Soft opening!

I don't quite know what a soft opening is supposed to be...okay, the Palazzo's closed except for invited guests, but there are walls missing paint and some receptacles without covers, and rooms not even close to being finished. It's not even all the way finished. I can't imagine that being impressive at all, but I guess it means something to be "invited" to the newest hotel-resort-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Whatever. That kind of thing doesn't mean shit to me. All I'm happy about is the fact that more than likely, our shifts might become a little more normal.

Grand opening is supposed to be 17-19 January, and Barney's New York is plastering ads all over the place. I hope we make the date. There's supposed to be a kickass fireworks show from the roof of the Palazzo upon opening, I'd kinda like to see it but I'm sure I'd see a better version on YouTube anyway. Wow I'm negative today.

Christmas was...okay.

I woke up so exhausted, had to be at the in-laws by no later than 05h00. Christmas Eve we had a party for family: those two days were my only days off and will be the only days off till New Year's Day. But anyway, it was all a blur: family, coffee, gifts, coffee...coffee...

Tannah got me something I totally didn't expect: original artwork from the online comic Sheldon. It was one about Sheldon and his talking duck Arthur glorifying the German word for the number five: fünf. I'm sorry, "fünf" is an awesome word, full of excitement and fun to say. I also got a gift card that will definitely come in handy, and stickers and and and...it was good. :)

So we were at the in-laws' house at about 04h45, then my parents' house at around 10h00, then back to our place for an hour to love the Pepper, then Tannah's grandparents' house at around 17h00, then back home by 20h00. Busy, exhausting, but good to see everyone.

I did manage to ruin things at my parents' house though, basically everyone was in the living room talking about baby stuff and well, being childless I went to the kitchen to eat some banana-nut bread, and got the lovely idea that I could text "Happy Christmas" to my overseas friends. (There's only a small window in which I can send texts overseas, otherwise it's in the middle of the night.) I wound up pissing off my dad, he thought I was being rude and that my friends mean more than family. That's not at all true, and I think it's unfair that the assumption was made, but I can't change his mind. All I could do was put the phone away and make a mental note to try not to use it in front of him anymore. The thing is, Tannah also thinks texting is rude...I don't understand.
But all in all, it was good for the most part. I do love my family, after all.

Change in belief?

It's getting closer to Christmas….for close to a year now I've been really thinking on my beliefs. Very heavily now for a few months, and then Tannah and I were watching this documentary about Christianity. There was a part discussing the resurrection of Jesus, but it talked about a physical resurrection...and I have never believed that. Tannah and I discussed it, and he says that's a major aspect of Christianity. So I started thinking about my beliefs.

So in my research I cross-referenced info, looked into history of the church, compared bible translations…there's a change coming. I'm not sure if I'm excited or afraid; just the information I'm coming across isn't information ever taught to me before. I'm not positive what that means for me, but I'll keep on it.

VGL, bitches!

Video Games Live is finally coming to Vegas…well, Henderson…two days before Tannah's birthday. So that’s what he's getting! Bought two tickets a few days ago, he's really excited. I've heard good thing about it, if anything it'll be an interesting experience.

In other news I'm really worn down from all the hours, I was supposed to have an MRI today and the hospital isn’t working with me at all so I cancelled. I'll get it later. One thing though, Gwynne is trying real hard to make sure we have Christmas and Christmas Eve off so it makes working these hours a little more bearable. And no…we aren’t making our soft opening...haha, was supposed to be today. It's been pushed back to 24 December.

Nellis AFB: going green.

I'm so stoked about this: a very sexy photovoltaic system at Nellis Air Force Base not even a half-hour from my house. The opening ceremony was today, with the governer present and everything. I think it's great that the armed forces are choosing to utilise the power of the sun to help offset power consumption. It's a 14 megawatt system, which is the largest in the US (if I remember correctly)...

It's just so exciting! My study-buddy Cliff (who took PV 1 in September or so and is taking PV 2 with me in March) geeks out about solar power just as much as me, and we hide the latest PV news and magazine articles behind out school books and kind of salivate over it all. He wanted to transfer to the Nellis job so bad, but he hadn't taken PV 2 yet at that point, and wasn't NABCEP certified, but once he's a journeyman he'll be good to go and so long as he stays with Bombard he might get to be in on some kickass jobs in the future.

Yay for photovoltaics! Yay for Nellis Air Force Base! Yay for Bombard Renewable Energy Division! Yay for IBEW!

Solar joy!

At Tannah's Christmas party, the general manager walked up, very interested in PV, it was awesome to be able to talk about solar! Gave him info for installation, rebate facts, all kinds of goodies, and he would like me to send him links. Off the top of my head, I sent Solar NV, American Solar Energy Society, Fat Spaniel, and Solar Generations. It’s a start.

And I cant believe I haven’t gotten Christmas cards out yet!! But to combat that, a funny: working with a 1st year that just pulled two tours in Iraq and he said that life in the military was easier than this apprenticeship. What's really funny is I know two ex-Marines, an ex-Airman, another ex-Soldier and 1 ex-Seaman (who was an ex marine before joining the Navy) who all served in wartime and they say the same thing...

Yay!

Happy #1: The hospital bills are all paid off, finally! I knew there was a reason I kept working so many hours...paid the last one yesterday. Two of them had gone to collections so my credit rating is hurt now but I just didn't have the money to pay it before.

Working on the roof, all cold and windy...the wind made it a little dangerous but we had harnesses on, so even if we fell or got blown away we only would have gone 6 feet so very little immediate danger. But today, Happy #2, our VAV actuators came in so we are working inside again, at least for a few days.
Soft opening is a week from tomorrow. I don't know how its going to be done without making us work 18 hour shifts. Hope it doesn't come to that.

It's cold like death.

We're on the roof, it's fucking cold. We're doing the external hook ups for the air handling units and honestly, it's bad enough that it's the middle of December but it's windy too. Granted, this year I invested in a pair of Carhartt coveralls, which is so very very nice. Just as I wrote on my apprentice review:

"My Carhartts are like a warm May afternoon while everyone else suffers in the icy tundra. Plus, they're sexy!"

In reality they aren't at all sexy, I look like a gingerbread man in them. It's hard to find a 26" inseam. But on an up-note, a foreman named Larry (who has the reputation for perving out) brought in pains au chocolat!! They made me miss France but it was so yummy. It was my only joy in a day with no time for anything.

Final doc visit.

I didn't mention it before, but the worker's comp doc I'd been seeing about my sutured-up arm didn't want to release me. He wanted to see me like twice a week and after I got the stitches removed, he wanted to do "scar therapy" and honestly, the scar is only so bad because his suturing skills are awful. (To help illustrate that point, the phlebotomist I see for my weekly PT/INR testing had asked me if I'd stitched myself up. How sad is that?) But anyway, he wanted to start scar therapy today and I made up this elaborate story that I was rubbing vitamin E oil and cocoa butter into it like four times a day and he finally (reluctantly) released me from care.
Creepy creepy creepy.

Creepy.

Yesterday I got a Christmas card from Houston, no return address, from a woman whose name I don’t recognize. I really want to look her up, to see how she knows me but another part of me says no. Hmm.

Kelb per fluvo nameni gesse!

(The title of this post means absolutely nothing.)

We've been working on the bathroom a little all week...Tannah did the clear coat tonight (stain looks great: dark in the grain, so it looks like zebrawood), then reassemble the cabinets Thursday maybe, then this weekend we're going to paint bathroom.

We did Adam's annual birthday bash at Hofbräuhaus a few days ago. This year he actually made reservations, so we weren't stuck going to the Pink Taco again. That place was overpriced and pretentious. But as I love German food, I had to go, even though I was so very exhausted. I even drunk-texted Drew about the not-so-hot Jägerwench.

Everyone at work is exhausted and sick. There are lots of minor job accidents like drilling screws into fingers and falling off ladders, because everyone's like a zombie. So when something doesn't go right people get crazy. I know we're here extra hours to get stuff done but its actually lowering production, and raising heart rates. It's okay though, Palazzo will open eventually and it'll be over.

Graduation is 17 May! And it's a formal dinner, so I have to get a dress...a real one. A little scared about turning out, but a huge pay raise with that, & my foreman said he's giving me an apprentice. (I'm not looking forward to that part at all.) But I'm hoping I'll learn more in the coming months, enough to be okay.

I can't wait till I get a day off sleep. Just a whole day of it. There's not enough time for anything anymore.

Sad and pathetic.

An ironworker died Tuesday, only 30 years old with a wife and 4 yr old kid…very sad. Apparently he was tied off to a beam or something and crane dropped it, he had no choice but to ride all the way down and was crushed. His service was at Palm Mortuary and some asshole walked in, gave a speech about how great the guy was, and walked out with $10k in collection money and some of the gifts that had been donated for the kid since his Christmas is going to be pretty bleak. How could someone do that?

Humanity sickens me. For his sake, the cops had better find him before the ironworkers do.