Well, after a grueling couple of weeks putting in a ton of OT and the Holiday pay, as well as a third paycheck in December, a small bonus and some extra cash from elsewhere (you know who you are, THANK YOU!), I am officially back in the green. It's kind of funny how I can go from flat broke to totally ahead of my bills in just a couple of weeks. Everything just seemed to fall into place between the week before and the week after Christmas, and to celebrate, I took a little bit and went in with a friend to get myself a post-christmas gift.
The Chad got a Wii! And I didn't even have to get up early and stand in any lines (Thats why I have a great friend like Timmy to do it for me! :) )
This is the single funnest thing I have ever played. Now I just cant wait for the replacement wriststraps to show up so I can stop being so paranoid of the wiimote possibly flying into my bigscreen.
Now, I just need some more games and extra wiimotes, becouse as Timmy, Des and I found out this weekend, sharing one wiimote just sucks.
The funny part about this is that I barely need to go work out anymore (not that I ever really did) becouse the Boxing and Tennis games are a total workout of their own. I worked up quite a sweat last night, and I am SOOOOO SOOOORE today.
Well, after my super-short 6 day Christmas weekend, I find myself killing time before I head of to work for a nice 8 day stretch. yay. Anyway, so my weekend consisted of lots of bowling, running errands, and making deserts and snacks for Christmas. On the 25th, I headed over to Timmy & Des's place for dinner and then we played board games for the rest of the day. I did awesome at Sequence and Jenga, but playing Risk, which I played for the first time yesterday, I did not fair so well. Well, I came in 2nd out of 3, but thats just becouse Timmy and Des got into a little lovers quarrel and sort of ignored me until one of them totally dominated the other.
As far as gifts go, lets see. I got a new Jacket from my Brother, as well as a new Detroit Tigers Mug & Shot Glas, as well as a Tigers Wall Mount Bottle Opener. From Timmy & Des I got a French Press Coffee Maker (and some treats and toys for the dogs). And from the Parents, a little Michigan Wolverines shirt for the rat dog, and of course, the greatest thing ever, my Detroit Tigers Ivan Rodriguez #7 Baseball Jersey. It Rocks.
Alright, here we go. There was a nice wind storm here last week, which knocked out power to a good portion of Portland. I missed out on all the fun times of trying to stay warm and wondering if my milk is gonna go bad, as my power stayed on. Then came Saturday night, as I was at work. Just as I got into the clean room and got the daily passdown from the leaving day-shift, machines just started going haywire for no reason. And then the lights dimmed. Where I work, when you can actually see the lights dim....you're screwed. And you know it. Immidiately everything started beeping and alarming and whatever else those things were able to do...for a few seconds. And then....silence. And darkness. And the four of us standing there watching this excitement split for the exit, and just in time too. As soon as I got my bunnysuit off, the evacuation alarm went off. So, I went to my locker, got my coat and mp3 player and cell phone and proceeded outside, where others were not as fortunate (or warm for that matter). But after a bout 5 minutes, we got to back inside.
A little over six hours later the power came back on, and the rest is far too boring to talk about (unless you like hearing about endless, meticulous cleaning). And then we happily handed the whole mess off to the oncoming day shift, who happily handed off a slightly messy situation back to us last night, only for us to hand it back off to them this morning in a nearly finished, yet still screwed up, dibacle. And me? Well, since I spent the last 11 out of 12 hours STANDING in the clean room, my feet hurt as bad as the Detroit Lions 2-10 season record. Im going to bed.
I've been working on day shift this week. I found that not only were the people there tolerable (as I once thought the opposite), I also found that I enjoyed working during the day. However, I did find three things about day shift that I did not enjoy. One, was waking up at 5:30 in the morning. That sucked. The other part that sucked was the parking. I could normally park right near the front doors on nights, but on days, I'd be lucky to find a spot in the first lot. And it was still a long freaking walk. Also, last but not least, while I didn't suffer the pain since it was only temporary, moving to day shift would be a serious drop in pay, and theres no way on earth I could afford missing that size chunk-o-change. On the bright side, I did about a years worth of training in three days. To be fair, it was all stuff that I already knew and was once certified to do, but after all my time on medical leave, those high level certifications were taken away. So, all I had to do was perform all these tasks along side my day-shift counterpart to prove that I still knew what I was doing.
Today, however, was not a very fun day. I spent 98% of my day in the clean room. For me and my comrades, that is a very, very long time. Not only did I have to finish up my re-training, but I also had to go and fix another machine that I am uber-trained to work on. It was a long day, but The Chad prevailed.
Okay, so I havent been around a lot lately, but I've been a bit busy. Since I got back to work I haven't had a lot of free time. The little bit of time I had this past weekend I used to help Timmy put up his Christmas Lights. And Saturday, I woke up a little early, but everything, EVERYTHING hurt. I was totally sore everywhere, and just felt like crap. So, I laid on the couch and drank coffee all day till I had to get up and go to work.
Now, on to the real news of the Day. The Michigan Wolverines got screwed out of the Title shot thanks to the BCS. Their only loss of the season was to Ohio State. Their last game of the season. And, after USC lost the other day, that #2 spot should have gone back to The Wolverines. But, of course, as with every single year since the start of the BCS, it made a screwy decision, and they screwed us over and gave it to Florida. So, The Wolverines will face USC in the Rose Bowl.
