Hi all,

Having not posted since Melbourne cup, I figured I should probably tell y’all what I’ve been up to. The major news of mine is I bought a car It’s a 1986 http://woo.mytestserver.us/files/Image003%20(Small).jpgToyota Supra (click link), and I got it a few days before Christmas. I have dubbed it “Snoop”.

Sadly, it died. I picked it up to take home, then whilst out showing friends, she died on me - idling like crap, temp starting to climb. Upon checking the oil the next day, it was the colour of a cup of coffee (with milk), which meant some pretty bad things. Long story short, it appears there was a crack in the engine block, meaning a new engine. So, I’ve just forked out $2k to have an engine swap done. The exhaust isn’t standard, and thus has a sweeet (but loud) note, and makes it an even tougher car.

Anyway, other than that, I’ve just been working. Work is pretty boring, but it keeps me on the road (for now).

Oh, I bought a little electric foam park flying plane too. I got that just before Australia day, and had its maiden flight on Australia day in a park down the road. This is my first powered plane, so it will take a bit of getting used to, as is evidenced by me crashing it. Steve, my mate from down the road and instructor took the honours of the first flight to make sure it flew, and I took the controls mid-flight. It flew really well, but I got disoriented and glare and I’m not making excuses, but ploughed into the ground, with some pretty nasty results. The nose snapped off, and the plastic engine mount broke, but I’ve been able to glue the nose back on, and am getting new parts from the hobby shop. I will fly again soon, and am looking forward to it.

That’s about all for now. Rather boring I know, my apologies. I must write more often.

Alright, gang … it’s on. I’m off to Ohio for the week, leaving Monday morning.

I was refused alchohol service at Midvale Hooters yesterday … they wouldn’t accept my Australian driver’s license as proof of age. I was pretty upset about it at the time, but now I don’t care. Luckily I complained on the website while I was still upset, so we’ll see what free stuff they send me.

Spoke with my fam on Saturday afternoon, and Rob Wilson this afternoon. Nice to hear friendly voices. I’m off for a relax before tomorrow.

Today I made an effort to get to Lisa’s Starbucks to get a mocha and to get a start on my new book … the Colour of Law. Apparently the guy who wrote it is something along the lines of the new Grisham. I’m four chapters in and it’s not bad. Not bad at all.

Anyway, so after she finished, we went off to get lunch. It was nice, and it was Lisa’s shout, which made it all-the-sweeter. Came back to work after lunch and made some progress in the good fight.

Well it’s Friday at home, so hope you all have a good weekend. I might be heading to Ohio next week to chase $30 grand, and see if I can land it. I’ll blog if I go, but it might make future blog entries a little slow for a week or so.

Some things in SLC (and America in general I guss) are good, some things are bad.

The good things at the moment are Netflix, Hot Pockets microwavable cuisine, Chilli Cheese Dogs, and Diet Dr Pepper. Bad things are the expensiveness of even doing nothing, and the shut-in-ness you sometimes feel. The tv here is great too. The ads are not.

Before I left, Leyton kindly lent me the UK series Teachers, which I’ve been enjoying. Also, Netflix delivered me Season 1 of The Shield, which is actually quite good if you watch in consistantly - unlike when it was on tv in Australia and I only caught half of any episode, not neccessarily connected to the last. That ain’t no way to watch a TV show.

So I’ve been watching DVDs and working, not neccessarily in that order. I started to make some major progress in a PP matter, and then ran into a brick wall that’s got me back on DVDs again.

Citibank left an urgent message for me to call them about, and I did yesterday. Turns out they were advising me that there’s been some security breach somewhere, so they’re cancelling and reissuing my credit card. I explained how inconvenient that was, but they just said they were sorry, and the new card would be expressed to me in the USA in 7-10 working days. That is rough, my brothers.

My car is covered in a snowy-salty-dirty grime, that I’m contemplating going to a carwash to remove. Isn’t that a first? I barely wash my own car, but I’ll wash someone elses? Maybe my own car’s just never been this dirty …

the weekend is done, and life goes on.

Saturday I went to the movies and saw Smoking Aces, with Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Andy Garcia, etc … and it wasn’t bad at all. Also finished watching Deadwood on DVD, and signed up for Netflix - one of those DVD rental by mail places. My first shipment is already en route.

For a late lunch/early dinner, I hit Hooters for beers and nachos. It was a good distraction. Saturday night I was bored bored bored, and went to bed early.

Sunday was Superbowl Sunday, so there was nothing doing here, anywhere. I started watching Teachers on DVD and did some work. Eventually I went out for pizza and went to bed. Big day. Oh, the highlight was Criminal Minds on tv immediately after the Superbowl. And there’s more TV to come tonight - 24, prison break, heroes. Huzzah.

I ended up not going to Vegas on Saturday, and I really regret it. Should’ve dug deep and gone.

Despite being sore in the head today, I do have some good news. I have learnt that Eric Clapton will play in Salt Lake City on Thursday, March 08, and have purchased a ticket. I can barely believe my luck.

Also, on craigslist, I found a lady selling second hand office chairs for $20 each, so yesterday I went out and bought one. It makes so much difference to sit all day on a comfortable chair, as opposed to sitting all day on a hard chair, in my little home office.

Tonight and tomorrow Artie Lange is performing at the Luxor in Vegas, but I’m reasonably sure in myself that I won’t be going. I figure it would take around $60 in fuel, $60 for the ticket, and $80 for the room, which is too much on such a frivolity. Of course, that amount pales when compared to the price of the Clapton ticket, but some things are worth paying for.

so today the hotel had a superbowl party, which i went to and stayed at until all their beer was gone. i made friends with some mexican dudes who invited me to stay at their place in tijuana. i’m not that well at the moment, and it’s mostly self inflicted. i called charlotte for her birthday and established that she’s 3, and a very lucky girl to have received presents and cake celebrating her birth. also i need to call some customer in australia but that’s not a very exciting prospect.

hey doobses. I got a call yesterday from Godfrey to say “g’day” which was nice, and ironically I got a call from Rob W at exactly the same moment, which sadly went to voicemail. Thanks for the call, Godez .. thanks for the voicemail, Rob.

It was good to catch up with Lisa today - we went to my favourite restaurant in SLC, Buca di Beppo. I had cheese ravioli with a meatball, Lisa had spaghetti and meatballs, and we shared a salad. Get this for a great sounding salad: romaine lettuce, apple slices, gorgonzola, candied walnuts, dried cranberries, and an italian-style dressing. That salad was awesome. I was a bit bummed about my OTHER favourite salad from Buca not being available (baby spinach, cherry tomatos, some type of cheese, candied walnuts with a balsamic dressing) because of a national scare here about some people dieing after eating baby spinach. Apparently all restaurants in the country took anything with baby spinach off their menus for a while - some still haven’t put it back on.

I’ve been getting quite a lot of work done while I’ve been here, which is great. Very few distractions, and I’m pretty content with the way things are going. If only I could get this much done at home!

Although to be fair, my TV at home kicks the ass of the one in the hotel room here …