Today was not a good day. I picked up the local paper and found an article on the front page about how the city is running out of time to award small business loans to local residents. Apparently, they have until September 30th to give out over $500,000 dollars in loan funds, or else they lose the money. So far they committee has only gave out $70,000 dollars of that money. This is an outrage. Here I am an able bodied person with a smokin business plan yet, I can't get these bastards to give us a loan.

My wife called the committee liason again and this time he told us we were denied because of our credit. Last time he said the committee did not understand the business proposal. Something is not right in this thing, and I am getting very angry!!! If they lose the funds without giving out anymore loans I have half a mind to sue. It says clearly in the paper that the money is intended for low income people who can't get conventional funding. Time will tell I guess. But, I feel like someone who has been discriminated against.

Also on my plate today was a return trip to the dentist. I have to wait 5 weeks for approval to get my crown. So, I ended up getting 5 cavities filled. Yuck!! Fortunately, I won't have to worry about my teeth getting worse on that one side. Next visit, I'll get my crown put in and 3 more teeth filled. Unfortunately, at this point in my life I have to admit that dentists are a necessary evil.

School is interesting so far. I'm taking only two classes because the school dropped one due to low attendance. I thought about signing up for another but, I guess I just want to take it easy this time. In the past I signed up for too many classes and ended up droping out of all of them.

It has been unseasonably cold for August lately. However, that did not stop us from doing some yard work today. We have a large flower bed in front of our house that was just full of grass and weeds. To our surprise after cleaning out we found several bulbs that were trying to make their way to the surface. Tommorrow, I plan to finish clearing out the bed and then plant two rose bushes my wife got for her birthday. Afterwards, we'll be headed to the back yard to plant some grass seed. I'm hoping there is still time for the roots to take hold before the cold weather sets in.

Did I ever mention that I love my wife? She does so much to make us happy. I am a lucky man.

Well, here I sit my first day of college. I haven't attended classes at this campus for almost 9 years. Man I feel old! It's still a nice place... Much better than the college in Mordor.

Today was my son's first day of preschool. I guess he was a bit upset at being there, but the teacher said he fit in and behaved perfectly. He also had his sister there with him so I'm sure it wasn't too stressful. Besides, he's a tough boy.

Since I had mostly peace and quiet today I took the time to paint some more on my Iron Warriors. Remarkably, I finished a whole squad in a few hours. Now, I have two squads done and two more to go. I think sometime next month I'll pick a fight with Amon-Ra and see how they do. I am confident that my army list will beat him and his damned Orks.

Well, back to class.

Today we had a major scare from the power company. We got home from having lunch at my favorite burger bar and our power was shut off. I called the power company and explained that we had made payment arrangements with them and the shut off was a mistake. They said we needed to come up with our past due which was about $250 bucks. Fortunately, my wife got paid today and we were able to come up with most of the money. They graciously sent a service man out within the hour to turn on the power. Again, it's another example of bill collectors hitting us hard. We're flat broke and I ain't going to Mordor this weekend. Oh well.

In other bad news... I spoke to my Armenian friend yesterday. He just got back from active duty with the National Guard. He's one of the poor saps guarding the San Francisco bridge. Anyway, he was sent home early from the State duty because his unit was activated for Federal service for one year. Apparently, they are replacing a regular army unit that is being deployed to Afghanistan to defuse landmines. At this point he's not sure where he's going however, he suspects an assignment in Germany. This comes on top of his continuing legal troubles over spanking his son. When it rains it pours.

Tommorrow is my first day of school. Let's hope my classes are at least interesting.