Plan B

This week I put my alternate plan for getting out of this job into motion, when I received my rent renewal notice. Per my lease agreement, I have until the 31st to submit my 2 months written notice to vacate at the end of my lease.

First step was to call Randy, make sure the room is still available and work out the terms. He's being more than reasonable, this is no problem at all...and the living conditions will be immeasurably better than the Jeff Situation.

After squaring that away, yesterday I submitted my written notice. Home Properties responded as I expected, with offers of slightly lower rent or cheaper apartments. But they just can't top renting a room off a friend, not only for the price but for the freedom this allows me.

So I'm still job searching - matter of fact, I got a call back from SynerFak today (unfortunately they weren't able to meet my current minimum salary requirement, also it was a temp-to-perm position). I'll have to pay only a partial rent on June 1st (my lease ends on June 15th), so basically sometime in May I'll be giving my 2 weeks notice.

Digital Camera

I finally picked up a digital camera. It's a Fuji Finepix A340 - a 4 megapixel camera. Took it to Longwood gardens on Saturday; even though everything outdoors was pretty bare, got some excellent photos.

B5 Movie Dead

I just read an article where Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski is quoted as saying the deal for Babylon 5: The Memory Of Shadows is dead.

Intestinal Virus

All I can say is...ICK!

Yesterday I woke up with the runs. So I called out of the work and convalesced, spent all morning either on the pot or recovering on the couch. By the afternoon I was feeling a bit better, so I ordered chinese (I usually get chicken & rice soup when sick from this place down the street), but may have overdone it by going back to solid food too soon.

Last night I felt warm and still crampy, but brushed it off as the last gasp of food poisoning. But after being up all night with a 100 degree fever and still feeling queasy, I called out again and actually visited the doctor this time.

He ruled out food poisoning and said I've got this strong intestinal virus that's making the rounds. So basically I'm on a liquid diet today, a bland diet tomorrow (I remember him saying granola, breads, bananas and soups), then no dairy products or caffeine for a week.

No Wawa coffee with cream?

Well, since the doctor said tea's fine for me today, then I'll assume that it's tea in the morning for a week, which isn't too bad.

Jim's Cardinal

On Sunday Jim took me up in his Cessna Cardinal 177B - let me tell you, that's one sweet ride!

We flew up to Monmoth, where he landed then took off. Got to see an experimental plane awaiting takeoff just behind us.

From there over to Trenton, then follow the river north to the Delaware Water Gap. Even from that high up, it was an impressive sight. Especially seeing another light plane fly through the Water Gap, that sort of thing really gives you a sense of scale.

Another landing and takeoff from one of the runways up there (don't remember the name), which Jim discovered has a mountain off one end of the runway.

From there we travelled overland back to Lakewood. We had to avoid some commuter jet traffic, which was no big deal. One lear jet passed well under us, which was neat. The amazing thing about this leg of the trip was, despite the fact that you could clearly see New York City out one window and make out some smokestacks near Trenton on the other, I could not orient myself until Jim pointed out Lakehurst in the distance.

Another smooth landing at Lakewood and we were done.

This is a sweet plane, it's roomy (lots roomier than a 172) and flies smooth. More of a sense of forward motion, as opposed to the hanging-in-the-air and getting buffeted around sensation from the 172.