April 30, 2006:  Well, I'd love to be telling you great news about my trip to Seattle this week but I can't do that, why you ask?  Well, because they cancelled it two days before I had to leave and were less than professional about it.  The glass half full response is that if they are capable of doing that kind of stuff then I don't want to work for them anyway.  I've been trying to look at things that way lately, we'll see how long it lasts with things like this happening.  Lisa started her new rotation at Target this week and totally loves it, every day she has tons more great things to say about it, only continues to make her happy with her decision to work there when we move.  The week was pretty crazy at work for me, I ended up putting in another 5 hours on Sunday of last weekend and the rest of the week ended up being as crazy as we figured it would.  Through all of that I still ended up getting home early each night and having dinner with Lisa.  I think it was a combination of seeing what my paycheck looked like after putting in 83 hours and what it felt like after I told my boss I was leaving in 6 weeks that made me feel like not going that extra mile this week.  I have to say it was pretty nice to be home early.  This weekend we just hung out, it was great to just do nothing together.  Anyway, that's about it around here, other than starting to pack a few things this week it should be another week like that last! 

April 22, 2006:  Hey again, one more week down, only about 6 left, man that sounds scary!  I had another absolutely insane week at work, 83 hours on my timesheet after today, that's right, it's Saturday and I'm working, almost feels normal at this point.  They are moving about 180 people into the new building this weekend and I'm the lucky one that gets to be here in case they have any trouble with the network.  I'm getting paid so I shouldn't be complaining.  I moved my office earlier in the week so I could be set up to support the weekend activities.  The place is ok I guess, nothing to write home about though.  Lisa had a busy week of catching up on basically everything, mail, unpacking, that kind of stuff.  She also tackled organizing and packing the clothes we won't be using before the move.  For me that would take about 45 minutes because I don't have much that's worth packing.  For her clothes though it took the better part of 3 days, hey, I have tools, she has clothes.  Plans haven't progressed all that much for the actual move, too many things are still up in the air to make any concrete decisions.  I was able to get my upcomming interview scheduled with work, unfortunately it meant coming clean with my boss and telling him our plans.  It didn't go as bad as I had imagined it might, he said he was kind of expecting it eventually just not this soon.  He said he would keep it quiet for me until we had a definite date, that lasted about 3 days, now everyone seems to know.  My interview is next Friday morning so they are flying me out Thursday afternoon.  I am going to stay with Kim and I convinced them to fly me back Saturday afternoon instead of right after the interview Friday.  That works out great for me, I'll get to do some exploring just like Lisa did when she flew out there a couple months ago.  The week after I get back will hopefully help decide how things are going to happen for this move.  If they are going to make me an offer it will hopefully be early that week and if I accept it I will be out of here in a hurry.  That scenario would be the best, I could get out there and crash with Kim for a few weeks then fly back for graduation, to finish packing, and then drive back out with Lisa and Isis.  In my few weeks out there alone I would hopefully be able to find us a place to live.  Our plan is to rent for no more than a year before buying our own place, hopefully less.  We are both crossing our fingers that this is how it all works out, it would really lower the stress level of the whole move.  Tom got me the trailer towing package for the Ridgeline this week so if I don't have to be back here for work tomorrow I will probably tackle installing it.  I have good instructions so it shouldn't be too bad, it's a very large part so I will likely need another set of hands to help position it, I'm sure I can drag Lisa away from her packing for a few minutes of "boy stuff".  This is just one more thing that we need for the move, this way I will be able to tow the Rincon trailer with the Ridgeline instead of the Element, which isn't really built to tow anything.  I was able to drop that bike rack I built for the Ridgeline off to be powder coated this week, I pick it up Monday after work and should get it installed that night, I'll post more pictures to the 'Projects' page.  If this one works out well and gets some interest on the Ridgeline websites I read I might make a few to sell and see how they do, could make me a few bucks to buy more tools!  Have a great week, I'll try to say hey again before I take off. 

April 16, 2006:  Happy Easter!!!  What a crazy week it's been.  The interview I had just after my last post went pretty well, I haven't heard anything back from them yet but hopefully I will this week, not giving up yet.  Dave came up to do some work on his motorcycle last weekend before I left, oh and I worked Saturday morning too.  Seeing Lisa again was awesome and so was Florida.  We got to hang out with her folks a bunch, spend some time at the beach, do a little rollerblading and even spent a few days in Orlando.  We went to Epcot, the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Typhoon Lagoon in just three days.  It was really fun but our timing wasn't the greatest, most of the country's high schools are on spring vacation right now, that means 2 hour lines for basically every ride in the park.  We really wanted to go on Expedition Everest, the new ride at Animal Kingdom but the wait was so long it would have wasted the rest of our day there.  Lisa did get a picture of the mountain from a distance though, it looks pretty hardcore.  We also went to see Cirque de Soleil's La Nouba and it was unreal, if you ever have the opportunity to see one of their shows you need to do it, seriously.  We didn't get to catch up with my friend Mike though, he was actually out of town while we were there so no harm no foul I guess.  He gave me a ring though and hopefully we'll be able to catch up before the move.  Oh, gotta drop a quick shout out to Derek and Worm!!!  While we were still in Florida I got a call back from the company I interviewed with first, the one that didn't feel all that great but got a second interview with.  They want me to come out to Seattle for an in person interview as soon as possible.  That's going to be tough with work being as crazy as it will be this week and next.  I'm going to have to come up with some crazy excuse to get two days off, that should be fun.  Lisa is glad to be home and to have another week off before she starts her last rotation.  She wants to get a bunch of stuff done around the house, has some stuff to prepare for the move and to get ready for our last 60 days here.  Anyway, have a great week, it's gonna be crazy up in here. 

April 7, 2006:  Hey again, how's things?  Not bad here I guess, still busy as ever that's for sure.  This week has been the worst yet at work, I have been trying to get so much stuff done before I leave for Florida so I don't have to deal with it when I get back.  With all the crazy stuff that went on at work my PC's hard drive quit in the middle of the week, everything was gone, email, bookmarks, everything.  That was exactly what I DIDN'T need to happen this week.  We are getting very close to the end of the project and are still finding things that are messed up every day.  I'm not expecting much to get done while I'm away, which means the week back is going to be hell.  My interview on Monday seemed to go very well and even though the one last Friday didn't feel all that great I still got a call back and had another interview with a different member of the team last night.  The second one didn't feel all that great either but who knows I guess.  I did get a call back on the interview I had Monday that felt so good and they should be calling any minute to do a second one.  I'm a whole lot more interested in working for this company than the other, the job seeems like a better fit and I got a great vibe from them, we'll see if that continues tonight.  Other than all that it's been pretty quiet around here, just work, talking to Lisa on Skype and counting the days until I get to see her again, just 2 more.  Well, I'm gonna sign off for now, waiting on that call, have a great weekend! 

April 2, 2006:  Exactly one week from today I will enjoying some warm weather and hanging out with Lisa and her folks in Florida.  It's going to be a long week at work, I can't wait to get down there, it's going to be awesome to see Lisa and go to a couple parks.  There have been a few developments worth noting in the job search department over the last week.  I sent out a handful of resumes to jobs posted on monster.com about a week ago and had my first of two scheduled phone interviews on Friday night.  It went pretty well but I'm not terribly interested in the position, the one coming up Monday after work sounds like a better fit, we'll see how this one goes.  Work was just as crazy as ever this week, we worked six days this week again including 8 hours yesterday starting at 6pm.  Friday night I started putting the new Tamiya TLT-1 kit together and finished it up Saturday before work, it was a pretty tough kit to assemble, nice thing is I can drive it around the house, it's so small.  Dave and Lauren came up to hang out and watch Isis for me when I was at work last night, I barely got to see them though.  They were sleeping when I got home and left before I woke up this morning.  After barely getting any sleep last night someone from work called, woke me up, and asked for help with a problem they were having, they had some nerve too, I'm not even on call!  In the afternoon I got called by work again and spent another hour or so troubleshooting another problem from last night's cutover.  I did get to spend some time finishing up the bike rack for the Ridgeline this afternoon though.  I hope to be able to drop it off at the powder coater tomorrow during lunch so it should be ready by the time I get back from Florida, just in time to start using it too.  I'm sure that I missed something but I'm so tired that the screen is starting to be tough to read, I think it's time for bed, we'll talk again before I take off.