Oh, yeah! It’s only Saturday night and already this long weekend totally rocks! Spent all day with the Nissan gang having a BBQ and then down at Pacific Speedway hanging at Importmix night. Met some great people, saw some incredible cars, learned a ton about my car and have soooo many ideas for it that my head hurts. Good thing i'm completely broke or i'd be shopping for parts online right now… I have pics that are up here. It was a great time, and i can't wait to race at the next one. I didn't tonite, partly cause i wanted to see what it was about first and partly cause i'm still paranoid about my new front end. Plus, how exciting would my stock run have been, anyway? But by next season, i should be ready to at least make a good showing for the Nissan reputation. Speaking of that, this totally sweet white Nissan Skyline completely toasted that pretty red Toyota Supra in the photo gallery. I don't have a good pic of the Skyline (bummer) but suffice to say that it looked great and was faster than a heavily-modded twin-turbo Supra. Bwah ha ha ha! Nissan rules!

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I've been all over the place this week for work - out on the Kitsap peninsula, mostly, which involves taking (and missing) ferries and driving a lot. There’s this big server install project that is keeping me pretty busy. Hmm. How cool that i can say that about my job! So, since someone (ok. it was Ann.) complained, i put the post-trauma pix of the Max back up, in the photos section. Eventually it’s gonna get it’s own site, under the “features" tab, but in the meantime i lumped it into the photos.

In other, non-local news, Danielle got a job! She'll be working at a coffee stand in Safeway in Bozeman, which is great because she really enjoyed doing that while in Seattle. They're excited about her Seattle work experience (so something good did come of that job, even if it wasn't money), and seem very flexible about her vacation schedule and working around her classes. So now that she has an apartment and a job, she’s ready for classes to start next week. Congrats, Danielle!

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Ok, i just posted the completely overhauled site. If you have any feedback, feel free to let me know. I like it much better. Hopefully, it’s easier to navigate, with less clicks to get places and less of the parts no one looks at. My apologies for those on slow connections if it takes forever to load, but once you get there, it looks nice!

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It’s sunday morning and i'm up before 8am, thanks to my overly-conscientious internal alarm clock. Doh! So much for catching up on sleep this weekend. You'd think since my body’s so tired, that same body wouldn't wake itself up early on weekends when it could be sleeping in. Stupid biology, or whatever. I'm ok with being tired, tho, cause it’s worth it. Skyla and i went out dancing at the Back Door Ultralounge last night, had a blast. The DJ had a latin feel, a mix between acid mambo and very heavy salsa. Good intense beat, layered with trumpets and conga drums, and a full room with a thousand varieties of red light fixtures. We danced until we dropped, then caught some fast food in the wee hours before heading home to crash. It was one of those nights that reminds me why i moved here - i love this city! And thanks, Skyla, i look forward to the next time!

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What’s up, all? Not much news to share, just hadn't been here in a while and thought i should check in… It’s thursday already, and hopefully tonite at midnight or so i'll get my first real paycheck from John L Scott. Sure could use it. I also applied for part time work at the Bellevue Club this week (thanx, Annie!), hopefully that will pan out. It sure would be nice to make more than i spend every month. :) The trolls at discover card still hate me, but at least the nice people at American Express still think i'm ok. I always liked them better, anyway.

Work is a little slower this week, but i've also just been really tired the last few days, and am having trouble coming to work with enough energy to run around all day. Which is why i'm sitting here typing to you guys - it takes less brain power than building this server i'm supposed to be building…

Making plans to drive back to Bozeman for homecoming weekend to visit everyone, still need to ask for the time off work but that shouldn't be a problem. If the weather sucks, though, i may reconsider or change the plans somehow. There’s no way i'm driving my freshly-painted, just-fixed Maxima through the gravel-strewn highways of idaho and montana. If there’s even been a flake of snow and the highway department has so much as thought about sanding the highways, my car’s not going anywhere near there! I did some work on it this weekend (finally finished the brake job i started 6 months ago) and rotated the tires (which already have over 15k on them - augh!). While i was in there, i painted the brake calipers blue - they look pretty sweet. Doesn't make them work any better, but it makes them look like they might. A big thanx to Joe, for letting me use his garage, especially since i got spray paint all over everything… :D

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Wow, i was so good there for awhile, posting every day, and lately it’s all i can do to get in here every week. Guess maybe now that i'm not sitting around all day at work staring at a computer wishing i was somewhere else and trying to avoid doing any work, i don't spend as much time updating. ;)

I actually got the Max back Thursday (last nite). It’s great to have it back, and the front end looks flawless. Sonic Collision did an excellent job, i would highly recommend them to anyone, while at the same time i hope none of you ever need their services… Safeco, however, i'm not nearly as impressed with. After promising that my rental car was covered, they pulled the rug out from under me and only paid for 200 bucks of it, leaving the other 400+ to me. And then enterprise billed it to my card without calling to check first, and of course that card didn't have 400 on it, so now it’s over the limit - i would have given them a different one had they actually checked with me. So as if i wasn't broke enough already, now discover card wants my head on a platter. Mom’s right - i am going to have ulcers by the time i'm 30. And in case you hadn't noticed (or maybe it’s back by now) the quotes on the front page are unavailable, because my sql server is down. I swear, nothing works like it’s supposed to this week.

In the non-sucky category, my work at week (hmmm - i'm gonna leave that typo for ya) was fun and went by quickly. This guy at work, DJ, and i have been talking cars and techno, in between when we kinda work and stuff, and i've been busy running around the city and getting a feel for this new job. I put almost 800 miles on the rented blazer in a week, and i was really only driving where i needed to go, it’s not like i was crusing in it or anything. Speaking of mileage, the Max rolled over to 47k as i was coming home from the auto body shop thursday nite. Yikes!

So, i really need something fun and stress-free and really really cheap to do. Anyone in the area wanna come entertain me? :D I “get" to help Robin & Carrie move tomorrow, then sunday is Maxima-day over at Joe’s (thanx, buddy!), doing some brake work and maybe a coat of wax on that new paint, before i park downtown and the pidgeons dive-bomb it. Somewhere in there, too, i need to sell everything i'm not using or that i think i can live without on ebay and send the money to the evil trolls at discover card…

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OOOHHH, where do i start? Let’s just jump right in here. Wrecked the Maxima on tuesday. Was late for my second day of work. It was a very not-good day. No one was hurt, and i'll get the Max back on wednesday, restored to working order thanks to safeco and my parents' generousity. The very-depressing pics are up here. So that was, and continues to be, completely lame. I have a rented chevy blazer this week that, thankfully, is also paid for by safeco (otherwise i'd be taking the metro, and then i'd really be late for work). It’s no Maxima, though, that’s for sure. I really miss my car.

On a less horrific and devastating subject, my new job is going super well. My colleagues are great, and i can see already that i'm going to learn a great deal from them. I think hard all day, and run around trying to solve problems and help people work with their computers. So far it’s a very relaxed, rewarding place to work, yet still a busy and challenging one where my days fly by very quickly. I think it’s something i'll be able to enjoy doing for a while, and i'm super appreciative to be given the chance at it, as well as to be recommended so highly (thanks, Caleb!). As Martha Stewart would say, it’s a good thing.

On a personal front, i'm going completely crazy. This is related mostly to item one, being Maxima-less. I'm seriously going through withdrawals, and the lumbering blazer is not quenching the thirst. I've tried playing driving games, and exercising myself into exhaustion, and dreaming up projects to occupy my time, and running errands and buying things, and i've watched The Fast and the Furious multiple times this weekend (which i think has actually made things worse), but to no avail. I'm still going schizo, running around my apartment about 4 feet up the wall like a cat on bath day. I'm unable to sleep more than a few hours, so much so that i pretty much gave up on the idea yesterday and have just started staying up until i fall over. I have no appetite, i can't stay focused on any one thing for more than a few minutes, and some other stuff, too, but i forget. Actually, i've been trying to write this entry for the last, oh, 2 hours - a testament to my mush-brained condition. I found myself physically hopping up and down and flailing like a schoolgirl who lost her spot in line for the swings in a moment of frustration earlier today. I just need to drive, and i need it now. I need horsepower and torque and engine revs and g forces and i'm just not getting them sitting around here! But there’s nothing i can do about it until wednesday, and it’s making me crazy!

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Here i am, my first day at John L Scott! So far i'm running around like crazy, learning a lot and meeting more people than i'm ever going to be able to remember. It seems like it will be a good place, and i'm definitely going to learn a great deal from my colleagues here in the IT department. I'll expound once my parents and Danielle have left (tuesday morning - that’s tomorrow) and i'm looking for something to do after work!

It was kind of a whirlwind trip for Mom and Dad, but it was so great for me to have them here! We had a great time, did some Seattle things (like Seafair) and also spent some quality time lounging on the patio. Spending time with them always reminds me how much i miss them - i wish they lived closer!

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