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Right in time for Christmas, I started work as a technology support specialist at St Louis University High today I was officially offered the job last Monday and spent a couple of afternoon’s at the end of the week in the school starting to learn more about the technology department and try to find my way around the buildings. I’m glad to be staying within education, and looking forward working as part of a team again and having more interactions with students.

Working at SLUH meant I would be traveling in a different direction to work than Bethany, and working slightly different hours too. One of Bethany’s friends has a brother who works for the Bommarito auto group, a pretty big dealership in the St Louis area. We got a good deal on this 2004 Ford Escape XLT which lets us throw Kenai in the trunk and keep the back seat clear of dog hair:

It’s really nice to drive, so now we get to fight over who takes what car And if you need a car around St Louis, get in touch with Craig Gaby at Bomarrito Honda just off I270 + N. Lindbergh!

Christmas is only a few days away now – we’re heading up Bethany’s parents in Iowa for a long weekend. Nikki also got flights booked for her and Dan as well as my parents to come over in June for our wedding, so really looking forward to that. Mam + dad are going to spend a little under two weeks around St Louis too, so will have plenty of time after the wedding to spend together too.

So, it’s nearly August, and we’ve been in St Louis for a month. Quite a bit has gone on I guess…

We finished off our time in Bethel and then spent a week traveling around south central Alaska with one of Bethany’s friends, Shannon, who flew up from Phoenix. It was a great way to end our time in Alaska. I’m still working through all the photos, but will get round to them.

After Alaska, we flew down to Bethany’s parents in Iowa and spent three weeks or so in + out getting ready to move to St Louis. We went to the Iowa Conference UCC annual meeting in Grinnel, headed off to meet some of Bethany’s friends in Omaha, Nebraska, then planned our first trip to St Loius for a few days. First, we needed a car, and we got a great deal on a 2001 Ford Taurus SES with only 63k miles on it:

Once in St Louis, we managed to find a really nice two bedroom house for rent in Maplewood, 10-15 mins from downtown, and I got to see the sights of St Louis. The following week we came back down to finalize things and check out some more places, and then moved for real on July 1st. The U-Haul we rented was ridiculous, but worked out really well:

By chance, we had the Alaska detail on the side of our truck It was a good drive down though and we managed to get unpacked okay, and slowly got things we needed.

Job hunting has been slow, and I’ve been setting up to work as a freelance IT consultant which gives me the freedom to work on college classes as I need and not be tied in to working certain shifts. I got to head to Chicago for the first time as one of my projects, and finally sampled Chicago style pizza (it’s all upside down…). It’s working out good though.

A pretty hectic weekend flying out to Seattle for a wedding and re-union of a bunch of Bethany’s peace corps friends rounded off our planned traveling, so we were then able to finally get a puppy

He’s a 10 week old yellow labrador retriever we named Kenai. After waiting so long for a puppy, it’s great to have one around the house now. He’s settling in okay and has his first vet visit tomorrow morning!

Given the difficulties of towing a boat with a bicycle, I decided I needed something a little more useful:

It’s ’92 Chevy S-10 4.3l V6 4wd pickup which for a Bethel truck is in a pretty good condition Will haul my boat to the harbor and back and get me around town rather than walking in the rain. Quite pleased with it!

I know Fernando Alonso often complains he’s quoted out of context, but on the issue of the racism shown towards Lewis Hamilton during testing in Spain he responded with (BBC Sport):

“It was an isolated incident and the FIA or anyone saying that the Spanish fans are racists is laughable.

“Last year, they called me a dog in a few races. Niki Lauda said those things about me, and no-one came to me to show me their support.”

Think someone needs to explain to him the different between ‘racism’ and ‘criticism’. He was probably called a dog due to the fact he had some terrible races. Sure, he looks a bit rough, but I doubt anyone was insinuating he’s actually a dog. Christijan Albers and Sakon Yamamoto were regularly called worse, again, because they were driving badly. For someone paid millions of dollars per race, you’d think he’d be able to take a bit of criticism and maybe learn from it – I mean, it’s not like Lauda has ever done anything in Formula 1 so might know what he’s talking about, is it…?

Still, here’s hoping Renault make a balls of a car like last season

Having the rental car buggered up last night turned out pretty well as when we arrived at the airport this morning to pick up a little compact from Alamo, the lady suggested if it was the best fuel economy we were after, they had a Toyota Prius hybrid available. It was $300 more than the compact, but some quick maths on estimated gas mileage (they quoted 60mpg) would work out worth it over the next 5 weeks or so.

The dash is pretty cool as it has a touch screen to handle the audio system, climate controls, etc. and shows some neat effects detailing how + when the electric motor is being charged and when it’s being used alongside or in replacement of the standard petrol engine. We put on around 280 miles on our way down from Seattle, and averaged 50.2 miles per gallon. That’s pretty damn good as an average over that kind of distance!

We’ve still got about half a tank of gas left, and I’m guessing it’s about a 10/11 gallon tank, so already it’s working out quite nicely! It’s really smooth, though there definately seems a very subtle jolt when the electric motor is engaged/disengaged.

Other than a little traffic coming through Portland, the drive from Seattle down to Eugene, Oregon was pretty smooth and easy. Very scenic with large wooded areas and mountain views down through Washington. Bit of a shame we’ve had to plow through in a day, but tomorrow we’re heading into the Cascade Range and Crater Lake National Park, and on our way back up to Seattle we can spend some more time checking things out, especially in Washington.

Considering it took the best part of two days when installing all the car audio equipment, it took about half an hour to pull it all out! With all the gear up for sale on eBay (go check the auctions out if you haven’t already!), figured I may as well remove it all with the auctions ending tomorrow and it being dry today for playing with cables + electrics. Once again, managed to avoid blowing either myself or the car up!

Looks a mess, but is all tidied up now (so space to sleep again tonight…). There’s also an old JVC head unit which I had way back in the Fiesta which ran for about a year up for grabs, at a paltry £10 at the moment. Sad to see it all go, as regardless of whatever some may say about the Sony X-plod gear, it does sound awesome for the price if it’s setup right. The Ford head unit just sounds so hollow now, even though the JBL components are still installed in the front – the Sony F7500 made such a difference with the extra power output, plus the amp + sub might have had something to do with it…

Mind, after re-installing the original Ford head unit I found the radio code was incorrect. Not too impressed at having to fork out 15 of my English pounds for the correct code, but, least it’s working now. No CD player though Not that I use the car much now though so can’t grumble too much – unless the eBay auctions don’t pick up much in the next 24 hours of course!

Decided to take out the frustration of conflicting info from Insure&Go and flog some more gear on eBay. First two people were having none of making a claim for cancellation of the Japan trip as technically I wasn’t declared unfit to travel or advised not to go by any of the medical practioners at either the hospital or my local surgery. Finally, someone saw sense (and after being quote their own terms + conditions which didn’t state a medical certficate declaring unsuitability to travel was not a requirement and thus they were, well, making shit up), and the claim forms have been sent out looks good for recouping the money.

But, another round of eBay auctions, mainly music stuff again, but this time car audio equipment (okay, and a PS2!):

• Sony CDX F7500 head unit, MP3 + CD changer out, remote
• Sony CDX 848X 10-disc CD changer
• Sony XM-280GTX 2/1 Channel Amplifier
• JVC KD-S731R CD head unit – 4x45W
• Sony PS2, 2 controllers, 8 games, memory card, network

Plenty of folk will testify as to how awesome all the Sony car audio equipment sounded! Some awesome bits of equipment in there, and going for next to nothing, so get yourself some bids in

So, my car went into the garage for a routine service + MOT yesterday. An MOT is a yearly check all cars must go through to prove they’re roadworthy and safe to drive, and I wasn’t expecting any problems. Having had to fork out for 4 tyres a week or so ago which set me back £320, I was called yesterday lunchtime telling me the power steering rack was leaking and needed completely replacing. Not impressed!

Ended up costing £319 just for the power steering rack including labour, pushing the bill to a shade under £600 when the service + air conditioning service was added in. £80 just for to re-gas the air conditioning unit is ridiculous too, especially since the damn thing is still blowing hot air! That’s a grand on a car I shouldn’t even be running anymore, although the way it’s looking I will be for another few months yet. Of course, I still have another 90 notes on road tax at the end of the month too

When am I flying out to Japan again…?

Some nugget straddling both lanes of the dual-carriageway doing about 40mph managed to kick up what I can only guess as being a thick chunk of roofing felt which quite nicely shattered my fog lights, ripped off the number plate and made quite a mess of the paint work around the side of front wing. Hopefully the scratching will polish out at the weekend, and I’ve got the number plate re-attached after stopping to get it, but Ford are wanting close to £80 for a single front fog light as the Collection edition has the RS sport kit which magically doubles the price…

Added to that, I have an boo-boo on my finger after slicing it open trying to tidy it all up in the dark Not a good way to end the day really!

I was asked to order a satellite navigation system for work that would allow those going out on training courses to easily find where they were going. Seems like a good idea, certainly better than trawling through a road map. Even with modern maps, it’s still a chew on if you’re trying to drive and look at directions, especially since most of the time you’re trying to find your way through rush-hour traffic on a morning.

So, I gladly offered to test our TomTom One over the weekend in order to figure out how to use it and then give a brief overview to the staff next week. Really, I just wanted to play with it! Driving back from work last night, I just couldn’t fool the damn thing, and I was making sure I went a completely different way to what was being suggested But, each time within a few seconds it re-calculated the route and give me updated directions. The real test was handing it over to my mother this morning – she needed to navigate through Darlington, a fairly small city, but if my mother could use it, anyone could Now don’t get me wrong, my mother is no slouch when it comes to computers + gadgets anymore and happily sits e-mailing, scanning, and text messaging, but is someone that needs technology to just work. And it did – she loved it!

Haven’t had much of a chance to try out it’s features for finding alternative routes around roadworks or traffic jams, and haven’t download the latest maps to the SD card, but it seems a cracking little package. Although the entry level system, at £230 ex. VAT it is still very impressive, with crystal clear maps and instructions, and a good database of streets even in fairly rural areas. If I wasn’t moving to the US in less than 3 months, it would definatley be up on my list of toys to buy, even though I wouldn’t really use it!