Okay, this entry’s gonna be kinda long so hold on to your hats… Last weekend, the weekend before Halloween… I know I should have put an entry way back then, but anywho… Susan’s folks came down to visit and we went to Frankenmuth. I somehow “lucked” out and got to be the driver. It was a nut house, especially if you try to go the wrong way down a one way in a parking lot (in my defense, it wasn’t marked clear at all). After finding a spot to park at the Bavarian Inn we met up with Susan’s aunt, uncle, and cousin. Last February me and Susan met up with her aunt and uncle and went to Zender’s and the indoor water park. Zender’s and the Bavarian Inn have a speciality dinner (better be… it’s like 30 bucks a plate) where you get a full course meal brought out to you. I was really excited because the chicken was so salty at Zender’s that you couldn’t hardly beat it, needless to say it was really good (and probably really bad for you). Unfortunately the Bavarian Inn’s chicken wasn’t quite as salty but they did have orange sherbert twist for dessert which was pretty good (and the rest of the meal was good too!)

Well if you go to Frankenmuth, you better stop at Bronner’s (open 361 days of the year…) Lucky me I got to try and find a parking spot again. As I was scanning the lot for a space, a minivan driver decided since they were bigger than me, they owned the lot. After a couple toots on my horn they backed down (they were trying to back out into me…) After that little escapade (no harm no foul), me and Susan went on a hunt to find a “Our First Christmas” ornament. After looking at the personalized ones we decided a laser engraved one would look really neat (I was gonna take a picture of it, but the fact it reflects the camera makes that kind of difficult, you’ll just have to stop by at Christmas to see it =P). The engraving process is pretty sweet, they use a laser to cut the design we picked out and it took all of about 5 seconds to finish. The ornament also comes with a light you can hook up to your regular Christmas light string (now all we need is a tree). After we got our ornament and paid for it, it was time to round up the gang (I think everyone was at a different end of the store). Eventually everyone found there way to the South entrance, except for Susan’s mom. She was lost and had to call Susan’s dad to rescue her. As they made their way back to the South entrance, it was time to go. All and all a pretty exciting weekend.

Halloween, the night of ghosts and ghouls and most importantly, candy! Wanting to save a few bucks, I decided getting candy the night before Halloween would be a good idea. I bought about 12 bags of candy for 2 bucks a piece, saving almost a dollar on each bag (yeah I know I’m a smart shopper). I probably went a little overboard on the candy, as we didn’t know exactly how many kids we would be getting. We also got our pumpkins the day before Halloween (and we got a good deal on them too!) Actually, I’m not so sure we got the best deal as my pumpkin was starting to rot on the bottom. I figured if I flipped it over it’d be alright, but it still looked pretty sad. We picked up a carving kit and Susan made an owl, while I took the easy road and finished mine in about 20 minutes start to finish (I think she put in atleast 2 hours… and I quote “It doesn’t take that long, it’s easy.”) Besides… my pumpkin made hers look better, a good pumpkin by itself is alright, but put it next to a sad one, presto, it becomes magnificant! We did get quite a few trick-or-treaters, though I was dishing out the candy by the hand full. We set up a couple of chairs on our porch and after it died down (and someone couldn’t take the cold and wimped out) we came in with about half a bag of Twix bars and a handful of other candy bars. The next day I come home anticipating biting into a chewy, chocolatey, caramel candy bar, I found out there were none left (someone had eaten them all, and not just one or two or a few, but like two dozen, thus she got her new nickname, Twixie).

This weekend wasn’t too exciting, except for the Lions won and da Bears lost (aw poor Rexy lost to Joey Joey Joey). My jobs going pretty good, or shall I say I have a lot todo. Today I had a meeting to review the protocol I was working on the past 3-4 weeks to validate the system that will be going in. I only have to rewrite pretty much the whole thing by the end of the week. Oh and I have class all day tomorrow and Thursday… luckily I can work some overtime this week and if the need be next week (I have a full week of class next week, all day long…) Time and half here I come! (sometimes it’s good to be hourly) I did interview with a company last week about a job opening. That job sounds pretty exciting and I’ll be “the man”. The guy that is currently in the position is leaving and no one else can fill his shows at the company, so they’re looking to hire someone to do everything (sounds like a phat paycheck to me, cha-ching!) I dunno if I’ll get a call back as they were looking for someone with a ton of experience I didn’t have, but it was a fun interview nonetheless. I’m gonna cut myself off here as I still have quite a bit to do tonight (new Heroes tonight, “Save the cheerleader, save the world”, check it out at 9 on NBC).

Hmmm… haven’t added an entry in awhile… I’ve been pretty busy. The job’s going pretty good, I’m currently working on developing a simulation of a chemical process. We tried to compile it today, but the guy who I’m working with had about 150 errors with his code. Needless to say, he had some things to fix. I’ve also developed a test protocol for validation (I am a software validation engineer after all) of our current systems. It’s being reviewed and once that’s done I get to do up about half a dozen more (whoopee…)

Unfortunately Great Lakes Ice Cream Company closed, so we went to Cold Stone Creamery the other day. I got white chocolate ice cream with white chocolate chunks and caramel and whipped topping; it was a little too sweet for me… Susan got watermelon sorbet with gummi bears, her’s was a little overkill on the watermelon flavor and the gummi bears were stale. This place has nothing on the other ice cream shop. We went to TCBY today and their cotton candy ice cream is pretty good (I know… I’m an ice cream addict).

This weekend wasn’t too exciting, the Lions lost (those stupid, stupid Lions), but we did go see The Prestige. That movie was pretty awesome, even if you sound like a dork saying it’s about magicians. I bought a ticket for me (Susan didn’t want to go) to a late night showing of Saw 3 tomorrow, I’m pretty pumped about that. If you haven’t seen the first or second Saw, I suggest going done to your local video store and rent them (they are worth it, then check out Saw 3 in theaters). Just a caution though, it’s about a serial killer (though he doesn’t actually kill anyone), so it is kind of gruesome.

An update if you’ve been following the picture of the day, Susan has gotten really good at tossing the football back and forth. Hopefully it stays nice enough for us to go out after work… it’s suppose to start snowing soon (though they projected some flurries this week and they haven’t come yet…)

Let’s see what’s new this week, oh yeah… the Lions won!! About time they got their first win of the season, though I thought they were gonna do typical Jon Kitna and lose it in the 4th quarter. They played a decent game, even if number 98, Kalimba Edwards, had two off sides and a roughing the passer penalty (bet he’s gonna run some laps at practice!) Our kitty’s doing good, for some reason she thinks an old palm leave is really exciting. She’ll jump up on the coffee table and run with it in her mouth. We actually didn’t know where it was for awhile, she had hidden it in her house (see picture of the day for a visual…) Ebgames had their Wii preorders on Friday, I went at lunch and missed getting one of the twelve by about twenty minutes… someone said they’d drop by and reserve one because they had the day off, but she didn’t go… Oh well, I guess I can forgive her, she did make a delicious lasagna with fake wine and apple crisp for dessert! We ended up getting some ice cream today, and the guy had to smile when I wanted sprinkles and gummy bears in it (yup… I typically get that) Other than that, work is going pretty good, I might start programming soon… Right now I’m creating a software acceptance test protocol which gets to be a template for all future projects… probably should do a good job on it then 😉

So I haven’t written here in awhile, so this entry might be kind of long. Last weekend we decided to take a drive over to Mount Pleasant to see exactly what’s over there. I didn’t really see the need to go but was glad I did because I saw something impressive. Navigating Mount Pleasant isn’t as easy as you think it is, especially if your avigator (navigator) doesn’t know where she wants to go. After turning around in the Home Depot parking lot, and then turning down some side street, we finally arrived to the main street of Mount Pleasant. We were blown away by all the different establishments they had (ok, not really most of what we have in Midland was there…) Like I said though I was glad we went, because outside of the KFC restaurant was Colonel Sanders waving to traffic. He had on the full get up and we had to go around the block to get his picture (using a camera phone, maybe we’ll figure out how to get the picture off there). Next time we go, we’ll have to grab our camera, who knows what we’ll see… Wendy, the King or maybe even Ronald McDonald chilling on the side of the road.

The other exciting news (I know seeing the colonel is hard to beat) is that I started working at Dow Chemical this week. Monday was my first real day and things were pretty good. So far I’ve read a lot of manuals and other pertinent information to the job. I get to program in a very logic oriented language called DOWTRAN (derived from FORTRAN). Which isn’t too bad, it beats programming assembly using the MIPS architecture (and is a little better than BASIC, if you’ve read my other entry). My supervisor took me out to lunch where I got to meet a couple people I will be working with. We went to the China Palace and Susan was so jealous I had Chinese food, we had to go out to Pi’s Chinese Restaurant later that night. They’ve got nothing on the Chinese restaurant in Grand Rapids I favored, Yen Ching, that place was awesome.

Ok, enough talk about Chinese, back to work… I have an office that I share with someone, he’s a pretty cool guy even if he’s from U of M. They hooked me up with a laptop and docking station so I can use a real mouse and keyboard and a pretty nice LCD monitor. Other than that I’m still meeting people and have a small project to work on. I did find out that Dow makes the active ingredient for Lunesta, which is pretty cool.

Lately we’ve been hitting up the Great Lakes Ice Cream Company for their mix-ins, it’s pretty bad when the guy knows what you want without saying anything. Oh well, it’s still good… we should probably cut back though (I think they’re closing this month anyway…) As for our kitty, she’s doing pretty good, she’s gotten a lot bigger since we’ve gotten her (especially her eyes). Even though we spoil her with all kinds of toys, she really likes a paper bag with a hole in the corner. That’ll keep her (and us) amused for quite some time… it might be time to get her another one though, she’s made the hole so big she can walk through it. Susan’s not feeling to well this week, she ended up coming home early from work yesterday, hopefully reading this post will make her feel better (she always likes to see new posts… and if you’re still reading this you must like new posts too!)

As per requested, I am writing this blog entry… Even if the party in question has turned off her computer. I had some really exciting training classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, ok not really… The first was about something that didn’t really apply to me, the guy said he wasn’t really familiar with software validation but he did have 1.5 slides about it (out of about a hundred). The one on Thursday wasn’t so bad, it was the first session out of four, and if I attend the rest and do the homework (that’s right homework), I can be a certified software validator (w00t!) The only problem I had with this one was that our network went down during the middle of it (it was a teleconference), so we lost track of which slide the presenter was on… and the hand out was only a small book…

This week I also find out my offical position title, I’m a Software Validation Engineer (sounds pretty fancy, huh?) I’ll probably have a lot more to say next week as my first day isn’t until Monday, if I can figure out where I’m suppose to go. The other exciting thing we found out is the local ice cream shop has these really good fruit sipers, a little apple cider and some apple sorbert mixed together topped off with a cinnamon stick. Unfortunately we went there this week and they were all out of cinnamon sticks (luckily I had gotten a mix-in… cotton candy ice cream with sprinkles and gummi bears, yum!)

This weekend was pretty mundane, we did go out and drive by some houses… Hopefully we’ll be able to move into one once our lease goes up here. We also tried a new restaurant on the north sound of town, Los Cuartos Amigos. The atmosphere was nice, but the service wasn’t too great… We were seated and it took awhile before our server got to our table, he took our orders (I got a steak quesadilla and Susan got a chicken quesadilla). Afterwards we got to sample some of their homemade salsa and chips, it was pretty good. We get our meals and I notice mine is chicken, so I ask Susan, “Did you get chicken?” and she responded yeah… Near the end of the meal, she says something like, this kinda looks like steak… Neadless to say the meal was good (even if I didn’t get the so-called “Dark Chicken”). Then we waited for our bill, and waited, and waited, and then just for fun we waited some more… we finally got it paid, left and decided not to go back…

As for today, it’s been pretty exciting, safety training!! No it’s not really that exciting, but the instructor was funny and it went by pretty quickly. Next up I have orientation at Kelly IT & Engineering Resources… and more training tomorrow and Wednesday (sweet…) Then I finally get to start Monday the second… using what some refer to as a “high level language” (or as what appeared to me… a language that’s more basic than BASIC…)

Well as you can gather from my picture of the day page, I am now employed, woohoo! I’ll be a contractor under Kelly IT Resources working for Dow Chemical here in Midland. The exact details are a little fuzzy, my first day isn’t until October 2nd, but the job sounds interesting. I will be a software validator for the systems currently installed in Dow’s plant. Using their own customized programming language, I will create simulations and after testing (much testing probably) I’ll actutally implement the new programs in the real system.

This past weekend was kind of rough… Pepper was brought back to Animal Control due to his problematic behavior. He hissed and growled at me and marked his territory… and his hyper-aggressiveness scared Susan… On a happy note, we did get a new kitten, Scout, who is a female brownish/black calico. She’s been really good and likes to explore (she got stuck in the pull out couch when we first brought her home…)

I finally got my rejection letter from CMT, oh well… I do have an upcoming interview on Monday with Kelly IT Resources (with is a contracting company for Dow Chemical). Job hunting is starting to get old, hopefully something opens up quickly.

I don’t know how many Nintendo fans there are out there, but in New York a press conference was held yesterday to release the launch date and price of the new system, the Wii. I’m defintely gonna get one of these beasts with a price tag of $249.99 with a game included you can’t go wrong (launch date is Nov. 19th). Sony isn’t doing so good this time around, with their explosive laptop batteries and delayed launches and huge price tag (~$600) and limited quantities, I’m not sure how well they’ll compete. Besides the Wii allows for legal downloading of old school games (NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis) and has one heck of an innovative controller (yup they got me sold already…)

It was Susan’s birthday on Wednesday and I made her two cakes (well the first one crumbled and fell on the ground), but the second one turned out all right. It was a chocolate-cinnamon cake and tasted pretty good… I also got her some flowers and a James Bond Zip-Zap (micro RC car) that she drove under the couch once she got it together.

I’ve learned a couple important lessons this past weekend… When in a canoe and trying to soak someone with a water cannon, don’t lean too far over, especially if the person in front of the canoe is leaning the same way… Also, camping in the rain is not a pleasant experience (though we got our tent down just before it started to really rain). If you haven’t guessed it, me and Susan went camping this weekend. It was the 7th Annual Dehate Campout, we even got some fancy orange shirts (pictures to come possibly). If was a lot of fun, minus the whole tipping over in the canoe part, though I did find out my flash drive works after being submerged…

We recently found out our kitten, Pepper, has ringworm so he’s currently in his fortress of solitude in the basement. The vet gave us some shampoo to cure it, which by the way Pepper is not too fond of taking a bath.

As far as the Midland employment hunt goes, I’m still unemployed. Computer Management Technologies (CMT), in Saginaw, should be getting back to me soon with some good news hopefully. I’ve also been in contact with someone at EDS and could get a work-at-home programmer’s position (that would be sweet)…