oh.
no job.
no life.
just hiking and learning to sleep in.

that which does not kill us goes to make us stronger

except for the stuff that kills us slowly. heh heh. that makes you weaker. it just takes a while.

oh...if anyone is so inclined...
I watched 4 episodes of The Sandbaggers last night. It is a kick ass british spy television show. Picked it up at the library and will be returning for more. Great british drama. Lots of clever twists, not your everyday tv trash.

gimme a jay-oh-bee

Taurus
Don't give up the ship. At least not now. It really doesn't matter how bleak things are looking for the next few days. That is the sun you see hovering over the horizon. And it is coming up rather than going down. You have plenty of resources to work with, even though the reserves in your bank account may be running a little low these days. Don't hesitate to ask someone for a favor or to allow them to give a word of encouragement. They can and want to help. Someday, you can return the favor.

stayed home from jeff and emily's dinner tonight. feeling rather crappy and thought it best not to inflict myself upon others. i am tidying up my house and my loose ends, which is always good.

this weekend was great. went for a no-trail hike with Uncle Jon, Linda and Miles (the hound) at a spot called Wolf Creek about 45 minutes west of Portland. We just took off through the woods and kind of followed the creek for a couple hours. Up 60 degree hills drenched with rain and muddy, ripping through the salal and oregon grape. Spotted some mushy chantrelles and a bunch of deer bones. Caught a couple of rought skin newts and collected some moss for a terrarium. Got back to the car at about 1:30 covered with mud, wet and happy.

Came home and identified the newt and found out that they are the most poisonous amphibians in north america. Subsequently Linda and I drove out to Sauvie Island and released them in the water way there. Didn't want to risk the kitties getting at them and I started to feel bad about having them in the tank. I am building a new terrarium that is looking pretty kick ass. Jon lent me a 20 gallon tank.... I think i will just populate it with local plants and spiders. I have enough as my giant garden spiders egg sack has hatched. Lots of litltle guys swarming my first tank. Pretty entertaining to watch. Die crickets die.

Had some friends over last night and cooked lemon chicken baked on top of bulgar pilaf. yum. Jeff brought over his guitar and there was some lovely singing. all in all a perfect saturday.

This morning I woke up early and called Chicago where the majority of my family is gathered right now for Caitlyn's baptism and Sarah's birthday. Wished every one well and then caught Orange County at a matinee. I dig Jack Black. The film was entertaining, nothing that I will remember in a year, but good for laughs.

insurance woes and headaches.

its like this. I got cobra health insurance from apex when they dumpt me. then they jacked the price up which made me switch to group health in december. there is no group health (hmo) in oregon so i have to go be a guest at kaiser. Northstar administrators (the fuckups..oh excuse me) who supposedly were the ones in charge of signing me up with GH still haven't done so... despite several talks with them... oh...and the apex goes and switches from northstar to kibble and prentice... so we have some other big organization fucking with things....

the long and short of it is that i can't get medications that i have been taking for years until they straighten this shit out. ugh. and i have a big fucking headache.

just spoke to denis for a while which helped, but what i really need is a colossal drunk. HELP.

things been good. i put some new pictures of linda and I hiking up on sneakyfreak. ptown is good. i been interviewing for jobs...mostly in the QA world... which is great. I would love to start working soon.

Happy 2002!
new years was spent in the port madison yacht club w/ Linda, the Gs, Ma, and a few other folks from the corinthian yacht club. it was splendid. I would rather have been there than anywhere else in the world. it was a quiet and fitting end to a year that had been just a bit too tumultuous of late.

I am boring. I picked up about 6 movies from the library today. already watched the 5th element and Little Voice. long evening ahead of me.

oh.. had a great day at the ocean last week. just toodling around cannon beach and oswald's west. collecting beach stones and petting other people's dogs. stopping at antique shops and thrift stores. eating snacks and fruity drinks.

i need a damn job, but am going to miss days like this.