Everyday Stupidities

   Hello, blog buddies and any other sort! As you may have derived from the previous entries, things have been eventful. Doors closing, doors opening, timing and placement conspiring to change things and it's yet to be seen whether it's for the better or not. But let me catch you up on the rudimentaries of the last week, and all sales are not final so please hang onto your receipt in case of product malfunction.
   I went to meet the guy at the well-known travel business on Wednesday, and finding the right place was interesting since there were five buildings across four distinct lots which had the same sunny word in their names. The gentleman himself was very cordial and seems like a good guy to work for. At least I know that the dress code in the helpdesk is casual. The thing that struck me is that I'm dressed up for an interview and he's in a dirty t-shirt, with a large belly that shook like a bowl full of jelly as he nervously wiggled his knee while I spoke. (That will derail your train of thought.) The placement agency person said I'd hear later in the day how things went, then she escorted another candidate dressed to the nines with a pleather LifeRunner in. I went to IKEA and a gourmet hotdog franchise afterwards, waded through traffic, and got home at 4 p.m. to a call on my answering machine saying the dude liked me so was offering me the gig.
   I went to the placement agency on Friday to fill out the standard paperwork -- W-2, I-9, auth to snoop through my background, auth to check my credit history (I still don't understand how that's relevant in any way but I know my score is improving), and auth to enjoy a sample of my urine. The staff at my agency is very easy on the eyes, though I didn't ask why the receptionist had to offset her radiant hawtness by getting an angel (or is that a ghost with a halo?) tattooed on her left wrist. Oh well, we all make decisions we're stuck with that don't make sense to others sometimes. Once I was done there it was another jaunt to the Crate & Barrel and the Cost Plus, just like my last visit to their office... it's a good thing I don't work there, that's all I'm gonna say. I went from there to the drug testing place, giving the bored person behind the counter with emphysema some amusement, and then gave her a few fluid ounces of what I was just going to whiz away anyway. As soon as they ascertain that I live cleanly despite residing in "Methlehem" (Parkland/Spanaway is known for its methamphetamine labs and Tacoma has a higher-than-average per-capita population of alcoholics) they'll tell the agency who will then tell me I can start, so it will be Tuesday or Wednesday that I actually begin working. And the poppy seeds on that gourmet hotdog two days earlier had better not make it look like I'm a morphine addict!
   "How go the home improvements?" you ask... I think we're approaching a bookmark. The original goal was that we'd do the entire kitchen and dining area over the summer. Uh, yeah, molars and motors got in the way financially. So autumn has been more forgiving, having painted one wall (which needs repainting courtesy of my wife and her sister fidgeting with flawed spots one night) and converting a fan-holding hole in the ceiling to a hanging fixture with a drywall patch two feet away then converting a two-foot-by-four-foot fluorescent trough into a flat surface with two fixture boxes and a bad memory. You knew all that already, so that was a refresher before moving into the "and now?" part. Paige and I were sitting in the livingroom yesterday discussing what we want to do with the Christmas tree this year -- the theme will be just like last year, which was green/silver/white/clear with snowflakes, but with blue replacing the green -- and she said we can't decorate the house until we reclaim it. Stuff that belongs in the dining area is in the livingroom. Stuff that's in the dining area is covered with plastic tarps and has paint cans and such under. Half the kitchen has tools and building supplies on the counters. And then there's the matter of those cupboard doors she took off so we could strip the paint, but haven't done that yet. So I proposed that we finish the obvious pending projects of painting that wall and stripping the cabinet doors, put all of our toys away for the winter, and we can get to the replacement of the flooring plus painting of the other walls and ceiling plus redoing the counters and cabinets next year. Let's see if that happens.
   Oh yes, speaking of the kitchen light replacement project: yes, I completed the ceiling patchwork the other day. I kinda let four or five days elapse between the second and third plaster coats, that's why it's so tardy, but when I finally did that finish coat I applied primer and texture soon after so it's ready for a coat of paint. Will the patches be invisible? Not entirely but you will have to know where to look and what to look for. In the meantime, I really need to get up all that plaster dust and stray texture that went everywhere... I consider that part of the pre-holiday cleanup. Anyhow, that's the blog entry and I won't try to think of anything stupid to report. Okay, I do have one thing but it's someone else's problem so I won't hash it out here (I will give you this much: if you move 4,000 miles away from someone because you can't stand being with them anymore, and they call to ask if you could make airline reservations for them to come visit you at Thanksgiving, you have to wonder... did someone not get the memo?). Cheers and hope your Halloween was hunky-dory. Mine, for the record, was almost as quiet as it ever is... we don't get trick-or-treaters anyway, but we did have one knock at the door because I forgot to turn off the porchlight after getting home from the new Home Depot behind the apartments I used to live in a decade ago.