aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

I knew it. I just knew it last night I had something happening this morning, but I had nothing in my PDA about it. Well.. I had my CSPD written test date this morning at 9 am.. right when I woke up. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

What do I like?

I like cats
I like kittens
I like Ford pick-up trucks (although lately my faith has been shaken)
I like guns
I like Tango
I like thunderstorms in the distance at sunset
I like the full moon
I like ice cream (mint, liquorice, orange, pistachio, toffee, and so on - never chocolate)
I like liquorice
I like salmiac (Finnish candy that's "hot". Liquorice with salt and ammonium chloride added)
I like Black Sambucca double shots chilled
I like saunas
I like when I hear being complemented but they don't know I can hear or know it's me..
(for example if I built/designed something and they complement it but didn't know I did it)
(at other times being complemented makes me uncomfortable and uneasy - I feel it's fake)
I like clean water
I like Finland
I like culture
I like history
I like mountains
I like accents (must be quite easily understandable, though. Brooklyn accent can go eat shit)
(more specifically: English, Irish, Scottish, Argentine, and some French accents appeal to me)
I like "super-cars" but will never own one (Lamborghini and the like)
I like English Laundry shirts
I like music
I like patent leather shoes
I like Original SWAT cop boots
I like Nokia cellphones (because they're Finnish? 90% the reason)
I like jalapenos but will not munch on them straight-up (in bread, paste, pizza, on nachos, etc)
I like the feeling of being in-love (not at the moment - not even in a relationship)
I like designing/drafting homes when I'm feeling inspired
(It's a breeze then - other times it's pulling teeth)
I like moderate weather - 66'F is the best temperature
(Cold enough for a 3-piece suit and and warm enough for a t-shirt and shorts)
I like clean white snow
I like lush green grass (if ants or other crawlies I won't lay down)
I like Birch trees
I like tongue and groove paneling
I like sophisticated Root Beer
I like Chilean and Australian red wines (not Merlot, though)
I like long hair
I like certain parts of the Goth culture
I like movies
I like good computer games (WoW, Soldner, ArmA)
I like good books
I like air conditioning (since I do not live in previously mentioned 'Moderate Climate')
I like Burberry:Touch
I like Herban Cowboy:Dusk
I like Tuscan, Craftsman, Arts&Crafts style homes
I like Giovanni hair products
--

The day after

I will have to make a specific post about stuff I like/enjoy/love to counteract my complaining.

DJ Ruddy played horrible music. Music too modern.. sets where all songs weren't similar in the least.. Concert songs (where the vocalist drowns out the music and beat). The whole night he played 2 T 1 M 2 T 1 V - the standard pattern.. then toward the end he threw in a set of 1 M 2 T 1 M! Well I went to tell him that he missed the Vals set and he said that he doesn't follow any format (what the fuck was he doing earlier?) but plays according to what he reads the floor to be doing/wanting. He then played, supposedly intentionally, a Vals set right after the Milonga set.

Ms.Kenya noticed right away that I had changed my cologne and was disappointed :) She seems to really like Burberry: Touch. Two other follows noticed the change too and seemed to like the new Herban Cowboy: Dusk better than Burberry. We danced quite nicely last night and spoke of Tango Crushes.

I forgot my dance-sneakers behind but luckily had a pair of the super thin very uncomfortable ballroom shoes in my truck, which still are better than street shoes. But they allow my ankles to roll excessively to the outside (I supinate) and after few hours the bent pinkie-toe bone was hurting like hell (it's not a case of bunions or hammer toe or anything like that - a bone has shifted and is now in an angle in order to help stabilize me - It's quite sore and my podiatrist says that one day the bone might need to be cut, pulled straight, and screwed back together).
When I get a new pair of sneakers I have the cobler grind an angle in the heel that helps keep my ankles from rolling to the outside.

I barely made it back home last night.. I was nodding off several times and got pretty close to hitting a concrete wall that directs traffic on the I-25 near C/S downtown from one side of the highway to the other, while they pour the driveway and finish the bridge over it - that'da hurt a bit.

I woke up with a very stiff and sore left shoulder/neck. My chiro gave me a long sheet of scoliosis exercises that he wants me to do daily or 2x/day that I haven't had a chance to do any yet. I crashed immediately upon getting home last night and this morne I'm sore and that always detracts my attention from doing anything constructive. I'll do them tonight.

Ms.Spain and I traded a few text messages as I was driving to Denver last night.. she makes me smile.

I was looking at the DJ list for the month of July at the Merc... I'll go next Friday but then skip rest of the month. Looking pretty sad. I should maybe ask to be put on the schedule myself, but I prefer to be asked versus asking to do it - and I have a feeling I will not be asked anytime soon. I feel that the proprietor may have heard me bitching a month or two back and took it personally.. I was, of course, only bitching about the music the DJ was playing or the music that Extasis was playing, which never changes, or both. I also did make a pretty loud comment about El Pulpo just as he was about to begin his performances when he was in-town and at least 6 people heard me, that I know of. Ever since I saw him the first time in Portland in 2002 I've thought him a complete asshole.

Ta.

Karmik shitstorm

I must have done something bad and karma is being a bitch back at me.

So after the Chiro appointment this morning I headed up north to the Dream Home project.. the one they called me on Tuesday to say that they were "laying the tile right now! It'll be done today and you can start Friday. We have to be done by July 9th!". I get there, and wouldn't you fucking know it. Only the floor tile is done.. nothing on the walls or the curb ... they also haven't cut a bolt that sticks out of the ground off yet, that prevents them from finishing the floor. They also have not correctly tied in the exhaust vent nor is the insulation done. *sigh* *double sigh*

But it gets better... on the WAY there.. my truck starts losing power and starts sputtering and the "check engine" light comes on. Fabulous. The other shoe has dropped, as the expression goes. So I leave the jobsite and risk the 30 minute drive back to the shop; I make it.
Whilst there.. I notice the odd lack of phonecalls.. particularly the one from the "STUPER"-intendant who had said he was going to call me right back, when I called him to bitch about nothing having gotten done. I had dropped my phone. I had crawled under my truck looking for an oil leak or water in the fuel pod to drain it.. nothing. Earlier in the morning I had looked for my cellphone pouch when putting on the belt, and couldn't find it, so I put the phone in my loose sidepocket in the cargo pants. When I had rolled on my back the phone had slipped out.
This phone cost me 350 euros in Finland. It is the Nokia 9500 that isn't even brought to the US. Die Hard: Live Free or Die has a Nokia 9300i in it with which they do things you can not do with the phone. And just how the fuck does the nerd happen to have a Nokia data port cable in his backpack that he whips out? The port is unique and no other phone has one like it. Not even other Nokia phones have ports that fit the Communicator - I've tried being the owner of 5-7 Nokia phones in various states of repair and disrepair. I also had phone numbers in that phone that I had not yet backed up onto my computer, so needless to say I was going to do whatever it took to retrive that phone.

So while they were checking and repairing my truck (speaking of the earlier I just plugged in the phone to the laptop to back it up), I had to rent a car from Enterprise and then drive as fast as the little friggin Chevy Suzuki rip-off went back up North 30 minutes; 90 MPH was as fast as that little thing went, unless you had the luck of a downhill. Well I pull up to the little portion of sand and dirt by the Freeway off-ramp where I had stopped an hour and a half earlier, and there the fucker was.. right behind a car parked there next to the Asphalt-laying machines. It was intact and had not been run over, albeit it was hot from the Sun. Score.

I then raced back as fast to try and return the car within 1-hour. Score.

What had gone wrong with the truck was a set of wires had corroded off and caused 4 of the cylinders to mis-fire. Of course, as expected, the fucking Ford dealership didn't replace the other 4 control wires under another cap, that would have taken a whole other 15-minutes, but rather decided to post on the paperwork that they recommended the other 4 be repaired as well. Having stayed longer for them to repair it when I had already returned would have cost me an extra 2-hours, so I scurried off. I just have to get them repaired before I drive to Kansas.

The reason I said "the other shoe dropped", was because my truck has spent about 6-8 weeks at either of the Ford dealership lots this year. Twice for bodywork for 2 separate accidents, and 2 times for mechanical repair. I had all the glow plugs and glow plug relay module replaced and the 120,000 mile check-up. Oh.. and the waterpump had also failed... so I remember asking the guy what I can expect to fail next eventhough it just passed all inspections and checks.. well here is today.. corroded wires.

By the way neither of the accidents were my fault - the first occured on January 1st when someone high on pot decided to make an un-announced un-turn-signaled U-turn right in front of me on a 1-way street. He claimed in all seriousness that the street was 2-way until the cops showed up. Of course you can't field check being under the influence of Pot, so they had to let him go. The dude behind me barely missed me.

The second accident occured downtown on a Wednesday night in April when I was DJ'ng and dancing. I got a call from a cop asking if my truck was mine, etc. Some asshole, drunk and uninsured, had plowed into it while it was parked off-street downtown. He had claimed to have just come out of the adjacent parking lot, gunned it, and lost control, but one does not move a 3/4-ton truck 7-feet; plow it's back-end in; and push it over the curb with an old 1/2 ton truck, if he hadn't been going at least 40-50 MPH downtown.

Luckily I had my trips to Alaska and New York in April and Georgia in May that I didn't need my truck. I won't even go into detail about what happened when I got it back and how it wasn't finished.

Well.. I have decided to go to the Mercury Cafe tonight. Ms.Polish has agreed to meet me there. She's a sweet lady; tall and what not; but for some reason we don't quite connect 100% I'm burning to dance though, since the last time I did was last Sunday. If only Ms.Spain was here....... ;{
So I have to make like a tree and leave.

Ta!

Failed

I'm a fucking failure. I drove up to Denver this morning at 5 am for a written test. I had gotten up at 4 am and thus only got 4 hrs of sleep, because I went to see the goddamned Die Hard last night.

Since I signed a confidentiality form I can't quite explain what kind of test it was, but I failed the very first part. Drove over an hour there.. paid $10 for all day parking.. spent 20 mins on the test and was back on the road home. It's the first time I've failed at a test and since I failed the first portion, which was a written test, I couldn't move on to the basic skills and aptitude portions that I usually do pretty well at.

I failed over what has been my bane with any language since I started going to school as a child: Grammar and punctuation. Minimum score was 70% out of 31 questions in the first portion. I scored a 67.74, which means I got 21 out of 31 correct. One more correct would have pushed me into the green. Fucking sucks.

And wouldn't you know it.. when you get there.. they ask if you've prepared and taken the practice test that apparently is only available IN-PERSON... I double checked the website and there is absolutely nothing there. I may not have understood grammar and exact punctuation any better after taking such a test, but at least I may have had a chance at recognizing portions that would have seemed out of place, based on the practice test.

But it certainly isn't any secret to anyone reading my rantings, that I have a problem with run-on-sentences, punctuation, and grammar. One of my ex-girlfriends, who was/is an English teacher/Creative Writing Chair, once long ago complemented me that I write as I speak, which according to her isn't common, but I don't get bonus points for being original/unique/strange.

I've done very well at writing police reports, but maybe they weren't so much after proper grammar and punctuation as the content of the report, as the report writing portion was strictly timed and I had to write so furiously my hand cramped up. But I got full 6/6 for that report whereas the average for my testing class was 4/6.

I'm being overwashed by a myriad of emotions.. sadness.. frustration.. relief.. embarrasment.
I was reminded, on the way home in morning traffic, what I don't like about Denver, but I felt very red-faced being the first one to walk out of the testing room. Sadness comes from the fact that my dream job keeps eluding me yet again. I'm willing to tolerate and to stay in Colorado for the Job, but otherwise I'd like to get the hell out of here, but now I'm feeling so discouraged and pissed that I'm not at all sure I want to fly to Portland, OR for 1-day for their testing in 3-weeks.

>.<

I miss tango

I'm having pangs of withdrawal pain from tango. I last danced on Sunday and here it is already Wednesday. If Ms.Vegas still lived in town, I'd go to the Red Martini lounge to DJ and to dance with her but she's gone.
I got so used to going out almost nightly in DC just as I had done in NYC, although I did mostly get spoiled by Ms.Spain in DC.

She's a great dancer with a warm personality.. but as she herself said.. quite "volatile". I got to witness her wrath toward another leader and, while it amused me, I certainly would never want to be at the receiving end of those piercing eyes. Despite what she says of her heritage I do believe she's got a lot of Basque in her.

I'm considering going to the theatre to see Die Hard. I saw Paris, J'et Aime last night and it kind of sucked. The preview for it was 10-times better than the movie itself. But I'm feeling a little weak and tired. My upper back is also quite inflamed from continuous rubbing but I don't at all feel like working, either. I've got to start making some progress on the Parade of Homes-house.

What's quite comical is the situation with the other Italian-style (Tuscan) home I'm designing. If I'm not out-of-town (Alaska then NYC then Georgia then Washington DC), then the home-owners are.. Alledgedly we'll be both in-town the same time next week so we can start making progress on that house, as well.

I think Ms.Spain is planning on attending Tango Jovia in Chicago next weekend.. Oh how I would want to go but alas I can not, I think. Well.. I certainly can't legimately afford it... but there are credit cards...... no.. I couldn't. Besides I'm quite sure she's had her fill of me until we meet in Denver for the Labor Day Milonguero Festival. She's still trying to haggle her schedule to make it happen but I must hold steady and keep faith that she'll be there.

Man I feel so stupid. Here I am.. nearly world-famous sauna builder and I forgot heat relaxes muscles... I just turned my sauna on and will be hopping in there once it heats up adequately.

Ta-ta

Settling in

I've paid my bills that stacked up during my trip. Sprint sent already a disconnect notice for my laptop broadband card because due to the trip I had gone past the due date by a week, or so. Greedy bastards.

Went grocery shopping at Sam's and Whole Foods and spent $440 and $220. Given, I did buy a 4-pack of wireless phones and a large surge protector, but that was a lot of money either way.
Bought some organic cologne and shaving products called Herban Cowboy: dusk.
I need to start shaving manually again as my newest electric shaver has started hurting my neck and leaving red marks. Maybe it just needs a new set of blades.... don't know.
I'll see how I handle the change from the subtle Burberry: Touch to this more powerful Herban Cowboy. Or more importantly.. how my followers respond to it. I remember back-when, before I changed to Burberry, whatever I was using then, caused an allergic reaction with one follower. No one has ever complained about Burberry.. few compliments only.

Patch is drooling on my shoulder wanting to drop down to my lap.. but he always lays on top of my arms preventing typing so I have to shoo him off.

My cat-sitter showed up unexpectedly and startled me. I had the side door open with the screen door shut, and I saw an arm open it from where I sit at the office desk. I almost reached for my pistol but figured I'd wait a second - then I saw a glimpse of blond hair and recognized her. She's a Norwegian psychotherapist in her 50's, and hadn't read my initial e-mail carefully enough to have noticed that I had returned already. Although, I suppose, I could have called her to let her know I had returned and how much I appreciated her help. This was the first time she watched over my kitties as Ms.Vegas, whom previously held the position, recently moved to Las Vegas.

Naturally, she, as Ms.Vegas, never saw either of my cats whilst visiting to refill the food and water and to scoop the litter box, but this time Patch was casually laying on a set of blueprints on my coffee table where he can observe me, so she got to see him for a second before he scurried off. 2 seconds after she left he was back in my lap wanting attention.

We took a set of x-rays at the chiropractor's today and are going to review them on Friday.
It seems more and more that my neck pains are purely soft tissue; albeit deep down there. They stimulate the back and the neck in a way that feels like subluxations. I barely need adjustments and they do not even lessen the pain. I've been kneading myself with this J-shaped stick with a knob at the end of it that allows me to assert a lot of pressure on the rhomboid muscle on my back. I've also been plastering my back with Ben-Gay and Tigerbalm liberally and frequently. I also bought two different kinds of natural pain relieving creams from Whole Foods today, but haven't had a proper moment to test them yet.

I have written testing for the Denver Police Department tomorrow morning at 0730. This means I have to get up between 0400-0430. Shouldn't be a problem as I woke up at 0530 this morning because my neck was hurting so bad and had locked both my shoulders up and my hands were numb and tingling.

I had really wanted to get a nice CORDED office phone, but they don't make nice ones with only one line. They're all 2-4+ lines or if they're 1-line they're lame-ass. So I crumbled and bought a new set of wireless phones. My previous 2-set of Panasonic 2.4 Ghz phones were starting to die and had poor voice quality. This new set came with 4 handsets which is nice, as it allows me to have one in the office, one in the kitchen, and one by both beds. Had they been corded I would have had to have done a lot of painful wiring and I wasn't up for that.

Enough for now.

First Blog on this site

Here we go. I should have set this up long ago when I felt like ranting away but instead I started a Myspace page. It isn't that that endevour hasn't been fruitfull in new networks and contacts but it really isn't blog-oriented.

Not so sure where to post from henceforth, though. Maybe a bit of both or cross-link?
http://www.myspace.com/methosan is address to my page.

I suppose another benefit of having a site here, as well, is so that I may add comments to other peoples Blogs.

Keeping it short for now as I'm testing how this works.