new digs

I'm getting settled in to my home-for-a-short-time.

It's in a nice neighborhood, near WalMart Neighborhood Market. There is a gas station near that Neighborhood Market, but when I tried to get gas there, they were only accepting cash. I haven't checked back to see if they have their card readers working. Three people live in this house besides me. Henry and Julie, who are married, and Peter, their youngest son. He's in 10th grade. There are also 2 large dogs here. One is half giant schnauzer/half poodle, named Maxine. She is the older one and is very affectionate and friendly, though a bit shy. If I'm watching TV, she'll come over and put her head in my lap so I'll scratch her ears. The other one is pure giant schnauzer. He's 2 years old, named Justice. He is aggressive and hates outsiders. Henry gave me a bag of dog treats so that when I first get home I can give one to Justice. That way he doesn't act like he's going to attack me. At first, he seemed to have mixed feelings about the treats. He was trying to bark and snarl at me, but I had a treat in my hand. He took the treat. Then he thought he'd bark at me again, but thought I might have another treat, so it was a stifled bark. Today he hasn't barked at me at all, but will probably do so when I leave my room to get some dinner and/or watch TV. The breed info I have found says that giant schnauzers are easy to train with plentiful rewards. So I think the treat bribes are a good idea.

I am still looking for a job in Temple. I've posted my resume online in several different places: Texas Workforce, Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder, UMHB Career Services. On the job criteria, I put the area I wanted the job as "within 30 miles of Temple" or something like that. But I had left my address in Fort Worth, so I kept getting offers for interviews from DFW (note for non-Texans: that means Dallas-Fort Worth area) places looking for sales staff. So I went through and changed my address to an arbitrary one in Temple. But then, today I had a request for my resume for a design position in Richardson (that's in DFW)...They must have my address permanantly stored as Fort Worth.

I'm excited about getting my own place soon, and being done with being a gypsy for awhile, and having a whole place all to myself.

I was thinking of going out of town this weekend, but it looks like I'll be better off staying put, what with Hurricane Ike coming in this weekend. I had a second option of something to do this weekend here in Arlington, but that has also been canceled due to likely inclement weather. Speaking of the hurricane...In cities, along the interstate highways, there are traffic signs. They're made of lights and alert drivers to wrecks, construction, delays, and other important information. As I was driving home from work today, on I-20, the traffic sign between here and there said "HERRICAN EVACUEES...EXIT WICHITA." Herrican? Are you kidding me?