I FINALLY have a job!!!!! It's about time huh? Well this place was pretty much hiring anyone that walked through the doors but I'm not complaining. The only bad thing is that I have to work every other Saturday and it's in Plymouth. May have to start looking into moving somewhere a little more central.

I get to be a telemarketer, trying to sell you all insurance. We all have to start somewhere. They were impressed with my typing skills and a little confused as to what Banner does. I had to explain to them that he will be snoozing besides me, and that he goes out with me on breaks. I guess i'm the first blind person that has applied.

The hours aren't that bad: 9:30-5. Like I said, the only bad thing is the long ride to get there and back. I am applying for Metro Mobility as we speak. Going to have to look into dial a ride or something else for the time being. NOT taking the bus. Be there an hour and a half early after an almost 2 hour bus ride???? No thank you!

Well I had a fun weekend for once.  My mom's cousin and her husband came up on Thursday afternoon, and they are always fun to have around.  They tend to spoil the whole family and we get to go out and do a lot of shopping and hanging out.  We also get to eat some great food.  So on Thursday night we tired a new sunfish recipie, that was delicious and I tired hushpuppies.  My recommendation is unless you are used to eating southern food and don't mind something that is dry as dirt not to try it.  it was rather nasty and tasted like a desert.  Friday was full of running around, shopping and having lunch at Paneara bread.  I love thier soup there but not a huge fan of thier sandwhiches.  Though thier hot choclate is to die for, although it is a meal all in itself.  It's really, really rich, with whipped cream on top and choclate syrup.  I also got to have my mom's lasgana, which I swear gets better all the time.  I also made a new recipe, a banana cream pie.  The first one didn't turn out right becuase I didn't have things ready on time.  But the second pie was great.  On Saturday we went shopping again, went out for breakfast, and got to go to the choclate factory.  They have the best choclate there.

The funny thing is that we celebrated like three holidays while they were here.  It was Steve's birthday (my mom's cousin's husband) which is why we had lasagna and banana cream pie.  Then we also celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday with a turky breast dinner with mashed potatoes, vegetables, gravy, and the second banana cream pie.  Also on that same day we ceelbrated an early Christmas.  We opened the Christmas presents that Debbie and Steve brought up.

Although today my uncle left to go to Chcago for his surgery and we also found out my dad is going to have surgery on his wrists on the 15th for Carpal tunnel things arn't looking too bad.  At least my dad's surgery is rather minor and I think my Uncle will be fine, at least I hope so.  Still nothing about the baby but i'm thinking no news is good news.  Still no job prospects but what can you do when the economy isn't the greatest.

Christmas is coming and that means its time to decide what to get everyone.  I love this season.  Although Thanksgiving is looking sort of iffy for our family.  I guess it depends on how my uncle is feeling and also how my dad feels.  I might go down to Debbie's house for Thanksgiving or maybe my freinds if things turn out a dude around here.  Hope everyone's doing okay.

I swear I'm in need of some good news soon.  I found out a week or so ago that my uncle needs a triple bypass surgery, now I find out my cousin gave birth three months premature.  What is up with all the bad things going on this month?  That seems to happen a lot in my family.  When bad things happen they come in bunches.  Like when we went through a period of dying pets.  I had to put my one rabbit down before I went to get Banner, mom also had to put Parnelli down before I left and then when I returned not a week after my other rabbit died.  It was all in a couple months of each other.

I have also heard some of my relatives relatives are not doing so well, one has cancer the other one's mother is dying from alzheimers, I swear when will it stop.

Luckily my uncle is going to go in for this somewhat revilutionary treatment on his heart, where its a lot less invasive of a surgery next week in Chicago.  So far my cousin's baby is alive, but in an incubatior and really really skinny.  And I still don't have a job and this weeks postings are really slim.

I need a hug or something around here.  Maybe a lucky rabbits foot or a horseshoe or something.  Anything to ward the bad luck away.  Hopefully I can get out this weekend and have some fun, forget about what a cruddy couple weeks its been.

Am I ever lazy or what, haven't posted in forever.  Guess I just don't have much to say really.  I am getting tired of applying for jobs and having them go nowhere.  Although I almost had a job, went for the second interview and everything, but they must have given it to someone else.  What can you do.

I can't wait to to go the NIN concert that's in November with a friend of mine.  Other than that nothing much going on.  Wen to the Ren fest last month and spent quite a bit of money.  Had a lot of fun seeing the new Puke and Snot show, also went and saw the naughty Totruga Twins show.  Always a good time.  Banner is doing great, although he has his times where he's really hyper and drives everyone nuts. Probably bored since there isn't a whole lot to do around here.  It's been unusally warm, for fall that is. 

Dart season is back in action.  For our first week we won six games but then on our second week we lost all six games.  This week we have a break.  There might not be a tournament this year or if there is it's only going to be a day one because money is tight.  We are going to have a lot of fund raisers though so hopefully that will help.  We are selling raffel tickets like usual, then there is a Schwans guy that is donated some money from his truck sale, then two people are having seperate fundraisers and my sister-in-law might donate some money from her Mary Kay buisness.  So hopefully we can raise enough money for a weekend tournament.

Well that's all thats been going on here besides me really wantint to move out and listening to my mom complain about a bazillion things.

Well mom had her knee replacement surgery today.  Things went great and I went to see her tonight.  She was higher than a kite on pain medication so talking to her was an experience in itself. She would insert random things into the conversation like dad was supposed to wait in the freezer or that my brother should put golden delicious apples in his chili.  I'm betting tomorrow she's going to be in a lot of pain though.  Her pain wasn't totally controlled tonight but that's to be expected.  The nurses were very nice and they adored both Banner and Thaddeus, and they adored them.  Lots of petting went on.

My mom's second cousin is going to be coming up from Indiana on Valentines day to help out for about a week.  That'll be nice, because mom is going to be a handful.  She never did make the best patient.  She never follows doctors advice or orders, so she'll end up hurting herself one way or the other.

Finally got my hair cut.  Man did it need it.  It's really short again though, I hate it when it's short.  Especially in the winters when it's forty below.  Hope we get some snow soon.  Have a good night everyone!

Hey Everyone,

I had a very busy weekend.  We had the Blind Audio Dart League tournament at the Doubletree hotel in St. Louis Park.  I didn't win anything but I had a lot of fun.  My dad won first place in 501 doubles and my mom won in 501 pick you're partner.  Didn't get much sleep but it was fun watching other people try and throw darts when they are drunk.  Always good for a laugh.

Banner was happy to get back home, he was rather cooped up in the hotel room.  He did like to visit with all the other dogs that were there though.  It was strange that one of our long time dart players wasn't there, he unfortunately died young of a heart attack.  We had a moment of silence for him.  He was a great guy and a lot of fun.  Got to see people that I don't get to see too often.

I got farawayeyes4 first part of her chapter and I'll be betaing that tomorrow, I need to recover tonight.  I actually hit my stride at the tournament, the bullseye's were flying.  I even hit a 121 ton, not bad for me at all.   Usually I miss the dart board.  Anyways I'm gonna finish unpacking and watch a movie.

Happy Holidays everybody!  I wish each and every one of you a safe and enjoyable time.  I'm going to be going to my Aunt and Uncle's later tonight when my dad gets off of work.  LOts of mail today so that's going to rather late.

I've had an interesting last couple of days.  My dog decided to be extra naughty and eat some Bakers chocolate, we think.  We never did find any evidence of him actually eating it.  I* did find evidence of him eating White chocolate though.  So what does he do the next day?  He decides to get into the garbage and eat two pudding cups.  So after all this he gets sick and has to be taken to the vets.  He had a stomach full of gas and so were his intestines so he couldn't keep an regular food down.  So for a few days he was on a perscripton diet and some pills.  Stupid dog.  And the vet bill was not cheap.  I have to call the guide dog school and see if they can at least help cover some of the cost.

Anyway I hope everyone has a enjoyable holiday spent with lots of great food and surrounded by friends and family.

Well early this morning I got a nice wake up call.  My dog decided that to throw up at 4:30 in the morning.  Whenever he does get sick its almost always at the exact time too.  I have no idea why.  He must have gotten into something in the garage because my dad had accidentally locked him out there.

We are supposed to get some more snow tomorrow and one of the people from our dart league is saying we should cancel.  I'm not sure why, I know Metro Mobility might be late but then again it might not.  It's not supposed to be that bad.  We  have darts later at night too, and by that time I think the snow is supposed to be tapering off.

Took a look around for some jobs and found one or two I'm going to apply for.  We will see what happens there.  I'm hoping to get some shopping done this week for Christmas.  Banner will love that, a chance to get out of the house.  He still goes insane in the snow and I received an e-mail from his puppy raiser confirming the fact that he does love to romp and play in the snow.  Of course he also likes to take the bark from the trees too.  Dumb dog.

We finally got the tree up, although the ornaments aren't up yet.  Dad is worried that Banner will eat the ones that look like a ball.  So I'm going to have to keep a close eye on him.  Can't wait to get some presents underneath it, maybe then it'll start feeling like Christmas.  That's about all that's going on here.  Boring life huh.

Ahhh lovely snow and wind, don't you just love Minnesota weather.  I especially love it when my dog goes nuts and yanks the leash out of my hand.  Apparently he loves the snow.  He has been hyper all day.  He wanted to run and run and then get in trouble for jumping into the compost pile and eating all the weeds.  I don't know how many times I have told him to get rid of the dang thing or make a higher fence so Banner can't jump into it.  Fat lot of good that did me.

On other news the job hunt is not going anywhere.  I went to a job fair for people with disabilities and got some leads so we will see if anything pans out from there.  Actually started writing something again too.  That was a nice little pick me up.  I've had writers block for a long time.  Hopefully something will come of it so I can actually post something.  I do have a story I could post but I need to get it edited more.

Speaking of editing, I'm helping a freind with his story.  And to put it lightly, it needs a lot of work.  I'm going to have to do a  little research to check a few facts.  Not something I'm looking forward too.  Especially since its not my story.  But this is something I want to do foa  living so I better get used to it.  I jus t hope that if I ever do get into that field that the stories area  little better written.

I have quite a bit of Christmas shopping to do too.  That is going to be a pain since shopping is not my favorite thing to do.  Or I should say it wouldn't be so bad if my dad didn't through a fit every time  we go.  He hates shopping and well I can't drive so its him or a cab.  Since he's free, its not much of a choice.  I do live my a mall but the poor thing is slowly dying out.  A bunch of stores are moving out.

Anyway I hope I don't get dragged too much when I take Banner out again in the morning.  Here's hoping he'll calm down once the snow begins to get old.

Well I did have a job interview, but didn't get the job.  No big surprise there.  Didn't really get a great feel when I was doing the interview.  And I think that they didn't want to deal with someone that was blind.  It wasn't the great job but it would have been something.

Anyway the scariest thing happened tonight.  I live in Minnesota and if any of you are watching the news, you know about the 35W bridge that collapsed.  I'm lucky, I was safe at home.  Unfortunately there were many that weren't.  I know that bridge, I've crossed it multiple times.  It was horrible to see, and entirely unexpected.  My heart and prayers go out to those that have been affected by this great tragedy.  I have never seen something like that in my entire life  It was a mess, makes you think how easy it could be for something like that to happen again.  I am proud though, because there were many that risked their lives to save others.  Thanks to those brave people, many lives were saved.  We live in turbulent times and its times like these that make us stop and think.  To reflect on what we have, and to take a moment and appreciate those around us.  So I urge you, don't hesitate to say "I love you" to the ones that matter the most.  You never know what may happen to you.  Bless those that are suffering and those that are helping.

-Guided by Banner