apple pie and interviews; rejoice part 2

For your viewing pleasure. Its been a pretty great week. I have had an interview every morning so far and we've got to visit some cool places and see some amazing things.

Wednesday I had a phone interview with Time Warner Cable for the position of Customer Technical Support Representative. Basically I would be the guy you call when your cable goes out. It went pretty well and I got a second interview for Thursday which I just got back from and I think it went pretty well. It would be a pretty great job and the place seems pretty nice and there is lots of room for advancement as well which would be nice. Tomorrow (Friday) I have an interview with Proflowers to be a customer service rep through their phone service. I also had an interview with a surrogacy and egg donation center. I already heard back from them though and I didn't get the job. They wanted to do some pretty crazy stuff (video wise, not surrogacy wise) though so I'm kind of glad I didn't have to decide if I wanted the position or not.

Lisa went through her orientation with Micheal's on Monday and she just left for her first day of work a little bit ago. She works Today, tomorrow, and Saturday for sure. She has also heard back from See's Candie's which wants her to start working soon so that's amazing. For her AND me! (Free candy?)

Wednesday we went to visit Julian, CA. Which is kind of a little touristy town one hour east of San Diego. They're known for their Apples and Pies. We visited a Cider Mill and had some Julian Apple Pies. Which was one of the most amazing pie's I've ever had. We also got some cinnamon ice cream to go with it. It was also up in the mountains about 4k feet so it was very beautiful. It was a very curvy and crazy drive up their. The only lame part is that everything closed at around 5pm.

That's about all for now! Feel free to comment!

Love, The McVickers

Video Footage!!

For those of you who hate reading, here are some videos!

This is a tour of our precious little studio apartment! It's tiny, but we love it. There is plenty of room for a camp-out on the floor, so bring your sleeping bags and come for a visit. There is also the International Ocean Beach Hotel for those of you with refined tastes.

Here is a video of us walking to the beach. We just wanted to point out how fast we can get there, because it is so amazing. I can't believe that it's so close, too close in fact that we can't get renter's insurance. Whoops! Good thing it's not required.

And finally, just some footage of the beach itself, and our daily ritual of walking. We really don't like driving, so we usually end up walking around for a good part of the day, because it's FREE and we discover new things in the neighborhood and see interesting things. The other day, we saw a supermarket-looking-type building. We went inside and it resembled a Whole Foods kind of place. We looked around, found some chips that we had a coupon for, and proceeded to the checkout. The young man who rang me up asked for my number, and I realized in that moment that we were at a co-op and had to be members to buy stuff. "Oh, we just moved here..."
We love bumbling around, and everyone here has been super accommodating so far, and luckily we got to buy the chips...WITH the coupon, and shortly after devoured them.

I, this is Lisa by the way, started work today. I am a framer in the custom framing department at Michael's. I just love me some arts and crafts. But I think my experience at the Art Store will translate nicely, but I will continue to look for something a bit more steady. For right now though, it's amazing and I'm super thankful for this opportunity.

the one with the guy who got a root canal in mexico

So we've been having some fun lately. Wednesday was our 3rd wedding anniversary if you can believe it. So we went and visited Coronado Island and walked around the fancy shops and beach. We also checked out the historic Hotel del Coronado. That night we went out for dinner at Old Venice in Point Loma. It was super nice and we made friends with the waiter who had Iowa connections so he gave us a free dessert. Also we had a couple entree coupon. I think using a coupon on your wedding anniversary officially makes you no longer newly weds.

Also on Wednesday I set up a phone interview with Time Warner Cable to be a technical customer services call center guy. Oddly I got a referral from the website reddit.com which I frequent. Someone posted their company was hiring and put a word in for me.

So Thursday Lisa and I took a day trip down to Tijuana, Mexico. We ate at a restaurant down there and visited some of the shops. There weren't very many other tourists the day we went so we stuck out like sore thumbs to all the store people.

On the bus ride back, there was a guy who had evidently just received a root canal and he kept complaining that the Novocaine had worn off. So that was entertaining.

Other than that Lisa starts her job on Monday and here are a few pictures we have from the past few days.

big news on a big day

It's Lisa and I's 3rd Wedding Anniversary! Also Lisa got a job at Micheal's as a Framer person and will be going to her orientation on Monday!

That's about it. I continue to apply at places and it continues to be crummy and rainy here. Hopefully that will turn around!

are you ready for some free lunch!!!

Probably a short one, I might try to update more often so I don't sound like a lunatic when I write these things, trying to cram everything in.

Weekends are weird primarily because places were trying to apply to don't make decisions and managers aren't in so we try to find free things to do. Sunday was awesome though, we found a pretty cool Church that we tried out, Missiongathering Christian Church. The worship was good, the message was good, and the people seemed very friendly.

Afterward I finally conquered my TV antenna dilemma. I had asked a question on yelp.com about what the best type of antenna would be and some directed me to one at Radio Shack (The Shack), and Lisa and I picked it up and it works pretty well. So hooray! Free TV!

ALSO, we found this place on Newport Ave., Gallagher's Irish Pub that shows every NFL game on Sundays which is awesome. Lisa and I have found a new love for the NFL since she started her fantasy football team. The best part is that they also have free sandwiches there! So free football, and free lunch is pretty awesome. It's like college all over again!

Other than Sunday we also took a big nap and watched TV. It's been drizzling or cloud ever since we moved here so we haven't got to spend a lot of time at the beach besides walks and what not.

Oh, also we roller bladed around part of Mission Bay Park Saturday night. It is a really big park just North of us that has Seaworld in it. It also has a lot of fire pits and playgrounds so we will have to go their when you visit.

it goes on and on and on and on

yo. so, what have we been up to? Well since moving in we've been organizing our apartment, making it more livable as well as doing job stuff. That's mostly it. We got our IKEA dresser set up and the close moved into it so our apartment looks much more like an apartment. Also today we got a sweet deal at the Salvation Army. We found a couch listed for 20 bucks there and since it was the mid month blowout we got it at half off for 10 bucks! Its a full couch that I can lay flat on so we got it for a steal. Also Salvation Army has a delivery guy who brought it to our apartment.

Lisa also uploaded some photos to the internet minus our apartment since the guy just got the couch here and its dark out now. Here they are though.

I forget what I wrote last time so I'm going to maybe repeat myself. Abby got to visit Wednesday and we went to the Ocean Beach Farmers Market and picked up some onions, garlic, and a scotched egg.

Also Lisa had an interview Thursday with See's Candies which went really well and she should have an interview with the district manager sometime next week hopefully. I also talked to the news director at KSWB and might be doing some freelance work for them soon which would be awesome.

This post has been a little scattered so you'll have to excuse me.

sipping on the sweet nectar

Well its Wednesday. Sorry I can't update this more often we've just been super busy and also sometimes homeless. Not anymore though! I believe I left off with, we're moving into our apartment Monday, well turns out we moved in Tuesday! Which is okay. We're accustomed to Days Inn it seems.

Monday we came down to San Diego and tried to turn in our filled out form which as it turns out was still the wrong one, so we had to fill out another. Then we had to just wait for it to be approved. Meanwhile at Sunrise Management a credit check specialist didn't receive our fax evidently and didn't work on it. So Monday night we stayed at a Days Inn in San Diego. I had an interview Tuesday morning so we also spent time digging through our car for my suit and tie's and what not. We relaxed a little that night at the Days Inn and I had my interview Tuesday morning, which I nailed. They said I would hear back from them this week. It sounded like they would like to work with me its just a matter of them finding how I would best fit in their budget and team. So that's exciting, don't hold me to that assumption though, we know what happens when you assume.

Lisa and I then spent the afternoon waiting to hear back from the apartment. We walked around a few places and just waited. We tried to hound our credit checker lady who was evidently out to lunch for like 3 hours. Basically it turned out she never received the fax however and when she did we got in right away. So Tuesday night we got to spend the night in our new apartment at 5050 Niagara Ave, #110, San Diego, CA 92107. Hooray!! We unpacked and also went to Wal-Mart to pick up some essentials. This morning now we have to fill our some more forms.

We'll take pictures eventually and upload them. More later sometime.

Also here's a picture of Lisa petting a cat at our apartment complex while we were waiting, she's on the phone with her Pops.

slow going

Not to many changes since the last post. The whole getting an apartment thing is slow going. We applied for an apartment at 5050 Niagara Ave #110, San Diego, CA. The leasing lady was on vacation though till Friday, then Friday she needed another form filled out so we spent the whole day trying to figure out the whole faxing thing. Then we misfiled some form and now we have one more thing to fill out. So HOPEFULLY we can move in Monday. That would be great. Our car has been packed full for the last two weeks so it would be nice to have access to everything in there.

My sister Abby and Josh have been great host. We've made a few dinners with them. Tonight we're going to make some Chicken Enchiladas. Our inflatable mattress has also been much more comfortable then I thought it would have.

We've been able to go to the ocean quite a few times. We visited Crystal Cove with Abby and Josh and Lisa and I also went to Corona del Mar, and Huntington Beach. At Huntington Beach we roller bladed up the boardwalk and laid out at what turned out to be the dog beach. It was fun to watch the dogs though. One definitely took a big pee in someone's open duffel bag however.

On the job front I have an interview set up with the News Director at KSWB and another one set up with Wells Fargo to be a Bank Teller. That one isn't until Nov. 2nd however. Which seems like a long time to wait for an interview. I also have a couple leads with the Apple Store in San Diego and a couple Gamestops in Loma Heights as well.

Basically though we're just waiting to get our apartment so we can have all of our clothes especially for interviews. Also so we don't have to keep traveling to San Diego everyday. Can't wait to get our apartment though. We will definitely post some pictures once we get it. We plan to go down Monday morning with all our stuff and not leave.

1700 miles of rejoice

Turns out the US is super big. Also the National Roller Skating Association is located in Lincoln, NE. Obviously we had to visit.
We also went to the Dog Park in Lincoln with my family and Moe. He's older in years but it was a lot of fun. Although on the way out a dog decided to pee on a bench I was sitting on. I became the collateral damage victim of a dogs instinctual actions.
Then for dinner we went down to the Haymarket and ate at a microbrewery there that was super good.

The next day we turned tail for Denver, CO. We met up with Titus and Jolene Holzfaster as well as a one, Andy Ritter. After a fabulous dinner cooked up by Titus we went to Church with them and then visited Lollicups for some fantastic Bubble Tea. We then went downtown and checked out the capital and restaurant area (I forget what it was called).

The next day we took an awesome tour of the Coors Brewery. Afterwards Lisa and I took off on I-70 towards Richfield, UT. After a long day of ups and downs we finally arrived at our hotel, a Days Inn, which was pleasant.

Our last leg of the trip went from I-70 to I-15 S all the way to Irvine, CA with a small lay over for the afternoon in Las Vegas.
We saw the sights, and ate some food. Including a water show at Belagio (pictured above) as well as some creepy robots at Caesars Palace, and some Kittys (Lions) at MGM Grand. Also we blew a whole $2 in the penny slots.

Now we're heading to Irvine with some hopeful prospects on the apartment horizon.

To check out all of our photos visit here.

journey to the center of nebraska

I forget when I last posted anything. We finally packed everything though and are now in Lincoln Nebraska with my parents at their new house. Monday and Tuesday we pretty much just worked our tails off packing our cube and car. We had a lot of help however packing our cube on Monday from Lisa's family, Travis, and my Grandpa Duffy. Tuesday we pack our car full of this:
Also we had to pack in a couple other backpacks and our TV. Our itinirary includes stops each night in Lincoln, Denver, Richfield, Utah, and then Irvine California where we are living with my sister for a bit before we find our own place.

The last couple days we have spent with the Gordon Clan, Ed & Sue, Jennifer, her husband Adam and kids 5 year old Spencer and 1 year old Elliot, and Karen. Also Jennifer and Adam's dog Mini joined us. Karen, Lisa and I took Elliot and Mini to the park on Wednesday and had a good time. We also got some pictures at Portrait Innovations and ate at On the Border before we took off on the road and arrived at our parents place in Lincoln Nebraska at 11:00 pm.

Here's a photo of Elliot and I looking at a praying mantis at the park:
We take off Saturday morning for Denver, to stay with our friend Titus and Jolene. More updates to come.

<3 N & L