March 27, 2006: Not a great deal to report, just about a week and a half before my vacation to Florida
to see Lisa, soon I'll be counting the minutes. It was a nice weekend here, sunny and not too cold. I had to work for a
few hours in the morning Saturday and Dave came up that night with Maddie and hung out, ate some dinner, drank a few beers and
watched a movie. Sunday we drove up to meet Gregg in Vermont to pick up my drill press and some parts he picked up for us at
Bavarian Autosport. Other than that things were pretty quiet, I've been messing with some of my radio controlled stuff, mostly
just going over it to be sure the batteries are ok and everything is in working order. My brother left me his so I could do the
same to it, small stuff to keep me busy and keep me from worrying about all the crazy stuff we're going to have to deal with in the
next 2 months. Speaking of the next two months we have exactly 85 days left until moving day, yup, counting those days too.
Hopefully it will be a bit warmer next weekend and I can take Isis for a mountain bike ride before I have to
go to work, that's right, I said work. I have to be at work around 6pm Saturday night and will be there until we get our internet
connection and all internet facing devices moved to the new building. I have a bad feeling about this one, mostly because we have
to rely on MCI and Verizon to get things moved over and right the first time. In my 10 years or so of network experience I have
learned that isn't something you should ever count on. Dave said he might come up with Maddie and hang out again, that would
be cool because Isis has been having a bit of a rough go lately and not having to be alone would be cool. I spent a few hours
earlier tonight applying for jobs out west, it would be cool to find a new job before we move, not holding my breath though.
Oh well, have a great week.
March 23, 2006: Just about two more weeks left until I meet up with Lisa in Florida and let me tell
you, I can't wait! I'll be flying out two weeks from this Sunday and then we both come back the next weekend. Isis
will be on vacation too, she'll be staying at the Inn for dogs all week. Speaking of Isis, she had her appointment with
Dr. Dodman this week. Apparently after being mentioned during that TV interview that he was on she's famous, there were
6 people in the examination room to check her out. We talked a lot about how things have been going and how she had been
freaking out a lot lately. In the end he decided to change her medication a little, we'll see how the new stuff works out,
unfortunately it's quite a bit more expensive. If we can get through the next few months and the move we'll be in better
shape, Seattle is one of the most dog friendly cities in the country so we'll be able to take her out and have lots of fun.
She's getting old so it doesn't take all that much fun to tire her out and every dog owner knows the saying, "a tired dog is a
happy dog". Lisa is back in Florida from San Francisco, she said that she had a great time and got lots of good drug
company booty. The keynote speaker at one of the conferences was Aron Ralston, the guy who became trapped while hiking in
a remote Utah canyon and cut his own arm off to survive. She said he had some incredible pictures from trips all around the
country and was very interesting to listen to, I have to say I'm a little jealous, I'm sure it was an awesome story to hear.
Anyway, my brother might come up and hang out this weekend, that would be cool, maybe work on some stuff in the garage with the
welder and have a few beers. I'm on call all weekend so we can't go all that far, I guess the weather is going to be ok, not as
nice as I'd like but at least it won't be snowing. So, other than that, things are normal, work is crazy as always, no let
up in sight, it's starting to look like people might actually miss me when we move. That feels kind of cool.
March 19, 2006: Not a whole lot new to talk about but I'm sure I'll come up with something.
Lisa is out in San Francisco right now for an APHA conference and should be back in Florida Tuesday. My week was mostly
March 12, 2006: And weee're back!!! Not too much to talk about, fun week though.
Brian told me all about this internet phone service called Skype while we were
driving to Rochester last weekend. He said that he uses it with Hillary and it works great. I figured that seeing
as Lisa has her laptop with her and her folks have high speed access at their house it made perfect sense to give it a
try. We both got the software installed and got the voice portion working last Wednesday night. The sound quality
is incredible, so much better than I expected, probably a little better than FM radio. It sounds so good that if Lisa
starts talking to Isis it actually tricks her and she starts looking around for her. The next day I ordered two small
notebook webcams and mailed one to Lisa so we could actually see each other while we were talking. She got it Saturday
and we tested them out last night. My parents were here for the weekend and they got to meet Lisa's mom for the first
time on the webcam, man are we dorks! The weather was really nice here this weekend, yesterday I cleaned the house,
washed the Element and Ridgeline and spent an hour or so measuring and drawing up a plan for the bike rack I want to build for the bed of
the Ridgeline. Not too long after that my folks arrived and we hung out for the rest of the afternoon. We didn't
do much, washed my Dad's truck, ran out to pick up a couple things and then had takeout for dinner. We packed up the
bed they came to pick up from our guestroom and they took off around lunch time. I spent the rest of the day finishing
up the welding table I started a couple weeks ago, you can see new pictures under 'Projects' as always. It's going to be
another long week at work, lots of stuff moving into the new building. Have a great week!
March 6, 2006: I have 5 more weeks until my trip to Florida to see Lisa and just over 3 months
before we pack this show up and move it to the left coast. Everything is official now, Lisa starts at Target in the Seattle North district
at the end of June. Her exact store will be determined after graduation. That means that we need to get off our behinds and start planning this move.
I have to admit that its a whole lot to think about but we'll get it done. Lisa is doing great at Walgreen's but is
March 1, 2006: Hey again, I don't really have all that much to talk about but I'm bored out of
my mind so here goes. Lisa reports that the pharmacy she is working at is even more crazy than the CVS she worked at
here and they are working her as hard as ever. My work is crazy, no let up in sight. Things around the old
homestead are quiet, real quiet. I'm off to Rochester this weekend, I'll have pictures of my tattoo work early next
week so keep watch for them if you're interested. I guess that's all I have for now, have a great rest of the
week.
normal at work, busy every day. Isis had another bad week, she spent at least a few hours each day trying to chew her
way out of the crate. We're starting to think, well, we are trying not to think about it actually. I got my resume
update earlier in the week and started applying for jobs on a couple of the job boards. I also started looking at what
it's going to cost us to move our stuff, we might end up getting one of those PODS you see the commercials for on TV, they
are a little more expensive than renting and driving a truck but much more convenient. They will drop it off, we fill it
up and lock it, they pick it up and store it until we need it delivered to our new address. I'm still waiting for a
couple quotes from movers but we're leaning toward getting the POD. I didn't do all that much this weekend, Saturday
I worked on the bike rack for the Ridgeline and updated the pictures. Sunday I went down to my brother's place in
Hartford to work on a counter top in the kitchen, I put some pictures up in the 'Projects' section. I found a great
deal on a new body for one of my radio controlled trucks this week. HPI created a body that make the truck look like
a 1/5 scale 4-wheeler. They even have a scale rider that moves around as you drive it. With the right camera
angles the videos they have on their website make it tough to tell it isn't a real person on a real machine. Mine
hasn't come in yet but I'm expecting it at the beginning of the week. Other than all that fun not much is new.
Isis has an appointment at Tuft's on Tuesday to see if there is anything else they can do for her, we'll see how it goes
I guess. Anyway, have a great week!
anxious to start her last rotation at Target back home. This weekend was a little on the crazy side but I wasn't on
call and didn't have to work so that was nice change. Saturday morning I dropped Isis off at the Inn for Dogs and left
for Rochester, making a stop in Albany to pick up Brian. We were going to attend the CSH 30th anniversary dinner that
night and I had an appointment to have Jet go over some faded spots on my sleeve Sunday afternoon. In all the craziness
of getting Isis ready to go to the kennel I totally left the garment bag of clothes for the dinner hanging in the hallway.
Now some of you will say that this has happened before, and that is true, but I don't want to hear it! We ended up stopping
at Eastview mall on the way and I picked up some replacements. We made it to dinner and had a great time, it was really
cool to see some of the people we haven't seen in years. It was a real bummer that Lisa wasn't around to join us though,
lots of people there were asking about her too. Dinner was great but seeing as we were in Rochester with people we lived
with years ago there was one place that we had to visit, good old Nick Tahoe's for a garbage plate. There is nothing quite
like a pile of mac salad, home fries and two grade F hamburg patties, doused in mustard, onions and hot sauce made from ground
hamburger, red hot, and lard all at 2am after a hardy night of drinking, yum. After all that fun we crashed at Brian's
girlfriend Hillary's place and even slept in a bit on Sunday before my appointment. I headed out and met Alex at Dibella's
for a sandwich, well, I had a sandwich but only called him on the way there so he didn't have enough time to eat before I had to
be at Love Hate. He followed me there though and hung out for the hour and a half that it took Jet to make my koi look
like new, actually better than new. After we finished I made one last stop at Chris and Maryellen's place as they are the
proud new parents of a baby boy. Ethan was born a week ago today and it was great to be able to meet him so soon.
We are going to have to make another trip out soon so Lisa can meet him too. I got home very late last night and picked
Isis up after work today, she seemed to have a great time, hasn't moved since we got home. Anyway, we'll talk again later
this week.