I was an idiot last night, and almost let Forest choke me out, but of course he thought better of it when I turned purple, so that's okay. We were sparring in the ninja room, and he just plain got the better of me, fair and square. Oh! I almost forgot to define the ninja room. My house has two big rooms in the front, a parlor and a living room. I only have enough furniture for one of the rooms, so the other is completely empty. The only thing that ever happens in the empty room is martial arts. Hence it's the ninja room. We play rough. It's fun. I'd say Forest wins a little more than half of the time, but I think it's mostly because there's not enough room to really do Aikido in our house, and because he outweighs me by about a third of my weight, so if it comes to grappling on the floor, he has a distinct advantage.
Today I got a flu shot. We'll see if it does any good. I mainly did it to convince Forest that he should get one, too. Athsmatics and influenza don't mix. I carry a lot of contagions around because I work in public health, and he could die. It's no joke. So now I'm running a slight fever and have a sore arm, all to make a point! Oh well, it's worth it.
I got hired for a Christmas mall job, and hopefully will fill out the paperwork and get a few hours in this Sunday. It's easy stuff, and kind of fun, really. I stand around and play with yoyos and stuff. If you think about it, during Christmas shopping season you make about a thousand trips to the mall. That's a lot of gas, and a lot of time. Well, what if every time that you went, you worked, just a few hours at some menial wage. Well, you've at least made up for your gas money, and earned an employee discount, too! For that matter, you get cheaper food while you are at the mall, because most of the restaurants have discount cards for you, too. The nicest thing about it will be that I'll be working the same weekend shifts as Forest, so we can carpool in. Kirstin's going to spend that time visiting with Jeff and Alex, which will be wonderful. She misses them a lot. The coolest thing about this mall job is that I did the same one last year, and they were so glad I came back that they gave me a raise. More than just standard of living. I was really flattered, because I know they didn't have to do that.
Ow. My arm hurts.
The State of Michigan network is still toast. It's crazy. They are flying programmers in from Cisco now, and talking about cutting off all HTTP access. Yikes!
Tonight is Forest's night off, so we are digging a pit in our backyard, and cleaning out the corn crib in preparation for this weekend's Halloween activities. The corn crib is a bizarre squarish building in my backyard that looks for all the world like a miniature corn crib. Don't ask. I have no idea. Anyway, Forest's going to the fire department today to get us a bonfire permit, and then we're going to get a bunch of wood from my mom and Sam's pile. I love building fires, and am looking forward to it very much. Of course, I still have to make a costume, make some cookies, get the groceries, and clean up the ninja room in case people want to sack out there. It's going to be a busy week.
