January 26, 2006:  The week is almost over, just one more day, well, actually two more days cause I got the, "I'm going to have to go ahead and have you come in on Saturday" speech from my boss earlier this week.  If everything goes well we will only be here for a couple hours.  If the stuff we have to do goes bad, well, the people in New England that need electricity better hope it doesn't go bad, that's all I'm saying.  Other than that things are moving along, Lisa finished what was hopefully the last presentation she will be doing for this rotation and spent some time on the job search.  We should start hearing back from people in the next week or so, we're both very excited if you can't already tell.  We've been spending an enormous amount of time over in the new building to get ready for the data center hand off early next week.  They are making a lot of progress in the rest of the space but the colors are a little unnerving to say the least.  This picture is just of a corner of one of the cubicle areas, there are a couple places where you can sit and with just a turn of your head see a rainbow of peach, red, lime green, lavender and powder blue with polka-dot carpeting.  The two most common opionions so far are: "Nauseating" and "feels like I just ate a mushroom sandwhich".  I could go with either one really.  For the most part the other network guy and myself are the only people from IT that have been allowed in the building so far, we report back to everyone how crazy it's looking on a weekly basis, pictures and all.  Good times.  So I've been thinking about learning how to weld for a few years now but never really did anything about it.  I have a couple friends at work that have either been professional welders in the past or have spent a lot of time doing it on their own that are totally willing to give me a few lessons.  The catch is I have to buy my own welder and other equipment.  They are a little expensive but with a modest amount of care it will last the rest of my lifetime for sure.  I figured out which one I want, it got great reviews and is available on Amazon.com like basically everything in the world is now!  It just so happens that just got a gift certificate for attending a training class at the end of December that will cover a good portion of the cost.  Lisa is so smart, I was just going to use the thing on whatever came to mind, not thinking that Amazon would actually carry welders and I could use it on one.  I'm not sure how I would get by without her around to steer me in the right direction.  Our landlord is having an electrician friend of mine do some re-wiring in the house so until that happens I really have no place to safely plug it in, which is a total bummer.  I already have a list of projects I want to build with it including a bike rack for the bed of the Ridgeline.  I have high hopes that if the bike rack comes out well I might be able to sell a few of them online to other Ridgeline owners, we'll see I guess.  Other than all that excitement, there isn't much exciting going on.  Have a great rest of the week and weekend too! 

January 23, 2006:  Another fine weekend closer to being out of here.  Lisa had 5 very good interviews early last week and we should be hearing feedback and hopefully getting more information or actual offers in the next couple weeks.  It's all very exciting stuff.  As soon as she accepts an offer I will get off my behind and start looking for a position in the same area.  The rest of the week was pretty nuts for me at work, we're only a week away from having the data centers in the new building handed over to us.  That is when things will really get crazy, we'll be working weekends for like the next four months.  Lisa worked Saturday as always and I did a few things around the house including making another batch of those pickles and some strawberry fruit roll ups on the dehydrator, she eats them faster than I can make 'em.  They are a great snack though, just pure strawberries, no sugar, no preservatives, nothing added at all.  The first batch of pickles came out so awesome that we already ate most of them, another batch will be ready by the end of the week.  Saturday night we just hung around the house, had some drinks and watched some movies, it was a very relaxing night.  Sunday we had a discussion about which household items will be joining us in Seattle and which ones will be finding new homes at our moving sale.  Basically all of our furniture is going to be sold other than our bed, a few small tables, some shelves in the garage, and a cabinet that Lisa's Dad made us.  It will be tough to live without all of it for a while but nice to start over new.  As it is now, most of our furniture is quite tired anyway and not really worth dragging all the way to the west coast.  We went to visit our friends Rachael and Dale Sunday as well and even got to bring Isis so she could play with their new dog Raven.  She is a 9 month old Boxer that has far too much energy and the widest tongue we have ever seen.  Seriously, it's like she is panting with a pink index card hanging out of her mouth!  It was fun to see them, it's been a while since we have.  After that we went home so Lisa could get started on her pile of homework but hadn't had dinner and didn't have any groceries in the house.  We ended up going out to a really cool restaraunt in Amherst called Judie's.  Lisa has wanted to check it out for a long time.  The food was amazing, we're bummed that we took this long to get there.  Lisa got emails from a couple friends that she hasn't been in contact with for a while and they came from the website, I think that's pretty cool, it makes me feel like people might read this stuff after all.  Well, Lisa says this will be the craziest week of this rotation, after it's over the rest is downhill.  Two more weeks of this one then a week off, then Florida for 7 weeks.  Back home after Florida and in six weeks it's time for graduation and then I'm sure I'll hear "pack the truck baby, we're outta here!!!".  Have a great week!

January 17, 2006:  What a weekend!!  We did nothing but got so much done, let me explain...  Friday night we ran a couple errands, it ended up a little messy but looking back it actually went perfectly.  We needed to go to Enfield, CT to get some seasoning to finish the huge batch of beef jerky I told my brother I would make him, the stuff can't be found anywhere but Shaw's and of course the closest one is 45 minutes away.  On the way we stopped in Longmeadow, MA so Lisa could look for a new suit to wear to her interviews today.  We went to one store and she found the perfect one, they even had her size!  Not that her size would be hard to find but things don't often work out that well for either of us.  We got the spices and made it home before it got too late.  Driving anywhere here is an adventure to say the least but this one worked out the best so far.  Saturday morning after Lisa left for work I got up and hit the house hard, cleaned the bathroom, all the floors, picked up all the clutter and went to the dump.  Then I could get going on the jerky.  I had 24 pounds of beef soaking over night and had to get it in the dehydrator before it spoiled.  I ended up with two batches of 12 pounds each and got them sealed with our brand new Foodsaver vaccuum sealer.  This is quite possibly the coolest kitchen appliance ever invented, no joke.  If you ever freeze food or store ingredients that are effected by moisture then this thing is for you, check it out.  While all of that stuff was going on I made it outside to wash the Ridgeline inside and out, sweep the garage and organize a couple things in there that were starting to pile up.  We didn't really do anything for Lisa's birthday, she got to open her presents earlier in the week because neither of us have any self control and she was tired from working a long day at the pharmacy.  Sunday morning after I finished with the meat I made a batch of fruit roll-ups for Lisa with some blueberries and strawberries we had in the freezer.  They will only last a few days though, she eats them up quick cause their so damn tasty.  We were on a roll so we made a run to the grocery store and picked up the ingredients to make a batch of pickles from a recipe in the Dinosaur BBQ cookbook.  Just in case they didn't come out ok we made a half batch.  They are soaking right now and won't be ready to eat for another week but they smell exactly like the ones at the restaurant, lets hope they taste as good as they smell.  Sunday night we made a great dinner with marinated chicken, peppers, onions, and mushrooms and then just hung out at the house and watched Wedding Crashers, it was pretty funny, kind of long though.  We both had yesterday off so we decided to tackle cleaning out the guestroom.  My parents are going to take the bed to their house so we took that down and stored it in the basement until they come down to pick it up in a few weeks.  After that we got a bunch of stuff together to go to Good Will, got the bike trainer set up, and set up some shelves to store some of my toys, the sleeping bags, and the ski bags too.  Lisa spent a good part of the weekend working on her resume for the interviews she had scheduled for today.  We just have a crappy inkjet printer that we have been meaning to replace for a while now so I did a little research and found that we could get an HP color laser jet printer for only a little more than we paid 5 years ago for the one we have.  I found that it was on sale at Compusa but not Best Buy and I had coupons for Best Buy.  I was able to get them to price match it and save even more cash.  I got it home in the afternoon and set up in just a few minutes, the best part about it is that it has a network interface so we don't have to have the computer in the office on to print like we do now, we can print from the wireless laptops anytime we want.  So, now you can see that we got a ton of stuff done but really didn't do anything, we'll save that for next weekend when I'm not on call and Lisa isn't worried about her interviews.  Next time we talk we might have great news about our move although we really don't now how soon to expect feedback.  Have a great week! 

January 11, 2006:  Another week crawls by here in good old MA, one week closer to getting out of here would be the "glass is half full" response to that.  This is my first full week of work in at least 5 weeks, crawling by doesn't even accurately describe it.  Lisa started her 3rd rotation on Monday, back in Worcester again.  She says it's ok so far, this is her second internal medicine rotation so it could end up being a tough one like her first one was, we'll see I guess.  I was completely out of commission all weekend, on the couch from Thursday night to Sunday with only a brief period away when Lisa dragged me to a CVS holiday party.  I didn't really have much of a voice, when I could talk I sounded like Barry White with one of those throat voice boxes, which I guess was actually kind of cool.  Luckily the party didn't last all that long because I wasn't really feeling very well.  Sunday was pretty quiet and by Monday morning I was feeling mostly better, my voice had only gotten a little better though.  Today I'm fine, voice and all.  It's been a while since I've really been sick, so long that I forgot how much it sucks, hopefully I can go that long again before the next time.  A teacher at Lisa's school was arrested this week for pretending to be a 20 year old guy online and talking to a 12 year old girl, convincing her to meet him and have a year long sexual relationship with her.  Needless to say he isn't a 20 year old guy and he no longer has a job.  That makes me feel great about this place and her school, it was on the news and everything.  Lisa hasn't been to school so who knows what the buzz around there about it is.  Lisa's birthday is the weekend so hopefully we'll be about to go out for dinner and maybe a movie or something fun like that.  Other than that I just have to do a ton of chores on Saturday while she's at work, we were away for a couple week and then a weekend after that and I was too sick to clean last weekend so the place is bad, the weekend can't get here fast enough.  I believe we both have next Monday off so we get another long weekend and short week, that will be awesome.  Lisa has interviews with 5 different companies set up through school for next Tuesday.  Rumor has it they aren't all that interested in people that don't want to stay in this area but it's worth a try, worst case it's some good interview experience.  We would love to be able to know where and when we going this early, that way we could start planning the move now and I could start looking for a job and a house sooner than we planned.  Hopefully she gets feedback soon and maybe even some offers too.  Well, stay out of trouble, I'm out. 

January 4, 2006:  Well, not a huge amount to talk about today, we did have a great, peaceful New Year's eve, I can talk about that a bit I guess.  We just hung out at the house, drank some champagne, watched a movie, and enjoyed each other's company.  Lisa had to work the next morning so we didn't get too drunk, just a little.  Sunday I decided to have an Ebay yard sale, I gathered up a bunch of stuff that probably wouldn't make the cut to be brought with us on our next move, did some searching to see if any of it was actually going to sell, then listed about 14 items.  Most of them sold at my Buy It Now prices and have already been paid for and shipped.  I made enough cash off the deal so far to pick up the universal dock and remote control to hook our iPods up to the stereo system in the living room and cover gas for the next few weeks.  Ebay can be pretty damn cool if you ask me.  You have to be smart about it but there is a lot of money to be made by just selling your clutter.  I'll be making what should hopefully be my last trip to Rochester to get my tattoo finished up tomorrow.  We only have a couple of areas of shading to do so it shouldn't be too bad.  It's going to be a weird trip, I had to take a couple days off to fit it in, between now and when we move in late June I'm not allowed to take any time off from work, at least that's what they are saying.  I plan on going to Florida to hang with Lisa and her folks in late April though, she will be down there for her 4th rotation for 6 weeks, I am going to join her for her break week and then fly home with her.  I am hoping to catch up with some friends this week while I'm there, Mike and Jane, Emile, and maybe even Chris and Maryellen too.  I have to be home Saturday at the latest to go to a holiday party that Lisa's pharmacy is having, that should be interesting, I get to meet the people she has been talking to me about for months.  Other than that there isn't much going on, Isis's leaky eyeball is mostly better so that's good.  I will get some pictures of the tattoo up this weekend sometime so check them out when you can.  Hopefully after everything heals up nice a photographer friend of mine is going to take some good photos of it so when I get real old I can look back and see how cool it used to be.  Have a great weekend!