Prices as of Nov. 30 in the Iron Mountain/Kingsford/Norway, MI area:

Gas: $2.07-2.15/gallon ($0.64-0.66/L including currency conversion)
Fresh cut Christmas trees: $10
White corn tortilla chips from Wal-mart: $1
16 oz. mug of draft beer: $1.50
12 oz. of same: $1.25
Glass of same: $0.75
Mixed cocktails: $2.25-2.75

Well it appears I've forgotten about this for awhile. As of last Saturday (Nov. 19), I'm in Michigan until Dec. 23. The border crossing was a joke. "Homeland Security" apparently thought I had nothing to go back for even though there's a car, my cat, my house, and all my belongings inside the house. I guess I shouldn't group the entire border patrol into the same group as the bitch that I had to deal with. I'm sure that lady had to have been a Nazi in a past life. I had to pull my car into one of their little garage things there and talk with some people inside. Had I dealt with one of the guys that questioned me when I first got inside, I'm sure I would've been there for 10 minutes but after they questioned me, this psycho pipes and wants to question me some more. All said and done, I had to pay $6 for piece of paper that says I have to be out of the country by Dec. 25 and I was there for at least an hour total. Yes, you read that correctly. I had to pay the border $6 for them to give me a paper that says when I have to be out of the country.

Anyway, enough of that. On Thursday, I celebrated Thanksgiving with Teresa's family. Wasn't a real big gathering, just her immediate family. It was fun and there was lots of food consumed. On Friday, we went to some of the big "After Thanksgiving Sales", which are the equivalent of Canada's Boxing Day sales. Teresa and I picked up a George Foreman jumbo grill and griddle combo for $60 (half price). I bought a pair of jeans and Teresa bought a shirt for half price with the purchase of my jeans. I also bought a 10-piece set of Gearwrenches for $30. Saturday afternoon we went to Green Bay to do some shopping but technically didn't spend any money. We used a $50 gift card my dad gave me years ago to buy some DVD's and a CD.

The weather here has been real nice. Yesterday it started raining and melted some of the snow. Today it's still raining and it's 48°F (~9°C) out and still raining. Pretty much all the snow is gone except for what was piled up from the heavy snowfall before I arrived.

That's it for now. I'll try and update some more with anything exciting that happens.

Not much new to post about. No lookers on the house yet. My realtor called yesterday and told me that since my house was listed, there has only been one sold in my price range and area. In all of October, only 5. Oh well. It'll sell eventually.

Less than 2 weeks until I head to the US again. Should be a lot of fun like usual. Teresa and I plan on heading down to Chicago on the weekend of Dec. 10th. Plans of heading to Navy Pier, other downtown attractions (Ed Debevic's, Marshall Field's Window Display, Zoo Lights and ice skating to name a few)and an evening with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Then there's all the wedding planning we have to do. That should be fun as well. After all of that, we're coming back here for Christmas with my family and wait for Teresa's sister to pop out her little one to go back and have Christmas with her family.

Shane's Mistake

Whoops. Shane didn't know what "send a team invite" for blogger meant. Now he knows. It means I can post on his blog, say whatever I like. But, I'm not an administrator, so he can delete whatever I say, or delete me as a team member. Isn't that just fascinating?

I thought so.

I see it's been awhile since I've updated this. Kinda forgot about it. Anyway, the Neon still can't be sold. Looks like I'll be keeping it so the winter tires will likely be going on as soon as I get my jack and stands back from my brother. I'll also be putting the stereo back in this weekend and buying a deck next week. I was finally able to get rid of my Mirada for $300. $140 of it went to buying the ultimate destruction tool: a reciprocating saw (or sawzall). My girlfriend and I also decided that June 10th will be our wedding date. Now we're really rolling on figuring stuff out for that as she went to a bridal show last weekend and got lots of good ideas from that.

Well, Monday I went and signed the papers for my house to go up for sale. Yesterday, the realtor dropped off a lockbox. Now I wait to see if it sells. I hope it's soon. Even if it doesn't sell, I'm out of here on November 21 to the US until Christmas.

Not much is new lately. Been busy and haven't had time to list my house yet but hopefully that happens tomorrow. I've also been added to The Gateway.

Well, another birthday came and went on the 14th. They used to be more fun when you were little. Excitement over presents and seeing relatives. My experience might be different than any others but there's not really presents anymore, some people have forgotten about it and then there's the getting older thing and thinking about whether you're at the place in life that you thought you would be at the age you are or not.

I haven't had much time to talk to my girlfriend lately which kinda sucks. She's really my best friend and I talk to her about a lot of things and for long periods of time sometimes. This last week I haven't talked to her for more than maybe 20 minutes each night. She was gone from Friday until today so those days, today not included, I didn't get to talk to her at all.

There's some other stuff that's bugging me too but I can't really talk about it on here or it has the possibilities of getting me in trouble. Also, I can't sell any of my cars to save my life. People have called about the Mirada but only one came and looked and obviously didn't buy. A couple people might've called on the Neon but apparently don't know how to use an answering machine.

Anyway, that's my extremely uplifting update for today. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Who says animals don't have personalities?

I believe my cat has a shoe insole fetish. I have a pair of old work boots that, ever since I've brought her home, she's been into them, trying to get the insoles out. Now that she's almost full grown, she gets them out easily and now they're her favourite toy. She transports them around the house, attacks them, bats them around. For whatever reason, I came home today and she had both of the insoles pulled out of my Dr. Martin workboots too. She also has this weird thing of biting people when you play with her. She doesn't do it hard but after she bites, she licks where she bit.

At 7 AM this morning, I was almost hit by a drunk driver. Yes, 7 AM. How do I know he was drunk? He was driving slowly (~35km/h), hitting the brakes randomly and the to top it off, he hits the brakes and kinda coasts over to the left. I think he's making a left turn without using his signal. Suddenly he cuts right, almost hitting the corner of my car and stopping at the curb. I drive by and glare at him, seeing he's kinda slumped over his steering wheel. I should've called the cops.

Libra September 23 - October 23

You won't be hit by a bus this week, exactly. Circumstances will unfold so that you're traveling at almost 100 miles an hour when you strike a stationary bus.

This past weekend the crew from Saskatoon (Clayton, Dawn, Vance, Ian, Angie) made the adventure down for Barb's birthday. Before heading out to the Gaslight, we had drinks (mostly shots) in Barb's basement. Barb made the "good" ones, I made the intentionally bad ones. The best one I made involved a little of everything from Barb's bar except the Talisker and Chambord. Vance named in "Jizz in the Toilet" after what it looked like in the shaker. After I added all my ingredients and shook it up, it poured into shot glasses looking like silty lake bottom water. Quite the change. And it actually turned out tasting like an After Eight mint even though there wasn't really that much peppermint schnapps in it. The best shot of the night were the Rider shots that Clayton, Vance and I had. The Rider shots were actually straight shots of Absinth. After we were primed up, we went to the Gaslight. Good times were had there. Dig, Steph, Tara, Taneal and Barb's old music teacher showed up. There might've been others but I don't remember. After we were done there, we went back to Barb's place and Clayton and I went to check out Clayton's extraordinarily shitty new winter beater ('82 Olds Cutlass). Moments later, the rest of the gang minus Vance showed up. Ian and I proceeded to rip the bumper off the back of Clayton's Cutlass. Silly rusty framed cars. Clayton didn't want to leave it in the street so we made it fit in the trunk. Made it fit meaning there was still a piece of frame and the shock absorbers still attached to the bumper so it had to be forced into the small opening. We got it wedged most of the way in and Clayton jumped on the trunk lid to make it shut. Aren't beaters great? Best part of the weekend: Barb's mom yelled at Vance for jumping on the car even though he was sleeping in the basement. Good times :D

On a completely different note, I had a real estate agent come look at the house today. I did a mad dash and cleaned up the house as best as I could in 2.5 hours. He's calling me back on a value tomorrow. Hopefully it sells soon. Hopefully the Neon sells soon too. Who wants a Neon? Don't everybody jump at once.

I've made no progress on the door hardware. I did buy some paint stripper the other day for the bathroom door. Got MOST of the paint off. What's left I have to attack with a belt sander tomorrow. I'm thinking I should've left the door painted and looking like shit. It's turned into a major pain in my anus.

On a happier note, I got new rubbers on the Neon yesterday and a new windshield today. I've never owned or driven in a vehicle with a BRAND NEW windshield before. Anyway, tomorrow I have to go take my stereo out and put hte stock one back in then it's going into the paper. I hope it sells as I've seriously got my eye on a Roadmaster from California.

Since this week's Onion horoscopes suck, I'll bring you a entertaining Red Meat comic:

I've got all my mouldings on except for one piece in the bathroom. That requires me to go buy one more piece and custom fit it around the tub. Tomorrow I think I'll go out to my uncle's and blast my door hardware that has many lays of paint on it. Soon this place will be ready to sell. On that note, nobody wants to buy my Mirada :( And I also have to get the Neon ready to sell this weekend too. Hopefully that goes better than my sale on the Mirada.

Friday was my dad's 50th birthday. Nothing was done except for supper. He wants to have a BBQ on another weekend afternoon. Saturday was the celebration for my grandparents' 50th anniversary (married 4 days before my dad was born).

I painted my mouldings this morning and this afternoon, got a good portion of it put on. The bathroom is done except one piece that needs to be custom fit around the tub that I'm going to require some assistance with. My bedroom is done as is the hallway. The corners don't match as well as I'd like but that happens when people build houses without a square or a level :P

Well, I got my mouldings today. Tomorrow I have to go get some tinted varnish so that I can match the moulding I bought to the old fir baseboards. I started dusting some stuff tonight and there's a good layer of shit on everything.

Tomorrow is my dad's half century day. Not sure what's happening for that.

In other news, I've been reading this blog since the hurricane hit (thanks to I-gene for posting the link on his blog). It's been interesting following the events without the generic media coverage skewing what's happening. It also looks like they might be in for it again.

Everything has been stripped and sanded with the exception of the cabinet thing built over the chimney for my fireplace. That I'll do tomorrow being it needs to be sanded with the coarsest sand paper I have (scraping would take too long) along with the use of a vacuum to reduce the dust. I also replaced a few receptacles and switches tonight and again electrocuted myself doing it. I believe tomorrow is moulding day.

Busy, busy

I've been busting my ass lately trying to get my house up for sale. Most of the house is done for the most part. I finished about 75% of the dining room yesterday and today. My mom has been here giving me a hand as well. Tonight, my dad came over and installed the new door at the back of the house. Tomorrow I should be able to finish the dining room. Then it's off to a hardware store to get some molding to go around the bottoms of all the rooms. Barb has also been working on font ideas and formatting for wedding invitations.

The Mirada is running again and up for sale. $900 obo for any takers. And my back really fuckin' hurts. If I'm laying down (as in under a car or on a bed), I'm ok but sitting down for any period of time is a killer, particularily in my computer chair which has never bothered me before.

Today's pet peeve

What the fuck is wrong with you people with convertibles? Why do you drive with the top down with the windows up? If you're one of these idiots, send me an e-mail as to why the hell you do this.

On another note, I got the new(er) transmission the Mirada today. Tomorrow I just have to tighten a few loose bolts up and add some fluid to see what happens.

Whirlwind World Tour

My tour started by visiting wicked Yorkton. From there, I hopped all the way over to Amsterdam. Next up was Sturgis. Anyway, that was my day. I picked up a transmission for my Mirada and did some driving. That was all.

Left leg

One of these days I'm going to lose my left leg entirely. Those of you who know me know that I slashed the left knee open in a grinder accident about 3 months ago, requiring 7 stitches. Today I fall off of a stool and lose a good size piece of skin just below the scar from that.

Horoscope courtesy of The Onion.

Libra September 23 - October 23

You will be mortified at the group of self-righteous, middle-income, non-nurse-murdering losers that the state seems to consider a jury of your peers.

Thing I've seen today

First off, I went outside to go for lunch and I saw what you see above in the alley between my house and the neighbour's. While coming home from lunch, I see an old lady in probably her 70's. Wearing a very obvious "big hair" wig and a white sequin shawl over a white dress with some huge 1960's sunglasses. Almost home, I see a van full of indians with a bumper sticker that says "I pee in the shower."

Today I had to go to a unemployment insurance meeting. Those people really don't fuck around with that. Some heftly fines if you get caught scamming them and if you go on EI again after you've been caught, you have to work more hours to get EI. So much for my plan. Also, why is it that McDonald's MacPoulet (McChicken) smells so bad? It smells nothing like it tastes. That's just my experience anyway and I know lots of people hate McDonald's. Back to working on the house again....

Blog?

Never thought I'd have one of these but I guess it'll be a little more useful when I move to the US. As for now, I'll just post mindless ramblings.