Happy Memorial Day!

Hey everyone! Hope you had a teriffic weekend. I know I did!

I tried a new Chinese Place (the 3rd in Simpsonville). It earned a solid 2nd place.

I know ya'll are paying $4+ in IL, but I payed $3.99 the other day. Ouchy! To tell you the truth, the gas prices haven't really been on my mind. I only use about 10 gallons a week, even with driving on the job. It's not a deal breaker for me YET. I hope that Erin and I will be able to carpool when she finds a job down here.

I went to a new store called hhgregg. They're like a Best Buy, but with really poor selection and high prices. No thanks. Next!

Jeff Lynch is a very nice store, much like Sherman's in Peoria. They have really nice furniture and appliances, but you can tell that they have a high level of service. I liked being in there :)

Dennis and I went o Cici's for lunch on Saturday. Mmmmmmm. Bad Josh!!!
The war of the Ants rages on. This weekend, I spread a 3rd brand on the entire yard. Per the instructions (and word of mouth), this stuff should knock all of the buggers out in a couple weeks. The only downside was the price. I guess you can't put a price on your family's safety. (man, they are goooood)

I had to water the entire yard after I applied it. That took a couple hours. I got a sunburn.

DIE DIE DIE

Here's a great shot of the bales in the field next to our house. I thought it looked so peaceful and farmy. It also made the walk to Target much easier.

I couldn't resist....Faygo!!! I haven't had that in like 20 years!

When is mommy coming?? SUNDAY!!!!!!

Dennis and I had a little party at my house. We grilled out some REAL beef franks and my special burgers.

I swear that this is Dennis's plate. He has a bread phobia, so he limits himself.

He brought cake for the occasion. It was pretty darn good. Back on the wagon tomorrow, though.

I'll leave you with a shot of some balloons from the festival I mentioned last week. If I were rich, I'd take a ride on one, but I'm not, so here's a picture.

Don't forget to read my other blog post for my last week's happenings. See you later!!!!

Work Adventures Continue

I have two posts for this weekend, the first are some pictures from my week preceding Memorial Day. The most interesting thing I did last week was to follow the director of community development over to an old community center that they are redoing. He had asked us to wipe data from some old computers to prepare them for disposal. I actually removed all of the hard drives and will have them physically destroyed. But, I had my work cut out for me, because since most of the pcs were over 10-15 years old, they required a lot of labor (makes me appreciate a toolless chassis!!) The previous operators left the place a real mess, but CoG will be completely remodeling it.

Here is another treasure trove.

I caught Dennis trying to copy CDs on the copier. I said "Dennis, you can't do it that way!"

I was wondering if CoG was going to dress up the construction barriers. I like it! :)

I needed a break one day, so I went outside to read and watch people run through the stop sign.

I spent some time in the garage this week, and it should be parkable. Now, we have to figure out a way to fit both cars in there. Most people here only park one car in their garage, and I'm bound and determined to show them how it's done. This garage is definitely bigger than our old one, so here's hoping!

Well, I am going to put a post together for my Memorial Day weekend festivities. Keep reading ya'll!

How much longer??

Two weeks from tomorrow, Erin will be here!!! I have never looked forward to anything more than I am this event. I'm tired of talking to myself and eating meals alone! My last week was especially rough. Sometimes, I come home and need a hug, but I don't know anyone well enough down here and Sam needs a bath so I am S.O.L. Work is going well, but was very busy last week. Jason "Supertech" was in FL on vacation, and he usually takes care of a lot of work for our site. I faced many new situations and learned tons about my job. My friend Jimmy John has been a big help, though. He makes me a sandwich and everything feels better.

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I was over at the jail to see the police captain to fix his Blackberry and he was about to start a big ceremony for the officers lost while serving. I stayed through the while thing, but since I was not invited...I felt kind of awkward, especially when I was fooling around with his phone the whole time.

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They're still blowing stuff up everyday next to City Hall. Now, they're moving and crushing the big boulders into tiny little rocks. Pretty interesting stuff. I think I bored my coworkers telling them about the Cat equipment being used. Thanks PPG!

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I've been fighting a battle at home with ants. Not the funny cartoony kind, but the irritating ones, like fire ants (Stupidus Stubbornus Dontsteponus)The yard is so big, it's hard to keep track of the mounds that I'm trying to kill. Today, I bought a different ant killer and also got some little flags so that I can mark and identify active mounds. My master 10 year plan for our yard is to have the best lawn on my street and the nice lawns in the fancy part of the neighborhood have no ant hills, so I can't either. I bought a big sprinkler, fertilizer, and some grass seed to get started. I know it can be done, because there are some gorgeous yards here.

I haven't washed my car since I've been here. I've been conserving water and money by strategically using mother nature. She does okay, but it still needs a good scrubbing. Luckily, I found the only coin self wash place in the upstate...right down the street from my house.

On my quest for the perfect Chinese fare, I found my way to the Dragon Den. FINALLY I found my favorite Mandarin cuisine. You know it when you taste it.

The sweet & sour sauce is much thicker, darker, and sweeter. The chicken has more batter.

The General Tso's chicken is actually SPICY. Not fake spicy, but whoah cool spicy.

This morning, I treated myself to some cinnamon rolls before some yardwork. Yum! They were perfect.

For lunch, Dennis and I went to Long John's in Mauldin.

*not actual sign. Thanks Google images!

Hmmmm Chili Dog or fish filet?

I ate light today, only one of each and no bowl of crumblies.

Dennis and went to see Iron Man. I had seen it already, but I was in the mood. What a great movie!! The CGI is perfect (I don't remember any part of the movie being CGI). Definitely on my Must Buy list.

On our way in, we were approached by some questionable characters. I wasn't sure what this was, but they were friendly and I wanted a picture for my blog, so here you go.

It's starting to get warm here every once in a while. It's honestly gorgeous. Our house is staying around 70 without any A/C too!

I sat down on Thursday to watch the stupid Office Finale and popped open my Doritos and put my feet up.
Next weekend is Memorial Day! Woohoo a day off! If you don't hear from me before then, have a safe fun weekend and don't eat too much at the cookout. Our local ampitheater is hosting a big festival: http://www.freedomweekend.org/photos.aspx. Huey Lewis is playing, but they want like $30+Ticketmaster fees and it's BYOLawnchair. I don't think I will go for it.

I will leave you with Tetris played on bottles:

http://www.snotr.com/video/1126

What a week!

Sorry for the delay in getting back to the blog...I have been so busy lately. It seems like we'll never be finished unpacking. On Monday, I got my new drivers license and also the plate for my car. I removed the front plate...there are some small holes in the bumper but it is so nice to see the front end of my car!

I decided to go on an adventure in my neighborhood. I needed some groceries, and the closest grocery store is the Super Bah-Lao. I thought it was going to be expensive...and it was...kinda. They're a lot like Kroger: they have a lot of great specials and most items available in store brand. I liked it a lot!!

They even put the locations of all of the items right on your cart. What a timesaver!

I had to laugh. Of all of the silly generic soda names, this one takes the cake.

All of this shopping made me hungry for some ice cream. I walked over to the sonic and ordered.

Let's try their chocolate malt. Pretty darn good!

I was getting kinda shaggy, so I stopped at the Great Clips. They were cheap. What can I say, I am not picky about my hair. I'm just thankful it's all there.
I noticed this nice view out of the 8th floor office the other day. Even downtown, there is green as far as the eye can see...

Jason and Darrick will appreciate this. A mommy toughbook and daddy toughbook got together and made a little toughbook. It's difficult to see in this picture, but it is about half the size of a CF30.

One day, right before lunch I got a desparate phone call from Ralph, from my chorus, needing a tenor to fill in in 10 minutes down at the Governor's school (for gifted music students). I ran over and sang a couple tunes for an auditorium of enthusiastic high schoolers. In drum corps, this would be considered a bando show. They went nuts. It was a lot of fun.

I finally got a fancy phone to use at work. I need to be able to receive email while I'm taking care of calls, so Tony is letting me use the MIS spare Treo. So far, I'm pretty mixed. The features are great, but the Sprint reception is awful.

Dennis and I went out last weekend. Went to Fuddrucker's again. It was great!!

mmmmmmm free cheddar cheese sauce

Afterwards, we went out for ice cream. I wanted to try this place.

It was good, but not very darkly chocolately as I had hoped.

haha! Caught a picture when he wasn't expecting it.

Then I bought the best game ever. Portal. If you don't know what it is, it's worth googling.

Finally, my mom got her motorcycle this week. She has her learners permit and will take the MSF course next month! It'll save her a lot of gas on her trip to work. It's just the right size, too. Look at her go! Mom, we're so proud of you!! Now most everyone in the family rides. We should start a motorcycle gang.


That be it for this week. In summary, work is going very well. I finally got my police id badge so I can do calls at the county jail by myself. I've been enjoying the service at Mauldin United Methodist a lot! The house is starting to take shape and most of the fire ant nests in the yard are dead. The weather has been dry, but we're expecting some thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow. Hopefully, Dennis and I will go see Iron Man this Saturday. It'll be a matinee, though, because there's no way I'm paying $9 for a ticket. See ya'll later!!!!!