and they were super cute, and she took the male one home.

I ask her today how her new little puppy is doing and I hear "I took it to the SPCA." WHAT?!? Yup, she figures she's not ready for the responsibility. Which is all well and good, some people are not fit for raising dogs, but seriously... I'm sure it'll get adopted, and find a nice home. But could you imagine what the previous owners of the dog would have thought? Give their dog away to what they think is a nice home, and the next day it's at the pound. Give your head a shake woman! WTF?!!!?

So yeah, that's my rant for the day. My give-a-shit factor for work has run out, and I'm exhausted and sick and tired of dealing with all this stress and bullshit. All that travelling and server upgrades and whatnot have drained me. I'm off tomorrow, and will work half day Saturday and take Tuesday off. That'll give me a long weekend, and allow me to recouperate a bit.

enough to make your head spin

Fly to Vancouver Friday morning at 7 and spend the day rushing to get a software upgrade done in that office.
Flight to Kelowna at 6:30, then a 30 minute drive to Vernon Friday evening. (ended up cancelling the flight and driving the 5 hour trip from Vancouver to Vernon in 7 hours, saving a few hundred dollars, but having to sit in horrible traffic)
At work for 7am, spend the day stressing about finishing the software upgrade in this office, then drive to the airport for a flight at 5 pm to come back home for Calgary.
Have a day off to recuperate and spend a little time with my wonderful wife.
Will be at the car rental Monday at 7am to drive the 3 hours to edmonton, finish the software upgrade, and drive back to Calgary.
Hopefully home by 10pm.

P.S. My tattoo is healing and is VERY itchy.

Raising my badass quotient

So on Tuesday I went out and made a permanent decision. A rather awesome one I might add. I got myself a tattoo. My very first, I might add. How awesome is that? Well it doesn't really matter what you think, because I love it.
For those of you who don't know (and yes, there've been a number of ppl to ask me what it is) it is a bass clef. Being a bass player, I thought it suitable. I put it on the inside of my forearm because I play a 5-string and so it's the clef at the beginning of the staff. :) I'm so clever. Though I'm realzing that I need something on my opposing wrist to balance it out, which made me wish I played piano b/c then I could get a treble clef on the right wrist and it would be perfect. The clef to suit the hand that plays it. Again, yes I'm clever.

Anyway, it was super exciting. I was so very nervous about the whole thing, especially since everyone says it's so painful there. It really wasn't, so in the scale of things, if that was painful other places will be a breeze. Teika at Impact Body Art did it for me. She was amazing. Very calming, explained it all to me, talked to me during it and generally was the best tattooist I could have asked for for my first time. I'll definitly be seeing her again.

It was sad that Mama Bean wasn't able to be there to share the experience with me, but we'd gone on our day off and they were too busy. They are one of the places in town that take walk-ins (the others being very skizzy, and the non-walkin ones booking into November).

So I'm quite happy with it. Now I'm off to Vancouver tomorrow, then Vernon tomorrow night, then home on Saturday night, home for a day before driving up to Edmonton for a day or two. Gotta love being the only IT guy, and having to travel around to do te big software upgrade alone. And she bitches when I ask for a raise...

Crazyness

This is nuts...
Disturbing Children's Book

No School For Me

I found out last week that I won't be heading back to school. Well at least not anytime soon (5 years or so). We just can't afford it. We found out what our monthly payments will be for Jo's student loans, so it's looking like my schooling isn't going to happen. It has me kind of depressed but I've been thinking about it alot, and have come to the conclusion that it is okay. I'm going to apply to the Calgary Police Service. I'm pretty outta shape right now, but I figure by December I should be able to do the physical and submit my application. It's a little pricey, $100 application fee, have to take my First Aid and CPR which is another $150, and the physical which is about $60. Though if I get a conditional offer of employment, they will reimburse those costs.

So I got a gym membership, and have been easing myself into it again. I haven't hit the gym in over 2 years, so it's taking a little bit to get back into it. Lots of pain, even when I take it easy. I'm really loving going again though, and having a goal makes it al worthwhile.

It still hits me occasionally that I won't be going back, and it makes me a little sad. But I've come to the understanding that we can only control our own destiny so much. I've given my life over to God. I used my free-will and chose him. My life is in his hands, and the things that happen, happen for a reason. I might not understand it right now. Especially when I thought, "what better way to serve God, than by becoming a pastor." But He has other plans. And I just keep plugging along. Making decisions and choices, hoping they lead in the right direction.

A post from Aug 2nd

So I played my first real round of golf on the weekend. We drove out to brooks (150km outside of the city) to meetup with a guy from school, and go 18 holes on one of the courses out there. It was pretty fun. Well the first 14 holes anyway. After that I was just dead and sucked it up big time. Granted I suck anyway, but after that point it got rough. It took us 5 hours, and I shot a 132. Which I'm pretty sure is absolutly horrible, but then it was my first time.

Our trip home was quite eventful. Now Brooks is 170ish km from Calgary. So at the speed limit of 110 it takes roughly an hour and a half. Amit and I made it out there in about 55 minutes. We were going about 190 for most of the way out there. Coming back home we were a little tired, so he kept the speed to a more managable 170. (And we realized that curise control on a 2002 Nissan Altima tops out at 140, you can't set it above that)
So the first excitement was seeing flames shooting up into the sky from an earlier explosion on the pipeline. There were lots of people stopped on the side of the road checking it out and slowing down rubbernecking.
A few minutes later a cop car passes us going the opposite direction, probably to check on the fire, though he can't pass up a car going 170km/h in the opposite direction. So he promptly turns around and pulls us over. I guess I should state that it was not me driving. The officer walks over to the window, looks at Amit and says, "Please get out of the vehicle sir, you are under arrest." Eeek!

So yeah, if you go 60 over the limit it is considered reckless driving and you are under arrest. This is a criminal charge, not a traffic violation, meaning a criminal record. Amit also failed to provide proof of insurance. So this should be another 2886 dollars and change (which can be dropped to 174 when you show that you actually had it). So after suitably scaring Amit, and having us call for a ride b/c he was calling a tow truck to tow the car with no insurance.

At this point he got a call from someone saying that people were starting to cause a traffic slowdown and potential hazard by the pipeline fire, and to go usher people along.

So Amit got off. No arrest. No criminal charge or record. No massive speeding fine. No $3000 fine for no insurance. Just a piddly little $174 fine for not showing him insurance papers. No car towed. Crazyness. What a lucky bastard.

The sad thing is that it is true

You Are 68% Shy

You are a very shy person, and it has started to impact your life in a negative way. If you can avoid human contact, you usually do. And as a result, you miss out on a lot.

How Shy Are You?