Hot Hot

And I'm not talking about Chili or women, although a particularly good looking girl did walk right past my window this morning.

No, I'm talking about the weather.

See, I eat out on a Friday night, in a slight deviation from the traditional take-away in England.

So I went to Chili's last night. It had been hot during the day, but as I was inside the office at work, I didn't particularly notice just how hot it really was. Stepping out of Chili's, I got back into the car, and switched it to display the temperature. 89 degrees F. at 8:45 PM. Well, I started driving, and predictably it dropped. but only to 81. That's hot!!!

And it's been hot today too. The only downside is that it's super-heating the car seats, so I have to be careful not to burn myself on the seats. A good friend of mine, who is much more used to these temperatures (Hello Jo) has made the suggestionof keeping a towel in the car to sit on. Good plan, already in action.

Another nice thing recently has been the Come See Me festival. It's an annual festival around Rock Hill. Jacalyn told me about it on my first week, waaay back in February, and I love it. There is another festival somewhere later in the year, Come Spook Me, I think it was called. Around Hallowe'en time.

Anyway, time to go now. Grand Prix tomorrow.

Oh, and I had my hair cut too. number 3 all over. My aunt won't be pleased.

Time Flies!

So it's been over a week since I last updated the blog, and a lt has happened since.

Firstly, I've got myself some suitable gym attire and did an hour or so yesterday. I would have gone tonight too, except that I needed to do a small piece of work for the folks back home in the UK. I'll be in there when I get home from work tomorrow, I think.

I've also done a bit of tweaking to the laptop. It's got a wirelss keyboard and mouse (courtesy of Walmart) and is hooked up to the telly, so I no longer have to have the laptop lying about waiting to get kicked, or stuff spilt on it. It also means that the portable HDD can sit somewhere safe. I must confess, I think the problems I had last week may have been caused by an iffy cable.

Having hooked he laptop up to the telly, I can now play DVDs. The thoughtfull folks who furnished the apartment didn't put a DVD player in the package. I've just changed my work laptop to region 1 and plugged it in. No problem. Already watched "Quantum of Solace", with "Daddy Daycare" or "Transformers" to follow sometime soon, depending on what mood I'm in at the time.

Ive also got a letter from a special person. It made my day when that appeared in the mailbox. Will have to write one back, although I'd probably be better typing it out in Word. My handwriting is barely legible at the best of times. you thought yours was bad, Scooby, you should see mine!

Anyway, it's time for House now, so I need to switch the telly over...

Manchester Meadows Park

So... I thought to myself "It's nice weather outside, why don't I go to the park".

So I did. I packed a small bag with a couple of sandwiches and a couple of cans of coke, and walked across to Manchester Meadows. It's a park, with some football fields and a lake and a few other things.

Most importantly, there's a playground for Chloe (my niece) when she comes over.

It was a nice, relaxing lunch time.

Banks

It seems that Americans don't have a "bank holiday" on Good Friday. I needed to do some money stuff, and thought to myself... "Bollocks... I'll have to wait until Tuesday now.

Except, as I came back from servicing the car, I noticed that the bank was open for business. On Good Friday. Strange, I thought, but good.

So I sorted all the bank stuff, and now I'm back home again. Woohoo.

Anyway, must get on...

Nerd Net Cafe

So whilst I am waiting for my Jeep to be serviced, I thought I'd go and find a place to chill.

Just up the road (with directions by google) I found the Nerd Net Cafe. It's basically a computer and laptop repair centre and a cafe with free wifi all rolled into one.

The food is really nice, and the price ain't bad either. And as usual for most American eating establishments, you get free refils on soft drinks.

The Jeep is supposed to be done by 12:30, so I'll have to disappear soon.

Car again

Was driving home on Monday evening, and the little display in the dash came up "Service 4WD System". So here I am on Good Friday, sat in the Stateline Jeep dealerhip, just off Interstate 77 at Fort Mill, between Rock Hill and Charlotte.

The Service Salesperson has just been in, and it should be done by 12:30 ish. In the mean time, I'm going across the road to a cafe, since I haven't eaten this morning.

Cookies

The new appartment has a nice big cooker, so what better to cook in it than traditional American Cookies.

When I was at Walmart yesterday, I got some cookie mix, and I made it up last night. I cooked them so that they are a bit soft, so you don't get too many crumbs.

They're really nice (for a first attempt), but I'll have to limit myself to 1 a day, I think.

April Fool

Or Not.

It seems no-one at the office even tried today. No-one. Nothing.Perhaps it's not the in thing over here.

I remember one from a long time ago about etch-a-sketches replacing computers, but that's old now. Then there was one back home where some millionaire (Mr Woodward, I think) wanted to build a big palace / hotel / shopping centre thing somewhere near Skeggy. That was funny just because so many people actually believed him.

There have been some funny ones around Derbyshire too, mostly thanks to Peak 107.