Constant state of flux

So I don't really have much to say, just keeping busy working and studying my ass off.

I have a little picture of me though.

Yes I did finally get my new chef knife though, the size I wanted was on back order.

First off I have been busy, so blogging is really the last thing I have time for.

I sold the truck, about f'n time. The guy who bought it used to work in bike shops and race back in the day. He even showed me a water bottle cage the Lemond gave him back in his heyday. I tried to work my way into one of the vintage campy equiped Raleighs he had in the basement, but no luck.

School is fine, my first test scored me a 97%.

Work is great, the food is awesome and I really like being able to just sit back and relax focusing on butchering and nothing more. Almost a meditative experience, relaxing and great for clearing out my mind. I can work at my own pace and don't have to deal the with stress of line cooking.

The cat chased a raccoon up a tree a couple days ago. He was just pacing around, while the raccoon was scared up in the tree glaring at me. I see the raccoon all the time, (s)he has to be somewhere around 40# plus, big sucker. How a little black cat all of 7 pounds was able to scare the raccoon is beyond me. Two days later the cat is up even further in the tree, chased up by a territorial rival. The black and orange cats were attacking each other while climbing higher up in the tree.

Silly cats.

Well I am still pissed, really pissed for that matter.

But I am looking a little more optimistically about things tonight than I was at about the same time yesterday. I woke up still in a daze, E2 was too scared to sleep at all, constantly waking up to check the locks or peer out the windows to investigate some random sound. Brewed up some coffee and headed to the t-rock to bitch about my plight to those that are forced to lend an ear, family of course. It felt nice to get my aggressions and frustrations off of my chest. With a belly full of Mother(biker), the vegan version of the Mothertrucker, spicy and delicious.

I had to buy a new computer, which was so aggravating. I bought the lowest model iMac, cheaper than another macbook, and I still get the discount since it is a desktop instead of a laptop. With the educational discount you are allowed one desktop and one laptop a year, and I just bought a laptop a tad over a month ago. Sure the new computer is nice, but it is a purchase I really didn't want/need to buy in a perfect world. The screen is much brighter than my old iMac, amazingly so.

After setting up the new computer, I started to work repeating all the school work I had lost. It took me a while, but I finished almost everything and then some, taking some of the pressure off of this upcoming week.

My neighbor came home mid-afternoon, after bitching to her about things for 10 minutes, I asked if she still had the bag she won at this year's stuperbowl. I had remembered her bitching that the chrome bag she won was too huge to be any use.

So I was able to buy this bag (sultan) off of her cheap, real cheap.


Bigger than anything I have, bigger than the banjo brothers bag that was stolen along with the rest of my crap. Thanks to my super nice neighbor for being so damn cool and so crazy fast on a bicycle.

(I thought that for some reason the robbers had stolen a small little jade from right inside the window, weird I know. Turns out they just threw the plant and pot down to the ground where it was sitting on it's side with dirt spilling out. I think the plant is going to be ok, but still.)

So tonight was shaping out to be one hell of a night. I worked at the new place and kicked some ass cutting lots of fish, rabbit, calamari, lamb etc. From there I rushed down to 1x1 to pick up directions to the Surly brewery, where I had voluntered to pick up a couple of kegs for the all city championship. The owner wasn't going to be ready until around 5, so I headed home, picked up E2 and took a quick little shower. Picking up of the kegs went really well, I got to tour the brewery, and chat it up with the owner, fun times.

I dropped the two kegs off at 1x1, headed back Seward side and got some coffee. From there I met up with Jeff at Zipp's where we loaded my truck once again with more booze and another keg, everything was shaping up to be a good night. E2 and I just spent the next 4 hours mingling and chilling with all the racers as they rolled in, lots of fun, lots of people I knew. Once the party was broken up (something about one of the bikers kicking a car as it was being towed), E2 and I just headed home.

Here is when the night fell apart.

First coming into the apartment, I noticed that the door was unlocked, I thought maybe I had forgotten, these things happen. Upon entry I notice things don't quite look right. Then it hits me, my computer is missing! My big ass 20" imac is GONE!!! Oh shit, it is all starting to sink in that I was robbed, and going through my house I notice all the juicy shit isn't there. Even the new macbook computer I have had for a little over a month isn't there, along with the my new banjo brothers bag. They just poured out the rest of the contents on the kitchen floor and took the bag with the computer and new 30gig Ipod. Fuckers.

Also missing was my PS2, my gameboy (which I haven't turned on in ages), a purple maglight, and my heavy change jar full of about 250 dollars worth of quarters, dimes, nickles, silver dollars, two dollar bills and half dollars.

The fuckers took lots of shit the little bastards.

Worst yet, all of my school work, which I was ahead on was on that damn computer. Now I need to start from fucking scratch.

Alright I have to get off of this damn computer (my old PC which I had loaned to JaMin) and take a shower, I feel dirty and violated.

Well my first day went well, I only had to work for a little over 3 hours. I think I am going to like the place, the standards that we have to hold to are higher than almost every place I have ever worked. It is a take back to a place I worked at a couple of years ago, half assed just isn't acceptable.

The largest chunk of my time was spent cutting lamb.

Which was time consuming but not terribly difficult. I had to take a big back piece and turn it into tenderloins, saddles and loins. The hardest and most time consuming part of the process was taking the silver skin off, but even that wasn't insurmountable. Over all I was happy with the job I did on the lamb, and no one offered any suggestions (including the chef) as to how I could have done it better.

The only other thing I did in my 3 hour shift was pin-bone, skin, portion and cure copper river coho filets.


Coho of all the salmon available has to be close to my least favorite (among wild salmon), not that it is horrible or anything, I just do not favor it. Give me sockeye, king or even some farm raised Atlantic salmon anyday. If nothing else in terms of ease of butchering, the Coho is just one of the hardest (for me anyway). At the new place when we take the skin off, we have to get most of the brown and silver off of the flesh, which requires a sharper knife and much more attention to detail. If you don't get it perfect the first time, you have to try your best to get all the imperfections off and end up with a clean filet. It ended up being ok, but it took me much longer than I would have liked. I always have a hard time when I don't do something perfect right away.

I am in class right now, and the teacher is talking I really should be paying attention, that given I am not going to spellcheck.

So I am sitting just a few momnets from starting my new (and hopefully long term) employment. I am dang stoked about the whole idea, so I am hoping that I will not be let down after I actually start. I was so stoked that I ordered myself two new knives in celebration of the event. Now did I really need two new knives? Probably not, but I can assure you I will be using the shit out of them. When I visited NY at the begining of the year, I stopped by Korin and picked up what has become my favorite knife, a 5.5" petty made from layered steel. For the longest time I was a proponent of the carbon steel knives, due to the softer steel which in turn makes it easier to hone a sharper edge. These knives are stain resistant, but the edge keeps for much longer than I had expected.

The first knife I bought was a 10.5" sujihiki, a style which has been a desire of mine for many years. Basically the sujihiki is a long slicer, thin and great for such tasks as removing skin, filleting fish etc. I have a slicer that B bought me years ago, which is a wonderful knife, this one is just a little longer and of higher quality. Given that I am going to be working so much with fish and meat, this knife is going to come in handy.

The second knife is as well 10.5" and is a gyotou, or a western style chef knife. What most people typically envision when they think of a chef knife, but again with the layered steel and a nicer handle. I have a couple of chef knives, and I really didn't probably need this one, but with how much I have loved my petty, I couldn't resist.

I also ordered some knife oil, which should be applied to blades that are rarely used, and a cleaning cloth. I don't really know what the cloth is for, or better put how it differs from a common rag. A three dollars I didn't really see any reason not to buy it, especially considering how much I use my knives.

Alright time to start... Or at least in 5 minutes or so.

So my long stint at being unemployed is coming to an end in a couple of days. I got hired at what I consider to be one of the best restaurants in the cities. The owner/chef seems really cool and with a good head on his shoulders, something I can respect. He is willing to work around my school schedule, which is awesome. There really wasn't a position open, but he hired me anyway. The situation is pretty much ideal, blocks away from the campus and I am just going to be there to pick up the slack. I don't think I could have planned a more ideal job.

Anyway I am off to the library, lots of studying to do.

Question.

How is it that now when the weather is turning for the worse I am having such difficulty finding my damn hoodies.

Like where is my black hoodie?

Where is my other black hoodie?

Where is my light blue hoodie?

Where is my dark blue hoodie?

Where is my white (t-shirt) hoodie?

Perfect hooded sweatshirt weather and I cannot find a single one, WTF?

In an effort not to get behind this semester, I just finished writing two little papers and have most of the reading done for next week. The papers were quick and painless, always a good thing. I am still thinking I am going to have to drop one of my classes, especially since I don't know how long my extended period of unemployment is going to be sustainable. Don't get me wrong, having the time and ability to focus on school and only school is nice, cash is one of the evils of our society. Necessary evil that it may be, I am going to have to start searching with more diligence here shortly.

On a lighter note, I decided what one large purchase I am going to do with all the money from selling my house. In my mind it is more of an investment than purely a frivolous expenditure. An investment that should add to my general state of mind, as well as one that will probably not lose it's value, in fact it may increase. I am going to buy a painting from this guy a friend of a friend who I see all over the place. I fell in love with his paintings a while back when he had a show at the BLB, but back then it wasn't something I could justify spending lots of cash on. Back when I had to worry about rent and mortgage both, I couldn't justify the expense. Now things are a little different, I know I will find a job, just a matter of time and my bills are so cheap, why not. I would have liked to have purchased some from the show, but 19/20 sold on opening night.

Sweet I just found a picture of the painting....



In case you are all wondering, he is the guy who painted that big mural on the new Dun(n) Bro's accross from the BLB...

Today was my second full fledged day as a student, and boy oh boy am I going to be a busy little boy this semester. I had 3 classes today, which aren't incredibly difficult on their own, but combined with the others my leisure time is going to be full. Altogether for my classes I am going to need to buy a total of 20 books, plus 3 thick photo copied packets. On average I have to look forward to reading somewhere in the area of 200-400 pages a week, maybe more. Plus all of the classes require quite a bit of writing, two of the classes are writing intensive. It is going to be a fun school year I can already see. I am thinking about dropping one of the classes, just to make sure I can do well at all of them, shake the rust off this semester.

I heard back from one of the places I applied to yesterday. Little cafe in NE, not far from the river. Their business has been picking up quite a bit lately, so although they were not looking for someone they might just take me on. What they have in mind for me doesn't seem all that bad, basically a butcher, clean fish, ducks, rabbits, etc. The cool thing about this gig would be that I would be done nice and early in the day, and I wouldn't have to deal with the dinner rush like the rest of the cooks do. Plus this restaurant has been one of my favorites in the cities for a number of years. Who knows though, things often fall through.

In other news, I am still on the wagon... Just two days and already I have lost 3# no kidding. Give me two months and I am certain I will be down another 20 or so.

Well it is official now, I am once again a full fledged student. Even as I knew it was approaching, it still didn't seem real until I was sitting in my classes, listening to lectures and once again turning a section of my brain on that has long laid dormant. Already with just the two classes I had today, the writing and reading responsibilities are going to be enormous, and I still have 3 more classes tomorrow, egads. This just reiterates the fact that there is no was I would have been able to maintain this level of a course load and still work a full-time job, not possible. As is I have a feeling I am going to be busting my butt every week just to keep on top of things, add to that the stress of work like I was doing before, I would be a wreck.

Out of nowhere I decided to have a little BBQ yesterday, end of the summer send off, labor day whatever. It was hastily planned at best, but still about 25 people (A few of whom I didn't even invite) showed up and we quickly ran out of food. I thawed out the last Kobe Beef round from my freezer and once again marinated it with miso, ginger, soy and plenty of garlic. The 2 cases of PBR I figured would be enough, but the well ran dry early in the night. It was probably for the best though, I had to wake up early enough for school, best that I not be hungover for it.

But still no job, though I did send my resume off to 4 places today. I don't know how fruitful any of the places will end up being, considering I have no idea if any of them are even hiring. I just picked 4 places that I know I would like to work at and started from there. Worse comes to worse I don't have a job and have to mooch off of loans and house money for a little longer, I can imagine worse situations.

Sitting around and waiting.

Right now I (we) are just sitting in the room where we just signed all the paper work to legally pass ownership to the lucky fellow who is going to be inhabiting my old house. Why are we still here you may be asking? We are just sitting waiting for the wire transfer to be complete so that we can hit up the bank and finally be done with the entire house ordeal. They money was already transfered once, but there was one number that wasn't correct, meaning it had to be remitted and sent once again. Hopefully for the sake of all of us, it won't be that much longer, with the big black leather chairs and bland off colored walls, I might just go insane soon. Added to the aggrevation is the fact that the people who are responcible for checking if the wire has gone through are all at lunch, the same that we just came back from. I guess I have waited for this long, no problem waiting a little longer. After all what is a couple of hours extra, it has been months upon months that this day has been coming.

Interesting thing about the new owner, he is young, like really young. He is just 25 years old, but somehow makes enough money to support a mortgage payment much higher than the one that my ex and I sometimes struggled to pay. He got the money for the down payment from an old job he worked at a couple of years ago. I guess he was working for some internet startup company, that sold for a couple of million. The old owners were nice enough to pass on a decent chunk of change to all the employees, so even though he was new he still got somewhere around 20k. Talk about nice owners.

I did warn him that I may drunkenly wander into his yard, sit myself on the porch with a bottle of whiskey in my hand and a half lit cigar. I told him it may be best to invest in a cattle prod, just to get me to leave. I drank a beer on the deck last night, got the few little things left and just sighed a little, knowing I no longer was going to have the liberty to do so. Sure I am getting a little sappy, fuck off.

I sent my resume to the U, they were hiring for some food service job, nothing spectacular but 100% free school. Not five minutes after I sent the resume, I got a phone call from the nice lady who handles all the hiring. I had a interview setup for nice and early this morning, which was interesting. Right when I get there they pass me a piece of paper with 4 little doodles on it. They task was to identify the pictures and describe what situations you would use said item. The pictures were of a knife, gloves, fire extinguisher, and goggles. Really who in the hell wouldn't know what to use that stuff for, silly. The lady was really nice and wanted to find something that they could utilize my skills and abilities. I liked her right away, the danskos and MT sweatshirt was enough to win me over. It really wasn't meant to be though, they need someone to work full time, far more hours than I would be able to commit to. That and the fact that they only had positions open during the morning hours.

But it looks like the check is here, I should probably get going and concentrate on what is going on around me.


just a little update, all went well and now the check is in the bank and the house is the responcibility of some other poor sucka.