March 28, 2005:  Happy Easter everyone, and happy Spring it seems too.  We finally got some decent weather this weekend and it looks like we might have a nice week too.  We had a great weekend, got lots of stuff done around the house, got to hang out and even had visitors on Sunday, very exciting stuff.  Our friends Scott and Jen got engaged last week, and they made the long drive from Boston out to our place to get lunch and catch up, it's been a while since we've seen them.  We had lunch at a really cool little place in Amherst and it was a lot of fun.  Friday we went down to Hartford and had lunch with my brother, I had to return some things I borrowed from him and Lisa was free so we were able to make an afternoon of it.  She started a part time job at a CVS Saturday morning and I spent the day cleaning the two cars, man were they a mess, first time since fall that they had any love.  It was starting to get tough to see through the windows on Lisa's car and the Element wasn't far behind.  This week is going to be crazy, I'm going to Rochester for hopefully my last appointment on Thursday, then Lisa is flying to Florida on Friday night, I might go to NH to see my folks and some friends for Saturday and come back Sunday to pick Lisa back up at the airport late that night.  A lot of travelling in a short amount of time.  I'm hoping that I can sit long enough to get all the rest of the tattoo done and that I will have a better time than my last trip.  So last Thursday we got our yearly bonus at work, I have been talking about getting a Playstation 2 for the longest time but never actually did it.  Well I picked one up after work and after spending the better part of the weekend trying to figure out the best way to hook it up to the stereo and television got to play it a little.  I got Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Socomm II, and Call of Duty Finest Hour.  That last one is probably my favorite, it's like being in the middle of a war movie like "Saving Private Ryan" or something, it's crazy.  Lisa starts school up again today so I will be spending a bit more time with that game in the next few weeks, at least until the weather is nice enough to ride my wheeler or bike or even take the kayak out.  Well I need to run for now, I'll try to get another update in later this week, have a good one. 

March 20, 2005:  Well, it was a strange weekend.  I felt like crap Thursday morning and ended up not going in to work until after lunch.  I made it out to Rochester later that night and crashed as soon I got in, still not feeling better and hoping it would clear up by the morning for my appointment.  Well, it didn't clear up and I can now say that being under the weather and getting a tattoo don't go well together.  We only worked for about 2 hours but did get quite a bit done.  The guys at the shop were totally cool about it, I guess they have all been in the same shoes.    Next time we should be able to get it done, pictures are posted as usual.  After I got home Lisa and I actually got to hang out.  We ran some errands on Saturday, got lunch and actually fell asleep on the couch watching TV, it was pretty awesome.  Today we did a couple more errands and I finished the garage re-organization I started last weekend.  It was a great weekend.  So Lisa told me that she hit a pretty bad pothole on her way home from school last week and she thinks she "broke her lower unit."  I took a quick look at it and didn't see anything to worry about but the steering wheel did wobble a little when I drove it.  This weekend I was getting her car inspected and noticed that the front right wheel was dented a bit.  After taking the hubcap off it was clear that it was bent so bad that there was no good reason that the tire was still holding air.  The picture doesn't do it much justice, the tire is just about to jump off the bead.  So we tried to track down a wheel in a scrap yard with no luck and ended up ordering one, hopefully it will show up Monday and she won't have to drive it around on the donut for too long.  Anyway, time to get something to eat, talk to y'all later. 

March 16, 2005:  Spring has arrived!  Well, maybe, the sun is out anyway so it feels more like Spring than winter for now, we're sure it's gonna snow this weekend or something.  It's been a pretty boring week at home and work, that's why I'm doing another update, nothing else to do.  The weekend ended up being very productive, much more so than I expected while sitting on the couch drinking a beer Saturday night after I got home from work.  I spent Sunday cleaning and re-organizing the garage.  With the help of the Rincon, the nasty, soaking wet, mildew smelling carpet that was on the garage floor is now in the dumpster next door, not sure who thought it was a great idea to have carpet in a New England garage.  It was like dragging a dead body accross the yard and heaving it into the dumpster.  I wired another outlet on the side of the garage that had no outlets so I could move the freezer there and put in some shelves where the freezer was, I said it was productive, not exciting!  I'm off to Rochester again tomorrow and back on Friday then we might drive up to NH to see my folks and some friends, we'll see how I'm feeling after the tattoo marathon in the morning.  I'll get the pictures up when I get home, probably that night.  Lisa's week of hell is almost over, just one more test then she can actually sleep.  Have a great weekend, we'll talk again soon. 

March 12, 2005: Winter is still here, it's been one of the worst weeks of the year, three different storms.  It's been snowing here for the last few days and we hear there is another storm coming next week.  My parents up north are getting it even worse than we are, they heard 30" today and they got two storms last week of 1' each.  I can't imagine where they are putting it all.  We haven't gotten that much and our plow guy is already out of space to put it.  I worked today, spent the day in a 5'x10' closet running wires, at least I was alone and could blast my MP3 player as loud as it would go, it wasn't so bad for 8 hours of overtime on the old paycheck.  Isis and I played in the snow for a while when I got home, Lisa even took a break from studying to come out and enjoy it too.  I took the wheeler out for a few laps around the yard in the snow and got it stuck in a snow bank real bad.  Lisa ended up having to help me get it out, unfortunately there was nothing to hook the winch to or it would have come out a lot easier.  We almost got Isis to jump up and ride with me but she wouldn't quite go for it, maybe she'll warm up to it.  The People's Republic of Massachusetts sent me my income tax check already so I splurged and ordered a couple performance upgrades for the Rincon.  Even though I won't be able to put them on and get it tuned until the weather breaks, they'll be in sometime this week.  An HMF Utility Series exhaust, K&N air filter and jet kit were highly recommended on a bunch of online message boards for my machine so we'll see how they work out.  My helmet finally came in and after all that hassle, the graphics aren't really what they looked like on the website.  The sections that looked grey and silver are actually chrome, and quite a bit of it too, blinding chrome to be exact.  It was a lot cheaper than other styles so I'm keeping it, a chrome helmet protects my head as good as any other.  Another appointment is coming up on Friday for my tattoo, we are hoping to get the rest of it done and leave the next one for final touch ups.  I'm definitely ready for it to be finished, both to see the final product and to be done healing for a while, it starts to get to your body after a month or two of this.  Lisa has finals this coming week so she's studying more than sleeping this weekend and probably most of next week, then she's on break for a week, it will be nice to have some time together.  Well, that's about it for know, time to get some grub, have a great week.