Whole bunches of stuff.

So let me start from long ago. Rebecca and I drove to Oregon for the 4th of July weekend to visit a good friend of ours. Perhaps some of you remember Jason Wunschel. Well, he moved up there back in June and I wanted to go visit him like a week after he moved so it would be right before he actually started his new job, but unfortunately my car broke and I couldn't get up there. Well, my car got fixed and we went for the 4th instead. It was a load of fun. We went hiking to a great waterfall. It was very relaxing, and the best part was that it wasn't a hard hike. Only about a half mile so I wasn't huffing and puffing like well... a computer game nerd who never does any exercise. After that we saw the Firework Display. It was a long wait, but people with all sorts of illegal fireworks were starting their own displays with the big mortars as we waited for the actual big display. We also went to an Army Surplus store. I had never been to one of those and it was a blast! Didn't really buy much, even though I wanted all sorts of rad stuff. They had "Ninja Grappling Hooks" and gas masks, and helmets, and all sorts of rad stuff. All I came home with though was a pair of inert .50 cal rounds, and a gun cleaning kit because by .22 kit is empty. The last day I was there I watched the new Indiana Jones movie. I didn't care for it very much, but it was still a good time because of the company. Then we drove back home.

The week I got back was pretty uneventful and rough. I worked for 10 straight days for a total of over 100 hours. It was icky, but I did get the following Thursday and Friday off. I didn't do a whole lot during those days. I took Felice to the Vet (more on that later) and did some test driving, but for the most part I was just taking it easy. I have decided that my next car is going to be a VW. It'll be a Golf, but I'm not sure if it's going to be a regular Rabbit, or if I'm going to save up for longer and get a GTi. I also went to see WALL-E with Mom. It was a good movie, but it finished weak. In that sense it reminded me of The Black Stallion. The first half was excellent and I was thoroughly enjoying myself, but then the second act just became too jumbled and needlessly complicated. But all in all, it was worth the money, which is something I don't say too often. Oh! I also saw Hellboy II with Rebecca that weekend too. It was very pretty and enjoyable in a dumb sort of way. ...I don't know if dumb is quite the correct word... I just mean you didn't have to think about anything that the movie was trying to tell you. It had the subtlety of a 90's Sitcom. But because of how pretty all the different monsters were, I thought again, that it was worth the price of admission. My goodness I've seen a lot of movies this month. I also did the most manly thing I've ever done that weekend. I changed my own spark plugs in my car. It was super awesome to get my hands dirty like that and it also kind of blew my mind. It is cheaper to change my spark plugs with the best that money can buy than it is to fill up with regular unleaded. That realization gave me a slight chuckle.

Last weekend was not very eventful. On Saturday I went over to Mike's house and helped him move his big items to the garage or front room so that when he moves to Marks old house next weekend, it'll all be right there to move into the truck. We only had about 2 hours worth of work, but we spent like 5 hours doing it. We spent most of the time just chatting and such. When we were moving his arcade cabinets I noticed that he had Terminator II: Judgement Day and well, we just had to beat it. It was one of my favorite arcade games when I was growing up, but I never had enough quarters to beat it. Also, when we moved his Gun Safe we had to pull 'em all out and talk about them. We just had a good time shootin' the breeze. He also told me about a friend of a friend of his that recently inherited a couple of RC boats and a RC plane. Since Mike knew about the RC car that I have he was hoping I could help him find what a fair price is for them. I can help him with it, but since there is so much price range between different vehicles and parts I'd really have to see them to find out. However, as soon as I do figure out how much they're worth, I think I'm going to give him an offer for one of the boats. I mean for crying out loud, I live on a lake. So, I'll keep y'all posted about that.

Well, my dog isn't doing absolutely wonderful lately. Just before the 4th of July weekend she developed a bald spot on her side so we took her to the Vet. They did a skin scraping and found out she had a bit of a bacteria infection. So they gave us some antibiotics and an antibacterial shampoo and told us to bring her back in two weeks. Well, two weeks later we brought her back and they were satisfied with her progress and told us to keep giving her the meds and baths. Well, later that same week, on her other side she started growing a cyst. At it's worst it was a lump about the size of a large grape! So, we took her back into the Vet for the third time and they weren't terribly worried about it. They just pricked it and some stuff came out so they don't think it's like a tumor or anything. We got some stronger antibiotics for her and the progress seems good. The lump is getting much smaller and the bald patch is (however slowly) getting covered back up with fur. I also want to mention that throughout this whole ordeal Felice wasn't in any discomfort. She was always our happy little puppy that she's always been. I'd have been a lot more worried if she seemed to be in pain, or if she was lethargic or something. Like I said though, she's getting better and I'll keep you guys posted if anything changes.

S'more good news is that I have some vacation time coming up. I'm going to be taking the first full week in September off and I'll be damned if I know what I'm going to do with it. There's just so many options I could do. I could drive back up to Oregon again and visit my friend Jason again, or I could drive or fly down to Phoenix to visit my other friend Jason again, or I might take some sort of trip to the east coast perhaps to see either of my siblings or my dad. Or maybe I'll pocket the grand I'd spend on a trip like that and buy my self a racing suit and helmet. Perhaps I'll just take that money and throw it into a CD and make some money on it (least likely). I am at a complete loss as to what I should do for my birthday week. Any suggestions?

Thanks for checking this blog after so long an absence and for reading so many friggin' words.

-Rob