No Pets

Since we're allowed wear costumes to work for Halloween, I've gotten an early start creating my costume. I've decided to dress up as a pirate, so we drove quite a ways to a fabric store and I bought a pattern and fabric and thread and things. So, I've assembled the pieces of the outfit-- it's looking pretty good. I'm pleased with my handiwork. I had to hand sew it all, and it went surprisingly fast. Next I'm gonna get some rocking pirate accessories-- maybe some big earrings and a bold necklace. Maybe a big hat with a feather in it.

Even though out lease doesn't explicitly allow pets, Charles and I wanted to look into adopting a cat. So we spent the weekend looking at different pet stores and reading up about the local humane society. At no place can you simply pick up a kitten. All of them have an application 'process'. They want to contact your landlord, inspect your house and see it's cat safe, contact your employer to make sure you make enough money. Oh, but if you work full time, that's bad because you don't have the time for a pet. Plus the application was several pages, and they would reject you for any or no reason.

Honestly, I think inspecting your home is a little over the top. Charles reminded me, hey, we're in California, they care about the animals here more then the people. I can see that. Like, if we showed signs of wanting to de-claw our potential pet-- our application would be declined. In the end we said forget it. If there's a box of free kittens outside, then we might grab one, but other then that, no pets for now.

A Rainy Day for Santa Barbara

It was cloudy yesterday, and then today the impossible happened-- it rained. After a summer with barely a cloud in the sky, we've finally come to the rainy season where-- you guessed it-- it actually rains. Normally, I would call this season fall, but since the trees aren't changing color, I guess this doesn't qualify. So throughout the rest of "winter" it will be a whole 10 degrees cooler and we'll get the occasional rainfall, which is more like a lazy mist intersperced with a light sprinkle.

Every day each teller is assigned a station at the bank and checks out the keys for that station. I've been using the same station all this week, and on Wednesday, as I was reaching for my keys to open the bottom drawer of my station I realized that they had fallen to the floor, leaving half of my key stuck in the top drawer. I'm not even sure how the key split in half, and then after pocking the lock with a screwdriver, the other half only got wedged deeper in the lock. Just, our assistant manager broke out the tool kit and spent the better part ofthe next our taking apart the lock trying to get the key back out, and then puzzling over how to put the whole mess back together. Thankfully we had a spare key for my station. So today we had the locksmith come in and tinker with it more so that the station is now fully functional.

Charles and I will be able to visit everone in Georgia this December. I'm very much looking foward to it. I can't wait to see everyone. I haven't seen my parents since packed all our stuff in the budget truck. It seems like ages ago. I'm especially looking foward to seeing my brother, Aaron, who I haven't seen since even longer then that. I look foward to telling everyone everthing that's going oon in my life, and hearing all of their stories as well.

Back to School

Charles has finally gone back to school. He has a week of orientations and pre-qualifying exams and such. He's been taking special note of what is required for the masters program if I would like to start that some time. I think it would be a nice change of pace from my current occupation. I do like my job, but I still strongly believe now that banking is not my area for advancement. I guess that means being an actuary is out too. Although-- our friend Chandler is seriously looking into that career. I think he would do well at it. As for me-- I'm going to steer clear of corporate America. Although that decision may be highly influenced by the TV show 'The Office'. I highly recommend everyone watch that show. It's amusing.

We've had the Auditors come to the bank for two visits. They were two very intimidating individuals. They counted all the money in the bank, quizzed several employees on proper banking procedure, and scrutinized our work. Overall not so fun. But they did leave before the end of the day and missed the chaos of closing with too few tellers, and half of us not able to balance our cash drawer. But on the bright side-- I do get overtime.

Car Trouble

I've never had car problems before, and I attribute that mostly to the fact that I've never owned a car before. On Sunday our car had a little trouble getting started. We asked our new neighbors for a jump-- who seemed to only care that their new apartment didn't come with a microwave and that the kitchen was dirty. But they did offer their AAA services to tow the car. No thanks. I like to take pride in that I can handle a little car trouble without pulling out the heavy ammo. I like to think that in a pinch I could change my own tire. I've seen my brother do... when he was in boy scouts...

We tried cranking the car once more, and it got started-- so our first stop was to pick op jumper cables-- just to be on the safe side.

Then Monday morning the car would no longer start. All our neighbors were gone-- leaving no car for a jump, plus I didn't really want to get stranded at the bank. So I grabbed trusty old bicycle and headed out to work.

Biking wasn't so bad. Except for the extra long time it took. And I fell over. Now I have battle wounds.

So I bummed a ride home, and one to work the next morning-- and asked for a jump. Charles get the car to the mechanic to get it fixed. They said it was a bum battery. So-- our brand new battery was to blame. We replaced it with a better newer battery, and got the oil changed while we were at it. So now the car works. It's hard enough sharing the one car-- I can't imagine trying to make do without one at all.

Throughout all of this-- Charles got to take a tour of campus, meet some of the math faculty, and get keys to his office space. He starts qualifying exams and teaching training on Monday. So he came home with lots of study materials on hand. It's good to be getting back into the swing of things. His schooling was the whole reason we moved all the way out here, and I'm glad it's coming to fruition.

Labor Day Heat

I believe a good Labor Day weekend was had by all-- I especially enjoyed getting a day off of work to go out shopping, one of the perks of working at the bank.

We spent a lot of Saturday enjoying video games, then by Sunday decided we need a little outside air. So we went to a few of the local bike shops and picked out new shiny bikes. Selecting one was harder then I thought it would be. Apparently bikes are manufactured for those of 'normal' height, and I being short had little variety to choose from. Hmmm, children's bike, or easter colors? By the second shop, we were able to both pick out bikes that we liked. And in the end-- biking happened to be one of those childhood experiences that Charles was lacking, and he had a little trouble picking it up. We soon quit all efforts of outdoor activity since it was so hot outside, and instead went to a movie.

Monday was even hotter. I didn't know it got that hot here. I think the natives are surprised as well. We drove most of the way to LA to see a very promising shopping center with all kinds of cool stores in it. On the drive there I was certain something was wrong with the AC-- at full blast it had trouble keeping up. And the sunshine was unrelenting. When we finally parked the car and got out we suddenly realized that the fault was not in our AC. The heat was so intense, just opening the car door sapped away all of my energy, and it was all I could do to walk the 50 feet from the car to the safety of indoors.

I figured that my poor reaction to the heat was due to me acclimating to Santa Barbara weather-- but I went ahead and checked the weather channel to see how hot it really was. The area in which mall we spent the day at had gotten up to 108 degrees that day, and at 6:00 it was still at 103!

So we've been keeping the windows open as much as possible, despite the threat of little buggies entering the house. We have a resident skunk near the apartment-- it's an adorable small fluffy creature-- but every once in a while something spooks it and then the air outside stinks. But the smell would never compare to how hot this place gets when all closed up-- so we were forced to just bear it.

But in all I had a good Labor Day. I had plenty of time to read and decided to pick up "Pride and Prejudice" and read that. Charles and I played DDR, our dancing video game until we wore ourselves out, and he made Gumbo, which was delicious. No complaints here.