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Sunday, January 23, 2005
I think the cubicle across from me is cursed. Colin used to sit there, got in a car accident and wrecked the trailer he was towing. Then he moved to a different building and Pete moved in. Pete had only been there a few days when his girlfriend wrecked his truck and then a piece of gravel cracked the windshield of the rental car he was driving.
Sarah finally found us some prospective friends: a group of guys in our building that do computer engineering I believe. They seemed a little looser than most of the people I work with (including the young ones) not so obsessed with work. Way to go Sarahbaz.
There's a car in our parking lot at the apartment that has a Misfits sticker in back, a star wars bumpersticker, and a very realistic looking toy submachine gun in the backseat. It's a cops segment waiting to happen.
Cooking tip the week: Put a few tablespoons of cayenne pepper in a bottle of vegetable oil. Shake it every once in awhile for a week and then fry something with it. So awesome.
Frank 5:55 PM
Friday, January 14, 2005
I feel really guilty about how infrequently I blog. Even moreso about how infrequently I read others blogs. All I ever really do on the internet is check my e-mail every few days. All that will change though.
I got an ice cream machine for Christmas and we've been experimenting with different kinds. Tonight it's going to be chocolate peanut butter. Last week it was a decent peppermint.
My beer brewing career hasn't started yet, but will as soon as go buy the stuff I need and finish reading the book I got.
I am drinking a bit of beer though. Last night it was Deschutes Brewery Red Ale, which is seasonal and also brewed in Oregon, so most of you can't drink it.
With all this ice cream eating and beer drinking I've been concerned that I'll get fat and weak, so I went to the gym today for the first time in a bit. It's the best gym ever. I seem to have a compulsion to seek out the establishment that's the shabbiest and least efficient. Given the choice of comic book stores, I have chosen the one that has a huge variety of bizarre things besides comics (a "visible horse", Cthuhulu statue, the Holy Hand Grenade, old railroad tycoon boardgame, wide variety of anime for rent, buttons pins, t-shirts etc) but no apparent organization. And while I'm perusing through a box of comics, sarah is getting lost in the store and always finding some fucked up action figure or the like, which goes back into its forgotten box when we leave. They also always get my subscriptions mixed up.
The same applies to my recent gym experience. Today I felt like I visited dodgeball the movie. The first gym I went to is the size of the field house, has a locker room, pool, every kind of "court" imaginable, tvs and music channels for the dozens of treadmills, stairmasters, and bikes, huge and varied free weight and machine sections and a snack bar. I was given a personal tour and asked way too many questions about my weight lifting experience and life. The second gym was up two stories next to a Thrift Rak. The music playing was not recognizable but definitely not Dave Mathews Band. I met the owner of the gym, but he had to leave to "go back to work". He didn't ask me any questions, just told me what the rates were and left. So I'll go with that one, it's also half the price of the nice one.
Hooray for Dodgeball. It's a modern day Caddyshack.
Frank 6:03 PM
Friday, November 26, 2004
Last weekend "rocked my fucking socks off". Drew, JoeMo, Aaron and Dan came to washington to celebrate Fraktoberfest. Drinking games were played, good beer drank (by Dan and I) horrid beer drank (by Drew, Aaron and Joe) Aaron was wrestled. Dan cackled madly and said "Goddamnit Drew!" or "Good work Drew" quite often. The choosines of the guys often paid off in the form of good places to eat (like the Garden Cafe in Port Angeles or the Buffolo Deli in Belltown) One highlight of the trip for me was probably wandering drunk in the pitch dark woods without a flashlight. The low point probably damn near freezing to death in those same woods when trying to sleep. We met a really odd guy named Darius on the edge of the sound in Seattle around 1 am. He talked a mile a minute about almost everything (and made a lot of contradictory statements) and then left after a bit to go to the liquor store (even though he didn't drink). Another nice time was a bar in Belltown I think we a lot of punky looking kids in it. The DJ had very eclectic tastes and looked my old roommate David Bennett. The last song of the night was "Don't you forget about me" which I thought especially apt since I was there with good friends who I didn't see on a regular basis anymore.
It was sad to leave and drive back was lonely (especially since my radio doesn't work) but it's good to be home.
Yesterday we cooked an awesome thanksgiving dinner. From scratch we prepared: cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. The turkey came as unprepared as you can get a turkey from Albertsons, but we did a fine job on that as well.
Today has been pretty lazy. I violated Buy Nothing Day to get some Drano, but I wouldn't let myself be tempted by anything else. Read a little and watched Sarah play video games.
It's very important that I get back into shape soon. Gotta get that fire burning again.
Frank 5:33 PM
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Too soon to know for sure, but i don't have a good feeling. If the world is a blasted hellscape tomorrow morning I'm going to sleep in.
Frank 1:33 AM
Saturday, September 04, 2004
Work is cool right now. My job is to keep my orders on schedule, so basically anything i do to help things move more smoothly is my job. i don't like the organizational stuff very much (keeping track of document submittals, for example) but i do like it when i call someone and ask if there's anything i can do to help and they tell me their problem, then i can (hopefully) go off and solve it for them.
It's also fun to go to the bathroom. i virtually never see anyone i even recognize in there and i feel like i've met most everyone on my floor. i have this idea that there are lazy engineers who spend most of their time in the stalls. When all the stalls are full, i get the impression that the people in them are looking at me. After i leave they say "that was frank. he's the new guy in expediting, " "yeah, he's been in here twice today right?" "Three times, in the morning, remember?" "oh yeah"
Sarah might get a job with Bechtel (in our document dept.) through a temp agency. That would be cool. Her boss would be this cool, mild mannered computer dork with tatoos all way down to his wrists.
Things are fun at home too. i discovered a new beer called "Moose Drool" (brewed in Missoula, MT) which Sarah insisted i buy and turned out to be just delicious (http://www.beerlabels.com/labels/full/beerlabels.com-00227.jpg)
We went to the "Atomic Ale" tonight which has different really good, radioactively themed beers (brewed with local water for that extra something) good pizza too. We had The Wanderer tonight (Jalepenos, olives, sausage, thyme, garlic, no tomato sauce) I liked it a lot. Plus it has a cool name. Like The Walking Dude.
Lastly, Sarah got a bird. A parakeet actually. She named it Munch (in the tradition of her other birds: Snack and Edible) It's already calmed down and learned how to perch on her finger. Really impressive i think. There's some mailing i need to do, after i finish sending off forms for work (benefits and whatnot), so if i have your address i'll get to you eventually.
Frank 11:27 PM
Sunday, August 08, 2004
I was talking to Dan last night about how he's been running (and by the way, huge kudos for that Dan) and I realized I miss running. Not really running by myself. Mostly doing sprint workouts with the team at Knox. On so many levels it was really satisfying. For one there was the unity through common pain with the other runners. But what i've been thinking about lately is just the tremendous amount of energy i was capable of expending then. We'd belt out 4oo meters, put ourselves back together and do it again, over and over. The feeling of being able to operate outside of what my body wanted to do was just really thrilling. After every lap where my time stayed constant (or got better) i felt like i had won something. As soon as I'm settled here I'll start going back to the gym and climbing, but none of it compares to the feeling of running.
On a related note, I can expect my cat to start climbing up walls shortly, as last night he batted a spider to death and ate it. I was torn between my love of spiders and wanting to see Cort have fun, but Cort won out in the end.
Did anyone else know that the gruesome decapitation of that guy in Iraq was faked? I heard it looked fake, but the guy who made it just came forward. Sounds like a real sleazebag too. Said he did it to promote himself for a minor political position in San Francisco. He's also against the war and said it was some kind of commentary on that. What the hell was thinking? I can see support for the war going up as a result of that, as much as i can see it going down.
Heh, oh yeah, on some religious talk show this morning the pastor had a guest. Transcript of that conversation:
Pastor (nervously): Today on the show I have my...wife of......8 years. What's your name?
Wife (embarrassed): I'm your wife. You should know my name.
Pastor: Yes, I'm sorry. And...your occupation is?
It was hysterical because he was treating her like a guest he'd never met. He'd ask her where she studied the scripture in HER home, instead of OUR home, etc. Worst talk show i've ever seen.
Did anyone see the presidential quote on Letterman a little while ago? Bush: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." He makes it too easy.
When I used to live in Saudi it rained virtually never. But once on my birthday it absolutely poured. I liked to think of that as a kind of birthday present from God. God's gift of rain to me continues here in Richland. Richland gets about 5-7 inches of rain a year. When I got here God welcomed me by having it rain a freakish 4 times in the 10 or so days. Thanks Lord.
Last of all, because i know he likes being mentioned in my blog, Bridger now has his Outlook Express set to send me a running count of how many days I've been in the machine. Hey Bridger, did you take into account that i get every other Friday off?
Frank 4:58 PM
Saturday, August 07, 2004
As my predecessor told me 2 days ago I have been "dropped in it". I've gotten about 3 hours of real instruction in the job of expediting and the rest of it has been rather confusing on-the-job learning. For those of you not expeditors, an expeditor (at Bechtel) watches the interaction between Bechtel engineers, purchasers, etc and bechtel contractors. Because most employees live in their own world, they neglect to do certain things or through carelessness, cause the project to get off schedule. An expeditor's job is to babysit the contractor, the engineer, and anyone else involved and make sure they do their business smoothly and efficiently. As my predecessor told me: "As long as you're organized and focused on details, you'll do fine."...so i'm fucked.
I might just have a chance, as long as I can totally adopt her system, which is insanely organized. She has a 6th sense about where a problem might arise (the wording of the contract might be confusing, for example) and heads it off before anyone falls behind as a result. It'll take a while to get that good (especially since i understand about every 5th word of the contract) but at the very least i should be able to follow the procedural aspect and be able to remind people when they're late with something.
Anyway, I'm in the apartment now, but don't have my stuff yet. It also turns out that Verizon has no service out here (they're the only local phone company, but don't have any cell towers) , so i'm in the market for a new provider. Any recommendations may be sent to my ghostbuster address.
Frank 3:33 PM
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