We don't resort to violence, we own resorts and islands.

Well, sting me in the heart with a stingray dong. I'm broke. Despite very modest spending allowances for nutrition and a pretty much nonexistent entertainment budget my preparations for the new job have left me with what will soon be at or under zilch bucks after a few upcoming automatic bank transfers for bills. I'm not at all worried about a month from now but until the checks from the new place kick in I'm going to have to reach a threshold of thriftiness that hasn't been seen since the art school days. Yes, we are talking alternating between the two vegetarian Top Ramen flavors and washing them down with no ludicrously cheap Mexican pop. If this were Oregon Trail I'd be frequently stopping to hunt and trading my last wagon axle for more bullets.

Regardless of my boring personal financial difficulties, the girl and I did have quite a lovely Labor Day weekend. I have no idea what we did Friday night, but at like eleven on Saturday night we went to the "Annual Grand Ball Party" thrown by the Tanzania Association of Michigan at the Sierra Afrique International Club, all of which is a fancy way of saying we went to a fucking bad ass party at our favorite shitty club in the hood with free food because someone Amateis works with got us tickets. A few other people she works with were there and even Brandie from my now former job happened to be there. Everyone was fillin' up the dance floor and doing a good job drinking. Alio (not corrected for spelling), who got us the tickets, performed a few of his original rap songs in Swahili gettin' everybody super excited and that was honestly the best part of the night. There was also a crazy smorgasbord of delicious African foods that we severely chomped on before leaving. It was a great time, actually.

Sunday was pretty lazy but the weather was nice so we played what probably amounted to an entire game of disc golf with Diallo at Wagner Park (the good one without mysterious miniscule train tracks running every which way through it so you kick them with sandals on and break your feet three hundred times in one game). There were a good amount of people there but not enough to make it inconvenient to play. As usual, we got bored with the rules and Diallo invented rules for what I'd call Group Danger Disc which involves everyone starting a hole at the same time and playing through it as fast as possible without regard for other players locations or discs speeding at your face. The end is the best because it's three people in approximately a circle/triangle all about ten or fifteen feet from the basket trying to whip their disc in it with great velocity and of course missing and running over to their disc to do the same thing all over again. I am certain it looked like a totally professional disc golf practice exercise. After that I replaced a few parts in an old computer for Diallo's mom (I got paid in Hoegaarden) and we watched Flatliners, which was interesting yet cheesy.

On Monday, Laborious Monday I actually did go to work (for the last time). I really only showed up to say goodbye to the few people who made it tolerable to work there, like Brandie. After that it was Collin Returned From The Marines Summer Death Camp Alive Barbecue time. We got the boy back three shades more tan, at least twice as hoarse, and with one millimeter of highly organized hair, which I think is understandable. He is one of the best in his platoon thing at putting bullets where they need to go, so he'll be going back for some special training probably pretty soon. It sounds fun to me besides all the horrendous amounts of running and all that. Anyway, after we left Collin's the rest of the day was spent with Jessie first at her parents' house (which had the most incredible multiple-koi-ponded back yard) and later out at the lake house. At the lake house there's a pretty rockin' high-def digital video projector and sound system set up in the basement, so we watched pretty much NO movies that take advantage of either of those elements; Rushmore and then Grandma's Boy (which had a surprising amount of funny lines in it despite being sort of dumb). Then we went home!

Ta-daa!
Now I'm going to be filling out paperwork for the next however long.