Almost April!

Well, just another day until April!! Then, just 11 days until I come back to IL! It's cooled down this weekend (43 today), so I've been staying inside mostly. I just found out that I will be working back in Greenville next week....hopefully I can catch on quickly because I have very little training down there. At least I know how to drive around now; that was a big part of the intimidation for me. I feel sorta conflicted...as much as I was ready to start working back in Greenville (and not drive 2.5 hours/day). I will miss working in Newberry next week because there is a lot happening down there. Since I've been down there for 4.5 weeks, I've taken ownership of a lot of projects. Curt will be taking my place, so everything will be fine.

It's been great having Dennis down here, time is flying by. He's a great guy to hang out with! We've been watching a lot of movies and going out and about. On Friday night, we went to Jimmy Johns. He got a kick of how much I enjoyed my sandwich. Everyone loved his shirt (who wouldn't..it's Towlie!).

I needed a kick on a groggy morning. Dennis had a bunch of these drinks, so I borrowed one. It was pretty good, and I'm not much of a coffee guy.


We went out looking for a gym near the apartment and came to Pivotal Fitness. Picture a big grocery store skeleton...filled with exercise equipment. Then add a bunch of beautiful people and a pushy sales guy...and you have this:
It's only a mile or two from the apartment, so it looks like Dennis will be joining.


On a separate note, I finally got to play a Wii! I know, welcome to 2006, right? I'm terrible at it, though. I'm not much of a video game guy, I guess.


This morning, I attended Simpsonville United Methodist Church. It was mediocre, which was sad, because it is so close to out new house. The pastor insisted on.....pausing..... on every single.......sentence. It was unbearable and I don't remember a single thing he said. Then, they played praise band music a-la-church organ which was also unbearable for me.



I spent a lot of time furniture shopping this weekend. After I went to six different stores, I was ready to be done. It all started to blur together.


This is a sad site....a dead O'Charley's on Haywood Rd. Don't worry, there is still one by our house! (This is one of Erin's and my favorite restaurants.)


We went to Applebees for lunch on Saturday. Dennis used to work there and even ran into some of his old coworkers. Their hot wings are tasty but are not hot in the least bit.

Well....that's all until next time! Thanks for reading and don't forget to tell a friend :)

Clooney and Zellweger thank Greenville

http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080328/NEWS01/303280007/1001/NEWS01

"George Clooney and Renee Zellweger gave Greenville a big thank you Thursday morning, when they stopped by the Westin Poinsett Hotel on the fourth destination of their "Whistle Stop Express" tour. A crowd that spilled onto Main Street watched as Mayor Pro Tem Lillian Brock Flemming gave both actors keys to the city. A third was awarded to their co-star John Krasinski, who was not present."

I wasn't downtown at that moment, but I heard it was a big crowd! BTW, that hotel is next door to city hall, so they were super close.

What I did on Easter

I hope that everyone had a nice Easter Sunday! Mine was pretty laid back. Truth be told, I'm starting to become a little bored with my routines.....Dennis is coming down on Wednesday, so I will be gratefull to have someone to talk to and hang out with. I'm getting tired of hearing only my own voice in my head! Can you imagine??

Anyway, here are a few shots from Sunday:

Church service started at 8:30, so I put on my suit and

drove a few miles to Covenant United Methodist Church.

It was a very nice traditional service. It was a little awkward when they asked any visitors to be bold enough to introduce themselves. I am eager to find a welcoming congregation, so I was pleased when many people came up to me after the service to welcome me!

For lunch, I was in the mood for Chinese, so I changed clothes and headed for East China buffet.

Don't let my plate of food fool you.... the food was not good... I was only trying to get my $15 worth. I guess my search for the best Chinese cuisine has to start somewhere. It certainly doesn't stop at East China buffet.

After driving around Greer, I ended up at Walmart. Target was closed...bah. The Walmart in Taylors was pretty nice so it's all good. At top of my list: a shower curtain for my own bathroom, since Dennis had dibs on the other one.

I ended up with a few more items, including some healthier food.

(ignore the Doritos)

Back to my chariot. It was a nice sunny day, so I spent some more time cruisin' the strip listening to my Positive Hits on Shine 96.7!

Until next time... Please call or email me if you so desire!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone! If you've been following my blog closely, you will probably notice that I haven't made a post in a while. For that, I apologize. Never fear, I am adding one tonight. The main reason is that I don't want to bore anyone....I haven't been doing anything too exciting. I am still going to Newberry everyday...there is no end in sight, it seems, as to when there will be a permanent replacement for the CAT IT position. The weather has been very nice here, right in the low 70's. It's been nice driving around and running outside...speaking of running, I have been trying a few new jogging routes. Today, I found a perfect route with low traffic and big flat sidewalks. GOLD!

I haven't been taking any new pictures, so I will supplement my single picture with some random funny ones I've seent his week online.

My parents sent me an Easter Boxet...too bad it came on Monday, so the chocolate inside will be long gone by the time Easter rolls around.

The rest of these may make no sense, but I liked them quite a bit :)






I've been doing some exploring: taking some new roads, checking out the shopping areas. I went to the other mall tonight, only to find out that it is being rebuilt to be like Shoppes of Grand Prairie. Haywood Mall is nice, but there's not much that interests me as a straight male.

The highlights of my travel have been identifying the locations of Krispy Kreme, Macaroni Grill, and all of the movie theaters. Of course, I made my weekly visits to Jimmy Johns and Cici's pizza and have developed a nasty habit of running up the street to grab a milkshake at Mickey D's.

There are so many motorcycles on the road this weekend, it really makes me itch to be riding again. I wouldn't feel comfortable riding the KZ in this traffic, but the boss said we might be able to get a new bike when we pay off some of our bills. I'll take that, sounds like a fair deal. Like I mentioned before, many of the bikes on the road here are BMW, partly due to the fact that BMW USA is here in Greenville.

Speaking of motorcycles, I took a short drive up around the Paris Mountain area. It's really pretty up there, with a great view. I'll go into the park with a camera soon and do a little hiking. On my way up, a nice bale of straw fell off a pickup truck. I slowed down, but I wasn't able to swerve out of the way. I couldn't find any damage, but that guy's not going to find his missing bale, either, so we're even. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone! I'll be back in Peoria in less than 3 weeks, so hopefully I can see you while I'm there!

Laundromat adventure

Well, I couldn't put it off any longer. I absolutely had to go to the laundromat. I haven't been to a laundromat since 2000, when I was staying in Maryland, on tour with my drum & bugle corps. It brought back a lot of good memories of spending an entire day waiting my turn for a couple machines, eating a few meals and hanging out with my friends. This was a little different. It was much more expensive and I didn't feel like hanging out with the other patrons of this establishment.


I spent about $10 washing two loads of laundry. Lord, I can't wait to get my own washer and dryer. I never want to come here again.

I decided to try the local Zaxbys, which is a major fast food chicken chain. It was a little pricier than normal fast food places, but the atmosphere was much nicer.

I tried their boneless wings. I didn't like the sauce, but I could try another one next time. I managed to eat under $5, but the amount of food was not what I had in mind. I stretched it out by reading my book and eating slowwwwwly.

This was the first place that I've ever seen Coke Zero. I was so excited! That's my favorite diet soda.

I went back home and played online games with Erin for the rest of the night. The end!

My third weekend!

Well, I had a great weekend. The weather was a little shaky Saturday afternoon, but otherwise it's been very mild, allowing me to get outside and take some nice runs around the area. Today was especially, nice, so I spent the day out looking for a microwave. What was really great was the fact that I could open my windows and really push and feel my car again. It was a lot of fun! It's funny that my gas mileage seems to decrease in the nice weather... I miss my car during the week, since I'm still driving a rental car. Speaking of, it looks like I'll be doing a third tour in Newberry this week. I'm practically a regular there, everyone knows my name, which is faster than any other facility I've been at. Some people call me "Jason" and I hear that people are still calling Jason "Josh" back in Peoria.

Here's an example of the flowering trees that are all over the area.
These are the kind that smell kind of funny.


Dennis got here Saturday afternoon. It didn't take long to get the truck unloaded. He and Collin flew back to Peoria this morning. Dennis said he should be back for good in a week and a half.


The once empty apartment quickly got filled up.
I may have to start sleeping in my own room.

Look at all of this stuff!!


Dennis's car was on the uhaul trailer and he couldn't open his doors. Things got worse when his keyfob wouldn't open his trunk. I made a quick tool for us to slip down and pull on his trunk release. It worked!

Afterwords, we went to Arby's for dinner, then I went to Sears to work on the appliance situation. We ended choosing a nice LG set of washer, dryer, and refrigerator which should be delivered on the closing day of our new house.

I saw this today and thought of Erin. I think she'd love this one, a beautiful midnight blue. I've seen dozens of motorcycles today, and most of them sport bikes. Even though there is a helmet law here, I am very pleased to see all of the riders in full gear: helmet, jacket, gloves, etc.


It took me about 4 hours and visits to 5 stores, but I finally found a Panasonic microwave in white. I used it twice tonight and both times, it cooked automatically with a sensor PERFECTLY!

While out and about, I came across a rare and elusive Shell gas station. These are impossible to find here, so I filled up and saved 5% off of the $3.40/gallon.


This morning, I went to Aldersgate United Methodist Church near my apartment in Taylors. It was very nice, but very traditional. They had a terrific brass ensemble hired for the Palm Sunday. The service was very good, and I would definitely consider coming back.

Well, back to work tomorrow! I hope everyone had a nice weekend and has a great week!

Midweek update!

I'm sorry that I don't have more pictures for you guys, but there are some things you might be interested in! First, my laptop is driving me crazy. If my posts seem short, it's because I can only type a few letters at a time, before it all freezes. Most of the time, I have to go back and fix what I type, because it skips some letters. This thing is over 7 years old, so I should know better!

We had our home inspections today. The new house passed with flying colors! I also met our new State Farm agent and representatives. No surprises there...the homeowners coverage is cheaper here, but our car insurance went up about 30%. Rates are higher here due to the crazy driving situation that I must have mentioned earlier.

Speaking of driving, this entire area has a very upscale feel to it, due partly to a lot of nice cars on the road: Lexus, Mercedes, Acura, Volvo, etc, and of course, BMW. There is a big BMW plant here (which is undergoing a major expansion) so people drive BMWs like folks in Normal drive Mitsubishis and folks in Peoria use CAT tractors. I'm getting more comfortable with the idea of driving one, but don't tell Erin. There is a rare local BMW motorcycle dealer...hmmmmm

I learned today that Greenville is the 2nd worst city in the country for Spring allergies. That's the big "gotcha" that I've been expecting. As I was running outside in a 70 degree breezy sunset, I saw all of the trees in bloom. That's what causes the problems. I have very bad allergies, so it's just a matter of time.

Dennis, my roommate, is moving his stuff down this weekend. I wish he was staying, but he is going back to Morton on Sunday. I hope he brings a microwave.

On Tuesday night, I attended a rehearsal for the Palmetto Statesmen chapter of the society. They were preparing for their contest this weekend. They asked me to sing on the risers with them, which I did. From my picture, you might think I'm the youngest one present, but I'm not. I'll probably go back to rehearsal next week, which is only 5 or 6 minutes up the road from my apartment.

Here's the director, who is a music professor from one of the local colleges.


Here's a random picture from rehearsal. These guys are all extremely friendly and I think I had a long conversation with each of them. I knew that if I needed to meet some new friends and make some music, I needed to look no farther than the local SPEBSQSA chapter.
That's all for tonight! Talk to ya'll soon!

2nd Weekend Update

Well, my second Sunday has come and gone. Here's what I did this weekend:

This Sunday, I visited Advent United Methodist Church near Simpsonville.


The sanctuary was gorgeous, but the service lacked energy or partipation. That's not going to fly! I have several more to visit in the next few weeks.

For lunch, I visited CiCi's, whereI stuffed my face with pizza, pasta and desserts for $6!

MMMMMMMMMMMM

This weekend, Erin and I went on a date. We visited Sears, Home Depot, and Lowe's. Okay, so she was on the phone at the Peoria stores, but it had the same effect! We were shopping for some appliances for the new house.


I like this one, but something tells me Erin won't agree .
I told ya'll about the great drinking water here. Here's a picture of my nice, clear ice cubes.

This is my rental car for my trips to Newberry. It's very smooth and responsive.


Gotta love that push button start/stop. Walk up, open the door, get in, and push the button.

I was in Greenville the other night. The streets are lit up at night.

Here's an addition to my furniture collection. I finally gave in and bought a chair.

Look what I found! This is going to be trouble...

And finally, my ginormous Greenville map to help me find my way. I'm slowly learning...
That's all for today! The weather has been mild and sunny, so I've been getting some nice runs in the afternoons. I've also been watching lots of documentaries and South Park. You'll hear more from me later!