Monday, May 01, 2006

The Daily Planner

So lesse today was a busy day, considering I'm unemployed (for another few days anyway)

1. Wake up at 6am - after bed around midnight (about 6 hours today, 2 more than usual. Busy weekend). Manage to just about stay awake in a half daze 'til 7:30 while Mel gets the kids up, fed, and dressed. Do the early morning sweep of the NoR forums doing various moderator type things on the posts that have come in overnight.

2. Deal with early morning recruiter calls -yes they start calling around 7am. People don't understand timezones. Almost all of tehm are useless bullshit wastes of time.

3. Get morning snugglage from Mel while reading the news - which gets interrupted by my gyms billing company calling me to tell me that because of their billing errors (which of course they dont admit) I now owe them four months in dues plus a $20 a month fee. This is of course bullshit and ends with me going through three levels of supervisor and finally telling them that either a. they fix it b. I cancel my membership and report them to the attorney generals office, the states attorney, the Arizona corporate comission, and the better business bureau. They respond that they will, if I can send them a copy of my bank statement showing them the billing. Idiots.

4. Edit 120 someodd photos - from this weekends NoR Spring Meetup (to be posted later, either tonight or tomorrow). Two hours, and not quite done yet actually. Most need some kind of work to be usable (a lot of gamma correction, redye, color correction, sharpening etc... About 40 are unusable for one reason or another, and the rest still need a final touchup, resize, and rename.

5. Talk to the actual recruiters I WANT to talk to - My offer was supposed to be on it's way to me by now. It's written up and on the desk of the big boss. The big boss called the recruiter and said he wanted to talk to me first (after talking to everyone else who said "hire him now"). The hiring manager and the recruiter say it's just a formality since this is going to be a full time gig he wants to make sure he approves etc...

6. Visit with LV Gunner on his way out of town - Last time he was here David, JohnOC and I all bought and started building up SKSs. Well he hadn't finished his, so I worked on it for him before he left. Pretty simple stuff, just detail stripped and recleaned to get the last of the cosmo out (gas tube was a bit cruddy). I also drilled and tapped his reciever for a scope mount, converted it to a folding (ATI) stock, and showed him the drill on detail stripping, and using stripper clips. Unfortunately in the six months (almost to the day in fact) since he bought the thing, he managed to lose the bolt group so we went and found him one on ebay, which is hopefully on its merry way by now.

That reminds me, I need to set up the scope mount on MY SKS. That and replace the top handguard with the plastic bit that came with the stock. Oh and I REALLY need to clean my guns from this weekend.

and setup my loading bench again.

and clean up my gun room

... yeah I'mna stop now before this list gets too long to read.

7. Celebrate Bealtaine in the appropriate and traditional way - Vigorously, and for some time.

8. Played with the kids for a while - Lord I love being a daddy

6. Change the oil on the bimmer - I was badly overdue for an oilchange anyway (like a few thousand miles overdue), and yesterday I had to do some car work so while I was at the parts store I picked up the bits for an oil change.

People are always bitching about how hard and expensive BMWs are to service, but they are completely full of it. Expensive? Yeah the parts are hell, but the labor is DEAD EASY if you know what you are doing. What they are bitchign about is paying for someone who knows what they are doing.

Anyway, you dont even need to jack up the car for an oil change, and I'd rather buy my good 20w50 partial synthetic (I bought it with a lot of miles on it, and I didnt need seals to start) and a good oil filter for $15 than pay the shop $30 for the generic shit.

6. Readjust the belts on the car, AGAIN - Apparently the last time they were serviced, the mounting brackets on the accessories weren't tightened down enough and they had loosened up and started to get a bit misaligned. I was working on them yesterday (along with a new air filter, wiper blades, and tail light bulb), but apparently I missed a couple bolts. I noticed it while I was under the car doing the oil change and fixed them.

Next step, I need to replace a recently rock cracked headlight lens, fix a section of headliner that has peeled, a switch pannel that cracked (the liner peeled because the switch panel woudlnt stay inplace and fell, taking the liner with it), and the hood lift struts are a little bit weak. Oh and I should do my rear brakes soon. They arent 100% done, but it's better to do them when I've got the time.

7. Wash said Bimmer - We also picked up that new Mr. Clean car wash thingy, to see if we really could get away without hand drying the car here in AZ. The results were a bit mixed really. It cleaned up nice, but if you dont thoroughly scrub with the wash mit, the areas you missed scrubbing wont sheet the water off, and you'll get spotting, and a different look to the paint. All in all it's a good product, and I'd recommend it.

Oh and I managed to dehydrate myself rather throughly in the middle of the day so it's gatorade time. I know better and I still do it; but those headaches and dizziness really do mean something.

8. Get the kids ready for bed - Have I mentioned how much I love being a daddy. Little girls hugs and kisses are wonderfully restorative things. Plus we're getting thems tarted on reading early with bedtime stories.

So overall a good day, but you'll excuse me if I zonk out for a while. The dog needs a one to two mile walk every day or he gets a little too frisky, and I need a rest and some food (and for the day to cool down. It was a mite warm earlier) before we get going.