My new title...

So last Monday I finally got a call from my National Guard recruiter I'd been talking to. My medical got cleared so on Thursday evening I went to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station.) Here is a picture of the building...

I took the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) to see what I could do. I needed to score a 31 to get infantry, I scored an 88. It was supposed to take three hours, which I of course completed in about 50 minutes. I than went to a hotel where the military rents out the entire second floor and slept there for the night. Paul came and hung out for a while since he'd already been through it and knew it would be extremely boring. We played a couple games of pool in the bar, we were in there for maybe a half hour and three seperate groups of people tried to buy us drinks (Paul was in uniform.) He told me that always happens and people are always coming up thanking him... Lights out was at 10:00. Apparently the Army is strict, I heard someone leave a room at about 10:15 to go to his own. Some officer caught him and he was instantly kicked out.

The next day started with a 4:30 wake up. quick breakfast, and off to MEPS again for the longest day of hurry up and wait I've ever had. We took physicals, vision, hearing, blood, height, weight, fingerprints and tests to check range of motion.

After all that we got with a guy who went over what I qualified for. He was a little confused since I scored an 88 on the ASVAB, I could have done chemical weapons, counterintelligence, psy-ops (psycological operations,) and pretty much anything I wanted. But I wanted ground infantry.

Paul showed up to get pictures of me getting sworn in, but after waiting for 4 and a half hours he had to go do stuff. So unfortunately I have no pictures of it... But at about 3:15 I took the oath and was officially sworn in as a Private in the US Army National Guard. I could say more but it really reminded me of sitting at the DMV for about ten hours.

Ramone, Ramone, Ramone

Not wanting to be outdone by the previous felines owned by me, Ramone decided to go and get clipped by a car. At first I thought he tried to catch something that got the better end of the fight, scratches, "bit" tongue, bloody chin...

But after I took him to the vet, he ends up with a broken upper and lower jaw causing his eye to look retarded, his top canines are both broken (one got filled, the other got removed) the tip of his tongue is somewhere else, a chunk of flesh got ripped off his chin, and while taking blood they found minor liver trauma. So I said hell, can you neuter him too?

The vet called at about 3:00 this afternoon to say Ramone was doing good and he was a great cat to work with. Everything went well, he basically has braces and an expander right now wiring each of his jaws back together... He also said that he is very friendly and happy and was hanging out in his office talking to him, purring and getting pet. "A very nice cat" he says. He is spending the night there to get another antibiotic shot tomorrow, than he comes home.

Let's just leave it at that and not ask how much this is going to cost.

Uh. Ok.

I walked in on Caden "making his body cool." So he says...

Cadens first attempt at digital photography

What's going on here???

I saw that Tom Robbins book, or whatever it is, on Stacy's blog. I knew I'd seen it before...

I present to you -

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Making the home.

We scored a sweet couch and chair on craigslist. I built some trinkit shelves for the living room and bathrooms and installed some double towel bars since there's not much storage room. And the savageness, I got the guy who runs the direct printer at work to print me some pictures. Three Ansel Adams and three reef scenes. They are actually printed on 1/4" birch plywood so a little of the wood grain shows up in the background. And Gizmo, Ramones new playpal. He's a siamese mutt with light orange stripes.

More updates...

I got my letter of denial from L.O. But that was kind of expected so I'm not real bummed out.

I got my scores from Oregon City, 100% on the math, the next two sections were reading comprehension and spelling & grammer, I got a 92% on one and a 75% on the other. I don't remember which was which... And then I got 100% on the writing part. So it averages to 92.5%... I asked the lady if she knew, or could tell me, how I fared compared to the other people. She said she didn't know that, but she could tell me "a whole boat load" of people failed the writing portion. And you have to pass all parts to move on. She said I can probably expect a letter inviting me to the ORPAT (physical test.)

And so...

The Oregon City test turned out to be like a GED test for mentally handicapped people. Apparently there are alot of mentally handicapped people. I finished each section in about half the allotted time, than laughed to myself as I watched other people panic as time ran out and they weren't done. I even caught the jackass next to me cheating. On a police test.

I got my score for the written part of my Salem test... The video part that was weird I needed a 60% on, I got a 74% which I didn't think was good but the lady said that's about normal. The spelling and grammer I needed a 70% on and I scored a 97% which the lady said "Wow, that's good!" I'm still waiting on the faux police report.

Due to the hate email...

I am posting this...

So I took my oral board for Lake Oswego Police on Wednesday... I think I didn't do good but mommy thinks I'm being hard on myself and I did ok... I'll find out in a couple weeks if I get to move on there.

I took the physical and written tests for Salem Police Thursday, I had to do a 300 meter (3/4 lap) sprint in 71 seconds, I did it in 49. I did the 25 pushups, no time limit. Than the 29 situps in a minute, I finished that in 44 seconds. Next was a 14" vertical jump, since I can grab basketball hoops I decided not to try on that one and hopped a quick 24". And finally, a mile and a half (6 laps) run to be completed in 16:28, I finished that one in 12:25. Since I passed all that, I got to move on to the written test which took about three hours.I have no idea how I did on that because it was one of those test where there was no "wrong" answer, we had to put the best answer, and it ends up that there's only one right answer. And we watched a short video and had to write a faux police report about it. I'll find out about the first part on Wednesday, and won't hear about the report part for a couple weeks. If I pass that I move on to the oral board there...

Next is the Oregon City written test on Saturday and McMinnville next Saturday...

Here's a picture for fun... And yes Craig, it would be weird to be in the front of the car...

This is the new pad... Here's a couple pictures of the living room... Custom shoe rack, TV stand, nightstand/endtables, and computer desk by yours truly...

<---That's our fancy dining room with a big fat freshwater puffer, veiled chemeleon, and russian

tortoise. Furniture by Ikea. I decided I could buy the set cheaper than I could build it.

This would be Caden's quarters where he enjoys throwing fits, sleeping, and watching movies before bedtime.

This is Christie's room... The women will notice the full wall of closet that is also a ginourmous mirror...

The kitchen...

My room. Custom bed and nightstand by me... The bed still needs drawer faces.

Well, I see that I'm the biggest slacker of all here. So here is my new posting! Hold the applause. I've been doing alot of the same, up to no good as usual... I outfitted my CAR4 with a sexy red dot scope for shooting stuff. I have a three year old attempting to boss me around on an almost minutely basis.

I removed myself from purchasing at work and plopped myself into the glamorous title of shop foreman. Which means I pretty much chase paperwork around all day and make sure product gets out the door when it's supposed to and not forget the little stuff. But if someone needs a stern talking to, I get to do that also!

I went to the beach a couple weeks ago, and as not to make this post to boring, here's a lovely picture of the sunset. Hmmmm... I guess that's all I got right now...

After many attempts by Mom (Stacy) and Grandpa (Dad) to transform Optimus Prime, it was turned over to the professional, much to Max's delight. There is no photographic evidence of my savageness as I was busy transforming.

Caden & Ramone relaxing by the fire... This was near Christmas, they spent a good amount of time doing this...