Congratulations to Nicole!!!
April 24th, 2008
The pictures your mom forwarded were very cute.
That looks like a wonderful baby!
My baby… because I have yet to take that plunge
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Back in MN
February 18th, 2008
So, it was brought to my attention (by mom) that I may have generally suggested that all I do in Minnesota is muck with computers and drink.
I thought I’d set that record (my record) straight and give everybody the low-down on what I actually do in this slightly less frigid state by detailing this past weekend.
So, Friday night was a buddies birthday party. So, after work (and I mean immediately) myself and two of the crew walked down to a very nice south-of-the-trendy-border tequila bar. Their specialties include table-side guacomole, margaritas and tequila flights. Myself and my buddy Joe are on a winter ultimate frisbee team, so we were really only here to have dinner before going to the game. Nevertheless, in the spirit of my buddies b-day, we shared a few flights with him.
Onward and foreward to the frisbee game, we took the bus to ensure nobody was driving and also as a big part of the evening was to take the ‘light rail’ that Minneapolis put a few years ago. We played ultimate for about an hour whilst several of our (now larger) crew cheered from the sidelines. I received a few pep talks about my play and even heard rumor of a compliment from the captain of a club team I formerly played on. We stomached our defeat (but quite awesome game in my opinion) and headed to a bar which sponsors the Ultimate league we’re in (cheaper appetizers and drinks usually). We hung there for the rest of the evening, ate more food and enjoyed some good conversation including quite a bit revolving around the “Hillary vs. Obama” debate.
The following day, I woke up bright and early to play a game of broomball at 2:00PM. It was a ‘bonus’ game because we were knocked out in single-elimination championships. Great game, we beat the other team pretty badly, but I think great fun was had by all (it’s amazing what a few breakaways and a less-then-stellar goalie can get you.) I had a breakaway with another player, got passed the ball and scooped it right over the goalie into what would have been a perfect goal except it hit the post, and rebounded back down the ice to one of our guys who slap-shotted it in. Great game, we went our for lunch/dinner afterwards. Two of my friends (Gregg & Kellie. Visited us in Seattle) took me cross-country skiing on my recently migrated skis. Skis seemed to work pretty well, may be a bit short, and we crayoned the wax on so… by the end I had virtually no grip (waxed for classic and I’m still getting the hang of skate). We then went to “The Triple Rock Social Club” for dinner with another buddy from college. The triple rock is definitely a bar and first hand appearances are that its pretty much a dive. However, most of their menu is or can be made vegan (we’re talking like 20/25 items here.) and they’ve got some good beer on tap. Apparently, they have live music next door as well, and one time when we were there around Halloween, a whole fleet of zombies showed up. The joint is entertaining to say the least. And to top it off, I only checked in on some stuff at work three, maybe four times… and it all was working!
That’s a slightly more full then average weekend, but really not by too much.
-Erik Nerison
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Well that sucks
January 16th, 2008
Jaylene, the kids and I were planning on going on vacation in California sometime next month, but apparently that won’t be happening. Along with the new mayor, came new policy. Anything over three days of LWOP for a temp worker is a mandated reduction in force (lay-off), followed by a re-hire. And because I’m a temp, they have the right to bring someone in to replace me while I’m away, and have the option to keep them after I return. My boss argued with the guy in charge of personnel at public works, but he wasn’t having any of it. So, despite the fact that they like me and want to keep me around at all costs, it looks like I’m not taking any vacations until I find a permanent position at the city.
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Got the snowmachine running
December 13th, 2007
As the title says, I got the snowmachine running. Corbin and I had a good time tearing up and down the street at reckless speeds, and I’ve got to say it has some get up and go for a twenty year old snowmachine. We ran around the neighborhood a couple of times, along the alley that goes to the access road that parallels airport, and back home. I showed him how to spin donuts on the thing, and I think we have a holy terror on our hands now. So the tenative plan for the weekend is to load the thing up in the back of my truck, head out to my parents, and tear up the snow out there.
I think the next project is to get the Suzuki running, so it’ll be ready for summer. Right now it is in about a hundred pieces in the garage, so I could strip the spray paint off of the frame, motor, radiator, swingarm, and plastics.
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About the new Flickr pics
November 25th, 2007
As you can see, we have a new addition to our family. Bailey Ian was born on November 21st at 9:46am. He weighs a healthy 6lbs 14oz and is 20 3/4″ long. We had a couple of ups and downs, but he is now eating well, and he and mom are safe at home.
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Something Prophetic
October 3rd, 2007
Ok, it’s been a while.
Finished working the reset out on Wainwright.
Got laid off a week before it originally ended.
Got a job working for the city only missing a day of work between reset, and the new job.
Got a phonecall from General Dynamics offering me a job.
Told them to go fuck themselves, as I had applied close to three months earlier, and I’m worth more than $46k/yr.
Got laid off last friday from the city because I was a temp.
Supposed to get a call back for the city on the 22nd.
Got a phonecall today essentially offering me a job working for DoD/the army directly.
We’ll see what happens.
Yes that is a 1964 Ford Galaxie. Bought it at the city impound auction for $500, and drove it home. After I got it running, a kid there offered me $1400 for it, and I looked at him and told him “straight out, the glass in that car is worth more than $1400″. It’ll give me a project to work on anyway, and the body is straight except for that left rear corner.
I also picked up a ‘96 Suzuki RM80 dirt bike, a ‘95 Kawasaki KE100 dirt bike, and a ‘87 Skidoo mxlt snowmachine all for free. They all need a bit of work, but still, free toys….
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So, what’s going on?
August 21st, 2007
The ‘lead sled’ as you put it. 1964 Ford Galaxie? Am I right?
I’m kicking back a bit lately. I heard that Joe was visiting from Seattle with none other then Collette Sonafrank. How’s he doing? Not much other news has drifted this way. I got my mom’s book recently, but haven’t opened it yet. Was hoping for some extended down-time to check it out. Been kind of busy lately. Was up at a cabin a two weeks ago; will be bottling beer this weekend, and in the following weeks will be going to the Minnesota State fair to consume lots of deep-fat-fried-things-on-a-stick… don’t ask. Also, will likely be hitting up the MN equivalent of six flags or busch gardens depending on which you may or may not be familiar with. I was playing in an ultimate frisbee league two nights a week, but that’s over now. The team I captained came in fourth out of 24 teams… not too bad. I successfully asked out two girls on the team I didn’t captain. One was not interested in men and the other was not interested in me. Almost asked out another girl, but she was a bit more on top of things and let her preferences be known quickly. (Friends here seem to enjoy my strike-out stories.)
Had the iphone now for a bit more then a month and a half. I like it. I will not be purchasing an ipod anytime soon given that function is completely built in. The phone seems to work well too, or at least on par with my previous one and is a hell of a lot easier to use…. fewer options though and much less software for it.
Jobs alright. Beer’s better. I picked up a 2 liter glass boot recently. Have put it through the paces twice now, and it does good work. My car is getting an oil change this Friday… I’m starting to wonder what needs to happen for me to get a new one. I mean if a car basically works and has no major structural, safety, or driving concerns do you stick with it? until it dies? What my dad says is that as cars get older, you’re basically buying a new car… one piece at a time. I guess you’re not having not that problem. I don’t know. What do you think? Should I waste a lot of money on something.
Anyway, get off your but, and post something yo.
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Iphone
June 29th, 2007
So, I’m waiting in line for the iphone…
Got about an hour left; only been here (outside Apple store) for about 3 hours and change. Line really isn’t too long, I’d say… maybe 50 people in front of me. An impromptu poll by the guy first in line discovered only about 4 people were going to buy the 4GB model and 3 kids looking for the ebay resell. We’ve been given free “SmartWater” a couple of times, and the local mall restaurants have been stopping by with menus (I’m not sure if they deliver but I suppose its possible).
Not really anything else interesting going on. Usual assortment of cameras, lawn-chairs, poker, etc… I think that this probably isn’t a good example of ‘product-line-waiting’. PS3 or WII would have been better examples.
Interestingly enough, my old laptop running Vista has actually managed to conserve its battery life for this entire haul. Say its got about 25min remaining, but I’m impressed nonetheless.
That’s about it. If I had any sort of decent camera on me, I’d try to give you some footage but no such planning on my part.
Congrats on the job turn around too by the way. I think I pulled off a week of unemployment between my last job and this one.
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That was easy
June 8th, 2007
Talked to the guy from the city today, he said to come and talk to him in person. I showed up at the agreed time, and he said that he didn’t have any open positions for a mechanic… but he did have one for an operator that had a CDL and could run a dump truck and a loader.
So, total days of unemployment this time around: 1
Maybe I’ll spend the rest of the day drinking beer and playing videogames.
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Busy no more…
June 7th, 2007
So, my last day of work for reset was today. So, what have I accomplished in the last approximately five months of work?
I headed up a team that turned out just under 40 trucks out of a total of 289 that went through reset. Every truck had the power pack pulled out (engine, transmission, cooling tower, and hydraulics), all 8 wheel drives were swapped out, an average of 2.5 differentials per truck were swapped out, truck cleaned top to bottom, defects found on the tech inspection fixed, power pack put back into the truck, and the vehicle road tested.
All in roughly 3.5 days per truck…
Working a 72 hour work week…
So, to say I’ve been busy might be an understatement. I made some money, spent some money, and got cought up on some bills. Though I’m sure that I’ll have a few more, now that I’m unemployed.
I put in for a few jobs, looked at going back to doing rental stuff, and have heard rumors of contracts coming up. Supposedly Chugach put in a bid for the organizational maitenance contract on base, but we supposedly won’t hear anything until July 1st. I applied for a job working with General Dynamics, but I interviewed for that job almost a month and a half ago, and everyone who put in for that job still hasn’t heard anything. I’ll probably tell them to bugger off, by the time they actually get around to telling me if they want to hire me, as I’ll likely have another job by then.
I submitted a resume, and paid dues to the 302 operator’s union, so there is always that route. But the one job I think I might have actually landed is at department of public works, working for the city on their equipment. I interviewed for the job (which is through 302), and it was pretty much “uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, you’ve got a forklift cert? cool. uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, you can weld? cool. uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, you’ve got an aerial cert? cool, we need someone who can work on the ladder trucks the fire dept. has… I’ll call you, one of the two shop foremen will call you, or the union will call you to let you know what’s going on.”
Sounds promising anyway, and there was a message on the answering machine when I got home today saying to call them back, so that’s first on the agenda for tomorrow. Hopefully that’ll work out.
More to come later (for real this time), as it’s been a long five months with plenty of stories to tell, and lots to catch up on.
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