Once again, our house is under construction. Well, sort of.

As of last night, I've begun the second of our 8 or so house projects. The objective this time is to repair and paint the hallway and bathroom. Basically what needs done is filling some cracks, smoothing out some drywall, priming and painting. The colors I've picked out are a sort of tan and brown - which i think will contrast the green in the livingroom nicely.

I'll be doing my best to document this process online in the 'our house' gallery.

~PS

Another weekend came and went. It was a pretty good one.

On friday and saturday sheri and I talked about some stuff for the house and decided that I'll start working on the hallway this week. I became much more interested in the project when we decided not to paint the hallway white. White is boring. The first step is to repair a couple cracks and smooth out the drywall. I'll be photo-documenting it and i'll try to put some pictures up as I go - or at least when it's done.

Kevin was in town this weekend too. It's always nice to get to hang out with out-of-town friends for a bit.

Saturday night we all took tony to Misaki's (japanese hibachi steakhouse place) for his 25th birthday. I've decided I like Misaki's pretty well - despite the fact that I don't like chinese much and I haven't been a fan of any eastern food in the past. It was tasty.

We gave tony a llama calendar and ginger gave him a shirt that says 'the penguin made me do it'. Appropriate on so many levels.

Last night we finally got to continue one of my d&d games that's been on hold for a while. We had a good session.

I think a couple more quotes got added to 'the list' this week too.

~PS

So last night I went to get gas for my jeep. As I stated earlier, the price per gallon is now below $2, so I was feeling pretty good about filling it up.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me.

Seems our Shell station has developed a habit of not accepting $100 bills - which happened to be what the bank gave me. The cashier was somewhat apologetic about it and pointed out (on the sign she had to un-bury) that they weren't allowed to accept $100 bills unless the customer was spending more than $80. I told her I couldn't spend $80.

So I went to Food City and broke my $100 by buying a 2 liter of root beer (which I had also planned on buying at the gas station).

This incident annoyed me. I've been told (not specifically by anyone this time, but other times) that the reason for such policies has to do with our counterfeitting problem. It made me feel guilty in a weird way too, since I was looking around for someplace that would accept my bill.

I was also wondering whether this was legal. I mean, what am I supposed to do with a $100 bill that the bank gave me if no one will take it?

I did find an answer.

Seems that companies *can* refuse any given form of currency. Basically the wording of the law states that all businesses have to recognize that all US currency is a legitimate form of payment - they just don't have to take it.

This, apparently, is one of those legal documents that comes dangerously close to contradicting itself and all but negates its own purpose with adendums.

The moral: Ask the bank for small bills.

~PS

Just so you all know, today is Penguin Awareness Day. This was *not* going unmentioned.

In other news, gas prices have finally dropped below $2 here in east TN. As per my previous agreement with the fuel companies, I will now cease complaining about the high price of gasoline until it is once again above $2.

Congrats to one Tony "Llama" for having successfully conquered Ape Escape 3 earlier this week. Catching 142 monkeys is no small task.

Game night at the coffeehouse last night was fun - but that was the most drawn-out game of Shadows over Camelot I've ever not finished. One of the guys that was playing with us heard us talking and said we should have a d&d night at the coffeehouse. This amuses me.

Lastly, I've been playing my new guitar a lot. My fingers aren't used to it, but it's been lots of fun. I think I need to retire my old effects pedal though. If I have enough money relatively soon I think I'll by a Boss EQ pedal so I can ditch the thing.

~PS

Key Lime Pie: Very good in small bites. Very small bites.

~PS

Well, it's been a pretty good week since the last blog entry.

Tuesday evening I went out to dinner with some friends, and then i returned to the Igloo where myself and some more friends (two of whom i believe to be parents by now) and my sister (who was passing through and stopped over for the night) all played Apples to Apples until about 10:30. Fun times.

Wednesday and thursday were pretty 'uneventful', though I have been wrapping up some pretty exciting work-related projects.

Fridays are always good. Went out to dinner again (same restaurant even) and then to the coffeehouse where some of us played Apples to Apples again. Seems this was the week for Texas Roadhouse and adjective/noun games.

Today I went and spent my christmas money. I'd been wanting a new electric guitar for a long time (ever since i started playing with the praise band at church) and today I went and spent quite a while playing several of them. I kept coming back to one of them though - a Gibson SG. Plays really nice. The guys at Morrell's were really cool too: Since I didn't want the gig bag (soft case) that came with the guitar, they kept it and took the price off the hardshell case that I wanted. Ended up getting the case for about half price. :) I've had the guitar plugged into Hikaru here for a bit. Looking forward to plugging it into my amp tomorrow. I'll probably put a pic of it up at some point.

This evening we had ging and llama over for chili and card games. Much fun was had - as always.

~PS

So I guess I'm a deacon at our church now. That's pretty hilarious. I'm trying to decide if this is an indication that they just don't know me very well yet or not.

Went to my first Bored Metting last night. Trust me, that's the operative spelling.

So I'm kind of wondering how this is going to go.

For the time being I've taken up a philosophy of not saying much until I get a feel for the group. Not that I think I'll have much to say on the majority of the "issues" that are brought up. Sooner or later, however, I'm sure someone's gonna bring something up that I'm going to have a rather strong and unpopular opinion about. Then things will get...interesting.

Also, I have very little patience for beaurocracy and formality. The sheer amount of miscommunication I have witnessed baffles me. At one point there were 4 people discussing a section of the bylaws: all saying essentially the same thing, yet the no one seemed to understand any of it. After about 20 minutes of this, I considered trying to arbitrate by saying something like 'i think we're all saying X' - but I figured if they didn't understand the others by this point, they weren't going to understand me and I didn't feel like adding to the fiasco.

I'm more than willing to serve the church and our congregation in any way I can. Whether I can survive the beaurocracy with my sanity intact remains to be seen.

~PS

This morning Sheri and I were both wearing blue jeans and plain t-shirts. Her's was bright red and mine was royal blue. I told her I must be Player 1 and she must be Player 2.

She didn't get it. Go figure.

~PS

I am now adept in the use of the wet-vac.

About 1.5 hours ago I made a discovery when I went down to do some laundry. Seems that the pipe that goes out to the garden hose froze at some point and sheared itself open. We used the garden hose today, and the pipe left us about 30 gallons of water in our basement.

Overall, the event was pretty harmless. For the most part it avoided the stuff in the basement that would have mattered had it gotten wet.

At this point I think I've got the basement to merely 'damp' instead of 'puddled'.

Unfortunately, I still have laundry to do...

~PS

Ah. It's been a while. Good to be back.

So last week we went out to visit Sheri's family. Everything went went pretty well - including the long 12+ hour drive there and back, each of which we did in only one day instead of the normal two. We had a good time. Played lots of board games and cards.

Last night a bunch of us hung out for new years. We had intended to play some games (i think), but mostly we just sat around talking. I personally thought that was nice. Some of those who were present I don't get a chance just to talk to very often.

Lastly, I'd like to extend my apologies, well-wishes and thanks to a few people who called me on or around christmas time but I never got back with them because I didn't discover they called until much later. Kevin, Llama & Eric - I greatly appreciated your messages. The same to you. :-)

~PS