spiders in my basement

1st harvest of the year

2010-06-21T13:32:00.003-05:00

this year has been a struggle with the garden. the first time i planted most of my seeds they either didn't work or after they sprouted a creature pulled them up. i have planted peas three times, corn/radishes/carrots twice. the flowers that i tried to plant didn't come up at all. if they did come up then they looked just like the million elm tree sprouts and i might have pulled them thinking it was a weed. the plants that i bought are doing well. most of the leeks had been cut down by a bird, but they have all grown back. i am trying peanuts this year as well, i hope it works.

with all the rain and cool weather the lettuce has gone crazy. i put in a generic head lettuce and romaine this year. it will be interesting to see how this all plays out since i have a total of 15 lettuce plants. anybody want some? after doing some weeding yesterday i noticed that the radishes needed to have some dirt pushed up so that the roots aren't exposed. as i was doing this i saw that i had a really good sized radish ready to pick!! i have tried radishes before, but never really gotten anything to write home about. in the past they have been small and rather woody tasting. maybe the cool weather helped, or maybe it was the fact that it has rained for 15 days this month. whatever the reason i am hoping that the rest of the veggies look as nice as my first radish of the year.

ice waiting

2010-03-01T20:32:00.004-06:00

two weekends ago i had the opportunity to go ice fishing with "the guys". there was originally going to be six of us going, but it got trimmed down to three. we had a great time. there were no clocks, no alarms to wake us, and best of all no kids to demand attention. (i must thank gianna, my wife, for this mini vay-cay.) the fishing was awful, and the hike across the lake was grueling, but it didn't really matter too much. the weather was perfect and it was really nice to get out. we really lucked out with being able to drive down to the lake. gianna's uncle had used his bobcat to plow the drive down to the lake. if he had not done that, who knows if we would have gone fishing for very long. a 1/2 mile hike in two feet of snow was out of the question. but the icing on the cake was being able to land a very nice northern. granted it really was the only fish of size that we caught, but who cares.

up, up, and away

2009-11-01T21:39:00.002-06:00

even super heroes have their beginnings.

bruise free area

2009-10-23T21:10:00.002-05:00

okay peoples! sing with me. . .

"one of these things is not like the other, one of these things doesn't belong. can you tell which thing is not like the other, before i finish my song."

mmm, puffball anyone?

2009-08-17T22:50:00.004-05:00

every year a crop of giant puffballs crop up in our back yard. some years are better growing years than others. cool temps, lots of rain at the right time and voila! you get puffballs!! when we first bought out home we had a few very large puffballs grow. they were bigger than gianna's head. literally not figuratively. this year in order to get a good perspective i had the girls pose next to some of the puffballs. as and added bonus - they are edible. simply slice them like bread and saute in butter. make sure that they are completely white with no brown beginning to show. i personally do not like them, but it is considered a delicacy.

mommy! i caught three crappies!!

2009-07-24T22:05:00.004-05:00

yesterday i took maya fishing. with a little help from phil, and a disney princess fishing pole, we had a great time and it was a perfect night to be out on the lake.

here kitty, kitty, kitty

2009-06-22T15:09:00.002-05:00

fish: flat head catfish

caught: June 20, 2009

weight: approx. 25 lb

location: mississippi river in st. paul, mn

shoot my foot is numb again

2009-06-18T16:46:00.002-05:00

from the time that i first wrote about "throwing out" my back, i have since done it again. this time around it was compounded by the fact that i was playing soccer. it was causing enough pain that i went and got an MRI. that was an experience. it took me two tries to do it because the first time i went to the imaging center i drove myself and didn't take the strong pain pills. they make me really drowsy. the pain was so intense from laying on the flat table that i couldn't do it. so four days later i tried again (with a chauffeur). this time i was lucid enough to lay flat for a little over 30 min. and not even realize the time had passed.

it turns out that i have a bulged disc in my back that is pinching the root of the S1 nerve. OUCH! i believe that the S1 is the sciatic for the right side of the body. basically from the hip down to the foot i either have sever pain or numbness on the right side. if i sit for too long then my foot goes numb. well what do you know! its numb right now!!

from here i get to receive a steroid injection into my back to make it feel better. gianna and i get to bond in yet another fun way. we both get to experience an epidural!
yippie.
whahoo.
yeah.
bleah.

coming soon to a grocery store near you

2009-05-22T13:34:00.004-05:00

stay away from my garden!!!

2009-05-19T17:17:00.003-05:00

for the first time in the six years we have lived in our home the grackles are out in force. some people may like this bird since it has a very cool metallic purple head.

i don't like them.

i planted lettuce in my garden about three weeks ago and had two very nice rows of little plants coming up. to date i now have about four little leaves of lettuce. i don't really have any proof that these pesky birds are the culprits, but from past experience i would guess they are to blame.

the only reason that i have any lettuce at all is due to the fact that i put a milk jug on top of my remaining plants. time will tell who will win this battle, but i do have the upper hand.

a bb-gun.

falling apart

2009-04-29T16:31:00.003-05:00

exactly one week ago i threw out my back. i have always had problems with my back a little bit due to a pre-existing condition that i have had since birth, but this was completely different. i was getting ready for work and needed to get a box of cereal from the basement. while rummaging through a bag of groceries i had a coughing fit. the next thing in knew i felt a pain in my back. dead center, in the area of a person's L5.
so i went to work, emptied a truck, got home and was doing okay, but not great. on friday i went to work to unload another truck, and without thinking i assisted in moving the dock plate. dumb! that was about all i could handle with my back. i was about ready to lie down and not move. for the rest of the weekend i pretty much was flat on my back trying to move as little as possible.
on monday i went to the doctor (after talking with a friend of my who is a sports trainer) to get official documentation in my medical record, and to get a muscle relaxant. it has been determined that i have a swollen disc in my back. if the pain doesn't get better in a week then they will check me out again and possibly schedule a mri.
so when you hear stories about people throwing out their back because they tied their shoe, sneezed, or simply turned wrong, it is true!! i didn't even get to pick up the cereal box.

getting older stinks.

reality check

2009-03-26T16:51:00.004-05:00

late last night i learned that my dad has colon cancer. gianna got home from cubbies with the kids and after we put them to bed she asked me if i knew about my dad. so i was rather blown away when she told me what was going on. my first reaction was "wait a minute, why didn't they tell me this!?!?" after going to bed a little concern crept in and i couldn't sleep last night. if you know anything about my family, you know that my mom is a serious cancer survivor (4x). there has never been too much ever mentioned about my dad since he is a healthy person. yeah, there are some minor issues, but nothing big like this.

after calling him this afternoon to talk, i feel better about the situation. basically my dad tells it like this: everyone gets polyp's in your colon, and most everyone will have one be cancer. with screening the doctors find them, cut them out, and put you back together.

to put it into other words, my dad will go into surgery on thursday next week. the cancer will be taken out and along with it 12 inches of his colon. from there he will have about a three month recovery time table. yikes.

i have never thought that my dad would be the one to have cancer. there is so much focus on my mom's side that i must say that i do neglect the medical stuff from my dad's side of the family. in three weeks i myself have to go get screened for cancer. i wasn't really thinking about it at all until today. i don't anticipate there to be anything wrong with me, although others may debate this fact, but there is that little bit of doubt that lingers in the back of my head.

this is all a little too sobering.

man! this is time consuming

2009-03-16T14:42:00.001-05:00

over the past few days i have been setting up my wifi here at home. i wanted to be able to use the wii's internet feature. after much grief, it is done. the bummer is that you have to download the internet channel in order to use it!!! so after spending $5, we can finally surf the web from the wii. a disappointment that i already found is that adobe flash player doesn't work so we can't watch some videos. oh well. so for fun i decided to blog using the wii. not too bad other than typing one letter at a time using the remote. with that said i am going to quit now,

a major milestone

2009-02-18T16:55:00.005-06:00

last week we all noticed that dane was really ramping up to start crawling. he would get up on his knees and think about moving. then he would slap his hands on the floor, rock back and forth, and then ultimately sit back down. oh well, nice try buddy. on occasion he would lean forward and then lay out flat on his stomach in a spread eagle fashion. it was really funny, and it moved him around.

a few days ago, i don't remember exactly which day (gianna wrote it down), dane made those first official crawling movements. it was only one or two paces, but hey it counts. and it is on video!! since then dane has gotten more bold and is beginning to scamper across the floor at an alarming speed. **sigh** we had to put the baby gates back up. so, once again we will discover what items around the house will need to be put away. an almost 9 month old doesn't have a sense of what he can or cannot touch, and everything must be licked. yuck.

i can only long for the days that i don't have to hear maya and brin yelling at the top of their lungs that they need to come up out of the basement. i don't think i will teach them how to open the gate.

jumping into the modern world of gaming

2009-01-26T14:56:00.002-06:00

okay, so for the longest time i didn't really care about getting a new game system. i have my sega genesis from back in high school and roughly 60 games to go with it. quite a collection if you ask me. this past summer my family got together for vacation and we played the wii a lot. i had played a wii before and didn't really care, but this time it was fun. i think it was the most fun because gianna got into playing. (she doesn't play video games) it then became my mission to get a wii for our family. as gianna stated in her blog we bought a wii last friday. yippee!! it is an instant hit with the girls as they race their cows around the track knocking over scare crows. we had fun playing tennis last night and i am sure that it will continue for many times to come.

let us know of any great games out there that are worth playing.

what! you said its how cold?

2009-01-14T20:26:00.003-06:00

okay, so its not this cold here, but it sure feels like it. we are projected to have the coldest night tonight since 2004. i think they said we are going to get to about -24 tonight. yikes!! one thing that is cool about it being this cold is that you can take a cup of boiling water and create an instant cloud by throwing the water up into the air. if you have never tried this before it is really kinda cool. all you need is subzero temps and a cup of hot water. it also helps to be bundled up a little bit too, but for those brave enough you can simply run outside throw the water and then run back inside.

hopefully the car will start tomorrow.

its times like this that i often wonder: was it really worth sacrificing my garage spot for the boat?

exhaustion

2009-01-03T15:49:00.002-06:00

as some of you know, i was shipped off to the sister store of the company i work for. i would tell you the name, but i signed a paper that states i will not disclose my work place in a blog or other internet messaging site. stupid i know, but hey the rules are the rules. anyway, since i couldn't get any hours of work at the roseville location, i switched to the maplewood location for the season. because toys are much more popular at xmas than baby strollers, it was easy to get lots of work. i chose to work the overnight shifts. for the most part i really liked it, but it made quite an impact on home life. gianna and i didn't really see each other too much.
after thanksgiving the overnight crew was told that we could earn overtime and work as much as we desired. with the thought that i don't know what will happen in jan. or feb. i chose to begin my crazy, insane, and slightly deranged work schedule. i don't know exactly when it started but by xmas eve morning i had worked seventeen days (nights) straight. the last full week that i was there i think i had close to 60 hrs. i am thankful that i had the opportunity to work at the store, but i am glad to be back at the roseville location now. plus working during the day and sleeping next to a warm body at night is very nice.

the one that didn't get away

2008-09-03T11:02:00.004-05:00

so two mondays ago i went fishing with a friend of mine. we took off from the cities and headed north about 45 min, and picked up phil's boat so that i wouldn't need to haul mine. we got on the water by about 5:30 pm. it should be just about perfect for the fish to be biting. we went into one of the bays on the lake (were i have had lots of success) and began casting for bass. dustin got a nice bass on his third cast. wow this was going to be a good evening. from that point on we never found another bass. after moving around a bit, the crappie and large blue gills began biting. okay so we didn't find any large mouth, but the fishing was still good and the pan fish were large enough to keep.

toward the end of the evening i decided to move the boat to the mouth of the bay and cast a rattle trap into the opening. i was hoping to find a northern cruising through the area. one big fish would be nice to see. keep in mind that the sun has already gone down and we don't have any lights on the boat. there is still daylight, but we are quickly running out of time. after casting for about 20 min and getting a few hits here and there i finally got a solid hit. while i was fighting the fish my thought was that this isn't a northern. it didn't feel right. it took a little while to bring him in and the fish at the end of the line was the best case scenario that a fisherman in minnesota could ask for. i caught a 4lb, 24 1/2in walleye!!!!! my fishing was complete!! needless to say, by this time i had so much adrenalin that we only managed to measure the fish and put it into the live basket. i wasn't going to take any chances on loosing the second largest walleye that i have ever caught.

without further ado: here is the fish.

ps - the walleye tasted really good!!

continued progress

2008-07-22T21:46:00.003-05:00

here are a few pics to update all of you on the progress of the tree house. i have not worked on it for almost a year now, so it was time to start putting on the roof. phil and i dodged thunderstorms rolling through the area and were able to get the framing of the roof completed before the big storms hit.

are you choking? can i help you?

2008-07-14T20:44:00.003-05:00

so i needed to complete cpr/first aid training for my teaching license. no big deal, but i really didn't want to spend 8 - 10 hrs in a classroom breathing into a dummy. after much searching, i was able to find a course offered through the American Red Cross that was a combination online and classroom course. all the bookwork was done online, and then there was a morning class that was focused on the skills. the online portion took me just over one hour, so that was awsome!! basically i took a 10 hrs class and shrunk it down into 6 hours. not too bad.

as for the people in the skills class, yikes!! let me put it this way for you, i think i would have a better chance of surviving by getting cpr from an untrained person than from some of the people in this class. the instructor didn't really seem to make sure that everyone was proplerly doing the procedures. the focus was more on making sure the proper steps were done. this is fine and dandy, but when they are holding onto the throat while checking for breathing that can't go unnoticed. geez.

maybe its because i have had training many times in my lifetime. maybe its the teacher in me that says you keep learning until you get it right. i don't think that some of the people that i watched today should have been given their certification. am i being to harsh?

duh!

no!

when you are dealing with peoples lives you have to know what to do, and how to do it properly!!

its a jungle out there!!!!!!!!

2008-06-02T17:33:00.002-05:00

so as many people know, i finished school on the 21st of may. phew. one of the projects that i did while student teaching was to have the class create a field guide for the trees, birds, insects, and flowers that are found around the school yard. it was a neat experience, even though many of the kids were freaked out of their minds about getting a tick.

since i have been focused on observing nature for the last few weeks i have noticed a few things in my own back yard.

1. we have a blue bird living somewhere around the neighborhood. i have seen him three times, so it is my guess that he lives close by. i am not sure if i have ever seen a blue bird this close before.

2. today i was outside with brin and i overheard a family of robins going berserk. as i watched them fly and hop frantically around in the spruce tree out front, i happen to see a bird of prey (i think it was a red tailed hawk) fly away from the robin nest. i am pretty sure that it had a small snack in it's clutches as it few away. needless to say the robins were overly excited for the next few hours.

so for all those people that say a person needs to "go out" into nature to see wildlife, i say phooey on you. just open your eyes to your own yard and you will be amazed at what you can see.

a visit to see uncle bryan and aunt carissa

2008-03-03T19:29:00.005-06:00

if you have been reading gianna's blog you know that a trip to the zoo made for a thrilling experience watching the anaconda. last week i took maya with me to visit grandma and grandpa kordatzky. we had an extra day to spend so grandpa played taxi and took us to visit aunt ruhama's house for lunch and then to aunt carissa and uncle bryan's house for supper. for those of you who don't know about bryan's second job well let me tell ya. bryan is and entrepreneur. ha, so that doesn't tell you much. well if you don't know then too bad. lets just say they have a few snakes at their house. okay, so when we walked in the door one of the first things that maya said was "can i hold one of your snakes."

now this is a big deal to gianna since she will not even look at the snakes that are in the marsh house. they have a special room and gianna refuses to even be on the same level of the house as the snake room. so when i told gianna about maya holding a snake she was a bit shocked. alright maybe a bit mortified as well. so to make sure we had proof of the dirty deed, here are a few pics of the grand event.

p.s. we didn't show maya the blood on bryan's hand from the snake that had just bit him. notice the glove on his hand in the last pic.

STRESS!! -- ain't life a pain

2008-02-05T20:36:00.000-06:00

as most of you know the basement became a swimming pool a few weeks ago. okay, a minor problem, but i can handle it. many things were working in my favor. day off, soapy water, lots of help, blah blah blah. anyway so that was a wonderfully stressful day. this past weekend gianna and i ran away to the Embassy Suites for a night. what fun!! well it was nice to get away, but due to a sinus cold, the insane forced air and the remodeling two floors down, sleep was at a premium. (yawn) and again a little more stress, due to lack of sleep. sunday night we got the basement somewhat put back together just in time to watch the game. yea! some stress is going away. then are you ready for this... i don't think you are ready. dum-de-dum-de-dum. okay, now you are ready, or at least you should be. on monday i opened an odd looking letter that came in the mail over the weekend. to my surprise it was a letter from some agency telling me that the !@#!#&* school has cancelled my loans!! STRESS!!! ANXIETY!!! PANIC!!! what a rotten week this is turning out to be.

and the winner is . . .

2007-12-27T19:39:00.000-06:00

okay, so maybe i complain about school. i might even dread the thought of driving down to class two times a day. hey and i am not even close to being thrilled about being in debt again. oh wait. i never got out of debt. well, now that the first semester is over i have had a chance to view how i came out at the end of one semester. and the verdict is in!!!! i still got it!!! three classes equals three A's. yep you read that correctly. i got strait A's!!

fine, i will quit bragging. yes the classes were easy. it helps that i took a biology class where the prof was not returning after this semester. he was a nice guy (interesting) but he didn't like the dept. micromanaging his time. can't really blame him. i wouldn't like someone looking over my shoulder at every turn. so for that class it was pretty easy to get an A as long as you went to class and actually listened to the lecture instead of playing around on facebook. as for my other science class all i had to do was go to class. seriously, there were no books to buy, no tests to take, and no really big projects to accomplish. just show up, teach a little lesson and go home with an A. the primary grade class actually did require me to do work. i had to read a book, do silly little assignments, and create a two week unit. it took some brain power.

so with one semester down i got one to go and a little bit of summer school to get out of the way. hopefully i will be able to maintain my stellar grades.

a shrinking family

2007-11-04T21:19:00.000-06:00

six years ago i brought home a surprise gift for gianna. it was a budgie, or for those who do not purchase birds, a parakeet. it was a small yellow bird, rather unassuming. soon after that an explosion of animals in our home occurred. at one point we had two rabbits, five birds, and a large tank of fish. over time we have had birds and fish die. the rabbits have a new home, and once my pleko died the fish tank was simply too much work. so now we are back to having one bird. sundrop. who would have thought that we would come full circle and be back to where we all started. strange.
francis

smokey and sundrop

carmel

duster

azul

out of date

2007-08-27T21:14:00.000-05:00

okay, so school has started, and i don't think i have to worry about looking like the old man on campus. unfortunately there is one thing that will make me stand out. i do not have a laptop. if i was a full time student then i would be issued a laptop as part of the tuition package, but i am not full time. i have been told that i don't need to have one as long as i have access to the internet. just the same i don't like being the odd man out.
being back in class is hard, but the anxiety of projects, paper, and tests isn't really the same. yes it does seem to loom on the horizon, but seeings that i have already been there and done that i am not really stressed out. as i was sitting in biology today there were people sitting around me talking about how they need to drop the class because it is too hard. gee whiz, it is only the second class and the first one was simply an intro!! oh well, it is kinda nice to not be panicked about what is to come.

school

2007-08-04T21:48:00.000-05:00

well the ball is finally rolling for my return to that dreaded place that sucks up all the money a person owns. college. bleh.

i don't really want to go back. i guess i am in a catch 22. you see i don't really want to go back to school, but at the same time i have to go back to school if i want to pursue a job that interests me. okay so there are a few jobs out there that don't require me to go back to school, but i don't have the resources to go out and buy a 15,000 dollar fishing boat and start a guide service. tho it would be nice. and no andrew, i wouldn't hit the fish with a hammer, i would use my fish bat :)

aaaaaaanyway,

it looks like i will be attending Concordia University in St. Paul this fall. I have to make an appointment with an admissions counselor to get everything straightened out, but that shouldn't be too hard. then i get to deal with the juggling of schedules: school, work, family, me time. that will take some work. if i am lucky i can be done in a year. we will see. from then on the sky is the limit. will we stay or will be go, that is the million dollar question. shoot if i can get a job somewhere in the north woods of WI, then i can be a fishing guide in the summer.

yeah! that sounds good.

HEY!

i can dream can't i!!

ugh! i have to run to menards again!

2007-06-27T14:33:00.000-05:00

so lately our home has been filled with these many phrases:
"look at my tree house!"
"ur building my tree house"
"i need to go up there"
"this is my slide"
"that's my tree house."

about three and a half weeks ago i received all the lumber from the marsh play house. as it sat in my garage i was excited to get moving on my project for two reasons:
1. i really wanted to build a tree house
2. i needed to get my garage back!!
so for the last few weeks i have slowly been constructing maya's (and someday brin's) tree house. i didn't get any plans to follow. i haven't drawn out any sketches. i simply got an idea in my head and started. so far things are moving along well, granted i haven't gotten to the roof just yet. so due to inquisitive minds and people who simply have a hard time visualizing my project i will give you some pics to show you what has been accomplished thus far.

and then there was one

2007-06-11T15:34:00.000-05:00

i quit my job today. huntington that is. i can't say that i have quit very many jobs because it wasn't working out. there is a little disappointment since there were some kids i enjoyed working with, but that is about it. there comes a point when a person gets tired of not getting any hours scheduled and having absolutely no consistency. so based on that, i quit. end of story.

grass clippings

2007-05-26T21:11:00.000-05:00

i know, i know. its been a really long time. well my response to that is that i have been tired for a really long time. after working in the retail world for about two months now, i have learned a few things. one: the turnover rate is unbelievable!! i think there have been at least 10 people that have left or been let go since i have been there. that is just crazy. two: the pay stinks. nuff said. three: i enjoy working in the back room. a lot of people complain about work, but i have found that i genuinly enjoy it. i get lots of exercise, i like being a person who "knows" whats going on in the place, and hey i get to leave work by 1:30 in the pm. (granted i start at 6 am) as i sit here and write about how i like my job, i must also admit that i am looking to get a new job as well. i have gone through the interview process at huntington (my other job) to take a position of assistant director for one of the centers. i think all the interviews went well, but i really don't know. i am in the waiting game right now. getting that position would be a lot of work, but it would allow me to pay the bills with a little more ease. i guess that is all i have. i haven't been on any big alaskan vacations lately so i can't comment on that. oh wait, i have never been on a big alaskan vacation anyway. ummm, i mowed the lawn today, that is always exciting. i get to go fishing next weekend so that is going to be fun. a bunch of guys sitting on a boat, catching fish, drinking a beverage of choice, getting sunburned. how great is that!! okay well i will end this dribble now. later

an array of interesting pictures with a little commentary

2007-04-09T14:11:00.000-05:00

we got lots of snow in a weeks time at the end of february. the bummer is that once again i had snow blower issues and had to shovel. bleah.

maya's first big snowman!!

practice makes perfect.

the kitchen that maya got for her b-day. apparently you can cook eggs in the dish storage area!

job progress

2007-03-13T21:09:00.000-05:00

it has been a long and sometimes painful job search, but it is over for now. i was offered and accepted a position at ------- today. it isn't the highest paying job, but i did push them for more pay and they gave me an extra .75 per hour. i think i am going to get about 30 hrs a week there so combine that with huntington i should be right around 40 hrs. (at least i hope so) i will be working in the shipping and receiving for part of the day and then moving to the furniture department to finish my shift. the only real bummer is that it starts at 6 am. so i am off to experience my first retail job. who knows maybe they will really like me and what to promote me to a manager spot. best of all i get an employee discount now!! i bet it works at -------- too!!

job update

2007-02-08T21:17:00.000-06:00

well, the job search hasn't been all that much fun but i am making progress. i have an interview on monday with huntington learning center. it is a tutoring establishment. it would only be part time, but i don't know what part time means. i could end up working 30 hrs a week, who knows. at least it is a start and i am still doing something in the world of teaching, which is where i feel most confident.

almost done

2007-01-24T14:51:00.000-06:00

well i have two days left of my current job. i don't really have any feelings one way or the other about this job being done. the only thing that is a bummer is that i have to find a new job. there are plenty of jobs out there, so i simply need to make up my mind and decide what to do. i do know that i am going to go back to school either this summer or this fall (or both). if i want be able to teach the subject area that interests me the most then i need to change my teaching license. it shouldn't be too hard.
on friday the office is buying lunch for everyone in my honor. its nice of them but at the same i am being kicked out on friday. i have a few things that i though would be nice if i could wrap them up, but i was told to leave it for someone else. oh well, not my problem i guess. it kinda makes me lose any motivation to work hard these last few days. i mean come on, what are they gunna do, fire me.

new toy!!

2007-01-12T10:04:00.000-06:00

there aren't a whole lot of things that i purchase that get me really excited. once in a while this does happen, as it did this week. using xmas money that i got this year i researched and decided to purchase a fish finder. i was able to find a handheld portable fish finder, made by norcross, that fit within my budget. i know it isn't as fancy as a hummingbird or eagle brand, but i think it will do the job for me. a nice feature is the fact that the transducer comes with a float so you can use it anywhere!! if you don't have a boat no problem. i am so excited to try out my new gadget that i am willing to go ice fishing. that is huge.

a rant on interviews

2007-01-09T10:39:00.000-06:00

i have decided that with today's technology the current practice of applying for jobs and interviewing for jobs sucks. it has been my experience in applying for jobs that you have to apply for jobs on the internet. this if fine and dandy and doesn't consume too much time, but it is flawed. the problem is that once you click the magical button that says apply there is nothing more you can do. websites will even put a disclaimer on their website that states you are not to contact them. how in the world are you supposed to even know if they read your application!!! kinda annoying if you ask me. as for interviews, this is even more frustrating. how often do you have an interview (think it was a good one) and then never hear anything back. granted a "thanks but no thanks" letter will eventually come in the mail, but sometimes you don't even get that. for example, i interviewed for a job a year and a half ago and thought i did pretty good. i didn't get hired. no big deal, there could have been any number of reasons for it. okay, so a week ago i applied with the same company again (its been 1.5 yrs later) and thought i had a good shot at it since i have a friend working there and i applied three days after the position was posted. i come to find out that i will not even be considered for the position because i didn't pass the phone interview a year and a half ago! talk about being pissed off. i could have spared myself the time and energy with even applying. if it wasn't for my friend on the inside who looked into my ap., i would have never known that i failed the phone interview. i could have been applying for months to come and doing it all in vain! so now that i know this i will never waste my time with them again. too bad i currently use this company or i would write them off completely. (no ruhama it isn't walmart) i better quit writing before i get my blood pressure too high.

until next time - the FRUSTRATED gardener

ugh. . . not again!

2007-01-04T11:53:00.000-06:00

change is sometimes good and sometimes change is not good. for me i am staring at a time of not good change. i like my ducks in a row, although they can be skewed. in approx. three weeks i have to find a new job. i knew that this day would come, but i still don't have to like it. what to do, what to do. ack! sometimes i wonder if i should just deliver pizza or something like the sort. most everybody likes the pizza guy. do i work at a temp agency until i can get back into teaching? when do i go back to school? why does the best tasting pop have to rot your teeth so bad!!!! so many questions, not much time.

oh well, life goes on.

to find a booger sucker

2006-12-29T10:33:00.000-06:00

traveling with sick children is not fun. i don't recommend trying this. you see all four of us traveled for the holidays and we were all sick. now as an adult one can over look the misery of a headcold, but a child (a small on at that) can't do this. so with much crying, many movies, a few stops along the way, we finally completed our journey home. (6hrs!!) now the task of getting everybody back on schedule has begun. ugh. i am tired so i will write no more.

p.s. - according to ruhama she doesn't have a goose. . . hmm, i wonder

too much food

2006-12-19T12:53:00.000-06:00

we have too much food at work today. there are 4 trays/tins of cookies, a huge basket of Panera bread, four mini loaves of pumpkin bread, 5 boxes of chocolates, and a chocolate cake. having food around the office is great, don't get me wrong, but gee whiz. this doesn't help my sugar intake, and being soooooo tired i do not have any will power to just walk away. let me clarify that last statement. i have no problem walking away from the chocolate stuff. (yuck)

so i have too much sugar coursing through my system, i am overtired, and to top it all off. . .

MY KNEE STILL HURTS!!!!

i think i should go eat some bran now.

What! Who me?

2006-12-15T20:31:00.000-06:00

I am tired today. I don't get much sleep and my knee hurts. Don't expect too many entries since I hate journaling. Occasionally I will inspire you all. So if nothing else you all have been inspired to write today by the simple fact that I have done this. In "this" I mean blog. (matt)
That is all so fare well and good night.