david's job promotion

well i have some very good news to share! david's boss at the country club of scranton has decided that he needs some personal time. he is married and has 4 little girls and has worked very hard to provide for his family, but it has been taking a toll on him. so, he offered dave his job so he can leave the country club. david's job now as a starter has been a very good job for him. what the starters do is basically take care of the c.c.'s members' tee times, making sure their bags get put out in carts and making sure the bag room boys are doing their job correctly. he gets tips and has a fair amount of responsiblity. what he was offered is a step up, as Head Starter. he still does some of the same things, but he is in charge of alot more. not only is he in charge of the bag room boys, but also the other starters and the caddies. he will be posting all of the tee times for the following day on line, making up the special days (tournament's and stuff), making the employee schedule each week, appeasing the cranky old members, hiring and firing. it's a big step up, but not more than he can handle. there are 2 awesome perks to this new job, one being that a good chunk of his work needs to be done online and he can do that at home, which means we need to get internet at home, which will be so great! the other, is that he will be making twice as much as he's making now!!! however, the job is only seasonal, lasting from aprilish-octoberish. so what the c.c. does is tell the employees to apply for unemployment during the winter months. so that is our plan. he can work some at the roadhouse then, but we don't know how much. he starts this week, and it happens to be the worst week of the summer! there are about 5 guys that are gone all week, which means that everyone left will be working overtime. please pray for him as he's adjusting to this new job. it will be a stressful week, but we'll make it!

our indiana/ohio trip

last thursday, dave and i woke up at 7, packed our car, headed to the cafe for some sustinence and hit the road bound for Greencastle, IN. first however, we drove 8 hours to Columbus, OH and spent the night with dave's brother, jon. when we got there, a nasty thunderstorm let loose and we barely made it inside alive! well, not really ALIVE, but there was thunder, lightening and lots of rain! jon brought us to one of his favorite restaurants, The Bag of Nails. after a couple of hearty appetizers, hot wings, fried pickles, and nachos with black bean dip, we dug into our meals. i forget what the boys got, but i had a marinated portobello mushroom sandwhich with zucchini, mozzarella on a rosemary foccacia bread. (ash, are you hungry yet???) makes me want one again! anyway, we stayed there until it stopped pouring and then jon took us on a mini-tour of Columbus. what an awesome city! dave and i both loved it. anyway, we crashed at jon's bachelor pad and the next morning woke up and stopped at an awesome cafe called Caribou Coffee. it is a chain coffee shop that i had heard alot about, but never been to one. (check out their website, http://www.cariboucoffee.com/) after grabbing a muffin and a cup of strong coffee, we headed out for the last 4 hours of our trip. now, the reason, you may be wondering, why we were planning this trip, was because one of david's friends, dan, was getting married and dave was the best man! Greencastle is a bit west of Indianapolis, so we chose to split the 12 hour trip between 2 days. Anyway, to make this long trip shorter for you, we got the our hotel, checked in, and headed another 45 min. to the bride's parents house for the rehearsel and bbq. dave's dad was marrying them so bob and sandy were there. i was very glad to hang out with sandy. neither of us knew anyone and felt a bit out of place. (think: a dad with 1 earring, snakeskin belt and boots and a mullet, and a controlling mom who could be smiling at you 1 minute and snippy the next). the groom, dan, is a marine and was in Iraq most of last year. since september however, he has been stationed in San Diego, CA. but, in their great wedding planning, dan wasn't getting back from CA until midnight the night before his wedding! at the bbq, we found out that he had barely made his plane b/c he didn't have his paper signed by his commanding officer to get leave. this wedding was off to a great start. after hanging around for hours, the rehearsel was about 2 hrs. late and sandy and i were getting very tired. so we left to go back to the hotel. the 4 of us (me, dave, bob and sandy) shared a room which saved some money. anyway, the next day, we got up, ate and got ready for the wedding. checked out and headed back to the bride's parents house for the outdoor ceremony. again, more bad things...one of the groomsman never tried his shirt on (we had to buy them at Kohl's) and it was too small. so he had to drive 1/2 hr. away to the store, hope they have his size, and get back before the wedding. unfortunately he didn't make it. we started 45 min. late. and on top of that, although we were sitting under a tent, it was very hot and sunny out, and they didn't provide any water for the guests. a very cheap expense, but then again, the way this was going, we weren't surprised. sandy and i were restless from sitting in the heat, but the ceremony went ok. a couple of minor problems. i.e: music that you can't hear, bug flying down the bride's dress which was funny and a tape track that the bride and her dad were singing was on the wrong side, the side without words. yes, they wanted to sing with the choir on the other side of the tape. so, stop, flip the tape over, rewind, not there, stop rewind stop rewind, ok there now. oh wait...they don't really know the words, and you can't even hear them above the choir. but hey, if that's what they want! sandy put it perfectly: different strokes for different folks. they didn't seem to mind at all that their wedding barely happened! and happened roughly at that. one thing i can say, the reception was pretty good! the food was great, light fare with lots of veggies and roast beef wraps and sweet tea! i did like that one! and it was short, so it was easier for dave and i to leave. we drove back to Columbus and stayed with jon. got some much needed sleep and left at noon for the 8 hr. drive home. and boy, was i ready for home! all of that driving in such a short span of time really wiped me out. but now, after working yesterday, on my day off, i feel relaxed and rested. i'm at my parents doing laundry waiting to pick up dave from work. in reflection, the weekend was good. it was great to see bob and sandy and jon. dave and i had some good quality time and dave was happy to see some buddies from high school. but now, i'm glad to be back to normal life.