4.1.2004 - 4.30.2004

April 23, 2004:  So we have started Isis on her summer exercise regiment, she needs to burn off the 20lbs she put on this winter so she can be her slim self again, she's not taking it very well, a 1 mile run requires about 24 hours of sleep when we get back.  I guess it does about the same thing to me too though.  We had an AWESOME time in Hershey, PA last weekend, Amy and Matt's wedding was so much fun.  I will have pictures up shortly, check to the left.  We got to see a lot of our friends that we hadn't seen for almost a year before we moved out here, so that was a lot of fun.  I think it really made us realize how important friends are and how much we miss all of ours.  The wedding reception was at an antique car museum which was really cool, not just your standard reception hall.  We want to do something different for our wedding too, we'll come up with something good for sure, we have some time to think about it too, with Lisa in school full time it's going to be at least a year before we can plan anything.  Being in PA for the weekend really confirmed our feelings about this place though, the people here really are horrible, and we need to try to get out if we can before it starts to rub off on us.  I have started looking for work in RI and CT, we could move to either state and split up the commute more evenly for the two of us.  From what we have found, the people there are a bit nicer, they mostly just keep to themselves like normal people.

April 16, 2004:  Thanks to everyone for all the emails, it was a bit of a surprise to us that anyone actually read this stuff unless we sent them a link and asked them to.  Things don't really feel much different now that we are engaged, we refuse to use the word fiancée unless it's absolutely necessary, something about that word just bothers us.  I guess things feel a little more serious than before, hard to say really, it's all good though for sure.  It seems that you all are interested in seeing pictures of Lisa's ring, I tried to get some photos but they really came out bad.  I was able to get some stock photos from the place that made the ring though, you can find a link to them on the left, Lisa's is a little different but you can at least get the idea.  The opinion I got so far was that I done good, hopefully you all agree.  We are off to Matt and Amy's wedding in a few hours, I'll try to get pictures posted on Monday, have a great weekend.

April 11, 2004:  So we had a pretty crazy week to say the least, get comfortable, it's kind of a long story.  Three weeks ago we found the ring, it was perfect, the one we had been searching for.  It had to be ordered and it came in on Monday.   I'll leave the details out but I asked and she said yes.  I still needed to speak to Lisa's dad and get his official permission and I really didn't want to do that over the phone.  I decided that a trip was in order, my brother wanted to join me so he could catch some sun for a few days so we got tickets to fly to Orlando, FL on Thursday morning.  It just so happens that our friend Mike from back in the day lives in Orlando so we hooked up with him and he let us crash at his place.  We landed, got a rental car (Dave said it had to be a convertible, big surprise) picked up Mike, got in touch with Lisa's brother Ben, who was our inside connection to her parents schedule, and left for Daytona Beach to surprise them.  Well, they were very surprised to see me walk in the door and really didn't believe me when I said what I came down to say.  After the initial shock of it all they were cool with it and said they would be happy to let me marry her, they were still kind of shocked to see me though.  Now that the important part was over we just enjoyed the 85 degree weather, did some standard tourist stuff, Universal Studios, Kennedy Space Center, tipped back a few beers and caught up on old times.  We flew back to Boston Saturday night, welcomed by 40 degree weather, awesome.  So now it's official, we can tell everyone, we are engaged to be married.  It's too early to say but we were thinking of Fall/Winter 2005, Lisa has a break in school so it might work out well, more on that to come though.  The ring is awesome, it's an emerald cut center stone with 6 rectangular baguettes, 3 on each side, set in platinum.  We both really like the look of emerald cut stones, very classy looking and not super bling bling, we knew the second we saw it that it was the one.  I have to say, it looks awesome on her hand too.  So tomorrow the vacation is over, I will be working 48 hours before Thursday and we are off to PA for Amy and Matt's wedding next weekend, it will be a great weekend, just the two of us.

April 3, 2004:  We decided that the old page was pretty boring so this is my attempt at making it better, let us know what you think, and don't feel bad about saying it sucks, I can take it!  Props to Pat and Fran for adding a link to our site on pnf.com, even though that link is bringing down the value of their site, like living next door to a crack house.  Speaking of houses, congrats to them on the in progress purchase of their own!  The weather here just isn't giving up, it's supposed to snow tomorrow night, maybe up to 4 inches, just when the mud hole we call our street was starting to dry up too.  Things are moving along, Lisa is back at school again, her break was nice but very short.  She has 22 credit hours this quarter and has to shadow a  pharmacist 3 hours a week so this might be her busiest quarter yet.  She also has to learn what the locals would call, "wicked haahd wuuhds", like pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis in her medical terminology class, I don't know how she does it, honestly.  We got the bike and kayak racks mounted on the Element, just in time for the weather to get bad again.  We have both had just about enough of this state, we can't say enough bad things about it and can't wait until graduation so we can get out.  We are hoping that summer weather will at least make this place more tolerable.  Some big news is just on the horizon for us, stay tuned for more details, that's all I am at liberty to say for now.