Wow, nearly a month gone by!

This past month has been nothing like any others. Some epic fail and a few other good moments too.

I have had two interviews for District Court Commissioner positions in other counties. Both seemed to go well and the administrative commissioner that did the first interview said that she would be shocked if I did not get offered one of the five positions I put in for. She also seemed really helpful and interested in spreading the word to the other counties about my qualifications. When I went in for my second interview, a ghost from the past appeared. After being introduced to the administrative commissioner, I was introduced to the duty commissioner who was a classmate of mine at the University of Baltimore. Considering that her and I got along very well in school, I have a gut feeling she will vouch for my integrity.

I wrecked my truck twice in six days. I rear ended someone. I backed into a tree. Epic fail.

Sunday will be my last day maintaining 601. The settlement is Monday morning. I was depending on another week at work because of the damages to the truck. 402 goes to settlement October 31st. So I probably will have two days at Capitol Hill after Monday. However I have some work up in Northwest DC at Phil's building, plus Tim needs me to finish his house, and my parents have a few more small projects at their rental property which is now vacant. The vacancy caused a major problem: Someone gutted the A/C compressor for the copper. The Prince George's County Police came out, a rookie with a FTO. The FTO used a lot of colorful language to describe the situation.

I traveled to Deep Creek for the Autumn Glory celebration. Everything up there went well, and on the trip I hand delivered my application for the District Court Commissioner position up there on the way up. That was a much needed relaxing five days.

I helped Maryanna celebrate her 28th birthday last night. On my way home I stopped by the Super WalMart in Glen Burnie for milk and swirl bread. I walked out with a Wii Fit too. They had them in stock. I plan on getting it set up. I've also started going back to the gym, and even made a point to go to the gym twice up at Deep Creek. I've been maintaining a steady 5.7 MPH on the treadmill, increasing the amount of time I run each day or two, so I can get back up to agility shape. I am thinking I may end up trying for law enforcement positions again sometime next year. Plus it seems to be making my left ankle feel better, especially since driving the Honda irritates it.

Speaking of the Honda, the dealership still cannot duplicate the 3rd gear shifting problems, nor locate the leak in my tire. They replaced the power drivers seat track again when I was up at DCL, and it still seems like it is binding sometimes. I bought a Honda to have a reliable car, but these three issues still cannot seem to get resolved. I plan on putting the car into another dealership to get these things fixed.

Also does anyone think that the Maryland State Police recruiting billboard on Russell Street in Baltimore is an obnoxious waste of taxpayer money? They would not even need one if they had a more reasonable psychologist giving their psychological tests. And worse yet, right now the MSP has a hiring freeze making this even more of a waste of money.

Oh and Barack Obama seems to be turning more and more red states blue. The epic fail of Wall Street has brought America to its knees. I just hope that there are no late October surprises. I plan on posting more on the election later, when I can dedicate more space to the topic.

Well, I guess this gets everyone caught up on whats going on.

What could have gone wrong?!?!?!

Rumor on the street was that I was going to be hired for the open District Court Commissioner slot.

Well, the rumors, were just rumors. Everyone that had inside information said "What the hell?" when I told them I had not got the job.

Since my last post, I finally met up with a US Park Police officer I have talked to online since 2000. In eight years, we never could get our schedules to line up right to meet up. He was even the person that gave me the right contact information to schedule the ride along that I enjoyed so much. Lately we have been texting and instant messaging each other, and we both happened to have a few free minutes, so we met up. He seemed to be a good guy, loves his job, gave me hell for not getting myself back to agility shape to apply to his agency, and whatnot. I told him I thought I was going to get hired by the District Court Commissioner and he was proud of me for finally making a step towards law enforcement.

Freddy and I went to the University of Maryland vs. California game at Chevy Chase Bank Field. Kelly's parents sold me the tickets for half face value because they had to go to something else, and Kelly was already working at the game. What was really annoying for me was the fact all the Troopers kept saluting Freddy, because of his rank before he retired from the MSP. It was already starting to annoy me a little bit, because of my MSP epic fail story. But then Freddy kinda rubbed it in my face making a comment about it. It put me in a bad mood for part of the game, until I saw a ghost from Christmas past. Above the section we were sitting in, was my Lieutenant from when I was an intern for the Park Police. I went up and talked to him for a few minutes, then he had to step away when his radio went off. I had expected him to have retired from the Park Police by now, but he told me he was staying on to max out his pension and time it so he retired around the time his wife, who is also a Lieutenant for the MSP, would turn in her badge. Grrrrrr, another MSP reference. At the end of the game I went over to the section where Tricia, Dan and Jessie were sitting and talked to them for a few minutes. Afterwards, Freddy and I went to Costco to get some random things he needed, and then he took me out to dinner at Jaspers in Greenbelt.

On Monday I cleaned out the remaining stuff in two of the vacant apartments and sent it up to Dan and Tricia's place in Tacoma Park. They were glad to get the dressing armoire, dresser, bakers rack, two random metal beds, a surge protector, light bulbs and a few other random odds and ends. When Tricia got home from class, the three of us went out to the diner in Silver Spring. When we returned, the broke the news to me that they were getting married! I was so excited for them, I knew that it was getting to be time. The funny thing was I kept joking with them about name changes and whatnot earlier in the night.

On Tuesday I got the letter that shocked the nation.

On Wednesday, I went to work, depressed, but worked enough to do what needed to be done.

Thursday I left to go up to Deep Creek Lake. I took it easy all weekend, going out to the new Microbrew off Sang Run Road. It was good. On Sunday some friends were having a cookout at their place. I got super drunk, made an ass of myself, including throwing up all over the place. My chest is still sore a few days later.

Tuesday at work I met with some staff from 4th Presbyterian Church to give away some of Adam's stuff. I'm kind of disappointed that I was not given the chance to ask for any of it, especially since I have given seven years of my adult life working at the complex. What is worse yet is the tools may be given away to the church, a few of which I have borrowed many times in the past to do side jobs.

Today before I went to work I filled out paper work for a few other District Court Commissioner positions that are open. Too bad two of them are contract and at will, but it would be better than being unemployed. They were working on the roof too when I got to work, so I finally will be able to fix the ceiling in Joe's apartment next week.

I dropped my car off at the dealership before I went to Deep Creek, I picked it up tonight after work. They finally fixed the leak in the tire (it was the tire pressure sensor), ordered the parts for a second fix of the drivers seat, and could not duplicate the problem with the gearbox. I'm getting really frustrated with the 2-3 upshift grinding problem.

Starting October 1st, my parents rental property will be vacant again. We are going to do some repairs, but not as extensive of a refurbishment as last time. Hopefully my parents can get it re-rented quickly so my mom can buy a new car. Also my sister and brother invited me to go to Las Vegas with them in early November, so I am looking forward to getting four new states (and unfortunately only four new counties) while I am out there. At least I will be able to clinch I-15 in Nevada and Arizona. :-)

Some Past

Since the last post, I went up to Deep Creek for a few days, worked at Tim's house quite a bit, went to Shannon's 4th of July Party at her parents house in Eldersburg, Worked at Capitol Hill, Clipped My Parents Toenails.

First since the last post, I text messaged Ryan to ask where he gets his hair cut. He got back to me with a small barber shop along US 1 in Beltsville. I went by there, got my hair cut, went to Costco, and then my mom was ready to be picked up from the doctors. After I got home, I packed up my car, then went to Capitol Hill for work for a few hours, then I drove up to Deep Creek.

The next day I took it easy, then on Saturday Freddy and I took the Jet Skis down to Jennings Randolph Lake, which is an emergency reservoir for DC on the Potomac River, in Garrett County. It's a small lake compared to Deep Creek, but very few people use it, so it was more fun than going around Deep Creek, with the crowds of people. Then on Sunday I left to come home. My second cousin from Denmark came over for dinner. It was enjoyable. Then on Monday I packed up some clothes, went to work on Capitol Hill, then I drove to Baltimore.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I finished the last couple coats of joint compound for the front bedroom and kitchen. Thursday, the 4th, Tim and I slept in, and did a few hours of clean up to his house, then we went to Shannon's parent's 4th Of July Party. We ate crabs, hamburgers, and ice cream cake. Then Tim and I went back to Baltimore, met Kelly, and the three of us went to Adam's roof top party. Steve was there, and we decided to call Maria (last referenced back in 2004) and see what she was up to. She never answered her phone, but called me back, after the three of us left to go to PaperMoon Diner. I also got a chance to meet the kittens, though the kitten I wanted was already spoken for.

On Saturday, Dave and Jessie came by to borrow my truck to pick up the grill they bought. Shannon showed up and brought us donuts. Then the four of us went to Target to get storage boxes and Home Depot to get a dehumidifier and Round Up. Then we got back to Tim's and proceeded to make Tim clean out every room in his house. Then we moved his office and bedroom into the front bedroom. I have never seen his house so clean in my life. Shannon crashed on the couch for a few hours, Kelly and I would bring things to the basement, and Tim and Kelly would sort though everything. Tim has been reminded to never buy office supplies again. Then the four of us went out to Timbuktu in Hanover for dinner and then Tim and I went back to his house, cleaned out more, then I went back to Upper Marlboro. Sunday I worked on Capitol Hill.

Monday I worked on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, the electrician came. He fixed the ceiling electrical box in the dining room that I broke the neutral wire off of back when Tim bought his house in October 2005. We also had him add a length of wire to the ceiling in his office for the future ceiling fan, and we found the missing electrical box for in the living room. The electrician told me that he has not seen fabric electrical tape in 25+ years, so we think there has not been a ceiling light in present in Tim's house for the past three owners. How the home inspectors for the past three owners never caught the light switch to nothing and whatnot is a mystery to me. Wednesday I went to Home Depot to get more supplies, and Wednesday night we put drywall up on the ceiling in the back bedroom. Thursday I felt sick, so I just did some random stuff around his house, such as pouring concentrated Round Up on the random Tree of Heaven (aka: Ghetto Pam) growing in his back yard.

A Prince George's County Police Officer was run over and died two weeks ago. The guy that killed him died in jail. At this point, the corrections officers have been ruled out as suspects, with his death being ruled a suicide.

Jessie Jackson wants to cut Barack Obama's nuts off. Yawn. It shows the true colors of Jessie Jackson.

Oh well. I guess that's everything. I really need to find more time to update my blog regularly.

26 Days later

Nearly a month later, I have not heard about the District Court Commissioner position I applied for. However, Kelly got a rejection letter a few weeks ago. My guess is I am in the running and my name has been submitted to the judge.

I moved back in with my parents. I had grown really sick of the commute from La Plata to DC every day. I was wasting a lot of money on gas, to the tune of nearly $800 a month between the Ram and Accord. And buying that much gas gives terrorist nations money to do stuff. It gives evil empire corporations, such as ExxonMobil, more money to be even more evil. With what I can save in gas for four months of commuting to my current job, I can buy a 46" 120hz 1080P LCD TV. Plus the roommates started to really get on my nerves, and what really did it was I wanted to have people over to swim one day, and I was told "no you can't have your friends over, we are having a party and we don't want strangers around." That tipped the balance for me very rapidly, though I was thinking about the move for at least a month.

The lifespan on my current job has been expanded further yet. The deal fell though. Originally the last large building was supposed to change hands on about June 15th. However the purchaser, who was from Iran, had his financing fall though. So the building is up for sale again. Additionally 610 transferred to the new owners, and they have started to gut it. I ran into Melissa(the former tenant) on the street yesterday and we talked for a few minutes. It was good to see her.

I am also working part time on getting Tim's house ready to sell. We are gluing and screwing drywall to his ceilings and refinishing and repainting the walls. Tim's commute to DC has been getting him very grumpy. I don't say I blame him much at all. Hopefully he can sell the house quickly and get a new house in Rockville.

Last weekend I drove down to Clarksville VA to Shannon's parents vacation home. I ended up having to help her clean up a massive amount of mice droppings before Dan, Tricia, Tim, Sarah, Brent, Pam and Steve got there. Shannon is very mousephobic, so I cleaned out the kitchen and Lysoled the place into a storm. We ended up having to make multiple trips to Wal Mart to get supplies. On Saturday, we rented a pontoon boat. When I shifted it into neutral because I wanted to stop and figure out where on the lake we were, the boat stalled out. I could not get it restarted. We called the marina, and they came out. They left a long rope tied to the back of the boat, and it got stuck in the propeller. Fortunately we were not held responsible for that damage. Sunday it was agreed that it would be a Matt does nothing day. I woke up and everyone cooked breakfast for me. Then Dan, Tricia, Tim and I drove down to Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. I got pictures in front of the North Carolina state house, and increased my NC county count by three. This trip also increased my county count by one in Virginia. However, the good news is that Shannon's mom is going to pay me for my labor, plus pay for the gas to drive the chairs they wanted brought back in my truck. Though I wish I could have had a true vacation where I did nothing.

Later today I am going up to Deep Creek for the weekend. I am looking forward to getting some time on the jet ski and on the ski boat. It also will be a good break from the heat and humidity of DC and Baltimore. I am coming back on Sunday to see my second cousin from Denmark who is visiting DC.

Well, I am off of here. More updates to follow. :-)

Pleasure Reading Your For Posting

I ran off to Deep Creek Lake this past weekend.

Noteworthy: More button copy signage is disappearing. Some mileage signs along I-70 and I-68 have been replaced with reflectorized BGSes. Also along I-68, the "Watch for Maryland Wildlife" signs have been replaced with the text in black on a yellow background, opposed to the former brown on white with the old signs.

Also, Frostburg has a "Paris N. Glendenning Recreation Center". Amazing. I would have never thought that anything in Allegany County would be named after him.

The DC area flooded while I was gone. Oh well. Apparently there was over 5" of rain at Andrews AFB in the past 24 hours. My parents said they had trouble sleeping due to the wind driven rain hitting their house all night. US 301 was closed at Western Branch. Just a total mess. My trip home from Garrett County was uneventful. Thank god.

My prediction for the West Virginia primary tomorrow is Clinton 59%, Obama 41%.