The Jack Noodle Journal

Good morning everybody. Boy, it is a beautiful morning outside right now. I just got back in from taking the dog out. The Sun is shining, the grass is wet and sparkling, the air is fresh, no breeze. It’s the last day of 2002 people! I’m glad to see it go. I don’t know, it wasn’t the best year, but I guess it wasn’t the worst. Ha! I didn’t really have any work related stress or problems with coworkers this year. I could pretty much take off on a vacation any time I wanted. No, I am way glad 2002 is done. The end of this year really socked it to me. I’m looking forward to good things happening in 2003.

So it’s New Years Eve tonight! Do you guys have plans? I think we have decided on the Wagner’s again. This is like the 4th year in row with those cats. Good thing we like them so. I think I’m going to shave and get a haircut today to clean myself up for the new year. My hair has grown out quite a bit and needs to be pulled back to my army do. Yes I’ll get all tidied up for the new year. That’s only one of the things I have planned for today. I’ve got quite a few things on my list. Oh yeah, I would like to take the dog for a walk today also. Man I need to get going. The day will be over before I know it. I’ve got some computer drawings to do for Matt if I have time.

I think maybe it’s this lovely, sunshine filled morning that’s got me feeling contemplative. Maybe it’s the microwaved coffee. Whatever it is I think today is going to be a good day for reflecting on the year we’ve just finished and looking at the one coming up. I need to get my resolutions in order and get to work on some goals for next year. Things are going to be good people! I’m actually feeling kind of creative this morning. Shoot! I better do something artistic quick, before this pleasantness goes away.

Hey yeah, look! Noodle actually wrote some stuff out about that crazy Desktop of the Month Club that has been sitting there a while without an explanation Yep. That’s one of the many fun things I have in store for the next year. The giving away of the stickers part was K’s idea. I was thinking one day (probably while still at adidas) that I needed a way to spread the Noodle love into all of your homes and offices. Give back to the community that has given so much to me. I was thinking that this Desktop of the Month Club could be like those Wine of Month Clubs or those Book of the Month Clubs. We’ll see. Whatever the case people, sign up and put the Noodle art on your computer screens so that I can continue on with my World Domination 2003 Plan and infect the whole planet. I’ve got some good ideas for desktop art I think, so it should be interesting. I’ve still got to finish January’s so be patient.

Oh man! Look at the time! I’ve got to get my day started! Goodness was I really typing that slow today? Well time to hang up people! Talk to you next year!

I must get some coffee before I start typing this morning. I don’t think I could form a single sentence otherwise. It’s a little chilly in here this morning and I’ve got the sniffles. Gosh do I have a cold? Hold on one second, I’ve got to go blow my nose. No not a cold. Not me. Now, where was I?

People, the finish line is in sight. My Every Remaining Day of 2002 Marathon is almost over. I’m racing down the home stretch. Wow. Good job Noodle! How many days in a row was that? Hold on, let me check. Is that 23 counting tomorrow? Not too shabby. I ran out of things to talk about a couple of times there, but for the most part I babbled on nicely.

It’s Monday folks and some of you are at work today huh? I’ve already sent some resumes off, so I’m working today also. I have got to get the Job Procurement Program going today. I think it is going to be a good week! I’m hoping lots of job opportunities will present themselves in January. For those of you looking to hire me, I will be ready at the end of this week, beginning of the next. One thing I MUST do today for the JPP is get all of my important files and emails off of that PC. I’m telling you, that computer is doing some strange things. I was afraid that it wouldn’t even turn on this morning.

Our end of year cleaning spree went pretty good yesterday. We got a lot of things done. I loaded the attic up. Out of sight, out of mind. You know though, I probably should have done some more throwing away instead of pack ratting. I hope I don’t need anything up there for a while. Breathing the dust and asbestos was getting to me towards the end of the day. It’s cool now, I made more room in the laboratory. Maybe things will finally get organized in here with more space. I uncovered a few things of interest when I went through some of the boxes. I found a couple of books that I had wanted to finish reading. I didn’t find the box set of the Lord of Rings books I was looking for though. I’m also still on the hunt for a computer program user’s guide that I printed out a few years ago.

Okay, I told K that I was going to rant about this today to you guys. Hopefully somebody with authority reads this angry cry for help and does something about it. The Simpsons wasn’t on because FOX decided to air “Die Hard With a Vengeance” last night! What the Hell? If I wanted to see a movie instead of my beloved program I would have rented one! I don’t think that any of the major networks should ever show movies again. When one wants to see a movie they change the channel to a cable movie station or like I said, rent one. People do you need to see a movie, censored and loaded up with commercials? Please! The networks should stick to their original television programs. If they don’t have a new one to air then show a recent rerun. Did they actually think that “Die Hard With a Vengeance” was an excellent holiday treat?

Good Sunday morning everybody! The sun is shining in here brightly this morning. Hold on let me open the curtains more. I’ve got the coffee brewing right now and I’m feeling good. We’re listening to “This American Life” again right now. It’s pretty good this morning. It’s talking about the coming war with Iraq. Hold on, I’ve got to go get my coffee now.

Snow sledding yesterday was awesome fun. The mountain was absolutely gorgeous. Phillip did an excellent job on the slopes. He really liked the snow. I worried about him getting too cold, but he had 2 sweaters on and seemed to stay pretty warm. It seems like that would have been painful on his bare paws? The mountain was very crowded. We kept going until we luckily found a spot that wasn’t too crowded. It was a great place. White River West. I think we will totally go back to that place next time with more friends and better sleds. Oh wait I just told all of you about the cool place. Now the secret is out and you all will be there crowding the sledding. Eugene and New Friend Joel went with us yesterday. Actually we went with them because it was their idea in the first place. We must go again soon.

We were very tired when we got home yesterday. We took a nap and then went and had drinks at the Bonfire. When we got home we starting watching “Reign of Fire”. I was hoping it was going to be a better movie than it was I think. We fell asleep at the beginning of it though so maybe it was good. I don’t think so though. We borrowed quite a few videos from Matt of television shows he recorded off of cable, so we’ve got those to watch now also. It would be nice if he surprised us with recordings of the Sopranos season 4.

We are having a big end of year cleaning spree in the house today. I better hang up here and give K a hand. The project I’m excited about today is loading the attic up with stuff we don’t want to throw away but don’t have any room for. The hole in the ceiling to get to the attic is pretty small so we’ll have to empty the boxes first and then load them back up when they’re in the ceiling. I love it up there. One of these years when we have loads of money we are going to add some stairs and build some rooms up there.

Oh my goodness! Those pesky little animals of ours would not let me sleep last night. The cat kept jumping all over everything and the dog kept waking up and moving around. Argh! I’m in a daze now. I went to go sleep out on the front couch and they followed me into there! Oh well. I finally just gave up and came here. It’s time to get up anyway. I can’t believe it! Pierre has now followed me here and keeps jumping on my lap and kneading his claws into my legs. Dude, leave me alone!

How are all of you doing? I hope your Christmas was a fun one! What kind of plans are you all making for New Years? We don’t have anything written in stone yet. Some jolly Christmas elves left an awesome Simpsons Christmas ornament of Apu on our doorstep last night. Thank you Christmas fairies! See, Christmas miracles do happen.

I think today we may be heading up to Mount Hood for some sledding in the snow. Yeah that’s right. Doesn’t that sound crazy? You know, I really don’t have snow clothes or boots. I don’t know if I like the idea of being cold either. Can I even find a pair of gloves? We’ll see I guess. I do think it would be cool to see some snow and the beauty of the mountain. K wants to introduce Phillip to the snow. I hope he doesn’t freeze to death. He really isn’t a snow dog. He’s more of a beach dog. Gee I’m such a worry wort.

We watched the movie “I Am Sam” last night. It was really pretty good. Sean Penn did an amazing job as Sam. The movie was about a mentally challenged man who was struggling to keep custody of his daughter. It had several leaky eye moments.

Well I’ve got to get some coffee in me and try to make some sense out of all of these bills that are piling up around here. Now that the good cheer and well wishing of the Christmas season is over, the bill collectors and vultures are back out in force. Now the task of splitting up the Christmas loot and sending it out to the gas man, the phone man, the internet man, the light man, the garbage man, and the credit card man has begun. I’ve got to hurry and get that unpleasantness over with quick so that the rest of the morning can be spent on more uplifting events.

Hey yeah the weekend is here! What? The weekend has been going on for like 8 days now. It’s pretty windy outside this morning. It rained really hard last night. Rain and wind.

Last nights dinner at my brother’s was quite fun and tasty. It was good to see all of the family. That officially finishes off the Christmas holiday. There she goes. So long. It was a pretty good time.

I’m hanging out with mom now. We’re chilling. She stayed the night last night with us. We watched the movie, “Remember the Titans” starring Denzel Washington. It was a ma pick. She had seen it before and said that it was a must see, so we rented it. It was pretty good. It was a football movie so it had quite a bit of that go team go feel to it. It was good though. Denzel Washington did good as usual.

My mom and I are heading back over to my brother’s house to hang out with the kids. That will be pretty fun. I think they’ll have grandma come over and watch the kids so they can go to the store. I think perhaps I will do some drawing while I’m over there. I think my nephews have some new cartoons that I could probably watch while I’m there. We’ll head back to our house tonight to have dinner and then I think we’re taking my mom back to my grandparents house.

I’ve got to go take a shower and hit the road. I think we’re running a little late.

Wow another morning of sleeping in here! I’ve got to put a stop to that soon. I’m going to get lazy and weak. Well that about does it for Christmas. We’ve got a dinner left at my brother’s house and then that’s it. Oh yes I get to see my mommy today. That should be fun. We’ve got to do some cleaning to prepare for her arrival. It’s kind of a mess here this morning. I should call her right now. One second. Alright I’m all squared away now. I’ve got all the plans figured out. My brother is going to have quite the house full. I guess Christmas isn’t over yet kids.

You know I was thinking this morning that the JPP is going to have to be on hold until next week still. There’s no way that people are going to be at work interviewing people for jobs the rest of this week. Are people even going to work these remaining 2 days? New Year’s eve is on Tuesday right? Are people expected to be working on Monday and Tuesday? Perhaps I would be able to call people about jobs next Thursday. Well no, because we’ll be heading back into the same short week theory then. Oh well, what ever the case, I know I’m going to be working at a new job in January. Maybe the remaining days of December can be used for building up my contacts list and strengthening my strategy.

Have you all been thinking about your New Years resolutions? I did pretty good with mine from last year I think. I didn’t do very good with that one about reading more books, but I’m still working on that. I think this year it will have be finish more books. I have no problem starting them. Hold on one second, I’m going to look back and see what I had written out last year. The other ones I had were:
Get some of the easy house repairs done. Didn’t do that. Houses will always need something.
I had get organized creatively down. I think I pretty much succeeded with that one before the bottom of my creativity fell out towards the end of the year.
I had finally put to rest some nasty habits. That one, though vague to you the reading public, was completed successfully.
Increase my journal entries was on the list last year. I totally aced that one.
Attempt to get credit card bills down was on there. Well I don’t know what to say about that one. I think deciding not to pay them was what we ended up doing.
Last but not least on last year’s resolution list was get some good work this year. You all know what became of that one. I really tried in 2002 so that’s something. That will be number one on 2003’s resolution list. I don’t know if I even care if it is good work this year. Any work would be fine. I think all of the new resolutions will be much easier to complete when that one gets resolved.

I’ll have to do some thinking, reflecting and soul searching for this years list. I’ll write it all out and keep a record of it in a couple of days here.

I think for this year’s festivities we are thinking about going to K’s sister in dating’s house. Sara and Chris’s. That should be fun. I’ll probably try to be the designated driver so that we don’t have to stay over night and leave Phillip and Pierre all alone. Yeah, poor guys. Their holiday has totally sucked this year. We’ve been gone and not paying attention to the lads. Maybe next year when times are better, we will have all of the Holidays at our house. Yeah right. We’ll see.

Merry Christmas! Ho! Ho! Ho!

How’s it going kids? Did Santa bring you everything that you wanted this year? I think we are at the midpoint now for our holiday festivities. We had a lovely time at Anne’s last night. Today we are heading over to my dad’s house. We’ll probably be seeing my mom tonight and tomorrow. Gosh, what a strange week so far. It feels like it should be Saturday doesn’t it? My TV schedule is all out of wack also.

I’ve got to get some coffee in me as usual. Hold on. We’ve got to go take Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee to the airport later today. They’re heading out to Mexico once again this year. I’m jealous. I would love to be in Mexico right now.

Well, not too much to report today. Christmas is moving along nicely. We did receive one Christmas surprise. Our friend Cathleen, who we haven’t talked to in about a year and a half is in town this week celebrating Christmas with her family. It will be good to see her again. She has yet to see the new house.

Hey everyone, have a merry Christmas okay? Hey I’d like to give a special shout out to our Noodle friends in Hawaii. They are away from their friends and family this holiday season protecting our freedoms over there. Bless you. Har! HAR! HAR!

Happy Christmas Eve to you! Man oh man! I sure am getting to this journal late. I slept in till 11 this morning. It really is almost eve now. I celebrated Christmas too hard last night. Woo Hoo! Merry Christmas! Hold on one second, I’ve got to go and take the dog out. There we go. I’m back. Gosh, I need some coffee. Hold on one more second. Do you get the impression that I wasn’t totally prepared this morning? Yes. So the Christmas party was great fun last night.

Oh never mind. I wrote a paragraph about the unemployment line that I just erased. You guys don’t need that crap. I do need some coffee though. Hold on.

My mom is coming to town tomorrow. It will be so good to see her. She will be staying at our house for a couple of days. I really have to clean up this mess before Ma sees it. Boy we totally ran out of time. The holidays snuck up on us! Not really though. I’ve been watching it come, but was just screwing around and not preparing for it.

We are heading out to the lovely Anne’s house this afternoon. We’ll be having Christmas eve there to start off the holiday adventures. I have to finish up the final touches to the gift we are giving tonight. Got to run.

Hey yeah! It’s another Monday and Noodle’s not working! I love it! It’s great. It makes me so happy not being able to pay bills. Argh! Oh wait. It’s okay it’s the holidays! Santa will save us. The new year can’t get here fast enough if you ask me. Which you didn’t, but I just told you. Today we’ll get a good start on the JPP and I’ll be back to work in no time.

I was looking over the entries here for my end of year marathon, and yes, I am running the race, but the entries sure are little bursts. I need to try to write longer entries with a little more sustenance. It’s not all my fault though. I have been plagued with fits of writer’s block and have been distracted by persistent phone calls from evil bill collectors. It’s quite the fight here in Noodle land let me tell you.

Have I told you yet how much I loved the Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers? Well, I know I told you, but let me tell you again. I can’t stop thinking about that movie. I think part of the reason I liked it so much was because I personally needed something cool like that to watch at this time in life. It caught me at the right moment. I’ve been reading quite a few reviews of it and people seem to agree with me so I’m not totally crazy.

The Simpsons was a rerun last night! Argh! It was okay though. Lianne and Martin came over and we hung out late into the evening. They were doing crafts with K while I serenaded them with music. I got a good Double Darren song going last night. I tried to record most of it, but that PC is just messed up. I’m going to have to figure out how to fix that puppy. You know it may just be a matter of emptying some space off on the hard drive. I looked back at the journal this time last year and I was having problems with it back then. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah. I was really happy with the song I was working on last night. I’m going to have to figure out how the recording software works on my Mac so I can skip the PC all together. Yeah that thing is messed up. I just turned around now and saw that it was frozen. I hope I can get some important documents off of there before it blows up.

Tomorrow is Christmas eve! Yeah hoo! Tonight we’ve got a party to go to over at Lianne’s house. It’s a naughty or nice dress up party. It should be fun. I think I am going to dress up as a preacher. You know now that I typed out the theme of the party it finally makes sense to me. The naughty or nice thing is Christmassy because Santa always checks his list to see if you were naughty or nice. I don’t know what I was thinking it was about. Definitely naughty though.

Cold morning here once again! The holidays are here people! Tis the season to be jolly. Gosh I am totally starting way too late today. I keep getting distracted. That rearranging of furniture in here is still going on this morning. I think that I got things semi-organized in here. I have a couple of piles of things now stacked up that will need some putting away. I didn’t get to work on the Lab cleaning like I was planning yesterday. We ended up hanging out with Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee in Oregon City. Today I think the holiday travel begins. We will be going to visit K’s aunt, Mr. Baptist’s sister later today. I don’t think that the traveling will be that bad this year compared to what it has been in the past. We are planning a pretty mellow Christmas this year.

Well hmm. Not too much to report here today. I’m hoping to do some writing and reading today after my cleaning and organizing of the laboratory. I’m planning on writing and calculating for the JPP. I wonder if it is possible to get a new job at this time of year? Am I going to have to wait another couple of weeks before people will respond to the resumes I am sending out? I discovered a new video game company that seems to be like the one Geoffrey works for. I sent some things out to them and would love to hear word back. Doing work for the video games would be pretty sweet.

I’ve got to finish my microwaved coffee and jump in the shower. I’ll have to write a larger, more interesting entry tomorrow. I’m still doing a pretty good job with the every remaining day marathon though, huh? Oh yeah! New Simpsons is on tonight. I hope it is a new one and not a holiday rerun.