Rocky Horror Picture Show + Geek Convention = fun for all

This past weekend was like all of my weekends lately. Jam packed with events. I got off work at 7:30 Friday night and headed home to get dressed up for the Rocky Horror Picture Show. One of the local community colleges in the area was having a midnight showing. Thanks Tally for texting me. I had a great time going out with you. The best part was now if Jake and I ever go to a show in Chicago I won't have to place a giant 'V' on my forehead.



Then Saturday I got up, got dressed as DD Hunter, in my derby uniform and headed to the Indoor Sports Center.


One of my Diva Teammates, Bombadee, and her husband, Crabby Dan, have created a board game based on roller derby. They titled it 'Roller Derby Mayhem.' We have spent many a night test playing the game debating over rules, penalties, and other small details. I am very honored to have been able to provide my two cents in the creation of this game. Including providing Dan with the catch phrase of "All the action and strategy, none of the bruises." which he shortened to: "Roller Derby Mayhem, All of the action, None of the Bruises."



We played the game at Rock-Con from 2pm to 6pm. It was great, the first group of players were roller derby fans from out of town, they already knew all the basic derby rules so the game was really intense. We ended up calling the game off with a score of 0/0.

After that first jam the 3 gentlemen left and were replaced by more gamers. One of who stayed until 6pm when we had to turn our table over to a new game. We had a blast and were attracting spectators with our shouting "Hit her" and "Come on 1!" after we were done and had left for the evening Dan stayed to play other games. He came home and informed us one of the players who stayed a while was going around showing off the t-shirt we gave away, which he had won. All in all I think our game was a big hit and I hope the people who have first refusal decide to market it. I know I would be buying it for my home.

Only 10 more weekends in 2008

Wow, when I thought up what the title for this post would be I didn't think we were so close to 2009. I just didn't want something cheesy like 'Another one bites the dust.'

This weekend was a long one for me, but it didn't seem like it. I took Thursday off to job hunt and Friday off to Deer hunt. So Friday and Saturday Jake and I got up before dawn and drove out to his mother's property and sat in a tree stand. We didn't freeze, but it wasn't exactly warm either. We would have gone out this morning as well but it was too windy. Here is a picture of Jake aiming at an imaginary deer. We saw plenty of does and one spike, but none would come into range. That is one of the hardest things I am finding about archery, unlike shotgun, you have to have the animal close enough so there is nothing between you and them but air.


Today I took a drive up to Beloit to meet
Keisha Rass Goodbye (say it really fast) to discuss what we are doing for the skating rink on Halloween. We wanted to have an idea of what the owner would like us to do before we show up. While up there I stopped and took a few river shots. This is the drive I get to see twice a week. Just another reason I left the desert.

After I shot my photos I headed back to Forreston where Jake, Kathy and Bret were busy in Bret's workshop making display stands for a local fur company. It is a major project. Bret has to have 30 display stands built and shipped to Indiana by Nov 1st. Gander Mountain, a small outdoor hunting/fishing chain contracted the local fur company to sell pelts in all their stores. The company contracted Bret to build all the stands. So if in the next few months you happen to be in a Gander Mountain look for a wooden display holding fur pelts. On the bottom rung you will see a small brand, "Handcrafted by Bret Schemel, Forreston, IL" Jake helped to build those.
















In the first picture you can see how much saw dust was in the air, I took that without the flash. The one I took, with the flash you couldn't even see Jake or Bret due to all the motes of dust my camera focused on.

But baby it's cold outside.

Well last night was the first night we made it to the freezing mark. Yup, that's right folks our low temp last night got to 32 degrees. Last weekend while Jake was at work I headed out to get the plastic shrink wrap for our windows. This will be the first year in our current house where we put the stuff up. We are totally going for the energy saving winter. Last year we did pretty good, we kept the thermostat at 65 and used space heaters for the rooms we occupied the most.

The Incredible Duke he may not be, but he sure can shrink wrap a window.


This morning we headed out to the tree stand and froze our bottoms off. We saw four does, but they did not come with in bow range. If it had been shotgun season we would have had at least one deer for the freezer.

Tomorrow we will be heading out again, though it will be another short day as we have plans with the American Legion and have to help our buddy set up. Then Sunday it is supposed to hit 68, we will try our luck once more. We have seen more deer this year than last, but haven't had the shots, hopefully we can get something this weekend.

Nail Bitting Derby Action

This weekend was the Eastern WFTDA regional tournament. Due to the wonderful economy and my oh so stable job security I was unable to attend a 3 day derby feast just 2 hours to the north.

I was lucky though thanks to DNN (the Derby News Network) I was able to watch Derby in Dairyland from the comfort of my own home. Live and streaming. If you read this before 4 pm central on Sunday the 12th you too can watch the most intense derby this side of the Mississippi. Just Click Here!

If you miss the web-cast you can still check in on the DID web page for pictures.

Why am I so surprised?

Back in July wrote Job security, is it a thing of the past? Well apparently I was right.

Back then our new manager promised us, "I have been given the go ahead to hire ten people a month to get our numbers up. We are not going anywhere. The company already owns the buildings and property here in Illinois, it is more cost effective to keep us open. Right now they are renting property in Florida."

Well when I drove into the parking lot today I saw one woman outside on her cell phone, I could tell she was crying, she would blot her eyes on the hem of her shirt. At first I didn't think anything of it, people get bad calls while they are at work. When I walk in to the building the switchboard operator tells me it's over. They are going to be closing and moving everything to Florida. Depending on what department you are in you could have anywhere from 6 months to 2 years left.

What I want to know is as employees we all saw this coming, but time and time again we were told it wasn't true. Not only by our own manager, who found out about the decision yesterday but by the upper management who have been running things from Florida since Dec. Why were we lied to? Why did Amrep not tell it's Kable employees that when they, our parent company bought Palm Coast Data in 2007 they would eventually close all operations and move everything to Florida? Why the deceit?

Now it is all over the news and the internet:

Palm Coast Data Eyes Consolidation Reports: Kable's fulfillment operations could move to new Florida Location.

And more here.

But the on that hurts the most:

Kable News relocation to cost Mount Morris hundreds of jobs.... (including mine)

Gone

Well, I hadn't really realized I had been gone so long. Nothing really has been going on and I have felt kinda blah when it came to writing. Anyways, I guess I will get you caught up on my life for the past 2 weeks.

Work, Derby practice, work, more practice and yup, you guessed it, more work. The sad thing is, after all that work, I don't see any increase in my bank balance. The good news though is the fresh meat for our derby team are skating wonderfully!

We have a few minimum requirements that each skater must meet. Two of them are speed and endurance tests. Well last Thursday and this past Tuesday we did our time trials to see where everyone was and to give everyone goals to work for as the season progresses. One of the tests we have is to do 5 laps on the track in under 1 minute. I think almost everyone passed the one or two who didn't were not far off the mark. The second test was for endurance, 20 laps in under 5 minutes. Again on this one almost everyone passed and I don't think anyone went over the 5 min, 20 sec mark. I am so excited. Not only is our team coming together skating wise but they are also understanding the game a lot faster than we thought. To be bouting by the end of Dec early Jan is no longer just a glimmer of hope on the horizon...I can actually see it, it is with in reach!