First couple days

Work is going to be interesting...

After meeting my new boss (a funny good ol boy from Kentucky) I think this will be a good job for me. Set aside the massive amount of driving involved and this job is going to be crazy.

So basically I will be doing government work at many different locations all at once. Few of my jobs will be more than a couple hundred thousand dollars each and that means I will be doing many jobs instead of one big one. Here's the interesting part: I and two others were hired to completely change this division and turn it into an efficient and professional division. Basically I get to do things my way and I get more responsibility. This also means that I will be a Project Manager in less than a year :) All good things.

The job won't be easy but I think it will be a great experience and help me grow in my industry. Wish me luck :)

Oh yeah, on my 2 hour commute homes today I decided that I will have to start looking into moving closer to work... Probably on the peninsula... Never thought I would say that!

“Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.”

Life Update

Ok so it has been way too long since I updated this and I am sure my loyal fan base is dissappointed... All 5 of you :)

In case you have not heard I finally got a new job and start on Monday, 8/3. I will be working for Torres Construction in San Francisco. Torres does public works (govt) projects but I am not sure exactly what I will be working on when I get there. I am very excited to start working again but am not looking forward to the commute.

It feels so great to have a job again and I have to say that unemployment was a good experience for me. It allowed me to focus on my health and my finances. I realized how foolish I had been with both of those issues and now have the challenge of maintaining the good habits I have acquired during the last few months. Speaking of my health, I figure I should update you all on how my bet went....

I won the bet and accomplished my goal of 40lbs of weight loss (45 now) :) I have decided that because I now have a job, I am going to use my winnings as the basis for a road bike purchase. That way I will use my winnings as a tool for better health. It has been a tough journey and I am not even close to the end but I love the results and how I feel.

So life is improving and I look forward to what the future has in store for me.

"Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality."

Job Hunting

So I haven't posted in a while and figured I would give you all an update...

I am unemployed again, yay for me. I am currently enjoying my free time and am searching for a job. I do not know where I am going to end up but I will let you all know.

So what would you think if I moved to Australia? Just a thought...

"The trouble with unemployment is that the minute

you wake up in the morning you're on the job."

My Blog is Named Correctly

So I thought I would give everyone an update because it has been a while since I posted anything. I will start from the beginning...

Hawaii was great and I had a blast hanging out with some good friends. T, R and D were all promoted to Captain and of course R got married to it was a good week, not to mention that we were in Hawaii and not at work :) The reception was nice too but now I will not get to see these friends for a long time.

For those that do not know I went to Vegas last weekend with my good friend S and it was a lot of fun. This was the first time (and probably the last) I went to Vegas and didn't have a single drop of alcohol. It might have something to do with the reason I went... S and I went to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and he drove a race car and I got to ride in one. It was awesome and I we will definitely do it again in the future.

Other than that, life has been interesting. We had a meeting at my company and discussed our current situation and this is it: We have not landed any jobs and furloughs or lay offs may be in our future. Now we did get a couple small jobs since then but still not enough to keep us all going, so I am still not sure what the future has in store for me. I am starting to think that March is not the best time for me as this is the 1 year anniversary of my lay off from Centex down in SLO. So here is to the hope that I will not have any problems and the jobs will continue to come in.

I am excited about the next couple months because I am going to the weddings of some of my great friends and am looking forward to seeing everyone :) And I just started reading Atlas Shrugged. Hope everyone is doing well.


P.S. I am thinking about putting together a cruise weekend for everyone in lieu of Shasta... Any thoughts?

"The trouble with unemployment is that the minute
you wake up in the morning you're on the job."

Point Well Taken

Ok well, I can see by all your adoring comments that you loved my musical selection... Alright, alright, I will not post recommendations about music anymore. :)

Other than that, I am off to Hawaii tomorrow for my friends wedding and a needed vacation so I will post again when I get back. Aloha everybody!!!


"A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in."

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head

I have been listening to Pandora a lot lately and I came across this new band. It was the name that popped out to me and I had to check it out. I liked their music and figured I would share :)

As some of you know my taste in music can vary quite a bit. The song is called "Me + Yr Daughter." Enjoy...

Who Knew?

I learned something new last night about losing weight... I have to eat more food in order to make sure I lose weight in a safe manner. Here I thought that all I had to do was eat less, but healthy food and I would lose weight.

After staying around 200o calories a day for the past week or so I was informed that my body would go into starvation mode, and subsequently start consuming my muscles in search of protien. Ok so maybe that is the worst thing that would happen...

So after looking things up and reading a little, I found out I should be eating about a 1000 more calories a day than I have been. So basically today I learned I have to eat more in order to lose weight. So, like I said... Who Knew :)

"The cardiologist's diet: If it tastes good, spit it out."

The Bet

So I wasnt going to mention this but my coworker and I made a bet last week and today he sent an email to the whole company telling everyone what it was.  I figured I couldn't have my company know about the bet and not my friends.  So here it is:

We are both hefty individuals and so the bet was for each of us to lose 40 lbs in 6 months.  The wager: $500.  As an added rule if both of us make it to 40 lbs and keep going then the person who loses the most weight wins.  

So that is it and I figured you all should know.  I have been talking about losing weight and getting in shape for a while now and I think this is just the thing to jump start the process :)

So good luck to me and for those of you getting married...  I will be a lot sexier for your weddings :) haha

"Never tell anyone that you're writing a book, going on a diet, exercising, taking a course, or quitting smoking. They'll encourage you to death."

The Christmas Slacker

Ok guys, I have a good one for you.  In all my years of impromptu and all around awesome gift giving I have always sucked at gifts for Christmas.  If a gift should be given on a specific date then I just can't do it.

This years example:  I collected addresses and even bought Christmas Cards early but did not send them out...  Pretty much classic Dan.

So if you want a card let me know but it will be late and I might even wait until summer to send it out. They are pretty awesome  :) haha

"To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing."

Thanksgiving Amusement

So as I sit here looking at the traffic outside I have decided to write a blog entry.

An interesting thing happened this past weekend when I went to visit my family for Thanksgiving. I was made aware of some family drama that I had caused with no wrongdoing on my part. I stayed at my sister's house instead on my Grandma's house!!!

Now that you have calmed down I will give you a little background. My sister recently got married and she and her husband bought a house. My sister called me at the start of November and asked me to come down for Thanksgiving (which occurs at my Grandma's house) and so I changed my plans and agreed. Originally I said that I would be staying at my Grandma's house because for my entire life, until now, I have always stayed at my Grandma's house when I went down to Fresno.

About a week later I was speaking to my Mom and she informed me that my sister wanted me to stay at her house but she didn't want to have to ask me. So now we have reached the first source of amusement to me... I was supposed to know my sister wanted me to stay at her house even though she hadn't said anything about it. So to be the good brother I am, I called my sister and asked to stay at her house, a request she nonchalantly accepted.

I then informed my Grandma that I would be joining the family for Thanksgiving and I would be staying at my sister's house. She was happy because she always likes to see me. Or at least I thought she was happy...

Here is the next bit of amusement... My Grandma called my sister to "talk about pies" and randomly slipped in "you know Dan is always welcome to stay here..." and then quickly finished the conversation. I know of this conversation because my sister made sure to bring it up a few times that weekend.

The holiday went off just fine (except for the part where the family ate more of the pie my sister made than the pie my Grandma made, which I fixed by going back the next day to eat a piece of each of my Grandma's pies :) and I made it home safe and full... I spoke to my Mom a couple days later and she said that my sister was very happy from my stay for the weekend, "practically glowing". My Grandma put on the happy front and will take all this out on my sister later. My Grandma is a great woman but is old fashioned and cannot find any fault in the men in her life and so must make comments to the women... :)

So now I find myself amused by the situation I am in: my sister and my grandma both want me to stay with them anytime I come down to visit and I have to make the decision as to who is let down...

"Forever on Thanksgiving Day; The heart will find the pathway home."

Reflection...

So this has been one crazy week...

We have a new President who won by a "landslide" and so now we all get to sit back and see what the future has in store for us. Hopefully it will go well and we won't have any major problems.

The economy is not doing well and that is all we hear about. Not much has changed in my life or many others I know. The frustrating thing is that all the politicians are blaming the other party when it is obvious that they all screwed it up together. We then hear that things are bad because of low consumer confidence in the markets... Wait, that isn't possible! Everything is so cheerful and optimistic on TV and the news... Why the hell would consumer confidence be low????

So the problem was caused and no one will take the blame and do anything to fix it. I suppose we can just keep making money and throwing it at the problem to fix it. We will be back to normal in no time...

Well here's to progress and "change" for the betterment of our nation. Obama has put himself in a tough position and I can only hope that he follows through on his speeches to put aside party lines and work together to solve the problems. Just do me a favor and put aside the past and focus on the future... it doesn't matter whose fault it was that we are here... just that we are here...

Sad but true...

This years Halloween?

Funny E-mail

This was sent to me in an email and I thought you might like to see it....

"Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed. Now we are trusting the economy of our country to a pack of nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling booze?"

Self Scrutiny

Today I read a blog that I was introduced to by my good friend M and today's post got me thinking about what drives us to the decisions we make. The post was a follow up to a previous post where the author asked:

“let's say you're given the opportunity to donate some money to a desperate family who would use it to feed their children, but were only able to do so if you donated the same amount of money to someone you knew would use it to buy crack. Would you do it?”

My immediate thought was that I would never support drug use and instead would give food, thinking this was a slightly clever way to solve the problem as opposed to following her rules. I read some of the comments to this post (of course, my answer was there…) and people had a variety of opinions. Some felt it was a metaphor for the recent bailout or her way of pushing her liberal views onto others…

Turns out it was from an experience she had with her older brother when she was younger and he gave money to a homeless man selling roses, paying 10 times the asked amount. The post of the story was today and the comments were profoundly different: no more questions of a hidden agenda and complete approval. Most were from people who felt they should give more. So this got me thinking about charitable actions and one’s agenda behind them.

I am sure we would all like to think that we give often and unconditionally. Unfortunately I think there is always something more there. I know that many give because it makes them feel good inside and sometimes make up for other slip ups they might have in the future. I know that some give to get the recognition and approval of others (politicians anyone???). Still others give because they feel they are required to or don’t know any different. Does this make it bad?

My opinion is that it is not a bad thing to give to anyone or any cause. We all trust that it will do some good and be used it the right way. We all have to believe this because if we didn’t then we wouldn’t be charitable… and that would be a terrible thing.

I try to give when I can and would like to think that I do so unconditionally but I know this is not true. I do many things to gain the acceptance of others and be seen favorably in their eyes. This does not mean that I don’t like to give and help others, in fact I enjoy it immensely, it’s just that sometimes I feel like it makes me a bad person that I sometimes give to get something out of it. What are your thoughts?


"No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave"

An Interesting Place in My Career

So I find myself wondering what to do with myself.  I have climbed every mountain in my professional life and now find myself on a vast plateau searching for something else to climb...  I have spoken with a few friends about where I am in my life and where to go but still have no answer.  Sure there have bee good suggestions, but none that have grabbed hold...

My whole life things have been laid out in front of me like a well groomed path.  School just kept progressing and I added more activities on the rare occasion that I felt I had some free time.  I then got the good job in a great location and was gaining more responsibility at a fast pace, but then the house market changed and the job vanished.  So I had to make a move...

I am now up in the Bay Area working for a great company full of amazing people.  The problem is the tasks I am doing.  Though important, there is little challenge and I only seem to be working hard because of the quantity of work and not its complexity.  Last week I did not leave work before 7pm a single night and yet what did I learn.  Just that in this line of work there is incessant documentation to avoid legal issues and the fun parts are few and far between.

Now don't feel bad for me because I still like my job and love the feeling of completion when projects are complete.  That is what drew me to this career.  It just hard when you know you can contribute more but still have to go through the motions and climb the bottom of the ladder.

I guess I need to look at filling my life with things outside of work... Any suggestions?

"The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more."

Job Update

Just thought you all would like to see some progress pictures of my job. There is a lot more done and we will have all the walls up this week and the roof should be up by the end of the month. Enjoy...

Remodel Fun

So, it has been awhile since my last post so I figured I would fill you in on what has been going on.

In the work world things have sped up considerably and life is busy.  We tilted enough wall panels to surround about 2/3 of the building and have started putting up "shade" (roof structure).  We just released a bunch of our TI (Tenant Improvement) subcontractors so now I am contract and submittal mode all over again.  And now I am working on sorting out all of our  Change Orders to make sure everything is getting paid for. So all of that is long days and lots of fun.

Outside of work I have been working on remodeling my friends bathroom, as most of you know.  This remodel has turned into the Murphy's Law of remodeling.  If something could go wrong it has and not in an easy to fix sort of way.  Today we had to essentially remove a wall to get the Tub/Sower surround into the bathroom.  But the good news is that it is installed so now most of the hard stuff is complete and we can start dry-walling and finishing.  But it has come at the cost of long days and rough work.  I can't wait till its done and I know it will look great when I am finished.  My friend M has already committed to visiting and showering in it.

The only other current happening in my life is I am planning to purchase a truck this weekend.  But I am having second thoughts and chances are by tomorrow I will have made the responsible decision to pay off debt instead of making more... but that is a whole other post that may soon follow.

So in the coming weeks I have a busy work schedule, my sister's wedding the second weekend in Sept and next weekend I get to see my good friend R who just got back from Iraq and got engaged.  It should be a good month.

“The shortest distance between two points is under construction.”

Great Friends and Family!

I just wanted to take this chance to say thank you to all those that have made a difference in my life. Without you guys I would be a far less fortunate man.

The last couple days, for my birthday, I have been flooded with love from those who mean the most to me. I am a truly lucky guy.

So thanks to my friends for all the birthday wishes and thanks to my family for the gifts and time together. I look forward to seeing you all in the near future. :)

"You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime."

Strong Rancid Rubber Smell

OK so here is a new one...

At 2am this morning I was awoken by Scooter, one of the dogs I am dogsitting. He woke me up by nudging my right hand with his nose. A nose covered in foamy slobber that got all over my hand and the side of the bed. When I woke up I immediately smelled a very strong rubber/chemical smell that seemed a little rotten. I could not figure out what it was or where it was coming from, as it was so overwhelming, and I finally realized it was coming from Scooter himself. On top of this Scooter seemed to be choking or gagging... So needless to say I was a little frightened about what might be wrong with him.

I got up and grabbed a washcloth and cleaned all the foamy slobber off of Scooter's mouth and grabbed my computer to look up what might cause a foamy slobber on a dogs mouth that smells like burning rubber. And there it was... "How to remove the smell when a dog gets sprayed by a skunk."

There it was. The dog had sprayed by a skunk and then spread it all over me and the edge of the bed because he woke me up in fear. I had then proceeded to spread this terrible skunk smell onto a washcloth, my computer bag and my computer. Not to mention that Scooter probably got it in a lot more places because believe me, that slobber was dripping everywhere...

I had to be up at 3am to get to work so after figuring all this out it was time to get up and get going. So I put Scooter outside and got as much cleaned up as possible but no all I can smell is skunk and I have the joy of getting Scooter cleaned up when I get home. To make things worse: everything I have read (since getting to work) says to get the smell out right away cause if you wait then it gets harder to remove... So I have that going for me :(

"What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself." - Abraham Lincoln

The Organization of Chaos

So from my last post you all know that I am working on remodeling my friends bathroom. What I didn't mention was that I am going to be moving in and that is going to be my bathroom. This blog isn't only about this remodel but it is part of it.

Due to the fact that I am moving into my friend's house I have to be out of my apartment by Sunday, August 10th. This shouldn't be a problem because I don't have a ton of stuff and I have all weekend to move... or so I thought. I received a call from my Grandma who told me that my Dad is going to be in the Fresno area this weekend and because it is the weekend before my birthday she thought I should come down and celebrate. I only get to see my Dad a couple times a year so this seems like a great idea, only I still have to move. I then got a call from a close friend who is passing through town this weekend and would like to have lunch on Saturday. All do-able.

So basically I need to get moved out of my apartment before Friday so I can go down to Fresno and see my family on Saturday but not until after I have lunch with my good friend. Oh, but there is more...

My sister is getting married next month and I am happy to say I am being included as a groomsman. The problem is I need to be fitted for a tux and my sister has not sent me the card for me to send back with my measurements. So when would be a good time to be fitted? How about this Saturday when I am down in Fresno with the family. Great idea... add it to the list.

Here where it gets more complicated. My friends that I am moving in with are on a well deserved vacation in Hawaii and I am dogsitting for them. This means that I am all on my own trying to move all my stuff from my apartment to the house while dogsitting, all so I can get down to Fresno to see my family and celebrate my birthday. But as I have mentioned, this is all possible.

Another complication... I still need to remodel so I have a bathroom when I move into the new house... I guess you can't always juggle everything. So bathroom you will have to wait...

I hope you enjoyed my fun little story and I will let you know how it all turns out...

"Chaos in the world brings uneasiness,

but it also allows the opportunity for creativity and growth."