This morning, I arrived at my desk with a blinking red light on my desk phone, indicating a new voicemail.It was the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) in Oakland asking when I would be available for an interview (and they also sent an email). I had applied for that Staff Programmer Analyst position a week after I applied for the same position here in my office (which was 5 weeks ago). My interview here was almost two weeks ago and hadn’t heard back from anyone yet. Before responding to the DIR, I wanted to check on my status of the position here first.

So I ask one of the people who interviewed me, and they tell me they’d go look into it. Maybe 10 minutes later, that person, along with my boss, come to desk and officially offer me the position. Of course I accept, and a few minutes later, I’m signing the duty statement of the position. My official first day in this new position is this Friday.

So I send an email back to the DIR, telling them my situation and respectfully declined their interview request. So now, this sets other stuff in motion. I didn’t want to start looking for a house up here until I got the promotion or didn’t hear back from the DIR (since they are in Oakland, I would’ve preferred to work there since it’s closer to home, and I could go to way more A’s games). It would’ve been nice if the DIR had moved a little faster with their interview process. I would’ve liked to have had the opportunity. Technically, I still could’ve gone on that interview, but I didn’t want to second guess myself or constantly ask myself “what if....”.

I’m sure things will work out for the best. I’m still relatively new to the state, and could always try to transfer to other departments later on. But for the foreseeable future, I’ll be in Sac.

Apparently my iPhone doesn't want me to call or text anyone cause it keeps on deleting my entire contacts list. This is the 2nd time in 2 weeks, the 3rd since March. Thank God for backups, but it's kind of a pain in the ass to restore from old backups since I lose recent pics, texts, calendar entries, phone logs, etc. Most inconvenient.

So now I'm seriously considering android or windows phones. I'm due for an upgrade and was eying the HTC One and the Nokia Lumia 920, but have been hesitant because there was nothing really wrong with my iPhone and I have been trying to cut down on unnecessary expenses. But that's no longer the case, since now it's been frequently effing up. I'm hoping that this problem just magically stops. If it doesn't, I hope that my iPhone will hold up until they announce/release the HTC One Mini or the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini. I want the mini versions cause the regular ones have huge screens, and I'm used to the iPhone-like screen size. We'll see.

So I had an interview on Friday for an open promotional position in my office. I was told there were 3 other interview-ees. I think I did well. The 3 interviewers were people I know and work with, so I felt comfortable talking to them. I wasn’t really that nervous at all. I was super antsy the hours before the interview. I was just anxious to get it over with than anything.

I feel like my body of work thus far has proven that I deserve this promotion. The feedback from everyone that I work with and for all indicate that I deserve this promotion. The lead interviewer told me straight up “this position has your name written all over it”. If I somehow do not get this promotion, I can not take it any other way than personally. I will feel slighted, wronged, etc., and will go into silent rage spite mode. I will put the “it’s ok” face on and act like it’s all good, while applying for any & all positions in all the other departments/offices. I won’t do anything evil to the system that I support, because well, I’m not evil. But I totally could.

So in a few weeks, or however long it takes for them to make a decision, I’m hoping that I’ll be in a happy place, a higher pay grade, and receiving congratulations from other coworkers. If not, they will learn that spite is one hell of a motivator.

Every year since the original factory 4-year/48,000 mile warranty expired sometime in mid 2008 (hit the mileage before the years), the mini has averaged $1300 in unscheduled maintenance costs:

For some reason, I decided to make hella things today. And everything is mostly homemade.

Bulgogi, to bring over to Elway's on Wednesday for the Warriors Spurs game. Bought thinly sliced rib eye from the market. I made the marinade myself this time, instead of buying the pre-mixed one.

Chicken Tenders, for dinner tonight & lunch tomorrow. I bought boneless chicken breasts at Costco, then slices them up. I made the batter from scratch.

Chocolate chip & white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. I used Alton Brown's "The Chewy" recipe. I like making it myself because whenever I buy the pre-made cookie dough, it always bakes hella flat and looks like a coaster or CD. When I make the cookie dough myself, it looks like an actually cookie, and I can mix & match the flavors.

Cheese & Berries (strawberry & blueberry) Rolls, since it's been a while since the last time I made them. The puff pastry is store-bought, but I made the cream cheese filling from scratch. I was a bit rusty, as I kind of burnt them a bit. And I accidentally bought the Safeway-brand cream cheese instead of Philadelphia, so the cream filling was soft & soupy. But I still think they came out ok.

I also managed to do 2 loads of laundry, and download today's TV shows, too. Super productive day!! And now I'm gonna pass out.

So....the mini is having issues. Again. Last week, it was kind of hot in Sac, so naturally, it would be normal for the mini to be running a little hotter than usual. But on the weekend, when it wasn’t hot anymore, it was still running hot. So I pop the hood and I see that there was an explosion of coolant that came from the top radiator hose. I had seen this same exact thing back in September 2009, and it was a cracked freakin’ radiator. Some design genius at BMW had the brilliant idea of idea of connecting the aluminum radiator core to plastic inlet & outlet hose ends. If either of those hose ends cracks or breaks, you have can’t repair it, you have to replace the ENTIRE radiator.

What made it worse was that this occurred on a Friday night and absolutely needed my car fixed asap (the reason escapes me, but I know it was important), and my normal shop, Edge Motorworks in Dublin, is closed on weekends, so I had to take it in to the stealership, which totally lived up to it’s name. Damn their high labor rates!

Without even thinking twice about it, I had it replaced with the same exact oem radiator, thinking it was just some kind of fluke accident and wouldn’t happen again. Well, fast forward 3.5+ years later, and it appears to have happened again. It looks exactly the same. But this time, I’m bringing it into Edge. When I called to make the appointment, they said they’ve never even heard of radiators cracking, that they’ve never seen one crack. I was kind of surprised, but I trust them, and it made me wonder if the freakin’ stealership pulled a fast one on me. I do have coolant leaking from somewhere, cause I have to add water every time I drive it, and it totally looks like it’s coming from the top radiator inlet hose end. I guess I’ll find out for sure when I take it in on Friday.

To be safe, I ordered an aftermarket, all aluminum radiator. It costs about the same as the stock radiator, it has no plastic parts to crack or break, and if it does somewhere crack or leak somewhere, it comes with a “no questions asked” lifetime warranty. Worse-case scenario, I have another cracked radiator, that’ll be replaced with a better one. Best-case, it’s some kind of repairable leak and I have to pay for the return shipping cost of the aluminum radiator. I’m fine either way, I just want my car running normally again.

Here’s a list of parts, not part of normal wear & tear like spark plugs or tires, that I’ve replaced on the mini after 159,300 miles:

front windshield (x2) - due to its sharp angle & bad luck
thermostat & housing (x2) - bad gasket
power steering pump & fan - fan failed, causing pump to overheat & fail
radiator (x2) - bad luck?

Next major maintenance is the clutch, since I’m still on the factory original. How long they last depends on the driver. Since a bulk of my miles were from my Fresno commute, all highway, I should be good. But I’m still kind of scared to floor it or anything cause once the clutch is gone, it’s gone. There’s no more “go”, can’t move the car, and you’re stuck wherever you are. I’m dreading the day that it goes, cause it’ll cost an arm & a leg, even at my shop, but at least I’m kind of prepared for it. The sucky part is not knowing exactly when it’ll go.

And I’ll also have to get new tires soon. Tires for the mini are not cheap, as with everything else. But I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth on my current set. I think they were only supposed like between 50-60,000 miles and I have almost 70,000 miles on them. To extend the life, I had the tires flipped. But with so little tread left, I will not drive in the rain, won’t risk it. That right there should be enough to get new tires, but it hasn’t rained all that much lately, so I’m not that worried about. I’m hoping to squeeze at least another month out of them.

Hung out with Kev & Justin today. It had been a really long time since the 3 of us had been together, maybe over a year, I think, right before Justin moved to New York. I really missed just hanging out and talking about random stuff. It reminded me of how we were back in high school and college, which seems like ages ago. Justin plans on going back to New York in 2 months, so hopefully we can hang out some more before he leaves again.