my fear

i want to buy a house. for some reason, i want to buy a house so bad. i think it would be really cool, just the idea of having a house, a place i go back to that is mine. i don't have much to furnish it with (2 hammocks, flat-screen TV, stereo, XBOX360, a load of books, and the latest gadgets i've acquired on the internet), but i think that would be cool, too. i think minimal would work for me.

still, i just can't commit. hell, i can't even commit to looking! i doubt my ability to make a good investment. i know one of my weaknesses is that i'm a consumer. i do my very best to stimulate this economy as much as possible, very often to my financial detriment. i like money, and i want money for security purposes, but i can't be bothered to try really hard to get it. that's kinda why i relate to this comic. buying a house would be awesome and having parties and bbqs and getting together for races would be the bomb, but having to go through the process of combing through the fine print of a lease agreement because i might screwed on legalese... i just can't fathom it.

peter pan... out.

my boring life

i'm currently working on the final picture post from the visit from TheMom, TheJay, and TheRachel. i might be able to get it posted in about 8 hours or so. btw, TheMom made it home safe, if not sore. i was glad to hear that since she didn't call to let me know (hah, j/k).

until then, this will have to do. jules is working at another site in egypt. this one is closer to our apartment, but with traffic, the commute can be hellacious, so sadly, i don't get to see her every night. the past two nights she's been staying at the marriott downtown to avoid the long drive to and fro, so i've been left to fend for myself. it's amazing how quickly i can fall back into my bachelor pad routine without some external female guidance. the night before last, i boiled some chicken cubes and cooked 'em in frank's red hot buffalo sauce. this is a personal favorite as it is good, and it is quick, and fairly healthy (a bit high on the salt content). i also cooked up some mushrooms with it , and delighted over my dinner while watching some TV. last night, i cooked up corn, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and peppers. that's all for dinner. jules hates it when i eat corn, all sugar and such or whatever, but i didn't eat much. i was bored so i tried to make ketchup. for some reason, i'm in the mood to make homemade ketchup and mustard. i'm inspired by a distant thought of some homemade condiments i had at jamboree in the hills a few years ago. someone brought homemade spicy ketchup and mustard. as for my ketchup, i think i need to look up a general recipe. last night, i blended up some stewed tomatoes with some vinegar, and added onions and hot peppers and a bit of garlic. it wasn't just right, so i added some homemade dill relish that i'd made a few weeks back from dill pickles, garlic, and onions. that didn't push the taste in the direction i'd expected, and by this time, it was a bit liquefied, so i added flour. i know i'm retarded, and there is no flour in ketchup, but i needed a thickener and i'm a culinary explorer. sometimes culinary explorers take wrong turns and perish in dietary crevasses. luckily, i had my cramp-ons tied tightly and my rope held fast. enough of the stupid ice-flow climbing references. i'll have to look up a recipe and try again.

back to the story, jules probably won't be back to the apartment until thursday or thereabouts, so i have plenty of time to experiment some more. in other news, jules is PISSED!!! she DESPISES needles. from a few posts back you'll know thati had to get a 2nd blood test because mine had expired, so i went down with jules. several days after that, she was sent to tunisia with the explicit clarification that her blood test would be valid when she returned. we found out yesterday that was an explicit lie, so she has to go get her 2nd test today. i can't be with her today for a distraction, so i'm wishing her the best. i know she gets so anxious. she is going to call me when it happens if she can, so she has something to take her mind off. it's just so stupid, how 3 of the 6 TAs onsite have had to have their blood tests retaken because no one here knows the exact procedure for doing this visa thing. it's deplorable.

so that's me. oh, i got my XBOX 360 hooked up last night. i had some networking issues at first, but i finally even got on XBOX LIVE, which we (BTBz) thought might be impossible due to no middle east servers being available. that'll give me something to do until jules gets back. then i'll teach her to race NASCAR, frag in halo3, and snipe in GRAW2. i can't wait.

the return, part II, requiem

ok, now where was i?

oh yeah, so, the REAL wasko and the REAL red showed up late since red ended up having to work a bit later than expected. we jaunted over to the easton area of columbus to grab some grub at logan's steakhouse. though i thought we were running late, our timing turned out pretty damn perfect. after dinner, we went to a comedy show at the funnybone at the easton mall. they were funny enough. one comedian from west virginia reminded me of a a twitchy(er) redneck version of robin williams. the warmup guy asked if there were any celebrations in the crowd. i tried to get his attention which Chump was having none of. there was a bachelor party in front of us for an old guy, guessing second marriage (at least). after making some jokes about him, he looked back at our table saying he thought he saw someone back our way. i was reluctant to raise my hand again, as this was Chump's night.

after the comedy show, we headed to our favorite local gentlemen's club on the other side of columbus, kahoot's. thaddius and dexter took good care of our table all night. i told them it was Chump's bachelor party, so there was a girl at the table at all times. Chump didn't want to go up onstage, which kinda sucked cuz that's a bachelor party STAPLE, but again, his night. i made sure he was covered all night for dances. i'm pretty sure a good time was had by all, but especially Chump. on the way home from kahoot's, we were privy to an impromtu version of cash cab. our inebriated bunch crowded into his taxi van, and the fun began. i asked where he was from due to his accent, guessing trinidad. he starts flashing the inside dome light of the van, joking that it was cash cab. i was wrong, and guessed tobago instead. again wrong, so i guess jamaica (since he had some bob marley on). let's just say i would've been the fastest loser on cash cab ever. we eventually found out he's from senegal. how i messed that one up, i don't know. he asked us ohio's first capital to which wasko jumped up, true 6th-grade ohio history style with "chillicothe". then he asked us which state was the silver state. Chump chimed in after a minute with nevada while we were all mumbling about it. the driver didn't answer, we mumbled, and Chump said it a bit louder, no answer from the driver. finally Chump bellowed (there may have even been an echo), "NEVADA!". the cash cab guy flashed the lights, and we were winners... of nothing more than a good time. we got him to play some of our favorite bob marley tunes for the rest of the ride, particularly jamming to "no woman, no cry". it was a fun(ny) ride, but it had to end, so he dropped us off at the waffle house near the hotel. we ate more greasy food than we probably shouldn't have, but it's tradition, then we stumbled to the hotel.

i stayed a few more days in columbus to watch the NASCAR race and ended up getting to try out a wii. we played a couple hours of bowling, which was fun, but i really like my action and racing games, not to mention the graphics and i can watch DVDs on it and such. the wii is, dare i say, a bit immature? i don't know. after columbus i went home to open my new goodies (oh yeah, i bought a new laptop, my FIRST personal laptop). while home, i shopped, had square pizza (a local specialty), got Chump and soon-to-be mrs. Chump's wedding present and generally dilly-dallied doing nothing of any import though seeming to never have time for myself to relax. such is R&R in this field.

friday was the rehearsal and dinner. the rehearsal went pretty well. the church had REALLY narrow aisles, so walking down the aisle side-by-side with a bridesmaid was impossible. we remedied this by allowing the girls to lead the way while we followed trying not to look like dejected suitors. I was lucky enough to get TWO girls since she had both her sisters as maids-of-honor. after the rehearsal, we wound down the country road to our local watering hole, TheFBar, where the rehearsal dinner was being held in the "back bar". it was a really nice spread, and since we know the owner, we got to bartend for our selves. BAD IDEA!!! by the end of the night, us young(ish) bucks (and a few of the respective does) had floated the keg and downed several shots that apparently don't mix well together in the stomach the next morning.

the next morning we all arrived at the church LOOKING fine, but how everyone felt was another story. i think i was one of the few who felt pretty well. i won't name names, but some of the BTBz and their wives had had a "reversal of fortune" or two throughout the morning and the drive to the church. still, we all arrived, we all knew our duties, and things were going to go off without a hitch.

the ushers seated, i made sure the groom had everything, i felt for the bride's ring in my pocket the whole time, always nervous it would vanish. i'm sure the girls were downstairs getting gussied up and such. the ceremony began wonderfully, no one missed their cues, everyone was in the right position, even the ring bearer and the flower girl, who oftentimes succumb to tantrums, inability to follow directions, and confusion, were perfect. T was sweating like he was thinking about hot wings... everything was going as we had expected, then about halfway through the ceremony, i heard a bit of a commotion in the rear of the church. it seems one of the groomsmen was "over come with emotion" and had to step outside for some fresh air, but he only made it about halfway down the side aisle before taking a dive. the pastor took it all well and tried to get the fans going since it was a warm day. soon enough, said groomsman was outside feeling much better... and we all figured T'd be the one to bite it, but with all those years of marching band training behind him, he knew not to lock his knees in the heat. the rest of the ceremony went as planned, and everyone was excited to the see the happy couple kiss and walk away married.

after the wedding, we hopped onto the wedding trolley they rented. we took it to oglebay park, a local spot popular for wedding pictures. nice rolling hills, rustic gates, and a mansion. after those pictures were done, we went back to TheFBar, incidentally where MrandMrsChump got engaged, for some "casual" pictures. i really think those pictures are going to turn out well. i can't wait to see those. then it was off across the ohio river to wheeling, WV for the reception.

the reception was damn near perfect. ChumpsDad isn't much of a dresser-upper. he's also not much for social gatherings. he did great at the wedding, but when we got to the reception, he wasn't there. i'm guessing he hasn't been to many weddings due to this, so maybe he didn't know the procedure. he'd gone home and made lunch and was just chilling there. i called him for Chump and told him to get over to the reception ASAP so we could announce the wedding party. he said he'd think about it. Chump gave him a call asking him to come, and he was there in no time flat. i'm pretty sure that was about the only hitch i can think of at the reception. i was fretting over my best-man speech all week, and i think it went well, but i kinda blacked out. i DESPISE public speaking, and i just couldn't think of anything to talk about that was worthy of the happy couple. my speech was short, i HOPE it was sweet, and everyone seemed happy with it. Chump made a REALLY awesome DVD slideshow (with awesomely appropriate music) of pictures of he and MrsChump as kids, growing up, with their friends, their families, and then finally them falling in love with each other. it was top notch. they had it playing in a large separate room that the buffet line was at, so people could watch it while getting food, plus they could watch it later in the night without being bombarded by the dance music.

the next day, i made the rounds to pick up the tuxs to take them back. being that i'm the only non-married/engaged BTB now, i wasn't used to people already having checked out when i was calling around to make sure everyone was up at 11AM. i was calling to wake them up and get their tuxs, when many of them were already checked out and at the mall turning them in. i guess getting married means you have a "married in" alarm clock.

that was that. 2 days later i got on a plane to be back here in egypt. i landed tuesday evening for work wednesday. wednesday night, one of the TAs had an official engagement party. he flew his girlfriend over to visit, and that night, she became his fiancee. around 11PM, jules and i had to cut out, so i could take her back to the apartment, since she had to leave for her R&R in turkey at 2:30AM. thursday, TheSiteLead, TheMech, and i hung around the pool until 3:30PM then went to the airport to hop a 1hr flight to a resort in hurghada for the weekend. in hurghada, we swam, went to disco's, drank, and had a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing time. we flew back saturday, and began the work grind again on sunday.

lonely ol' me has only gotten to spend about 1 day with my girl in the past 3 weeks, so i'm sad, but she'll be coming back early saturday morning, like 1:30AM. so, THAT'S what i've been up to. apparently, there is a big coptic christian feast something or other going on this weekend so we MIGHT not have to work thursday through monday (these people know how to have religious holidays, i might have to rethink this religion thing. egyptians get to have FOUR wives). i'll be updating more regularly now that i'm back to a *more* normal schedule. missed you guys.

gettin' healthy

i hate it, it's killing me (er, rather, the opposite, but it FEELS like it's killing me), but i have to do it. i joined the gold's gym in town about two weeks ago, just before jules arrived. since jules has gotten here, she's been regulating my caloric intake = starving me. i no longer get a sandwich from the petrol station on the way to work for breakfast. now i get a tomato with some feta cheese. lunch is no longer pizza and sandwiches, i get a salad with salsa for dressing and sometimes soup. for the first time in my memory, i had nothing but vegetables for dinner the other night (peas, brussel sprouts, and beets with goat cheese). it really wasn't as bad as i made it out to be, but i like my meat, and i miss it. mcdonald's and other restaurants of the like are out of the question until i lose 15lbs, then i get a celebratory meal. since i've been doing this i've lost 6lbs (maybe i'll keep a weight tracker... i'm not proud, my first weigh-in at the gym was 125kg, that is, 275lbs... but i carry it well, all belly, no ass). we've been eating lots of veggies and chicken, no fast food, minimal "processed" food (i don't understand her blanket disdain for processed foods). i'm pretty good at the gym. 30 minutes on the elliptical without being out of breath (but i strangely get out of breath on a stair-climber), then 30 minutes or so lifting. jules joined up with me on sunday. i'm trying to go 4-5 times a week (thursday and friday are definitely out as they are "the weekend") jules is going to try to go 2-3 times a week and do yoga the other days. she makes dinner for me for when i get home which is nice. this living together thing isn't too bad, so far.

anyways, i digress. this picture is from a dinner we were invited to last night. our driver invited us to dinner with his family several weeks ago. the first time we had to cancel because i had to go to alex and jules was going with me, and the second time, we had to cancel because TheMech decided to have a barbecue on the same day. so last night was the rain check, though TheLead ended up having to meet up with some people that are basically who we report to for this site. TheLead invited TheMech to go. this caused a bit of a food overage. originally, there were going to be 6 people: me, jules, TheElec(trical), TheLead, TheMech, and their driver. then they told our driver that two more would be coming totaling eight (so our driver's mom bought more food). THEN since TheLead and TheMech went elsewhere (and their guests as well) eight guests became three. we arrived, met his mom, dad, 4 brothers and 4 sisters, sat down and talked a bit, then the feast above arrived. WOW! one things i don't like much about visiting families in foreign countries is their insistence on stuffing all the guests to the gills and then insisteing on just a bit more + dessert. being on my diet, jules let me ave a bit more than i should've but when the hosts piled 3 chicken cutlets and 2 pigeons on my plate, i knew hat me be a bit out of hand for my shrinking stomach. i'm gonna try this... in the picture above you can find (clockwise, starting at the left): kofta, sliced tomatoes, a load of grape leaves with rice, roast beef (in the green pot), samboussek (behind the beef), more grape leaves, a type of rice called "freek" (?), baba ghanouj, rice-stuffed pigeon (egyptian viagra is the lore), more freek, meat lasagna with bechamel, and four game hens. after that, they offered us the sweets were brought them as a gift. it was FAR too much to eat. there were two large trays of lasagna in the kitchen, there were probably 8 pigeons, googly, just far too much food. we are going to be eating it at work for lunch for days. all the food was amazing, his family is incredibly nice, it was a thoroughly enjoyable time. still, we had to cut the night short. TheElec had to get back to the hotel to call his fiancee.

when we got home, we got ready for bed, i kicked on the TV and satellite to see something i haven't seen in such a long time... a NASCAR race LIVE on TV. i ordered this sateliite specifically because it has LIVE NASCAR. so at 10:30PM, i turned on the TV and watched an hour of the pre-race for the las vegas race. i made it through an hour of the race before i noticed i was dozing around 12:30AM. the race was on until 3:00AM. i'm going to try to get a nap next sunday night, so i can stay up late to watch the race.

well, back to work. i gotta get in the mindset to go to the gym, blah, but they tell me it's good for me.

the traveling

so, i went to visit jules in NY last monday. we had a really good time catching up and talking about things. it was really nice, i'm glad we did it. it's alway good to see her. i spent until thursday there, when i then flew into columbus to join them for the 8 hours drive to clint's house in NC. the drive was rather uneventful, just he BTBz goofing off in a confined space for far too long. things were getting a bit drowsy toward the end but we eventually made it, and proceeded to stay up until about 5AM watching TV. the next day we were off on the 3-hour drive to myrtle beach for T's bachelor party. the place we got was awesome, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, nice-sized kitchen, huge living area, and a great view of the ocean, the lazy river below us, and the hotties in the hot tub.

just to be brief, throughout the weekend there was lazy-rivering [with the bubba kegs (wTBK)], broken or badly-stoved finger in the lazy river, drunken ocean swimming wTBK, flirting with columbus folk who were coincidentally there, being civil to snotty kids who wanted to make fun of us for being drunk in the hot tub, hooter's girls singing, T avoiding seafood so he could "carb up" at a seafood buffet, one of our clan in his tighty whiteys (on our balcony) getting noticed by the columbus folk (on the beach), security being called for talking to girls on another balcony, and i'm sure a bunch more stuff i'm forgetting. it was a good time.

sunday, we went to the NASCAR go-kart track where wasko and i developed a racing rivalry, and he took it out on everyone else on the last track we drove by putting them all in the wall (thus, causing him to be banned from racing that track again). we grabbed some food, and headed back to clint's the see the NASCAR race. the next day, i drove the 8.5 hours back to columbus, TheMom picked me up, and i drove the 1.5 hours back home, so i could do laundry, pack, get a little bit of sleep, and make my way to the airport at 8AM for my job in trinidad. i made it, exhausted as i was, and now i'm here. the first nightshift is tough, but the second usually kills me, which is bad, because i'm hurting as is. i'm sooooo tired.

anyways, i posted just to let you know what's up (i linked to the plant site in the right sidebar), and i wanted to post a few pictures (3 from hooter's and one i stumbled on). you can click on them for bigger views.

chad and T successfully freaking out wasko while he's macking on the phone.
T with his banner and ballon "hooters" at hooters after they sang to him. clint's just a perv
chad and i doing our gay version of the "lady and the tramp" spaghetti scene, but in this case, we used a french fry and we were over T

my TENTATIVE schedule

this is TheGeneral after all:

• friday, 20-july : fly to LA for one-day job
• sunday, 22-july : fly back to bellaire, OH
• tuesday, 31-july : drive to pittsburgh for 17-day job
• friday, 17-aug : drive home to prep for week vacation at bristol, TN for NASCAR race
• monday - sunday, 20-26 aug : bristol race
• friday - monday, 31-aug through 3-sept : T's bachelor party in myrtle beach
• tuesday, 4-sept : 6 month job in amman, jordan.

so that's what i'm scheduled to do for the next couple months. we'll see how much that changes as the dates arrive.

EDIT: 1.5 hours after posting, the job in cali was postponed until october. this is peak season, and the customer wants to make some money. so, i wonder if i should go to columbus, or jamboree in the hills (started today through sunday)

EDIT: not going to jordan... maybe kuwait or qatar (oh the irony) next. we'll see what happens. i think he's trying, but it's too late. damn fairy godmother.!!!

could this be the perfect girl?

after reading this article, i think i might've found the perfect girl. i might even start writing to prison girls. NASCAR... millions of $$$... stripper... PERFECT! hah.

bristol picture blog (all pix clickable)

two weeks back (almost three now), some of the BTBz went to bristol, TN for the NASCAR nextel cup race. we went down on a tuesday to party the week away through the race on sunday, then back to the valley on monday. here are some pix of the party.

the biggest buggy in the world... and motorized!

my sleeveless robe for the hot weather. i'm too sexy for my sleeves, too sexy for my sleeves... another GREAT robe pic here

me with the merchandise haulers in the back (and improvised duct tape cooler strap)

michael waltrip signing stuff at his trailer (sadly because he having trouble qualifying for the races in his new toyota)

the US flag... i love crowd participation

more participation, this time, BRISTOL

passing the torch? TheRuss has ChumpAss drive the van and trailer home from bristol, getting him ready for the fall race

those are the highlights. if you want more, you can see all my 2007 bristol spring pix here.

and, btw, the pano at the top is from the busch race on saturday and the one at the bottom is from the cup race on sunday. i LOVE panoramics!

i knew it would happen...

well, two things actually.

i knew britney would snap someday. i figured it would be more "climbing the HOLLYWOOD sign in a drug-induce haze" or "sending in photos to be the next penthouse pet" kinda snap, but shaving her head bald... yeah that counts. if she wanted to do it to be all "punk rock" that'd be cool, but it sounds like it was more of an "episode". good luck to her, maybe penthouse is right around the corner.

AND, i knew sirius and XM would merge. about 5-6 months ago when i got home from india, i was talking to someone (conveniently enough, i forget who) about how i thought XM was floundering (more subscribers but WAY less content), and i figured they'd get together within a year. i should work in vegas.

not much other news going on here, waiting for an assignment, trying to figure out when and where jules and i are going to meet up next. i'm getting stir-crazy. jules made out a plan for me to do a bunch of things i want to do for an hour a day, but i can't even get THAT started, how is that?

oh yeah, and i watched the daytona 500 in columbus with the BTBz. mark martin was SOOO robbed of that win. i drove home from columbus today listening to sirius 128, the NASCAR channel, and despite about 70% of the callers calling in agreeing with me, the host was bitching and moaning that no one was appreciating that we watched one of the best daytona 500 finishes in history. granted, we did, but we also saw a gross failure on NASCAR's part because it was the last lap. synopsis... coming out of the last turn on the last lap, a buttload of cars behind the two front-runners (harvick and martin) got tangled up causing a huge wreck collecting most of the 43-car field. mark martin was in the lead when the wreck happened, but harvick had enough momentum to take the lead at the finish line. several years back, NASCAR changed the yellow flag rule for the safety of drivers. it used to be that when the yellow flag waved, you raced back to the finish line. this was all well and good until a few years ago, i believe it was dale jarrett was collected in a wreck and stuck in the middle of the track just in front of the finish line with the field bearing down on him to get to the line. so NASCAR put GPS transponders in the cars and sensors in the tracks so that when the yellow flag is out, the field is frozen in the order they touch the next sensor. no racing back to the flag.

so this radio show host's best argument was that the wreck was BEHIND the two guys running for the lead, so there was no need for the yellow. completely ignoring the reason NASCAR came out with the new rule. he just forgot about the 41 cars (minus the wrecked ones) barreling down on the finish line since the yellow wasn't thrown. what about the safety there? sacrifice the rule and the losing drivers' safety for an "untarnished" win that i don't believe was valid. NASCAR has had issues in the past with inconsistent punishments depending on the driver/team/etc. it looked like they were making progress in remedying the possible favoritism, but this race, first of the season, just really disappointed me in the judgement at the end. i'm not really a fan of either driver, but a rule is a rule, and it should've been implemented, nevermind that the race would've been won under caution... it happens, get over it.

i guess i'll have to get over it myself. BTVJGJHo over at BTBz might be able to expound on the mass media aspect of this. he was on a roll when i left after the race.

NASCAR SpeedWeek

it's been a long 83 days, but this saturday, the 2007 NASCAR season starts up with the budweiser shootout. i missed most of the 2006 season in india, and the end of the season in algeria, so i'm just glad to watch a race again. here's the link to SpeedWeek's schedule for any NASCAR fans who don't feel like looking for it. go #8.

RIP benny parsons

click photo for NASCAR link
1941 - 2007