Blog Withdrawals

I'm ba-ack! Wow, it's been several weeks, hasn't it?

So many (ok, like 3) people have asked me when the heck I'm going to blog again. Yes, I admit, it's been awhile.

Not to say that nothing's been happening, quite the opposite. A LOT has been happening, and I was hoping things would slow down enough for me to take a breath and talk about it, but life doesn't seem to be slowing down, so here it goes.

First of all, Alex is doing much better that I'm aware of. He's out of the hospital finally, but I have yet to talk to him. I thank you for your prayers, and I'm sure he does as well.

Second of all, school is going very well, I get A's on all my homework, and B's on all my tests. I'm even learning some things occasionally.

Third of all, and maybe biggest news, I have a new job. But Austin, I thought you just got a new job like a month ago, you say. Yes, but now I have another one. MarketPartner and I agreed that it wasn't a place for me, with my faults being honesty and integrity, and their faults being lack thereof. If anyone wants to know the details, I'll fill you in, but it basically stems from them telling me I wasn't meeting expectations, or doing my assigned tasks, and I told them they never told me what my expectations were, or how to do my assigned tasks, (which I had told them multiple times in the past) as well as their promising to pay commissions next week, I mean next month, I mean next month, and the fact that every customer I spoke with was very unhappy with their service (or lack thereof), and so I felt it was time to leave. So they fired me before I could quit.
Anyway, I spoke to Pat, my old boss from QualitySmith, who said there's still a spot for me at Prosper, so I'm filling that spot for one week now.
I'd like to thank my wonderful and patient and amazing wife Tracie for putting up with me, and promise I will always strive to be employed and to do my best there, even if this is my 6th job this year. Sheesh. It's a wonder ANYONE puts up with me. But, I'm in school, trying to better my situation by eventually getting a job I will (dare I say it?) enjoy (I dared). I love you, Tracie, and am very grateful I married you. More and more grateful each day.
At Prosper, we help people (you guessed it) prosper. We do this with different web training, workshops, trainers, etc. in such fields as Real Estate, Stock Market, E-Commerce, Entrepreneurship, and Personal Finance/Getting out of Debt. I call people and see if they'd like a free trial of our website. And yes, it's exactly as fun as it sounds, but it's a job, and I have a few of my QualitySmith friends there.

Utah Beckstroms:

I'd like to welcome my Uncle Jim and Aunt Jan and cousins Nikita, Max, Ivan and Andre to the beehive state, recently moved from Texas to Spanish Fork. Tracie and I had a wonderful Sunday dinner with them on (you guessed it, if you didn't that's sad) Sunday.
We also saw Justin and Catherine Spagnolo down from Idaho for a baby shower (theirs) the week before. They look wonderful, it was fantastic to visit with my cousin/best friend/former mission companion/guru/thorn in my side and his lovely wife, and we're all looking forward to joining with you to welcome Lily Ora Spagnolo to Earth, and say with all of us, I hope she looks like Catherine.

Holy Halloween parties, Batman!

Even though we're still picked last when we try out for little league, Tracie and I were invited to 3 halloween parties! One was a semi-intimate murder mystery dinner, where we were dressed as classical monsters, with a very tongue in cheek tone to it. I was the mummy of King Aldrinktotat, Tracie was the flamboyant clairvoyant Madame Aretha Garlique, who turned out to, not only be a vampire, but also a cross-dresser who was in actuality the supposed murder victim. Confused? So were we, and we were AT the dang party! But it was a lot of fun, and we got to see several close friends we hardly ever see anymore.
Party #2 was in Salt Lake, one of Tracie's old friends and her boyfriend held a halloween extravaganza, we went as the gods Apollo and Aphrodite (the costumes were Roman God and Greek Goddess, though people asked me if I was 1) Marc Antony, 2) Caesar, 3) a Princess, 4) Hephaestus (ok, no one asked me that) but we decided (ok, I decided) I couldn't be Mars/Ares because I didn't have a helmet/sword/shield, and I didn't want to be Hephaestus, because he was ugly, and let's face it, even I'm not that good of an actor, and there's only so much makeup you can wear, but my natural cuteness burns through.) The party was a lot of fun, we painted pumpkins, had a costume contest, a halloween movie quiz, karaoke, and dance party. Tracie won the halloween movie quiz (14 out of 15! Go Tracie!) and got a nice fleece blanket, I won third place for costumes, mostly because part of the judging was on our walk on the catwalk, and though I didn't shake my little tush on the catwalk, I was entertaining enough to merit third. With that, we won Simpson's clue, with Homer as Colonel Mustard etc, the murder weapons being things like a slingshot and poisoned donut, and the rooms places like the Kwik-E-Mart and Moe's Tavern. We also won 3rd place for best couple, a bit dubious as there were a total of 3 matching couples, but we still got our pictures taken by a professional. But the BIG news of the night (besides the fact that you all surmised, I went home with the prettiest girl at the party) is Tracie sang on the Karaoke in front of strangers! (And did a KILLER job, I might add (not only might I; I DO!) She sang that Christina Agliera song I turn to you, people commented to me several times through the song what a good singer she is. I'm very proud of her, even though she was shaking noticeably after, I'm so proud she still did it in effort to overcome her stagefright.
Party the Third: This was the annual McNeil family Halloween party, this year blessed by the presence of 2 ninja turtles, Rambo, Spiderman, a fisherman, and maybe the cutest pumpkin ever. The highlight was either Tyler's AWESOME chili, or the pie trick played by Trent. I'd expound, but it's one of those you had to be there to appreciate it, and Tracie's getting after me for writing so much, and I still have quite a bit more to write. Hey, you asked for it! Also, I've never played such a dangerous or interesting game of Red Rover, not to mention with the age group I did.

Goals update:

Well, those of you paying attention, I've obviously shirked a bit on my blogging goal, but just because I'm not perfect doesn't mean I'm giving up. As this novel of a blog shows. My losing weight goal is similar, I'm still on my one helping only kick (except on Sunday family dinner, and on Monday because that chili was so good) and one sweet or less a day. People are commenting that I look thinner, but that jerk Mr. Scale keeps lying and saying I weigh the same, which is still a lot better than saying I'm gaining weight. If he said that, I'd have to have words with him and kill him.

Speaking of dying, last week, my car died. It's ok, we resurrected it (for now). I was headed to work at my new job, and it wouldn't start, so last week I took the bus and rode my bike to work. But Tracie's car gave Ella a jump, and now she's as good as she was before (which isn't any good) but at least she's moving.

Finally, (the word you've been waiting for! He's almost done!) one of my old friends from my college days in Virginia told me about this website, NaNoWriMo.com, which means National November Writer's Month, where you commit to write every day in November, which should help motivate me to write, which I've been wanting to do for quite awhile now. (Not so much the November part, just the writing part.)

I'll let you know how it goes with next week's entry!