well well the end of another weekend

Loren's upstairs, crashed like a big dog. Chowder's under the chair, crashed like a somewhat smaller dog. i've got a significant amount of the reconstruction of my computer system accomplished....though i didn't get much else done this weekend. did manage to make it over to the Sargents' for a relaxing dinner with the the rest of the Pelkey clan. good times had by all, as usual when the whole group manages to get together. i played with Ethan and Cole a lot rougher than they're used to- they didn't quite know what to think of that. i stopped short of actually terrifying them, but put a little scare into 'em hehehe. gotta keep 'em guessing :P

Loren and i just hung out all day t'day- didn't get out at all, didn't get anything accomplished. Loren looked up "The Demented Cartoon Movie"- a flash cartoon consisting of a half hour of nonstop exploding-head-and-nuclear-bomb-kamikaze-watermelon-car-crash gags that had him rolling. he laughed 'til he got cramps and declared he now understood what people meant when they said they'd busted a gut. never made him get dressed or anything- a completely laid back Sunday. fed him Big Brunch, as per our usual Sunday routine, and some pork chops for dinner, while we watched the first of MTV's animated Spider-Man cartoons I got us on DVD for Christmas. i think he enjoyed not having any demands put on him as much as the entertainment he surrounded himself with.

tried to get my printer installed so i could get a D&D character sheet printed out for him....about 8 times i tried to install the software....it sucks, it simply will not install. can't figure out the problem; haven't ever had this much trouble installing drivers before. word to the wise: HP hardware is great, their software leaves MUCH to be desired.

ok if i don't crash out soon i'm going to be worthless for Day #4 of my new job tomorrow. i'm working in a machine shop, which is much like saying i am a cog in a machine- a machine that slightly enlarges a punched hole in literally thousands of pieces of steel. load the machine run the machine offload the machine load the machine run the machine offload the machine over and over and over ad infinitum....extremely boring (pun intended). it's a small family-run company, and everyone there seems nice enough. i'm getting paid $14/hr and it's not too far from home- no health insurance of any kind, so that's a factor. it's a significant pay cut from what i've been doing, but it's work, and therefore money. the owner acknowledged my performance with an increase of $1/hr over what i was nominally hired at, so that's nice, and a bit of incentive. i guess the question is how i fit in there in the long run, considering his family, all very experienced working there, are going to be first in his mind in matters of promotion and increased responsibility as they expand. it's hard to say anything concrete about the place yet though, first impressions aren't worth all that much. i'll have to form an opinion over a longer period of time than 4 days i think. (past) time to hit the hay, 4:30am comes mighty early.