Employed again!

today was my first day earning a paycheck since I left the Navy and I gotta say, it felt good. I admit, I didn't do a whole lot... I'm still learning the ropes... but I don't think it will be too long before I can really start to contribute. Thanks, Terry, for giving me the job! See ya tomorrow!

Finally unemployed!

Ok, so I've been free since the 18th, but I've been soooo busy slacking and enjoying it, that I just haven't taken the time to write about it. I bet you think I'm going to write about it now, huh? Well, I'm not. No. It's late, and I gotta get up early tomorrow and start looking for a job!

Amazingly enough...

...someone actually reads this blog! I have just been informed by my sister that she and her boyfriend regularly check this page for updates! I was curious to see if they were the only ones. So, if you're reading this and you are not my sister or my sister's boyfriend, please leave a comment to this post. I will not be surprised if I get none whatsoever, but we'll just wait and see.

One week!

yes, at last, only one week remains. This is my last weekend on the island of Oahu, and it's going to be hard to top last weekend, for sure. Some of the highlights included a sunset cruise in Waikiki with all-you-can-drink Mai Tais (followed by a long night of barhopping), and an awesome concert with bands Hoobastank, Hot Hot Heat, The Fray, and Rock Kills Kid. One last weekend to enjoy everything that Hawaii has to offer... I just don't know how to pack it all in! There will have to be camping, snorkelling, surfing, partying, bbqing, and just chilling on the beach.

This week, I managed to fit in a little deep-sea fishing! We weren't really expecting to catch much of anything, but just 5 minutes after casting our line, we hooked a huge 85 pound marlin! We were ecstatic to say the least. Later on, my roommate/personal chef, Shawn (pictured below in red), made his first attempt at cooking swordfish... and I made my first attempt at eating it. Both ventures ended in great success. The fish was delicious! However, once again, the kitchen is a disaster with no one willing to clean it. I have my doubts as to whether or not it will be clean again before I leave.

Inspection

this is something that has been coming for awhile now, but has been fiercly ignored by the residents of our home, including me. Our landladies want to do a walkthrough inspection of the house as we are nearing the end of our lease agreement. The house is a mess! Dishes overflowing from the sink and onto the counter, mail strewn about all over the kitchen and living room, random crap everywhere else... but that's not what we're worried about. For the last 6 months or so, we've been trying to grow grass in our backyard. The grass died shortly after we moved in, so we decided to till up the lawn and plant new grass, after removing the jungle of weeds that had slowly taken over. This was a good plan, in theory. We soon realized that the lawn was cursed, doomed to fail from the beginning! As soon as we planted the grass, the rain started. It didn't stop for 42 days straight. The second time we tried, flocks of birds devoured every last seed we put down. Highly discouraged, we are trying one last time. We hope to ward off the birds by keeping a sprinkler on at all times. So far, I think it's working. If we manage to schedule the walkthrough late enough to see a few sprouts of grass coming up, at least it will look like we're trying. Right now, it's just a big pit of dirt. Ideally, the inspection will come after the 18th. Grass or no grass, I'll be gone!