Groceries and Dumb

I can't believe I missed Sunday. And Monday. Sunday I took a good 4 hours out of the day to finish my book for book club: Monsters of Templeton. It was an amazing book so it was well worth it, and the Pokemon of The Week being delayed was worth it too.

What kind of grocery shopper are you? More importantly, how do you bad your groceries? Now that I'm living on my own, I really think I'd fare well in a place like New York City. When it boils down to it, I'm pretty much a "get it done fast" with no frills kind of person. I run in the store, go directly for what I want, and get annoyed at the person strolling along leaning on their buggy for support. The lines are too long as well. I'm like this with any place really. I want to get in, and get out. I don't want to make a big event out of it. Unless it's something like car shopping, I can take my time then (for a little bit).

Back to bagging. I think how I bag my groceries goes along the lines of the "get it done" attitude. Tonight I bought my usual: apples, 2 1/2 gallons of OJ, 1 gallon of milk, 3 frozen dinners, 5 Lunchables, granola bars, 2 greeting cards (not so usual), and 2 bottles of green tea. Do you know how many bags I used? 3. Yes, just 3. Mind you I was limping from my car to my door, the bag handles became sharp from the weight and were digging into my hands, and by the time I got upstairs my arms were shaking. But you know what, I only had to make 1 trip, and that's wonderful.

A person at work got wind that I was going to buy a "foreign" *GASP* car! She lectured me (or tried to) on how I'm putting Americans out of work, how Japanese car companies pay their workers less so American car companies can't compete, and how what I'm going to do is unpatriotic. She also got another person to huddle in and hackle me more.

I don't even argue with these people anymore because they are downright ignorant and proof of why I don't feel bad buying a Honda (which is American by the way).

Case in point: 2008 Honda Civic vs. 2008 Ford Fusion

Honda Civic
Engine Origin: USA
Transmission Origin: Japan
Assembly: USA
The Civic's VIN# begins with "1" which means the car is produced in America
The Civic's part content is > 70% American

Ford Fusion
Engine Origin: Mexico
Transmission Origin: Japan
Assembly: Mexico
The Fusion's VIN# begins with "3" which means the car is produced in Mexico
The Fusion's part content is 35% American

And I don't even want to hear whining about "well American car companies have to go to 3rd world countries now because nobody supported them". Bull. I'm sure their executives are still making plenty. Maybe you say "well David, where does the money go back to"? Good question. For Honda, the profit will go back to Japan. For Ford it will go back to the US. You know what, profit doesn't stimulate the economy as much as the smaller people will. Who do you think stimulates the economy more, 1 executive who has country club memberships and shops at high end places, or 2,000 assembly line workers who are out everyday shopping and supporting their communities.

I'm so sick of the domestic vs. foreign argument. I'm going to be proud to drive my Honda Civic. The argument is dumb, for lack of a better term.

Cereal

I'm eating this cereal, that's very brittle, so much in fact that it almost cuts the roof of my mouth when I'm eating it. I just thought to myself "this cereal is way too crunchy...I don't like it". Then I look at the cereal box and realize I'm eating Captain Crunch, because it was on sale. So nevermind!

Oh So Chic

Subaru's visit went well today. My boss said I did a good job presenting so I was happy with that. The best part of them coming though: eating gelato at dinner!

Here is Some Info on Japan

I didn't talk too much about Japan in my last post. I was really tired and jetlagged. I'm still recovering from jetlag. It really is weird because you're technically up for 28 hours straight, but you haven't seen night time, so it's like a REALLY long day. Well, when you time travel too, like I did, that happens.

You should try to time travel some time, it's very interesting.

I've still been thinking a lot about a dog, and I think I will go for a Shar Pei instead of the Pug. I still like Pugs, but I think I like the Shar Pei a little better now that we've had two in our family. I have been looking online at breeders and have found some that brag theirs are $2000 and worth every bit of it. They're crazy. I have found some breeders too are are reasonable and actual people who realize they're selling an animal, not gold so they're a little more realistic with their prices (although still really expensive).

Today I woke up late. I woke up at 7:38 am so that left me 5 minutes to get ready and leave. I think I got to work around 8:05 am so that's not too late.

On Japan: FOOD:

Food was interesting (nasty). I don't eat seafood because of Captain D's abuse every week as a child after story hour at the library, so when I saw seafood, and in some cases raw seafood...I didn't like it. Sashimi was served a lot, and sashimi is raw pieces of fish...with nothing else. Sushi atleast has rice and seaweed to cover it up a little. So I didn't like that. I was also served an entire fish with the head and tail and scales still on it. This one was cooked, but gross. They also served small steak and chicken pieces. That sounded good, but the steak was raw and bloody. Soy sauce covered that up though. I had to get some food since I couldn't eat seafood. The nastiest of all was rice with eel on it. Linda I said you think you LIKE eel? You're weird. Eel is not meant to be eaten. It's two of the worst things in the world MIXED: seafood (yuck) and snake (evil). Terrible.

I come back to South Carolina on Saturday. I'm looking forward to it. I really do need a break from work right about now. I feel like it's wearing on me a little, over the past 2 weeks or so. I'm ready for a break.

Waaaaaaaaaaaarm!

I just looked and I haven't posted since Thursday. Unacceptable.

Friday was aggravating to say the least. I don't want to say much about it here, if you really want to know why work was stupid and I felt like leaving and pretending Friday didn't happen, just give me a call and I'll be glad to tell you.

Now that Friday is over, I was able to enjoy the weekend. I have my FE Exam next Saturday, so I tried, tried studying for the exam for as much as I could. In school, especially senior year, it was very hard to get motivated and I got very distracted. Now, it's nearly impossible to concentrate. I always have some excuse NOT to sit down, and concentrate. And that scares me. I used to be SO good at just sitting down and studying, and working. Now, not so good. And I don't know if it's because I'm REALLY getting ADD or if it's just lazy...or what. Anyway it's scary because it's not like me. I just don't have much motivation. I guess having a job and a paycheck will do that to you.

Saturday I went and did a blood test for my physical. It was painless and only took 5 minutes or so. I made a salad for dinner tonight, and since I started to like peppers I bought one at the grocery store to cut up and put in my salad. I don't know what kind it was, but it looked good, and it was green, and was long, so I bought it. I chopped it up and put it in there and took a bite and felt the rath of fire in my mouth. I ran to the trash, spit it out and started coughing. I poured a huge glass of milk and started chugging it down. I even started crying and my face was hot. It was the hottest thing I have ever put in my mouth. I'll just stick with the peppers in the Papa John's box from now on, I can't handle much more. I had to throw the salad away I made because it was contaminated with the acidic fire.

I hope this next week at work goes well, and I hope I get more motivation to study for my exam. Please send me an email, and tell me in a commanding tone to study so I remember.

Mango

I'm glad tomorrow if Friday, and I'm even more glad the weekend is only 1 day away. Work has been extremely busy this week, but not bad. I don't mind being very busy. I have been staying until around 7:00 pm everyday though to get the work finished.

Today I was in Six Sigma training when my mind started to wander. I started thinking about how I would love to buy a 500 piece puzzle, and do it. I haven't done a puzzle in a long time. I guess when it gets cold and I have to stay indoors I will get one to do.

I'm eating this Mango ice cream I bought and it's disgusting. It tastes all creamy and the mango pieces are the dried mango. Mango is a special fruit and it's only good one way. Now I'm stuck with this ice cream. I'm sure I'll eat it anyway though.

Awkward!

Today the weather was really weird, almost like fall or winter. Right now it's 63 degrees and raining. This morning I woke up at 9:30 then fell back asleep until 11:30. I decided to take my bicycle to the bike shop I bought it from because they do a free "tune up" for the first time, after everything gets broken in. So I dropped it off, went to a Christian bookstore to get a daily devotional book, and then went back and picked it up.

Carmela invited some people over to her house for dinner and I went, then we all went to church. Katey and Erica were there. After church we were talking and I found out that Erica is pregnant. That's a whole other story. They said something though that made me feel very awkward, and I a little annoyed. I had told Erica I could babysit if she ever needed someone (not that I necessarily wanted to, but I thought it was something nice to offer). Apparantly that must be something her and Katey feel strongly about because they told me how it's NEVER a good idea to leave your child with anyone but a relative, because you never know about people and you can't trust them. Basically I felt like I was being told I was not trustworthy enough...and it just felt weird. I wanted to leave because it just felt too strange to even be around them after what they said. I really wasn't even that serious about my offer...I pretty much just said it to be nice...and it was made into such a big deal about how it's "not a good idea". I just felt like saying "Can we just stop talking about it, because I didn't even mean it...I don't want to watch your kid, ok?"

Anyway, that annoyed me because I think I'm one of the more trustworthy people out there personally, and even though those things weren't said to me directly, they were implied and I didn't like that.

07/07/07

Beetlejuice is on TV!

Today I went out to two bike shops in Farmington Hills and Livonia to look at bicycles. I really want a nice bike like the Trek one my dad has. I found out that type of bike is called a "hybrid comfort". Comfort means it's a multi-speed bike used for riding on sidewalks and paved surfaces, and not so "mountain-y". The "hybrid" means it has skinnier tires like a road bike, but not quite. The idea is the skinnier tires keep it fast and a hybrid is not to be used off road. So I want a hybrid comfort bike. Prices range from $209 - $349. Giant is a brand of bike I think I'll get, they are the parent company of Trek. A bike shop in Livonia had a sale going on with some older 2006 models they hadn't sold. They had a 19" bike, a hybrid comfort, in blue for $209. I really liked that one and it was the last one they had.

I want a bike because this weather is amazing. I know it's not going to last, and it's short. I can tell because you see all these people out in convertibles and sports cars, with tans, and with their windows down and sunroofs open. They take advantage of this weather because starting in October it will be Arctic for 6 months. So, I want to get a bike to ride to work (since I'm only 4 miles away) and to go on bike rides around the area in the afternoons and weekends since there are so many bike paths. I think it's a good investment because a) it will be forced exercise and b) it will save gas. So, I want to get one soon.

I bought a camera last night online from circuitcity.com. I have wanted a new camera for a while and this one in particular. It's a Casio Exilim 7.2 MP. I want to take more pictures, and my older camera has horrible quality. So when I get my camera, I'm going to do a "photo tour" blog post on my apartment, work, neighborhood etc.

Tonight Katey's sister Erica invited me to a large church here called Northridge (I went there once already) with her and her friend Carmela. It was a lot of fun and afterwards we went to La Shish, a middle-eastern restaurant. Erica and Carmela were a lot of fun and I think we'll do more stuff with each other.

Now...the checkbook is still $0.20 off, I told you it'd bother me, didn't I?

Per Your Request

Before I begin: Kiki, Ann Arbor is your kind of place. Period.

Well I guess I haven't posted anything since Monday? Tuesday was just work, and an annoying day at that. Not my job's fault, just me not knowing the proper way to do everything yet and what should be a 30 minute task takes me 3 hours and I get frustrated with myself. I still have so much to learn. There are so many confusing ways to use the database, and pull drawings, link them, save them...it's a lot to remember. It's going to take practice.

Katey invited me to go to Wyandotte with her and her family Wednesday for a 4th of July parade and then to her house for a cookout. I had to get up early on Wednesday (around 7:00) to be at her house by 8:10...and then to the parade at 10:00. Her and her family live about 30 minutes south of me. When I was leaving it started to rain pretty hard, so I didn't know what was going to happen. By the time I got to her house though it had stopped and was actually really nice out. Her family was really great. They were all really welcoming and really funny to be around. They all asked if I was her boyfriend, but she made it clear that "no no no we're just friends". More on that another time...I guess.

But the parade was fun and I got to see Wyandotte which is like a blue-collor working town south of Detroit. The cookout was a lot of fun also. She had a huge family...5 sisters and like 3 million cousins. She asked me then if I wanted to go to Ann Arbor with her, because she works in Ann Arbor and her work was having a party for the 4th of July at a park. It didn't start until 4:00 but we had to be there by 2:00 to set stuff up, and to the store and buy vegie burgers for the two lesbians that were going to be there...more on that below.

Ohhh Ann Arbor. How do I describe it? Bums, lesbians, beatnicks, non-realists...it's like Asheville X 2. It was ok to visit, but I just can't take being around that for an extended period of time. It's like everyone it not in touch with reality. I like Detroit better, the people have actual jobs and aren't so flighty. The party/cookout at the park was a lot of fun. Katey's boss's daughter is a lesbian so that's who the veggie burgers were for. Although, she smoked, so what's the point of being a vegetarian? Animal rights I'd assume, but you never can tell.

When we got the pavilian to set up there was a homeless guy there reading, and charging his DVD player. Katey eventually said hi to him, and then he started to talk our ears off. He had crooked eyes and missing teeth, so looking at him while you talked was hard because you couldn't make eye contact. He introduced himself as Gilbert. He was apparantly in the army, and used to be a manager at Subway, and now lives under a bridge. Katey said "Aww I'm sorry, is it fun?". She almost implied that him and his homeless friends played "fort" under the bridge which I thought was funny. We had to go to the store and Katey asked Gilbert to watch the decorations. He did and he stayed there the entire time through the party, off to himself. When we were cleaning up we gave him all the left over food we were going to throw away and he said thank you. He was actually nice and not all begging-like, which I don't have much sympathy for. The party was fun though because she works with mostly hispanics and they danced and spoke a lot of spanish so I got to practice what I remember.

Katey said we'd go back to her house and watch fireworks, but by the time we got back it was around 9:45 and we were both tired, so I came back home and went to sleep. It was a really long day. Work today was pretty good, I'm glad tomorrow is Friday. A lot of people aren't there because they're on vacation.

Tonight I met Katey and her 1 year old niece for dinner at Chipotle in Farmington Hills. It was really good and it was fun to go out with her again. I offered to pay for her food and she just smiled and said "no I'd like to pay for my own, but thank you". It was weird because she said it in a very nice tone, but also clear and that was code for "just to be clear, we're only friends and I'm not going to give you the opportunity to think anything more". It was strange, but she's really nice, I guess she just wanted to be clear. Yesterday she would just talk about how she's in love with a guy her cousin introduced her too...another way of saying "we're just friends". That's fine, and I hope I don't come off as being creepy, but she can just relax and not worry.

Katey is a lot of fun though, I like doing stuff with her. After we left I stopped by a used book store in Novi and got a book to read by an author I like since I haven't read a book in so long and have free time to do so now.

I'm still addicted to grapes!

Fruit

I have a small project to work on now at my job and I need to finish it by tomorrow. It's using CATIA, the CAD program I learned. I'm really slow with it because I'm still learning, and there are tricks I need help with. A guy I work with helped me with it a lot. He lives in Canada and is supposedly the "expert" on it in our groupe. He was really helpful and took his time though showing me the right way to get a drawing set up. Hopefully he won't mind helping me out more tomorrow. I'm still learning and it's going well.

After work I decided I needed to exercise since I have been lazy. I did 30 minutes on the eliptical trainer and about 10 minutes of weights. I can tell I was getting out of shape because the 30 minutes on the eliptical trainer was harder than it should have been. After that I made a chicken ceaser salad for dinner, and ate probably 0.5 lbs of frozen grapes because I love them so much.

Voila

Tonight for dinner I ate chicken stir fry, called "Voila". It was really good and I have left overs for lunch tomorrow, which is always nice.

Saturday was so nice here. The weather was perfect. It was clear with a few clouds, and in the mid 70's. I took my white Saturn to the self serve car wash, then came back to my apartment and waxed it and detailed it. It still cleans up very nice. I just enjoyed being outside. It took me around 2 hours to do, but I didn't mind because the weather was so great. It's nice to be outdoors and have cool weather and not have to sweat.

Saturday night I went to another AXIS get together. We talked for a while, played Scategories, ordered pizza, then went home. It was pretty fun. Tomorrow night I'm supposed to go to dinner with Katey, one of the girls there. She's older than me (29 I think) but she's a lot of fun and very friendly.

I went to church this morning, to the early service, and came back home and ate an apple. That gave me the idea that I needed more fruit, so I decided I would go to Meijer to get fruit later on in the day. I decided to drive around Canton and Plymouth to learn the area a little more and to see what kinds of neighborhoods were there. I went to get on I-275 to go down to Canton, and when I got onto the onramp traffic was moving very slow. I had no idea why traffic would be bad on a Sunday, at lunchtime. The other side of the interstate was empty. I thought that was weird. Then, after maybe 1.5 miles I saw some lights on the other side of the interstate. Then, I saw why it was backed up. There were 3 vehicles in the road, pretty much in pieces. From the looks of it a van had crossed over the median and hit a car, ripping it in half (literally, the car was in 2 pieces) and then another van hit it. You couldn't even make out the kinds of cars they were. That side of the interstate was closed for about 5 miles for the entire morning.

I work this week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I have no idea what I'll do on Wednesday, it's so odd to have a day off the middle of the week.

Tomorrow's Friday

...I'm glad the weekend is almost here. I want to sleep late on Saturday, really late. Paul called me this evening, that was nice. He said it's really hot in Columbia, I can imagine. It's been really nice here. Tonight it's a little overcast and in the high 60's. Nice moderate summers mean cold harsh winters, I bet. We'll see.

I bought Tyson's buffalo chicken at the grocery store and thought they were tenders. Well, when I opened the bag I found out they were little chicken balls, like spheres of chicken. They weren't so good. I also made mashed potatoes.

This weekend I think I'm going to use my $100 gift card for the furniture store I got, just to get some pillows, or something under $100. I'm also going to another AXIS get together Saturday so that should be a lot of fun.

The French

...or worse, French Canadians. Canada doesn't claim them (except Quebec) and France thinks they're fake. This video proves my point, and the fact that they do it with a Saturn doesn't help their case any.

I took my white Saturn to get the oil changed today. I ate popcorn, a cookie, and drank a coke at the dealer...all for free. Then, when I paid the receptionist asked me if I wanted to take a rose home with me. Apparantly when you get your car serviced you get a a flower...how sweet. On my way home, when I was turning onto 8 mile road my service light came on. This is not Service Engine Soon, which is emission related, but the "Service" light with a wrench next to it...it basically means there's something mechanically wrong with the car. When I got back to my apartment I pulled in my space, turned my AC off and let the car idle for a few seconds. After the AC compressor shut off, the light went off and never came back on. Weird. I swear this car is taunting me now. It's saying "Come on David, I know you don't like me so much anymore...this is fun". I also noticed that the headliner is starting to sag near the front around the maplight. Pretty soon I'll be one of those ghetto people with a headliner sagging down.

Work was nice today, I had things to do. I found out I take my first "business" trip in July to Maine, and then Ohio on the way back to Michigan. It's for 3 days and I'm going to visit 2 plants, and to accompany a guy from Japan with an engineer I work with.

Fuji, Dawn's dog (and the family's) is lost. They're not sure where he went, but I hope he shows up soon. I'd like to see him again and I miss him a lot. I miss Cosmo too, AND my family.

I had Mac and Cheese for dinner. I need to go to the grocery store tomorrow and get some things, mainly fruit! I want fruit bad and I don't have any. Some apples and bananas would be nice.

Bang Bang

Yesterday I went to a shooting range...I know I can't believe it either. Dan, one of the people at the AXIS gathering asked me to go with him and his brother. Dan's last name is Smith. Guess what his brother's name is? David Smith. So, there were 2 David Smith's there. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I'd go out and do for fun either. It's just too loud, and shooting guns is just not for me. The range was run by Michigan's Department of Natural Resources, so it was very safe and they were very strict about what you did. They had about 3 workers monitoring people, checking to make sure you were following procedure. Every 15 minutes, they made you stop, step back, and they checked your gun and changed your target. It was nice of Dan to invite me though.

After that I went to Meijer to get some small things like milk, salt and pepper, and fish food. I really don't like that store. Imagine Walmart, and then multiply that X2. Granted, it doesn't have the same caliber of people, as in, at Meijer you won't find people riding adult tricycles around picking through the ashtray for used cigarettes to smoke, but it is crowded and unorganized. Since Farmer Jack, the other grocery store just closed Meijer pretty much has a monopoly now. Luckily I found a Kroger about 2 miles from me I'll go to now.

This morning I went to church at Community Bible Church. After the service I went to the same Sunday school class as Dan. It was pretty good, but they have about 6 different Sunday school classes for adults to choose from so I want to try some of the other ones.

I called my dad to tell him Happy Father's Day. The church service was about Fathers, ofcourse so that made me miss my dad. He got my card and giftcard though before today so I was happy about that.

I have to share this with you all. It's a wonderful dish called Haggus It's on TV right now as I'm typing this. Sounds good huh? I remember at ZF in Duncan my boss was from England and he told me about it, but I actually watched them make it on TV just now. When I was in England I actually ate Black Pudding which is the weirdest thing I've ever had.