I am the Moosemaster!

Here is quite possibly the longest overdue blog ever, since this trip
happened over a month ago and I wrote a blog before this
one. I went on my annual trip to the Boundary Waters with
Brian and some friends of ours, and it was freakin' awesome.

Quotations of the weekend:

"Yeah, that's what she said."
"Damnit! I should've brought my pellet gun."


My six hour drive up after an 8 hour day of work turned into an 8 hour
drive until one in the morning because Brian and I are very bad at
math. The best part about the drive, other than the subway
sandwich I ate as I was leaving Fargo, was that I saw an actual moose
for the very first time when I was about 30 minutes from the
cabin. There was a car in front of me that I saw first because it
was going about 5mph. And there was a giant female moose just
trotting along next to it. So, we drove slowly, patiently waiting
for this extremely tall creature to cross the freakin' road. I
reached for my camera, got it on packed, and the moose was gone.
I didn't get a picture of the moose, but for the rest of the weekend, I
was most effectionately known as "The Moosemaster."

Now, here are some pictures so you all can see why I would be willing to
drive 8 hours for a weekend in the wilderness:


This was our view from the campsite.





As is this, with one of our canoes.




This...also from our site.




This is Brian's father in law, Mark, standing in his canoe, with us
swimming behind him, trying to think of ways to make him fall over.




This is Lucas, testing out the hammock. It must
have been compfy, since he ended up sleeping
in it our last night.




Here's Brian biting off all that he can chew from our batch of 6
different Lipton pastas all in one. Oh yeah, we also had like 6 fish
with dinner that Mark and Joe caught.





Mark, Brian, and Joe enjoying the traditional after dinner cigar while drinking
and preparing a nice roasting stick for marshmellows.






I thought I'd jump in and take a few lake-level shots while Luke
paddled his way to Brian and Andy.





Who were right over there.






Here's where Brian proposed to Kat, so we thought we'd take our
own engagement picture. As you can see, I'm all ready for the
honeymoon. Gross!





Actually, I was all ready for the waterfalls. I didn't
want to just hike around them and take nice pictures.
I wanted to jump right in and have people take picutres
of me.





Like this one.





And this one.





Enough of nasty, shirtless me, lets take some
pretty falls pics.








Soooo pretty!






And look and this freakin' sunrise. I asked Luke, if he slept on the hammock our
last night and was the first one up, to wake me up in time for the sunrise. It was my
first sunrise, and it was so worth it.





See, I took another picture.






Here's my scruffy ass driving 8 hours back home after an awesome,
exhausting weekend.





That's it peeps. Peace out.

No Job, No Blog!

So I got an e-mail demanding I write a new blog because people just can't live without my witty stories of being balled and wrongfully arrested for traffic violations. Or maybe my writer friend is just pushing me to continue the art of blogging and to get out of my summer dry spell. Truthfully, though, I really haven't done anything this summer outside of looking for a job, preparing for an interview, and worrying about getting a job so I can stop worrying about bills that are being sent faster than rejection letters from the jobs I just applied to.

Today, however, I did have an actual interview for a real job. I interviewed for a Copy Editor Technical Writer position for Casino Enterprise Management. CEM is a magazine/trade journal that deals with casino issues such as equipment, on-line gaming, gambling in general, Native American gaming laws and what not. Though my position in the office wouldn't limit me to one particular job or title, for the most part I would be editing articles sent by our writers to go in the magazine. Peter E. Mead, Publisher and guy who interviewed me, told me there would be opportunities for some writing and other jobs. Plus, they're just starting video production for on-line videos and taping conferences they attend. They bought Avid editing software, which is pretty sweet, and he asked me about my experience with Pinnacle editing software when he called to set up an interview. And I'd get to go to trade shows with them, which would be a lot of fun, especially if they're at a casino. I'd be working in Fargo, and I'd be working for a small business. But the hours, for the most part, would be Mon-Fri. 8-5 on a salary.

I hate interviewing even though I've never had any problems in that area. Peter did tell me today that he thought I was very prepared. The interview lasted an hour and a half, and he gave me an assignment. He is going to e-mail me an article to edit. Than I'll e-mail it back to him to show if I really am qualified for the position and not just another handsome face in a Calvin Kline suit. If I do a good job on the article, he'll set up another meeting with him to discuss more about the job and what he thinks I'd be worth as far as salary. Salary is negotiable; it said so in the ad.

Otherwise, I applied to about 40+ other jobs in Minneapolis and Fargo for U.S. Bank. I also applied to a local gym that just so happens to be owned by the Fargo Park District. That one would be Mon-Fri as well, but the hours are 4:30am-1:30pm. Of course, then I'd have time for a part time job to make some fat cash and go to grad school.

This seems more like a really long, boring e-mail than a blog. So, just for shits and giggles I'd like to mention that I've been working out almost every single day for two months now. I've gained 5-7 pounds (depending on which scale I use), and for the first time in my entire life I had someone ask me if I've been working out because now I have muscles...and she hasn't seen me in two years.