Another Resolution

I realized a while ago that I have never done one of those "read the Bible in a year" things. So here's a good one: M'Cheyne. It's everything and some of it twice. Yet, it doesn't look overbearing.

New Year's Resolutions

I think the first one is to forget the list of things I want to "Blog" about. I have been, for the last few months, instead of actually posting, writing a list on the back of an envelope. This list contains the things I would be writing about if I didn't feel so guilty about how many other things were on the list. Many things have been on this envelope for a long time (I may have even lost the envelope). But I decided that doesn't matter. I will just pick up with the current events. There are plenty of those without crying about the past missed opportunities. Heck, I don't even know if anyone reads this silly thing.

Things I've Enjoyed Recently... a book, a movie and a moose

Two books actually:

Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud by Jonathan Safran Foer
this is a book about a young boy who has lost his father in the World Trade Center attacks. He and his father used to have scavenger hunts and after his father has died, the boy finds a key. The rest of the book is his quest to find what the key unlocks. There is a side story about the boy's grandmother and grandfather which is a little sketchy, but just read really fast through those parts... ;-)

Tepper Isn't Going Out by Calvin Trillin
Nothing morally wrong here. Tepper, a direct mail guru, likes to sit in his car and read the paper. Clever idea and lots of fun characters, but the plot moves a little slow. The mayor of New York City is trying to get him to stop parking; but no matter what law is passed, Tepper continues to find a legal way to park his car and sit and read the paper.

The Dinner Game
Foreign movies are usually scary but this one was pretty good. The story is a comedy about a group of men who get together once a month for dinner and they "compete" to see which of them can bring the biggest idiot as dinner guest. This plan fails Pierre, the main character, when his back goes out and he can't go to dinner, but his idiot still shows up. The rest of the story is how the evening goes wrong, the doctors is called, many phone calls are made, feelings are hurt and marriages are almost wrecked, but all is put back together in the end by the hands of the bumbling idiot. There is also an audit for tax fraud.

We saw a moose on the paper route a while ago. Rachel saw a ton of them while I was home for the funeral, but I saw one too! They are huge. Just like in the pictures and movies.

The Office
Thursday nights at 8:30 we are glued to NBC. This show is full of dry humor, a touch of slapstick, and just the right balance between office-romance and insane-boss-antics. We love it.


Oh, and about the promised duplex pictures, they will have to wait. Things are not so clean just now...

Sheesh! I hate being a grown-up!

I had gotten thus far when I was interrupted by my manager. He told me that we are supposed to watch the lot so that when (if) customers come, we can greet them, answer questions, and otherwise be friendly. I guess I have to work at this job I have...

About three weeks have past and now I again have some time.

Tomorrow.

Thursday is my day off this week and I will have time to get excited about blogging again.

Things to look forward to:
a) real moose sighting!
b) I have sold some cars!
c) the car I want to buy
d) duplex pictures
e) phone book delivery

got to run!

Ghost Moose

Today on the paper route we saw a moose!!

Finally, after almost two months of watching and looking and wanting to see a moose, we sort of, kind of, maybe, we think, it can't be anything else, can it? We saw a moose. The distance was bout 50 yards, it was the half-light of 5AM and we had just kicked up a bunch of dust from our least favorite dirt road; then we saw it!

That shadow over there, did that just move? Look!

So we decided it must be a moose, because it was too big and ran wrong to be a horse. Way too big for elk, and way-way too big and too dark for deer.

For clarification, that does in fact mean that there is a paper route in my life. The Lewiston Tribune starts each and every day off right, kind of like one of the more healthy cereals. Except not because I'm always hungry at the end of it. We have about 100 customers, four newspaper racks, and one (sometimes two) sacks to drop off at the post office. We drive about 79 miles, use five plastic bags, and we are gone 2 hours and 45 minutes.

This little job manages to pay for it's own gas and make our rent and utility payments. Mostly we do it for the wildlife though. So far we have seen deer (antlers and none, spotted and older), raccoons, pheasants, quail, owls, hawks, mice, the moose, a fox, horses (even in the road once), cows (in the road quite often actually), porcupines, and we even hit a coyote. The coyote must have been fine, we went back to look and couldn't find hide not hair. But it made a loud THUD and the front plate has head-

My face is in the paper!

sort of...

I have a new job now. The interview a couple weeks ago was really not an interview, it was more a chance to give me the paperwork. Phil, my new manager, walked in and said, "Hi, we're very interested in having you, if you're interesting in joining us." So, since I hadn't had any other offers -- Jack in the Box never even called me back -- I decided to join the cars sales team at Karl Tyler Motors.

I know nothing about cars, especially nothing about trucks. Which is a shame, because that's sort of something we do best here at Karl Tyler Motors. But they said that was ok, because I know how to be nice to people and I can learn cars.

Back to the story about me being in the newspaper -- it's not that big a deal. They have an ad running in the local edition of Auto Finder and there are pictures of all the Sales Consultants (that's technically my job title) across the bottom.

Today I hope to sell a used Ford Taurus SES and take a lady on a test drive of a 3/4 ton crew cab Chevy Silverado Duramax Diesel 2500HD pickup (with gooseneck trailering). Both customers stopped by yesterday and the Taurus lady took the car home overnight to show her husband. He's harvesting and can't take the time to come in. (Great! Two things I don't know, cars and farming! But I don't think I annoyed her and she left pretty excited about the car, so I'm hopeful.) The lady with the truck wants to test drive it pulling her horse trailer. She was convinced that we wouldn't let her, BUT, we are an amazingly nice, people-centered dealership and we are going to let her as soon as we can plan a time.

When I'm not busy talking to customers -- about 95% of the time -- I still haven't really figured out what a cars salesman is supposed to do. Mostly I sit around and eat Twizzlers. And read owners manuals in the hope that someday I will need to know how to convert the Avalanche from truck to SUV and back again. It's really not that hard.

Interview Today!

In response to the classified ad last Monday, I stopped in to Karl Tyler Motors and asked about the car business. Mr. Phil Anderson (the manager, Karl lives in Montana) told me that it's not about cars, it's about people. You have to make and keep good relationships.

A Joke for Richard

I heard this on the radio and I thought it was funny.

"I was dyslexic as a kid and it really got me depressed. So depressed in fact that I wanted to kill myself to excape my dyslexia. So I jumped behind a bus."

Groan if you must...

One Month Later...

This is just to let the world -- ok, the 5 people who know about this blog -- know that I have not died and I am indeed still going to be blogging (by the way, I think "blog" and "blogging" are two of the world most idiotic sounding words; I almost didn't do it because of how it sounds -- almost like it's a dirty word).

Anyhoo, I've done lots since the 10th of June. I've been camping, moved, went to Seattle, planted a hibiscus, folded laundry, built book cases, started a paper route, hung up curtains and I've begun counting the number of times I see porcupines in the road.

More info and many pictures will follow but just now we have to run to Wal Mart to return the wrong cable I bought to set up the house Internet network -- password protected and everything!

Open Season for Jobs

So far I've recieved:

2 firm "no" responses (one of them was to try back in August...)
1 failed computer exam at Walmart (Walmart!? How did I fail this?)
3 (at least) applications/resumes that have gotten no response at all
10,000 more blank applications to fill in and turn back in
1 newspaper route

and

Nothing firm yet, but very positive feedback from a bank in Pullman. I am on the short list to becoming a "personal banker" at American West Bank. I saw the ad in the paper and went over to investigate. Turns out the manager there is an old boss of mine from freshman year. I had a part-time job taking phone surveys and Ryan was my boss then, and it looks like he may be my boss again. He remembered me and I think I was able to make a good impression in the interview. They (Ryan and an assistant, Janny) asked all sorts of normal questions, "what banking experience do you have?" and "how well do you work on a team?" "How good at sales are you?" and that sort of thing. Then Ryan leaned acros the table, handed me a flashlight and said "Take your time, but please sell this object to us."

Thank goodness for some of those Assembly speeches and Rhetoric class at NSA. I paniced for about 2 seconds, then pulled myself together and sold them the flashlight. I then recieved an email to take a personality test. The test was pretty retarded actually. Two copies of the same list of attributes, on one list I checked off what others think of me, on the second, I checked off what I think of myself. Strange.

I'm supposed to hear back this week if they think my flashlight-selling skills will be transferable to mortgage-selling skills. If not, I'm going back to re-take the test at WalMart (they pay pretty well for cashiering) and there are several other leads I have.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Those of you who have been astute observers of my profile will have noticed that my age changed recently. I had a birthday. This one was not a milestone -- none of those left (unless you count turning 35 and becoming elegible to run for president) until I can join AARP, I'm looking forward to that discount!

Anyhow, Rachel threw me a party and we had pizza and ice cream cake and paper blow-y things and presents. I got kicked out of the room while Rachel and the boys wrapped my presents but that worked out okay, I went to pick up the pizza. But I got back too soon and wasn't allowed in. I didn't mind.

Just yesterday the last of the presents came in the mail. We're not in the new apartment yet, but we've picked a lot of the things we want to decorate with. One of them is this art print of
Water Skiing In Florida. Neither one of us has ever skiied in Florida, but we like the picture at lot.

We Invited a Rabid Squirell

Or maybe it's Taylor and some frosting...

Thank You Mommy!

I opened the Narnia CD's and I was very happy. I've listened to several of them already. Well started them anyhow, it's 31 hours, it'd be strange if I had gotten through them all already. I'm sure we'll get very familiar with the stories while on the new paper route...

Check this out

One last picture. But we didn't take it.

Glacier Web Cam

yet more pictures...

I think we're a little click crazy. Rachel's camera battery died early in the trip.

Intrepid Moose and Squirrel

It's raining! Let's go camping!

Glacier Pics

I'm sure it's my fault. But I can't exactly figure out how to get pictures to load in the order I want them to. And I'm not sure how to connect the right picture to the right text. So here's a couple posts full of pictures. The pictures are either our campsite, Lake McDonald, Avalanche Lake, or the sunset before we got there (rainbow).

Entering Grizzly Country: Your Safety Cannot Be Guaranteed

Last weekend we camped at Glacier National Park. Friday afternoon it was raining so hard that our street was a river, so we decided not to bring our bikes, but we still left. The drive (six and a half hours, a little longer than we thought) and putting up with a little wet, was definately worth it!

Saturday turned out to be really nice out and we hiked back to Avalanche Lake. This was one of the only things available to us. Going-To-The-Sun Road, the only road through the middle of the Park was still not finished being cleared of 50 feet of winter snow. So only about 14 miles were open to the public and you could drive South and around for about 2 hours. We didn't have that much time. But Avalanche Lake was not a disappointment at all.

The hike was posted at 6 miles and lots and lots of kids, fat people, old people and flip-flop-wearing people were doing just fine. But, somehow, we were tired. Ok, I was tired. It felt like about 16 miles. The territory is interesting but bleak. Until you get to the lake -- that was neat. The far side of the lake is a sloping, curved cliff of snow capped mountains (the glacier part). As winter is over the snow melts, but not just trickles down. The snow was coming down in waterfalls. The lake was freezing and the path around it was flooded so we went down to the rocky beach and kept going that way. I ended up with two wet feet and one pair of wet jeans.

That night at the camp site, I learned that deer do not go away when you yell "GO!" at them and snap fingers. This may work with more domesticated animals, but the wild ones have to work harder to get human food and deer come right through campsites (even occupied ones). Every morning we would see tracks in our fire pit.

Sunday we got up to rain and decided not to rent the little motor boats we wanted to -- I guess we'll have to wait til the next visit. I got the year National Parks Pass so we're good wherever we want to go.

All over the park are signs posted about Grizzly bears and brown and black bears. There are signs about how to avoid them and what to do if you meet one. And also very prominent are the signs announcing the minimum $50 fee if you get caught leaving anything relating to food out at your campsite. Food, dishes, stoves, pots, boxes, garbage, anything. You are even advised to wash your hands and face so that you, the person, don't smell like food and become attractive to bears as they pass through. We saw about 50 million deer and they were neat. But we wanted to see a bear. So we got in the car and drove about 50 miles on the most rustic dirt road I've ever seen -- trees just barely moved to the side, pot holes the size of small countries, and at one place I drove through a river. The current was actually flowing across the road! But apparently the "wild" is not the place to see wildlife at Glacier. It took about 3 hours and that whole time we saw exactly one deer. As opposed to the dozens running around our campsite. And, to make matters worse, the very hike we were on the day before did have a bear. We overheard in the gift shop that a bear was seen walking along the hiking trail for quite a distance.

Oh well. We drove on and found some mountain goats. Almost as interesting. When the explorers first saw mountain goats, they didn't know what they were and one guess was a new kind of polar bear. It was pouring rain at that point, but it's not every day you get to go to a place called The Goat Lick.

On the way home the weather broke a little bit and I decided that if I am ever filthy rich and I want to buy a cabin on a lake in the mountains, I'm going to Flathead Lake. I drove Rachel crazy saying "this is so pretty" about every 45 seconds.

We got home very late. So late, in fact, that we didn't get up in time to run on Monday. So we ran today even though it's a scheduled rest day. Things were not looking so good for our marathon the last two weeks, but we have dug out the schedules, built iPod play lists and our resolve is strengthened.

The Shoes That Will Get Me To Ireland

Here's the latest plans --

We're going to Dublin. And we're going to run in a Marathon. The Adidas Dublin Marathon on October 30th.

We were going to work with Team in Training, a fundraising orginization for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. But there were only a few small problems with that idea. Mainly we had to figure out how to raise $5800. Each. And that means selling a heck of a lot of Krispy Kremes. Also, we don't actually know anyone with those diseases so there would not be a whole lot of personal motivation to earn the money. So we decided to just save our own money and go. Because flights are about $900 and the entry for the race is only 70 Euros. So we are saving our money and zealously following our five-month training guides.

Today is a 30 minute run.

We're not sure what else we should see while we're in Dublin, but we need suggestions. Becuase of the time change, we have to fly in about three days before the race and airline ticktets are cheaper if we fly out a few days after, so we are stuck. We have to stay in Dublin. ;-)

It may seem crazy to start with a marathon, but it's not totally starting from scratch, we have run several 5k races. And lots of old ladies run marathons, we've seen pictures! It must be possible. And October is a long way off, I'm sure we'll be in training by then.

Ask me if I ran today!

Summary of Recent Events

Since Graduation:

-- Just today I went up to Spokane, WA where Rachel bought a camera and we had dinner at the newest Sonic. This is one of the best restaurants ever, and this one did not disappoint, in fact there was extra amusement as we watched the new employees learn how to carhop on rollerskates!

-- Last Friday Rachel and I went camping at Dworshak Resevoir State Park. This dam is the second tallest concrete dam in the world (only shorter than Hoover by seven feet -- why didn't they just make it taller?) We had a great time. We visited the fish hatchery, went on a hike in the pouring rain, and drove up a mountain with curves posted at 10 mph. We're thinking about visiting again.

-- Before that, I finally broke down and bought an ipod. I got the nano, in black. (this was at CostCo)

-- Before that, I've basically spent my time filling out job applications, turning them in and calling potential supervisors to ask if they've gotten my information. Kinda discouraging.

-- Before that was graduation and my family (Mom, Dad, brother and Grandpa) visited. We had a baseball game picnic and everyone had a good time. I even met some new family. My grandpa's nephew's daughter, Megan, lives here in Moscow and we found out about her in time to invite her to the party.

-- Before that was senior year and that's getting a little ridicuouls to summarize in a post.

Going to bed now...

Number One Post

I have high hopes that this blog will be amusing or entertaing or at least informative. My goal is to let my friends and family know what is going on way out here in potato land. This may seem like the lazy person's solution to the "communication problem" but I think it will be slightly better. This way y'all can have pictures and such to go along with the descriptions.

I can't predict the future so I don't know exactly what this will be about. But I will be moving so I'll have an apartment to talk about and show pictures of. I will be getting a new job (hopefully soon!) and I will be going on several trips; plans include camping in Glacier National Park, Seattle, Dublin, Baltimore and back home to visit.

I'll talk about what books I'm reading and pretty much anything I am interested it. For example, I just saw this on the news... the annual Cheese Chasing Festival in England.

Right now I'm reading Tepper Isn't Going Out. Which is a slow-moving adventure about a man who likes to pay to sit in his car and read the newspaper in metered parking spots in Manhattan. So far it's fun, I'll let you know how it continues.

Tonight, Rachel and I are working on our current puzzle (1000 pieces, picture of marbles) then heading off to sleep. And tomorrow...who knows!

Cheers,