I went to the police station and filed a report. It looks like the purpose of the report is just so that in the event that I find the mower in a pawn shop or second hand store I can say, “Um hey! That’s my mower and I have this peice of paper as proof”. I went around to pawn shops this morning and came up empty handed. As far as paying with a credit card and having some sort of theft protection goes, I used my Sears card which I found out does not give you any kind of insurance on your purchase. I only even used it to get the points so I wouldn’t have paid with my visa anyway. Maybe I should start… Well, I suppose the sooner I forget about it the sooner I can stop feeling bad about it. As I explained to Anna-Maria, it could have been a lot worse - like they could have actually robbed something from inside the house or perhaps a car accident or something. You’ve got to keep it in perspective, at least nobody died.

Some degenerate primate saw my lawnmower sitting against the back side of Anna’s house and decided it would be a good idea to steal it. Anna figures it might be two American Indians that routinely prowl the alley “looking for things to pawn”. Personally, I thought at first it might be that guy who was so interested in checking out my new lawnmower. I should never have left it out at her house; I should have taken it home. In fact I would have taken it home except for the fact that I knew that as soon I as I took it home Anna’s yard would need mowing and I even started mowing it yesterday except that I ran out of gas almost immediately. Why do people steal? Just buy your own frickin stuff and if you can’t afford it then get a job you @#$&*! lowlife scumbags.

Tracking Down My Stuff

I called the police and they said I could come down and fill out a report. I called Sears to see if they had a record of my serial number. Of course—they didn’t. They said that their computers don’t have a place to record serial numbers, just model numbers. Luckily enough for me, although I packed the lawnmower box full of junk for spring cleaning, the garbage men have not come around to collect the big stuff yet and so the box was still out there serial number intact. I’m going to fill out a report form at the police station now.

Yesterday I swam two kilometers. After practice I was asked by one of the girls on the team to substitute for her on Friday coaching some younger kids on the LASC team. They are pretty little kids, eight and under I think, but she said she would have a lesson plan made up for me so hopefully things go smoothly.

I still haven’t heard back about working at the swimming pool, but it’s only been one day. However I did get another job today. As of today I am now an interviewer for a company that does market research. Apparently I’ll be on the phones starting this Monday conducting market research for a blazing $8.00 / hour. I sure hope that lifeguarding job comes through, but even if it does I’m not totally sure that I won’t just keep this job for the extra hours I can put in. Stay tuned for updates and crazy phone research stories…

When I got up this morning and was just getting ready to head over to the Fritz Sick pool to apply for a job. When I went into the living room I discovered my roommate and his girlfriend each asleep on one of the couches. “Hmmm, this is strange,” I thought to myself but then thought well whatever they must have just fallen asleep when they were hanging out and it got too late or something. Anyway I tried to be quiet and as I was slipping out of the house my roommate says to me, “Hey Jeff, I locked myself out of my room, do you know how to get back in?” It just so happens the door knob on that one particular room is broken and if you lock it, you have to be on the inside to unlock it. Anyway sure enough he was locked out. I was running late on dropping of my resume so after a quick look at it I told him that I would take another crack at it when I got back. When I returned I thought I’m really going to have to do something major like saw off that doorknob or something. Before I did anything drastic I just took my needle nose pliers (yes the ones that I brought from Canadian Tire so recently) and worked away at it. Next thing I know, viola - a small violin, err um I mean Open Sesame the door was unlocked. Hopefully I get that job working for the Y (at the Fritz Sick), because opening doors while a handy skill doesn’t seem to be doing much for me in the way of cashola.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck Gary and Tracie. I, on the other hand, have had some pretty good luck lately. No, I haven’t gotten a summer job yet, but I did finally get the new washer and dryer working. I would have loved to get them going a long time ago, but it was more complicated than just unplugging the old ones and plugging in the new ones. For one thing the old dryer was “hard wired” into the house. That meant that I would have to either hard wire this new one too, or install a new high voltage outlet. Well I finally put that new saw to use and as well Anna’s drill. But there are always a million things you never think about until you actually start on a project. I had to drill out holes for the screws, and how was I supposed to know how big to make the holes? Well to make a long story short I finally got the new washer and dryer working! Oh and I found someone’s panties behind the old washer; yes they were dirty from being worn - YUCK!!!!!!!!!

The Medicine Hat Milner’s are in Lethbridge today and we are going kayaking down the Belly River. Too bad you couldn’t come this weekend Gary, I have an extra kayak and everything! Well I’ll let you know how it goes.

…And the ants are still surviving. I’m thinking about taking Anna’s shovel and digging down to the queen. I wonder if that would work. Anyone with any ideas, feel free to shout out.

While I don’t usually like cold weather, it dropped below freezing here in Lethbridge last night too. It was really great for the weeding though - all my weeds just died overnight! Anna’s next-door neighbour had a particularly bad dandelion problem - they had dandelions but no grass. Now they have a front yard full of dead dandelions. It almost looks like really well groomed grass through the morning mist. They must be especially happy.

Anna and I both had a great time in Medicine Hat. Albeit there was a little more cake shared than I would have liked at Solange’s party I’m quickly recovering. Oops, my supper is ready so I’ll finish this post a bit later.

Update: Well I never remembered to come back to this post for a couple years, but now that I’ve noticed it, I’ll just add what happened at the party. Anna and her siblings smeared cake into the unsuspecting faces of both Gary and I. I have changed a lot and it seems like no big deal now, but it really ticked me off at the time.

(From the Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2003)

Relying on the assumption that people love freebies and can’t read foreign languages, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies arrested 10 wanted people by luring them to Big Bear to receive a free pair of hiking boots made by “Stockdum Scelestus” — meant to be a mix of German and Latin meaning “utterly stupid criminal.”

Update: Link removed because the L.A. Times moved it to their archive where they charge $3.95 to read it - even though you could go to the Library and read it for free.

Last night Mom, Dad, Anna-Maria, her sisters, and I all took in the new Disney Movie, Holes (Official Site / trailer). I didn’t love the Matrix, but I loved Holes. Let me tell you why Holes is such a great movie. First of all let me give a little background. Based on the enormously popular novel by Louis Sachar, Holes illustrates the misfortune of Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf) after he is sent to Camp Greenlake, a juvenile detention camp, basically because of some bad luck. It also explains the history of misfortune befallen upon the Yelnats’ family after a curse was put on Stanley Yelnats the first when he didn’t live up to a promise made to a certain European fortuneteller. This movie seems to have everything including family fortunes, family curses, a turn-of-the-century interracial romance, train robbers, buried treasure, ghosts, onions, peaches, sneakers and Texas Yellow Spotted Lizards, and then ties them all into the resolution. Despite being a movie filled with “holes”, this movie is funny and touching and more logical than you’d think possible. I recommend it even if you aren’t taking your girlfriend’s younger sisters with you.

Whoa! Last night I went to see The Matrix Reloaded (Official Site | Trailer) with Anna-Maria and some of her friends. As expected The Matrix Reloaded was filled with really long fight scenes, a bunch of bad dialogue, a boatload of amazing special effects, oh and did I mention some really long kung fu fight scenes? Overall I thought it was a cool movie but I was hoping for something more. It had the potential to go in all sorts of new directions but instead they just waste time in meaningless kung fu battles. When I say meaningless - I mean exactly that, the fight scene where Neo takes on hundreds of replicated agents ends when Neo gets bored and flys away. How stupid is that? What was the point?

In case it’s not self-evident, this movie is not for Mom and Dad. As much as I thought you might like the first one, (I don’t know what I was thinking) you will absolutely hate this movie.

I finally got a new lawnmower and I must say I’m really pleased. 6.25 horsepower and boy it mows like crazy! When I was out working on the yard my neighbour, Steve, came by to compliment me by telling me that in the short time I lived here I had already done more work keeping the place in shape than the six guys living there before me did in two years! I really haven’t done much but I guess something is better than nothing.

A couple of nights ago, I heard on the news that some lawyer in California was trying to get Oreo Cookies banned in California because they are too unhealthy (They contain Trans-fattie goodness badness). It looks like he’s given up. Thank goodness - nevertheless does what he say make you less likely to enjoy the tempting treat of Oreo Cookies?