yukki day

it dragged on. and on.

i was sposed to meet some guys at the gym this morning (at 9) to go over things we're ordering for the foodservice stuff. the concessions stand. one guy ended up canceling--AFTER i was already there. so the other guy called me and i drove back down to valpo to meet him at bob evans. we agreed on some stuff and he ordered it. that was good.

everything else was bad. found out this guy eric was right about me having to take some dumb class. it's called "serve safe" and i heard it's totally gross and disgusting. (in order to have our concessions stand valid and in good standing.) the day dragged some more. all the building's doors were shut when i finally DID make it in today--but the smell and air quality was awful. guys were cutting the ceiling tile and there was some kind of fine dust EVERYWHERE. it almost hurt to breathe.

bad news all day. another bit of not-the-greatest-news was that the health dept. is trying to say that we have to have a three-sink thing in our little "kitchen." AS IF!!!!! we're not a freaking restaurant! or a camp! we are not washing any dishes because we are using disposable everything! the few utensils we use can be washed in the sink that will be there. but there's no need to do the three-sink-thing. that is TOTALLY unnecessary.

bad news kept coming. some i won't even go into detail about. would take way too long to explain.

and then BROWN showed up. in all his glory. and gave us TWO of THREE packages and drove off. and yes, before i realized we were missing one. i tracked him down through the westville office and after a LONG while, found out that our poor lone parcel had been delivered to some chrysler/jeep dealership on route 30. WHAT IS THAT? anyway, after numerous phone calls, i got the guy to agree to deliver it yet today. he last spoke with me at 5-something to make sure we were still there on-site. when i left at 6:15ish, he had not come yet. oh well. BROWN is becoming a TARNISHED color.

had a cookout with mom, dad, and moussa, and that was good. now i'm going to bed--and THAT will also be good.

hope tomorrow's better.

here's a pic of the little zamboni-type machine i drove all afternoon yesterday to try to clean the tennis surface so it could be sealed today. every time i emptied the dirty water tank, i could definitely tell i had been cleaning a blacktop surface. hopefully it was cleaned sufficiently.

hi moussa!

our parking lot at the courts today was a LAKE. another reason to have a TRUCK or other suv to drive to work. besides that, it had better be a truck pullin a boat! here's a pic of me and mark working on the bathroom floors. i did trim stuff and he rolled. then nikki, his daughter, and i would throw these chips/flakes on the floor. it was fun. even the chip fight. the pic mark took of me and nikki is gone. don't think he saved it. bum. oh yeah, and mark is very FUZZY.

oh, and welcome, moussa! moussa is a friend of my parent's who is visiting from burkina faso, africa. he runs several schools and churches there. they got their doctorates together at TIU. he'll be here about a month. have fun and get lots done!

TORNADO!

lots of trees down. teeny bit of hail damage to my car. (it was quarter size hail.) major MAJOR wind damage. top wind speed was clocked near the pines at 106 mph. and then there was the calm after the storm--as pictured here over lake michigan.

hoops

we have hoops! the backboards on end are quite a bit taller than me. gotta say that surprised me. they look so small! but it's starting to look like a gym. in order to lay the hardwood floors, the surface must be even. the concrete cured all within one eighth of an inch of being level. for the little dips and discrepancies on the concrete, felt must be laid before the wooden buffer is laid. (the wooden buffer goes between the hardwood and the concrete.) today they started marking (spray-painting with orange) those spots and cutting and placing the felt. strange, eh?

anyway, the other pic is of the gym from across the highway. on the exit ramp on the way home from chicago i took a pic.

pics from ohio

away

been on the farm. at the farm. in ohio. back now. pics will follow.

my new office

how?

how am i sposed to drive my lowrider 01 camry through all this?????

helen

helen is a neighbor of mine. there are two widows who live in my apt building and helen is one of them. she is pictured here with her boyfriend ernie. helen lost her husband quite some time ago and ernie lost his wife an equally long time ago. ernie lives about 30 minutes away from here and they only get to see each other about twice a week.

anyway, helen and i hung out on sunday. we had a blast. we went to the gym and she really liked it. then we went through the bk drive thru for frozen cokes. then we went up to the beach and drove around the dunes. helen has lived in the area almost her whole life. and has never been to the dunes. ever. i was SHOCKED. but she loved it. so it was good.

this is a picture of helen's surprise birthday party last year. her birthday is in july but my impact group went down and threw her a surprise party in october. boy was she surprised! ernie helped me pull it off.

wanna drive a dozer

and if i'm lucky i will. i'd LOVE to drive a bulldozer! how fun! and all i can picture is the little ant driving a bulldozer in richard scarry's children's books. anyone else remember that? that's a serious blast from the past.

anyway, i'm dealing with a low-rider toyota camry driving on a construction site daily. so far it's not unbearable but i think i'll bottom out soon if these piles of stuff keep appearing out of nowhere. i also went up on a sizzor lift with mark and shane. mark is the guy i'm working for. he's the one on the left. anyway, that was fun but i didn't like how that thing swayed. they hung light fixtures up in the rafters. and with the thing being so high and wiggly, it was weird. anyway, the front entrance has had progress (doors!) and there are now walls in the office area! oh, and you gotta watch out when certain people have the power sprayer.

courts website

there is info and more pics at the gym's website. the courts. (my new place of employment.) my pics are more recent but it's cool to see the progress. go to:

www.thecourtsofnwi.com

(the courts of northwest indiana)

an international big mac

The bank calculated the "weighted net hourly wage in 14 professions" and divided it into the local price of "a globally available product," for which it chose McDonald's flagship hamburger.

"On a global average, 35 minutes of work buys a Big Mac," it said. "But the disparities are huge: in Nairobi, 1.5 hours' work is needed to buy the burger with the net hourly wage there. In the U.S. cities of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami, a maximum of 13 minutes' labor is needed."

In Tokyo, it takes a mere 10 minutes. Bogota, Colombia, came in last among the 70 cities surveyed at 97 minutes.

mmmmmmm

here is a pic of my dinner last nite. it was WONDERFUL. i'll have to go back and get more. this is SO the funnest time of year--with all the fresh produce everywhere.

oh, and here's also a pic of the gym today. there's fresh concrete outside the main entrance. and something that is actually starting to look like a main entrance. mark asked me today what color it should be and i asked him what color the main part of the building would be. he said tan. "what color is that stripe gonna be?" i asked. (there's a stripe going all the way around the bulding nearish the top. see it???) he answered, "dark blue." so i told him the block marking the entrance should then be that same blue. he replied, "WHAT? WHEN THE ROOF IS GONNA BE BLUE TOO?" i was like, wow. hey dude! you asked! who knows. maybe it should be fuchsia. or chartreuse. or maybe just tangerine and peach paisley striped.

in loving memory

i won't be making it to cedar this summer :(

okay. so i have a new job. and i'm glad for that. seriously. but in order to get this gym up and in operation by the weekend that is advertised for the first tournament, free throw contests and 3-point stuff, i can't go anywhere, really. besides that i have to get another MRI on my right rotator cuff (and might have to squeeze in surgery) and i have to make a dvd for my church before next sunday. that said, i don't believe i'll make it to one of my favorite places this summer--cedar campus. i'll post a few pics from this awesome place. and pretend i'm there. you can do the same. (unless you ARE there and i'm insanely JEALOUS!) wink wink. but maybe i'll go this fall or something. for a long weekend maybe. ahh, who knows.

pictures of my new job

like it?

i have a job!

nuff about the war. i have a new job! i'm going to be working for my friend who is building a gym. not really a "gym" but courts. 4 basketball and 3 tennis courts. actually, the place is called "the courts." i'm currently working on getting the concessions together, (we'll be using U.S. foodservice), figuring out what all we need like menu signs, general signs, trash cans, entry mats to wipe your feet on, arcade games, etc. the gym is supposed to open for valpo's big "popcorn festival" weekend. hope we make it!

before i start working full-time, (i'm just keeping track of my time here at home since there's no office for me to work in yet...) i'd like to go to the U.P. of michigan first. so after that, if i end up going, i'll be all about the courts. i'd like to get to ohio to visit my family there too. we'll see.

how can they be anything but?

i guess hezbollah (meaning "party of allah") is really evil after all. i had been trying to decide what i thought about them because they do provide good support to their people, like hamas. from what i gather hezbollah is not yet a political party-but they are trying-and hamas is. both organizations provide for their people better than the U.S. does for our people. they provide the necessities including health insurance and everyday-important stuff. their "welfare" system seems to work far better than ours. however, they cower behind their people and use them as shields. if we were a part of their organization, they might use our houses/backyards to set off katyushas from. and consequently, we might get bombed because of them. i mean, look at their flag. is there really anything good about an ak-47 above the earth? what the heck is that? man, i wish i could get a "PRESS" flack jacket, a white suv and get over there....