Pretty good day today

Had the day off from work and so I had arranged to run around with Mr.
Myers who also had the day off. We accomplished a lot of stuff.

Been looking for the Tamagochi (tah mah goh chi) Version 3, but the
local TRU doesn't have them in yet.

Myers wanted to check out the Salvation Army megastore that opened up
recently, but found little there. Then we went over to Belden Village
mall for some blank DVD media - I managed to get 2 more TDK stacks of 4X
+R media at $5 each, and an experimental and similarly rated K
Hypermedia (25 disk stack) at the same rate. They work! My recorder
doesn't like the Aldi brand Tevions I got, DVD-R at 8X, and it has
recorded successfully on 8X disks before.

Got some polyester knit fabric to begin work on some outer lining for my
new pants. I got 3 new pairs of pants / trousers (whatever) at Men's
Wearhouse a couple of weeks ago. Only thing is, even though I have the
major problem of wool fabric pants is the crotch - the fabric rubs
against itself on the outside and subsequently wears out. They at the
store offered "crotch lining", but I was to be charged only $7 not the
usual $10 because my sister was going to hem them up herself. However,
when I got to picking up what I bought, the lady noted they hadn't
charged me the full price and asked if they had called me about that.
No, in fact, they hadn't, so she went right ahead and "corrected" the
oversight, and charged me another $9. I feel deceived over the whole
thing and I'm going to get my $9 back. Anywho, the crotch lining doesn't
protect the fabric on the outside. I don't know why they think this will
help.

Eventually, we get over to Hartville Flea Market. Great place. I think
Trader Woody is getting full of himself a bit. Some prices were way too
high. The 2004 expired Total cereal with Protein should be tossed out.
Somehow he even bought out one "competitor" outside selling stuff. What
this guy has is what some people do - go to one of these distribution
places for grocery stores where they get merchandice returns from
stores. The food products likely have some cosmetic dings or dents, but
the product inside is still good. You buy so many boxes at whatever
price and you end up with whatever is in there. Myers knew one place
called Moonwind Salvage run by an Amish family, but that closed up. They
did this as well, and sometimes you could get a heck of a deal there.
Anyway, I liked Trader Woody's because of the occasional deal on meal
kits. I'm careful to buy the dry stuff that's sealed up. Sometimes we
find this stuff at other flea markets. We check the dates. I never will
buy salad dressing ever again that way. oooh boy, just trust me on that
one.

I also had my V.2 Tamagotchi off pause all day, so I got to see him sing
at 1pm, watch a rabbit push a huge egg around at 2 pm (possibly an
indicator Easter is coming), do the Extreme Close Up at 3 pm, sing some
more at 4 pm. Around 6 pm he was taking a bath, and right now he's
brushing his teeth. Bandai engineers put more thought into the program
for this incarnation of their virtual pet toy. I even discovered I'd
been using the Friends list incorrectly - and found the names of all 6
'go-chis I've connected to so far! Version 3 Tamagotchis are also
wireless, so I wonder what they can do. ^_^

The start of something good I hope

Well, Register Training happened. ^_^

I also managed to impress the heck out of people that first week, and
since I seem to be treated better while I wear the white shirt and tie,
I'm going to wear it more often.

I also was able to run register, Express lane, for 1 hour that night,
the first night of training. I am able to demonstrate a high level of
competence and pleasantness (sic) to people as I ring up their
purchases. In fact, I find that time goes much faster as a cashier than
bagging stuff.

The Kia cost me $265 to do an overhaul of the rear end. Parts for Kia
cars aren't easy to find nor are they cheap. Now I should look into
getting the front end aligned. That's $265 I'll never see again, even if
it was well-spent. I so much want to go to Japan while a friend is over
there for his Japanese-government paid Monbushou fellowship grant, and
possibly visit a few penpals.

tonikaku, register training got me reclassified as a Part Time Cashier.
My hours for working for a raise also start over. (damn), but I should
have had one as a clerk anyway, and I asked about that. But I haven't
been on the cashier schedule yet, and I'm going to ask about that, too.
I want to claim hours as a cashier, dammit.

So many people on the front end are so happy to see me get that
training. A few people have even told me if I need to claim hours from
them, I can. Those are people with less seniority than I, and they know
that. I hope when I work with one or 2 of the coordinators, they'll put
me on register the entire time. I even got to run register for one 8
hour shift a couple of Thursdays ago. I've told people I ran register at
Fisher's Big Wheel years ago, and my performance is proving that in
spades.

Also been helping that one girl with her system, and the last problem I
need to figure out are the sudden restarts for no reason. A friend has
given me a lot to check out, so perhaps I've got some ammunition to
solve it for good.

My middle niece got the 3 dolls for the US release of Ojamajo Doremi
(well, they were a gift from my and my mom, her grandmother) for her
birthday and she's been taking good care of them. I'm glad because when
I am able to give her Japanese anime toys like that, and she really
takes care of them, it makes me feel good because then the giving of the
gift was worth it. It also gives us something to share.

I hope I can find more original Ojamajo Doremi DVDs with English subs.
That english dub is absolutely horrible.

There were some girls in checkout this past week who recognized my Mew
Lettuce pin on my name badge. I tried to fill them in on stuff about
Tokyo Mew Mew, and I changed the pins to having Mint and Ichigo on there
in their Cafe Mew Mew waitress outfits. (I don't have pins of them in
their Mew fighter outfits yet.) And I've been able to connect my
Tamagotchi (tah mah goh chi) Connection to other "Go-chi"s, while also
teaching kids how to say the Japanese name right.

Shopping in anticipation of good things?

Vell, it looks like cashier training may very well happened. It wouldn't
have I guess unless one good friend had intervened.

With the recent lack of cashier quitting or getting fired at the store,
they had to do something to replenish this valuable commodity. Oh yes.
Let's take stock in what's happened so far...

1. Brother of one cashier / coordinator quit in November.

2. Just after the holidays, one mean girl and her troll friend got each
other suspended, with that ending up one fired permanently, the other
returned for 2 weeks before quitting at last.

3. One girl just quit suddenly.

4. One guy who got hired just after the promise for me and one guy for
cashier training got hired, trained, and then abruptly got fired or
something. Only a few weeks out of that one.

5. 2 more girls are leaving, well, actually one completely - the other
will be available nights.

6. 2 other minors - one quit, the other will be out until after soccer
is over.

That's about 8 cashiers they need to replace. How do they replace them?

Why, hire 4 others! Gee, if my friend hadn't been there in the
conversation about those 4 being hired, this crap of a promise might
have gone unfulfilled yet again. So me and one, maybe 2 others, will get
register training this coming week. I have this friend as my "kibosh"
alert. I've kept this plan under wraps, because I don't want someone to
put a kibosh on things, as he's been rumored to do.

Anywho, I wrote that to write this:

My younger sister and I went forth into the world of merchandising and
such to find new clothes for this purported promise of register
training. (I think pretty much it's going to happen, because more than a
few people have mentioned it to me and I've been trying to keep it
quiet.)

We stopped at one store, got 3 shirts. Did some checking at a few other
stores. Right after the shirts, we checked the Goodwill in Alliance. Or
rather one of the Goodwills in Alliance. I don't recall if there's more
than one, but we know where one is. As we went around in there to find
something (and we didn't), I did manage to run into a former co-worker
from that hell hole of a restaurant, namely Long John Silver's, run by
PFC, and managed by those miscreants of mistaken illectual identity, Ron
Risher and Bill Gibson, not to be mistaken for William Gibson, science
fiction author. It appears that 2 years after I left, they cooked up
some story claiming the chain got an 800 number call claiming she swore
at some woman and her child. So she got called in, they read the riot
act, and summarily fired her. She remembers the day this lie refers to,
and told me nothing like that ever happened.

If there was ever a strong case for suing due to Appearance
Discrimination, she's got one. She told me they're trying to get rid of
Rena, but in her case that's about not wanting to pay an older worker
who's been there a while and therefore an expensive employee to keep
paying. Both of these women have a good case of discrimination to sue
over. Appearance Discrimination cases, luckily, are very easy to win.
^_^

Please note, that this sort of crap goes on in non-union shops such as
fast food restaurants all the time. It would frost YUM's gears to
unionize their workers at all their brans (A&W, LJS, Taco Smell, KFC,
and Pizza Butt) and stop this sort of abuse that caused unions to come
into being in the first place. It's a shame that Dan Phallen has to be
the ultimate guy who runs a place like that. I've met him, he's a decent
guy - he wouldn't be in his position if he was a tyrant, and he's not.
But the other people working for him, like Joe Feeney and Ron Risher,
(might as well throw Mr. Gibson in that pile) are assholes and deserve
punishment. I'd fire their collective asses and send them out on same.

Anywho, now that I've gotten past that rant...

My sister and I proceeded up towards Belden Village. Saw a new Salvation
Army store have its grand opening, but clothing salvation was not to be
had there. So... over to Target. And Kohl's. At some point, we even went
in to Joann Fabrics. I bought a zipper repair kit to replace the worn
out slider on my jacket, and it works nicely for the first time since I
bought the thing.

The zipper was from my old "Member's Only" jacket which I had for a long
time. How long? It was the last piece of clothing my grandparents bought
for me prior to 1995. At some point the original zipper wore out, so I
replaced it myself. Then the jacket proceeded to wear out, so I replaced
it, and the new jacket had a crappy vinyl zipper that didn't work at all
like a new zipper should. So I transplanted the metal zipper from the
old jacket, then the slide proceeded to not work anymore. Being as old
as it was, it had worn down and the teeth no longer meshed. Easily
fixed. Now to finish restoring my Lum patch and put her back in a place
of glory. ^.^

tonikaku... We ended up arriving at the Men's Wearhouse (sp) on the
Strip. They had 2 pairs, in my size, for $19.99!! "Sold!" I exclaimed,
to the delight and laught of one of the salespeople. ^_^ I ended up
buying 3 pairs, the 3rd being $39.99. They looked great, fit great. I
thought I had lost a lot more than we measured me for, so I guess I will
have to work harder to be able to afford cheap mass produced clothing
from Tanzania, made for people with insanely shorter legs than I have.

I almost bought a Sima GoDVD unit at Best Buy (a store that amazingly
was completely out of $15 DVD sets of Magic Knight Rayearth Season 1),
but I want a better deal than $99. I know they can be had for $60. I
really need it since I got some old tapes that could use some video
fixing magic, and I don't have a couple thou for a Markertek processing
amp. I wish I had that for my trip to Japan. Dang. I don't think that's
going to happen and nobody cares.

Anywho, we got me fixed up, now to get the Kia fixed up.

ja ne nyo deshi punyoun na no da...

Koko deshi nyo!

Today we officially moved IN.

I went to get groceries and came back with some panic in regard to the
sludge that keeps building up in my oil in the engine of the truck, so
my bro in law flushed it out with something NAPA has, and it'll have to
be done again. It's got better oil flow than before, but still not as
good as it should be. I will never use Schaefer's Mauly oil again.

It'll take a while as we sort through the boxes of stuff. I hope we can
get Apartment B rented out because then I'd be a Building Manager and my
older sister, who asked that I do this while she's in Floriday, would
give me a break on the rent. I'm going to ask $200, and as she adds more
properties if she's actually going to do that, $100 each additional
unit. Heh. Either a break in the rent or a salary. ^_^

I imagine I'll be eBaying a lot of stuff that I really don't need, like
3 Texas Instruments TI 99/4A computers or the software cartridges I'll
never use. I might keep the games. I have a VIC-20 and Omega Race, which
is the best version made for any such system.

I hope to make a killing, depending on how much people want these. It
was about 15 or so years ago that one college I went to actually had
decked out TI 99/4A systems, meaning they had disc drives and that whole
expansion box. They were in one learning center. (shrug)

About ready to actually 'be' here...

According to the contractor, the pipes for Apt. 1 are done. The well got
4 gallons of bleach dumped in it to cholorinate it. 4 gallons!?

The uhaul place charged me only $78. I feel I should get that money
back.

"Early February" training isn't going to happen, at least as things look
right now. Another promise come and gone. I want my damn raise. I wonder
what management's lame excuse will be this time. One of the other guys
who was also to get the same training as I made some noise about it.
Someone said the lady who makes out the schedule messed up. I'll say she
messed it up!!!

There's one girl where I work who finally got DSL working on her
computer, but it's got a problem when it starts up. I did some looking
and figured out what to look for thanks to one friend, but I have no
idea if I'll get a chance to look at it. I left her a note at work to
ask her to call me when it would be a good time and day to visit - but
since I've not gotten a call, she may not have gotten the note, or she
did and her folks don't want me to visit (in spite of how many times her
mom has said hi to me - how does she know my name at all?), or they
think there's nothing wrong with it. Which there is, and I don't know
why her sister hasn't fixed it.

Anywho, we're about to move in and be here for real this week. While
it's about time, I'm not looking forward to it.

Life so far...

Much has happened since my last entry. I really should update this more
often. I might do that, after things settle down. No... We're not done
with moving. I mean, the moving part is done, now there's the settling
in thingy.

Ok.. Here's the thing. When the previous owner lost the house due to
bankruptcy... He came back in and ripped out the pump and storage tank
to the water 'system' in the house. I think we should find out who that
was and sue them. I found out how the property came up for sale due to
one former tenant, rudely walking in as Myers and I went through the
basement trying to staple up any of the insulation that was falling
down. They were interested in moving back in, and I had to explain that
Apartment 1 was already spoken for.

So... We had to get some guy to set up a submersible pump in the well
and hook up a storage tank. The toilet in Apt. 1 was replaced as well.
Next, we hired a general contractor to fix the pipes. Things from that
point on went well, until...

Well, during the month of December, I had been eating sandwiches and
used Mayo in my sister's frig. Only thing is, it was past its Sell By
date. When you get bad mayo in your innards, there's very little you can
do and you have few options as to what you're going to do about it. The
new toilet ended up getting used. I had some really good paper towels to
use for wiping... And while I was trying to deal with the mess, the
general contractor ended up finding it before I had that solved, got
pissed, called my older sister and my mom, which ended up having me
return home one Friday with everyone mad at me. I pretty much told them
I'm mad at them right back, I knew about the problem, and why do you
think I was taking buckets of water as well as a plunger out to deal
with it???

I ended up one Saturday morning buying a toilet snake ($7 at TruValu)
and some drain opener stuff ($3 or so) and had it clear in about 20
minutes. I used pine oil cleaner to finish the job.

The general contractor guy didn't return for almost 3 weeks, until this
past Saturday there was evidence he had been here, did something in the
bathroom and so far hasn't returned to do much else. Right now, I think
he's planning how to route pipes to the bathroom since all the PVC ones
had frozen and split and leak all over the place.

As for the money from the sale of my grandparents' house... My older
sister claims mom isn't getting any, yet she took $20K and bought this
property, and with another estimated $35K that my mom is due... My aunt
has gotten $10K so far in a cashier's check, and when she asked for
more, she got told it was in bank deposits... She did that without
asking or telling anyone.

AND to top that off, my older sister is expecting my mom and I to pay
"rent". Rent, on a property bought with my mom's money, which should be
in my name at least... There's property taxes to be paid. This is a
multi-unit property, with 2 available apartments to rent out. I barely
make enough to cover my own bills, and if I were forced to take on
anything else, I'd cancel the TV service first. I have a trip to Japan I
want to save up for first!!!

I've reviewed some of the rights renters have. I can take her to court
and demand a reduction in "Rent" if the conditions aren't suitable.

Maybe things will get better. Supposedly, in "Early February" as was
witnessed by several people, I, along with 2 others, are to receive
training for ringing on cash registers. This is supposed to mean better
opportunities such as better pay and access to benefits.

January 12th is when this was witnessed. I gave up on that a long time
ago, but at least I have experience from working at Big Wheel before it
closed years ago.

Got the update for my DVD recorder!!! It works great now. Before it had
crappy audio, and now it's just fine. Wow.

Toys for the English dub of Ojamajo Doremi are out, and I finally have a
variation of the Musa doll from Winx Club. I have had such a darndest
time finding her any other way... Grrr...

I've got some stuff to send to a penpal in Japan. I should have sent it
a long time ago... T.T gomen ne!

Moving, moving, done...

In the past 6 days of moving...

Friday - got mom and the dog out to my sister's house, moved some loads
and picked up 14Foot Uhaul.

Now, when Uhaul says the truck is $29 a day, what they don't mention is
that there's $79 insurance you have to buy from them unless you have
insurance to cover you on 6 wheel vehicles. And then the $14 fee for
something I didn't want as well when I reserved it. And then the 99
cents a mile charge.

So they advertise $29 or $20 a day - but that's a complete lie. My cost
to rent the truck for one day was over $123. And that's not counting $32
in diesel fuel!!!

Saturday - didn't do any shopping nor picking up or any manga. We did 2
huge loads of all the big stuff, and managed to get the truck back by
5:58 pm. Also moved my bed from the basement to my sister's house.

Sunday - A day of rest, as I was sore all over. Ate our thanksgiving
meal.

Monday - Myers had the day off, so we pretty much borrowed my younger
sister's van and we made good on several loads.

Tuesday - more van borrowing. Moved more stuff from upstairs, as I went
room to room and just emptied it out.

Wednesday - got the cats and the food out and the last of stuff from the
basement.

That leaves the mowers, the plant, and the garbage thingy. My truck will
be used for that, then I go back to work.

At least I'll get to play with my DVD recorder at some point.

SOLD

And tonight the SOLD sign went on the reator's sign in my grandparents'
soon to be former home.

Well, there's the sign I was waiting for. Saw it this evening after I
came home from voting after work.

I left around 8:25 am and it wasn't there, so some time between then and
10 am or so, someone came out and placed it there. Pisses me off nobody
came to the door to tell mom about it. We've also been trying to contact
my sister in Florida about stuff that needs done with the house in
Bayard. It's got electric and maybe phone - we just need running water
through a softener. Stupid her sold my grandfather's house with our
softener as being installed (it's not). We're going to need that.

I have this Friday off, so I'm going to see about moving stuff already
in boxes during that day. I don't know how many loads I'll be able to do
by myself. Good thing I got more Ibuprofen.

30 days or so and counting...

I have this Friday off so I plan to do as many loads of stuff still
packed up from our move out of the Euclid house and this will be what is
being moved first. I'd like to move our refrigerator and get it set up
at the "new" place. I also may need help ripping out carpet in the
kitchen. Yes, you read right, carpet in the kitchen. We had carpet in
the kitchen and bathroom when we first lived at Euclid, and here we got
it again.

If I end up moving stuff by myself this Friday, and it doesn't rain, I
got a lot of boxes I want to move that I need to do by myself anyway.

I'm also going to need to see about the next month or so that I need 2
days off in a row, culminating with my week's paid vacation that I
should have earned by now. Also I need to see when I'm supposed to get
my raise. I'm looking for the Rurdev letter that has info the store
provided to the US Government about said raise, and if they lied on that
form they sent back to the rurdev people, then I've got a case to
present to people. I want my raise!!!

The week I will get off I will be renting a Uhaul van to move the rest
of the big stuff. Anyone showing up with big vehicles is still muchly
appreciated. I'm hoping this time we can follow through with the Thank
You party we should have had 2 years ago. I guess we'll make it a good
one for this time.

A lot of cleaning will also be needed. If I can borrow a power washer,
all the better. I plan to get our air cleaner in there ASAP as well as
getting the dehumidifier going again, maybe with a new fan I have on
hand, and getting that over there. I'll likely have to buy a bunch of
light bulbs and bring a sweeper.

As long as my older sister gets running softened and filtered water
going, and hookups for mom's waster and dryer, we could be good to go. I
have to find out how to get our digital dish moved there as well and for
free.

Sorry for lack of updates... but...

Well, life still sucks but at different rates.

Even though I got more of a response from the rurdev office, my mom
can't co-sign for a loan because of her bankruptcy. Or any other loan
for at least 2 years afterwards. I got another envelope from the rurdev
office, but I haven't opened it. I'm not going to.

Erroneous stuff on my credit report is going to be excised, just as soon
as I can remember to do it and not fall asleep sitting around the house
on my days off. I hate my job, like what's new with that.

So at any rate, I've decided to not pursue getting a housing loan
anymore. My older sister instead found a HUD Repo property and the bank
needed only $20,000 on it.

The lady trying to buy my grandparents' house had her credit fall
through, and the lady who said she'd help her refused. So the house went
back on the market and at a higher price than before. Just as soon as
that happened, bam - we had 2 more couples look through it in the same
day. Good thing I had just cleaned up around here. Also had to give
Tinkerbell the boot. She's outside, but she had been peeing and pooping
on stuff in the basement. 2 days after that, I saw more of that and
blamed Griz. However, I'm going to work with Griz because he's a
sociable cat. We were going to get rid of Tink anyway before we moved.
However, the times she had gotten out when we were back in town, she
mainly stayed around the house or whatnot. This time she's clearly run
away for good. I haven't seen her in the 2 weeks since I let her run
away. I'm trying to feel sad about it, but I hope she's found another
home.

One of the 2 couples who saw the house 2 weeks ago put a $500 holder
thingy on it. The previous family didn't do that.

So the upshot of the whole thing: My sister buys the apartment building
that is/ was the HUD repo. We move in and she tries to charge us rent.
When the house sells, the loan on the repo is paid off, rendering any
"need" to charge rent moot. The property should be in my name anyway.
It's going to need some work before it's really ready, and we may have a
friend lined up to rent one of the other 2 apartments already. I don't
have a decent paying job that would let me pay rent and cover my bills
and I'd still be able to live, basically. I think we'll be moving later
this month.

My older sister says she may try to get more properties in this manner
and fix them up and turn them into housing that can be rented out to
people with subsidized rental vouchers from the government. She wishes
the place we'll be moving into was ready right now to help people
displaced by hurricanes. At least we get to keep our phone number, and
I'm taking the digital dish with us!

The other upshot of all this would be I'd be her building manager (aka
Kanrinnin) and therefore I'd get free rent for watching over the
properties. I'm still looking into getting another job, or a better
paying job altogether. I don't like the prospect of working without a
union contract, though.

It's been a year since I left that horrid restaurant. The abuse I
suffered at the hands of customers and bad management. Those corporate
jerk inspectors, too. Getting out of that place was perhaps the best and
worst thing that happened to me. I know what I'd like to see happen as
revenge and it would be perfectly legal and sweet. Heh!!

My friend who won the 2005 Monbusho research fellowship grant left for
Japan a few days ago. I see by his blog he's doing well. ^_^ I hope to
see him in Tokyo sometime next year, as well as a penpal or 2.

So far...

Well, all that other info got back to the office. August 9th, the
underwriter for the rurdev office did some figuring. I got a letter that
basically said, yes, I could get a loan through Rural Development. Only
thing is I couldn't get enough to buy a house.

So the figures go on my monthly gross, use 29% of that, then use $150 a
month in estimated real estate taxes and $35 a month in insurance. That
would leave a payment that qualified me for only $4,977.00.

First off, I wouldn't even consider a place that required $150 in taxes.
One house I want to get is $72 a month in taxes. Cheaper house might
also mean cheaper insurance. Mom figures if we can make a downpayment of
$10 to 15K or so, we would need to borrow much less. How we get the
downpayment, I'm not sure.

Distraught and depressed, last Friday I wrote a letter back to the
rurdev office requesting an informal review and suggested some
alternatives. I also wrote a letter and sent copies off to TV stations.
Hopefully I'll hear from one of them soon. I also tried contacting a
local Habitat for Humanity office via email. I haven't heard anything
back from that, so I will end up having to call them.

Might be talking to the real estate agent who has this one loan officer
coming into her office at the end of this week. There's gotta be a way
for me or us to get a loan to buy a house. I want to get a federally
subsidized loan like my mom got through Farmer's Home Administration
years ago. I should be able to do this.

I'm also considering alternative forms of employment. One is a 2nd part
time job, and the other is getting management training where I work for
getting me out of that store and into another. If one friend who used to
work there can get it and pass the test, I know I can do it, too. I'd
likely end up in a salaried management position, which would suck. After
getting burned on one non-union protected job, I don't want to work
without it ever again.