Yay! New Job

Now, for the last couple of months, I have been working as an usher as the local theatre where, lets say, the hourly rate is a little anemic. There are two reasons I took the job:

1. It got me out of the house, so I didn’t slowly merge into my computer, couch or whatever I most vegged on.


2. Five visits a month, with four passes per visit (total of 20 tickets per month). Yep, I was able to bribe my kids with passes to the movies when it came time to shovel the driveway.

It’s a fairly easy job, not much thought needed, though it can be a little weary on the feet standing for eight hours.

Whooohooooo!. Yesterday I found out that I have a new engineering job. A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from Jennifer, a recruiter for a consulting company and she recommended I try for a development position at EMC². After a lengthy interview, a drug screening and a pile of paperwork, I got the job. YAY! I start the new job next Monday and it should be a good gig. It’s a four month contract with a renewal option. Fun fun fun!

Hmmm, perhaps now I’ll be able to get that cable modem and City of Villains….

Where do all the good cats go?

Last month, Cyn and I got an apartment in Sutton. Its a lovely two bedroom apartment in the center of town. It's close to the school, church and library which is good for the boys. The downside is the owners don't allow pets. Ooch. Now, I have been keeping my cat, Castor, in the apartment in Jersey. Unfortunately, I no longer have a job in there, so the apartment had to go. But what to do with Castor?

After a quick and hectic search, we found a nice place for Castor. It was very difficult to hand him over to someone else. I'm hoping that he will be happy at his new home.

Ode to a Tree

OK not so much an ode, more of a rant...confession? I took part in the ritualistic murder of a tree this weekend. I feel rotten. It was a good tree. Some sort of coniferous thing that had been growing next to my parents house for almost thirty years. It wasn't sick, it wasn't hurting anyone, they just said it was time.

It started with a phone call from mom. "What are you doing this afternoon when the boys get home?" {they have supervised visits with their father on Saturdays} "well....this that ramble ramble...why? "

"Could you come help us take down a tree?"

" Sure, we can do it"

{ now see here, I didn't connect the take down the tree part. All I registered was that my parents needed help and said yes.}

"Wait...what tree?"

"Just come"

"No wait WHAT TREEE???????????"

Laughter "just come!"

Now my parents are kind loving generous people, my mom cooks for the sick, helps with her grandchildren plants gardens. Dad has his own Hosta gardens, is a friend to the community and was named Man of the Year by the local Lions Club. When it comes to trees, they are homicidal maniacs.

I don't know how many campaigns I have waged to save trees on there property. They think that just because a tree is in their opinion, ugly, it can be cut down. Anyone who has seen our mutant family picture from the 80's would agree these people have no right to strike down anything that is funny looking. I digress.

It was a good tree, home to doves {Dad himself found one desecrated nest on the drivewaty after it was all over} and our cats main transport to the roof. Now I just don't know how she will pluck on the bedroom screens at three o'clock on a summer eve wanting to be let in. How is anyone going to know she's lonely.

I tried to get my three year old nephew to join in the protest but he was having none of it. He just wanted to know if he could drive the lawn mower and where was Uncle Steeben's truck? I expalined that they were going ot kill a tree, that beautiful growing tree. " Ya, " he said " My dad'll kiwl it."

Oh sure, after we all spent 3 hours dragging the remains of said tree into the woods, everyone began to see the wisdom of my wails but it was too late then. My oldest son complaind that a branch was wet. I told him that was just the trees lifeblood pouring out. My dad told me to knock it off and I swear he revved the chain saw at me....ok, I know he wanted to at the very least.

The tree is gone. Funny the house doesn't even look that odd without it. But it's gone and I was a party to it. So I apologize and hope I will be forgiven.

The worst part is they didn't even take the Christmas lights off first.....

A respec mission gone awry

One of the games I play is City of Heroes.  There is nothing like being a super hero swooping down to rescue someone from the zombies, undead, or superdyn hopped up thugs, etc. Ok, or just beating up the villains.  Anyway, last night my friend Sandy and I took on one of the most difficult missions with six other heroes.  By the time we got to the reactor, there were only four of us.  Needless to say, we failed the mission.  Grrrrr!

The Longest Yard (2005)

Ok, watched The Longest Yard (2005) last night. Sigh! It’s an ok movie, some humorous scenes and I do like Adam Sandler. They managed to get some HUGE actors (football players, Pro wrestlers, etc.) to play roles as guards and convicts. But, the movie lacked the passion of the original. The namesake scene was no different than any other. Burt Reynolds is in the movie but his last face lift has left his face so tight he now has horizontal folds under his eyes and his skin looks a little plastic-y. It makes him look like he was in a fire. I would rate the movie RENTAL.

I suppose I should mention my movie rating scheme.

FULL PRICE: Yep, this movie is good enough to pay the $10 plus popcorn to see.
MATINEE: Sneak in on Saturday and catch it when the price isn’t so much.
RENTAL: Wait for it until it comes out on DVD.
5 FRIEND RENTAL: To get your money’s worth, have friends pitch in.
TV: Don’t pay for it, you’ll only get mad.
LE BAD CINEMA: So bad it’s good.

Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.

Arrival

Hi All;

I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Steve and I live in the Sutton, MA area on the weekends and Netcong, NJ on the weekdays. I have a lovely wife and two step-sons (we'll see if I can get them to post here as well). Why do I have such a long commute? This is because I am a software engineer working at the Picatinny Arsenal. This means I get to drive north Friday night so I can visit with my family in Sutton. Then do the reverse on Sunday night. Fun, I know. Fortunately, Cyn, my wife, belongs to Audiable.com and she loads my MP3 player with some nice books so I don't go radio search crazy on the drive.

This brings up my next passion: Books. I love books. If I don't have a stack of books by my bed, something is wrong. Usually it’s a science fiction book, but there are smatterings of Dean Koontz, computer science books, cook books and a few other types laying around. I'm currently reading "Star Well" by Alexei Panshin. I'm listening to "Until I Find You: A Novel" by John Irving right now on the Otis (MP3 player). Now, normally I would be hunkered down and finish it ASAP, enthralled by a new novel by Irving (loved Garp and Owen Meany) but this one is starting to sound repetitive and well, boring.

Besides books, I love watching movies. I drive my Netflix account pretty hard, going thru at least 4 DVD's a week. Tonight, it's The Longest Yard (2005) . Now, don't get me wrong, I love the original version with Burt Reynolds, it being right up there with Slap Shot for best sports movies. I'll let you know what I think after viewing the movie. Besides that, I'm power rushing thru the Smallville DVDs. I'm almost through the third season's DVDs. Yes, its full of teen angst but they have done a good job up to now depicting nicer and nicer people. Oh, before I go and get some sleep, if you haven't checked out Firefly, I would do so soon. The motion picture Serenity is being released 9/30/2005 in the US. I think you will enjoy the movie more with a solid background the Firefly DVDs do.

Well, I'm starting to fade and am in impending danger of waking up later with QWERTY embedded in my forehead.

SPR

Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.