11.1.2004 - 11.30.2004

November 28, 2004:  The week was crazy, I ended up working 8am to 8pm on Tuesday then got paged and had to go back for another 4 hours after 11pm.  After all that the work we did failed so we have to do it again this coming Tuesday, 6am this time though.  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, mine ended up being real quiet.  Lisa had dinner with her parents and her aunt on Thursday and then with her parents and her other aunt and uncle's family on Saturday.  If I could go back in time I would have flown down and got some of that too, Lisa's mom loves feeding me and I love eating her cooking.  Kevin is the only one that didn't bail out on our feast plans, he ran into our friend Patrick and he joined us too.  Kevin brought his tools and we were able to do some electrical work in the house for our landlord.  We installed an outlet for the dehumidifier in the basement so it's not running off an extension cord through our garage.  We also put an outlet in the garage for the door opener so it isn't running off an extension cord too.  The hanging light fixture in the kitchen came down and got replaced with something a bit more modern and lastly we replaced the single bare white light bulb in the garage with 4 fluorescent light fixtures, now you can actually work in there without a flashlight.  After all that work and a few cold ones we grilled up some moose steaks and moose sausage, threw some vegetables and rice down with them and called it our thanksgiving feast.  The moose was great, very tender and not gamey at all like other game I have had like deer or bear.  The sausage was garlic and cheese flavored and was really flavorful and not too dry.  We went out for a few beers after dinner, caught up, and ended up crashing pretty late.  Saturday morning we had moose breakfast sausage, eggs and hash browns for the second phase of our feast.  We were very thankful that Kevin shot that moose, it was tasty.  They took off in the afternoon and I spent the rest of the day doing nothing, been doing a lot of that lately.  Today I did more of the same, sat around watching the tube.  Lisa will be back this coming Saturday afternoon and lucky me gets to work that weekend.  Hopefully we will get everything done Saturday so we don't have to come in on Sunday too.  I'm going to DC the week after for training so I'll only get to spend about 4 days with Lisa before I have to leave, it's going to be a busy couple of weeks, I'll try to squeeze an update in there somewhere.  Take it easy and we'll talk again soon.

November 21, 2004:  Hello again, another week has gone by, only two more before Lisa comes home.  She is doing well, she says it feels like she is on one long, extended weekend.  I can understand it too, when your brain is used to being freezing cold this time of year it would get confused when you move to a warmer climate for a few weeks.  I have been cleaning up the house a bit for next weekend, plans are that on Friday Gregg, Kristen, Matthew, Eric, Jessica, and Kevin are coming down for steak tips and homemade fries, our version of a Thanksgiving meal.  It should be a good time, it will be nice to have people around for once.  We have probably had less than 5 visitors here since we moved.  Unfortunately Lisa won't be back to enjoy the feast, we'll be sure to get pictures to post.  Yesterday I went down to my brother's place in Hartford and helped him finish up his apartment so he could show it today and hopefully get it rented.  We had to put up some crown molding in the kitchen, which I'm told is one of the toughest tasks in carpentry.  That makes sense cause it took us about 4 hours to sort of get it right.  Dave's girlfriend Lauren, her mom, her sister and her sister's fiancée were there to pack up the last of his stuff, clean the bedrooms and bathroom, and get some painting finished up.  He called me today to tell me that he got the last of the painting and cleaning done and was taking the last load of boxes to NY tonight.  Hopefully the people that looked at it today will end up taking it, then he won't be paying rent for two places and living in only one.  Isis and I were mouse hunters today, we had a mouse in the closet that was helping itself to her biscuits, which wasn't going to be tolerated.  We picked up some traps and caught the thief that was responsible, he won't be stealing biscuits anymore!  After that I was able to finish up a couple of house things I have been putting off, hung a few pictures and even did laundry.  It's going to be a crazy week at work, huge network outage Monday to upgrade the core switches, and another big one Tuesday night to upgrade the firewalls.  Wednesday will be crazy while we try to catch up on the regular stuff we weren't able to get done the days before.  Isis has an appointment with a new vet that night, the Prozac isn't working very well and hopefully this doctor will be able to make some suggestions that will help with her issues.  I made a couple more changes to the menus on the left and added a couple pictures to the ATV section and a movie of Isis to the 4th of July trip section from last summer.  Other than that not much is new, have a great Turkey Day if we don't talk again and keep watch for more pictures next week.

November 14, 2004:  It's been a great 4 day weekend, I had a lot of fun up in NH but I'm glad to be home.  Thursday Gregg and I rode about 50 miles on the NCATV trails about an hour north of Berlin.  There was already about an inch or so of snow on the trails, which made the riding a little interesting.  We came upon some very large moose tracks and soon after the moose that made them, at least 1000 lbs. each for sure.  It was cold but not too bad with 3 layers on.  After riding I got my parent's new computer set up with its accessories, they seem to be very happy with it so far.  Friday I took Isis for a 2+ mile walk through the woods we played in when we were kids, the trails we used to maintain and ride our Mt. Bikes on have been logged out and mostly trashed, it would take a chainsaw and a couple days to make them passable again, maybe next summer we'll clear them out.  Rumor has it that the area will be opened back up for riding ATVs again next spring, we'll see I guess.  I made it out to Conway, NH with Kevin on Friday, I needed some pants for work and some laces for my hiking boots.  We went out to the Millyard (pub) for some beers when we got back.  The one thing I will say about that area, beer sure is cheap.  The first round was 2 Bud Lights and a Sam Adam's Octoberfest, $5 total.  Makes it too easy to drink way too much.  Saturday I went up to say hi to my grandfather and got on the road to come home by lunch time; to find a couple inches of snow had fallen here at home while we were gone.  Today was my day to get things done around here.  I got the trailer broken down and stored in the corner of the garage and after the sun was high I was able to give the Rincon a good scrubbing before it goes away for the winter.  I made a run to Home Depot to get a couple door weather strips to block the 2 inch gap under the front and back doors of the garage and keep the snow from blowing in.  Now Lisa's car and the Element are both parked in the garage, its tight but everything fits.  I also picked up the water cooler we have been talking about getting for bottled water.  Our tap water is from a well and smells/tastes like a liquefied egg salad sandwich, full of sulfur.  They say it's not bad for you but I can't bring myself to drink it, I never liked egg salad sandwiches either.  I made a few changes to jayandlisa.org too, changed the way the page index on the left works, things are broken up into categories now.  They expand when you click on them and contain the same pages that used to be on the list.  I also added a couple movies to the ATV pages.  Lisa has been enjoying the sun with her parents, she went to Typhoon Lagoon in Orlando yesterday.  I'm scraping ice off her car in the driveway and she's in the wave pool, something seems so unfair about that.  She'll be home in about 3 weeks so there will be plenty of winter left for her to enjoy.  Have a great week!

November 9, 2004:  The time is flying by now, had a great weekend at Gregg and Kristen's place.  We changed out the front door and it came out great.  Gregg says he already notices a difference in how the furnace can keep the house warm, he said it's not running near as much.  I'm sure the fact that there is no longer a half inch gap under the front door has something to do with it!  The back door was a completely different story though, it's very short so we have two options, either order a custom sized door or vault the ceiling to accept a standard sized door.  He has to get up in the attic and check out what kind of space we have but I think the ceiling may be the way to go.  There is a window right above the door that goes into the attic and if we opened the ceiling up that high it would allow lots of light into what is now a very dark back hallway.  We got to play around with the wheelers in the yard and the brook out back, that was pretty cool.  Isis got to have her ears and tail pulled constantly the whole time, and was a champ about it too!  When Matthew was just a baby she wasn't all that cool around him, now that he looks more like a person she seems to have warmed up a bit.  When she sits she is as tall as he is standing so perfect height for a face washing every time he comes close enough, he seems to like her cause he usually gives her a big bear hug right after the washing.  It's good that she's so patient, other than the anxiety problems you could never ask for a better dog.  This weekend its back to NH to my folks house to help them set up their new computer and do some more riding with Kevin and Gregg.  We have Veteran's day off and I took Friday off too so I have a long weekend, should be a fun trip.  Well, I guess we'll talk again later this week.

November 5, 2004:  Well, it's been a long first week without Lisa around.  I think Isis thinks I made Lisa go away because she's acting like she's pissed at me, won't even hang out with me at night in the living room.  We both miss her a lot and we still have 4 weeks to go!  The cable modem has been acting up for a while and since we have an IP phone now the phone is being effected as well.  I have been trying to get the damn cable company to show up and fix it for two days and they can't seem to show up when they say they will, or call ahead like they promise.  I'm hoping today is the day they will get it right.  It's bad enough having Lisa gone, never mind not being able to talk to her on the phone for more than 3 minutes without the call being dropped.  In my boredom I made a few changes to the Archive section below, just sorted it out by month and year, instead of it being one long mess like it was before.  I think it works alright, let me know if you think it stinks and should be changed, I really have nothing better to do in my spare time.  This weekend Isis and I are going up to NH to Gregg's to help him put in two new doors at his house, well, Isis isn't going to actually help, just coming along to be a pain in the but and get her hair all over the Element.  I hear that both the front and back doors are in pretty sad shape so out they will come and hopefully in the new ones will go.  I'm crossing my fingers that it will be that easy, but not expecting it to be.  After we get done we are going to take the wheelers our for a ride, there is a new ATV club in his area that has a bunch of new trails to ride, have to check them out.  Other than that, not too much is new here, been pretty quiet this week.  A couple of friends from Rochester are talking about coming up in a few weeks to just hang out, that would be cool, we'll have to wait and see I guess.  My parents ordered a new Dell the other night so I will be going up to NH to help them set it up and transfer all of their stuff to it from their old machine, that should be fun, Windows 98 to XP, fun.  The cool part is that I'm taking their old machine with me and using it as a WBER streaming machine for the living room.  Lisa really misses BER and I have to admit I do a little too.  It's cool to hear "sponsorships" from back in Rochester.  Setting that up will give me something to do in the next few weeks.  It's  pretty crappy time of year around here, starting to get very cold and rainy, should start snowing anytime, in fact I think my parents have already gotten a little, maybe some last night.  So, I guess that it's for me for now, maybe I'll get some pictures of our ride this weekend, Gregg apparently has a picture of me with my face almost completely covered in dirt from our last ride, I'll see if I can track that down for next time.  Later.