6.1.2004 - 6.30.2004

June 26, 2004:  Its been a long almost last week at work, Tuesday was hands down the busiest day since I started working there, and I was hoping to have an easy two weeks too!  So I'm an idiot and fell off my bike Thursday and landed on the back of my neck.  I was just messing around so I guess I got what I deserved.  I did scrape up my left arm though, not real happy about that, not so worried about the fact that I can barely turn my head or lift my left arm, priorities!  We'll see what it looks like when it's all healed up, and how much damage was done to the tattoo, man, I hate it when I don't think.  Other than that we are starting our search for a new place to live.  Lisa did most of the searching for the place we live now so I forgot how much work it is, especially with Isis.  I guess there is a chance that my new work might be able to help us out with relocating, I'm hoping to hear back from them this week with an answer, it would be a huge help if that was available to us, crossing our fingers.  We had a barbeque this week for Lisa's friend Rachael's birthday, it was fun to have guests at our apartment.  I did end up mowing the lawn again so the place looked some what presentable, I even cleaned up the piles of leaves and trash in the driveway too.  We had one huge feast too, plenty of chips and homemade dip, chicken and vegi kabobs, burgers and hotdogs with the famous "Plochman's Chili Dog Mustard" we had to go to Wegman's in Rochester to buy.  Of course there was also the frozen Margaritas, Pina-Coladas, and Mudslides.  Beers were being tipped back as well, all that preparing makes a guy need something to cool off, I think I had put away 2 or 3 by the time I finished making the kabobs.  I think I can speak for everyone when I say that a good time was had by all.  Well, after today's shift I have 3 left before I'm done here and the long weekend begins.  After that it's a whole new world for me, and I can't wait!  We are going to try and take a lot of pictures of our outdoor adventures next weekend, I will do my best to get them posted in a timely manner.  Enjoy your weekend and we will talk to you again soon.

June 23, 2004:  So soon it won't be welcome to Woostah anymore, things are changing here at Jay and Lisa dot org.  I got a new job!  Yup, you heard it here first.  No more answering 200 phone calls per shift, no more sitting in a chair for 8 hours without a break, and no more working weekends!  I start my new job just after the 4th of July, I don't want to get into too many details here but lets just say it's going to be great for us.  We will be moving out of Worcester to split up the commute some between the two of us, more on that to come.  Maddie was here for about a week, she only ate one of the plants this time and just peed on the kitchen floor once, when she plays with Isis she forgets to tell us she has to go out.  She did drive Isis out of her mind though, she plays much harder than Isis, at 7 years old she is starting to slow down.  When Dave came to get Maddie, Isis just jumped into the car with them, we think she expected us to get in and go too, I doubt she was all that psyched when she saw that it was just her and Maddie again.  We went back to Rochester to hang out with all of our friends last week, we had an awesome time, got to see tons of people.  We stayed with Emile in our old neighborhood, nice to be back, weird though.  We got to ride our bikes on the canal path, rollerblade around RIT, and even spent all day Saturday sailing on Seneca Lake in Chris and Maryellen's new boat.  Unfortunately we forgot that the sun is just as powerful there as it is here and also forgot the sun block and got smoked.  It looks like someone spray painted my face red while I was wearing my sunglasses.  Lisa didn't get it as bad as I did because she spent a lot of the time in the cabin of the boat, I don't know how she did it either, the water was very rough, my stomach could barely handle being on the deck.  Getting to hang out with all our friends and getting to do so many of the things we enjoyed doing when we lived here really did show us how much we missed Rochester and how bad this place can be.  Maybe someday we will be able to move back there, who knows how things will work out.  When we met Dave in Springfield to pick up Isis we had to keep dragging Maddie out of the Element, she wanted to come back to our place with Isis, she sure does love her.  Isis has spent most of the last two days in her bed snoring, she can't keep up with the puppies anymore, I kind of feel the same way.  Have a great week, we'll talk again soon!

June 10, 2004: Today Lisa has her last two finals for the quarter, then a week to recover.  If all goes well we will be making a trip back to Rochester to do some visiting during that week, we'll see how things go though.  She has been doing great as always, studying non stop and barely sleeping too, nothing new really.  My parents came down for a visit last weekend, and to bring us their old refrigerator because ours sucks.  Our landlord didn't seem all that happy about it but who cares I guess.  He still hasn't mowed the lawn yet, one section is almost waist high, the funny thing is that he is changing jobs and his new new one doesn't start until the end of the month so he does nothing all day but watch the grass grow!  So we always complain about the people here and how horribly they drive, well I took my kayak out on Lake Quinsigamond today and learned that it's not just driving cars that these people can't seem to get right.  I have driven my jetski on lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence river and many other bodies of water and never felt as in fear for my life as I did today in the kayak.  I saw every rule in the boaters safety handbook get broken, many of which brought the boats close to hurting me.  My neck actually hurts from spinning my head around so often to be sure a boat wasn't about to kill me, there is a reason kayaks and canoes don't have rear view mirrors, every other boat on the water is supposed to yield to them.  It's no surprise these boaters didn't yield to me today, people here don't yield to anything, not even ambulances from what we've seen.  We have come up with two mottos for the state, "Drive fast, merge last" and "Massachusetts, the me state", they both have a nice ring to them, maybe you'll see one on the next license plate.  The people out there were another story, most of the jetski riders I saw were wearing Tommy shorts and shirts, and wouldn't have had a chance to survive if they fell off, the 5 gold chains and big medallions would have brought them right to the bottom.  I'm going to try to find a less popular lake to paddle on next time.  I'm still hitting the job boards pretty hard, not much yet though, we'll see what happens.  Maddie gets here tomorrow so tonight is the last night of peace and quiet for the next week, she loves Isis though, they will have fun like they always do.  Well, we'll talk again before our trip, later.

June 1, 2004:  Crazy things going on here, we went out again!  We had lots of fun at a barbeque put on by Lisa's friend Rachael from school.  It's really cool to meet people that Lisa's talks about every day.  The weather here has been pretty bad, a lot of rain and it hasn't been all that warm, the only reason you can tell it's not fall is that the leaves are green.  I've been helping my brother finish a bunch of renovations he has been doing to his apartment in Hartford while he is living in NYC.  He may end up staying there permanently so he wants to get his apartment ready so he can rent out the whole duplex if he has to.  We have a lot of painting to do, which is far from my favorite job, but it has to get done.  When we're finished the place will look a lot better, it's a pretty big mess right now.  I have been trying to get out on my mountain bike more but the weather hasn't been cooperating, Isis has been joining me when I can get out, the trails start right at the end of our street so I can't really go without taking her, she freaks out when I just get the bike out.  Lisa got to take her bike out with us the other day, she had fun but wishes she had more time to play.  I heard back about that interview I had a couple weeks ago, I got the same response I have heard from all the recent ones.  I guess I will keep trying, something will eventually happen, hopefully soon, I'm not sure how much more I can take of this job.  My parents are coming down to visit next weekend and bring us their old refrigerator, ours runs constantly and has two broken shelves so it's going to be cool to get a new one.  They haven't been down here since Thanksgiving so it will be cool to have them visit again.  Our trip back to Rochester is coming up and we are pretty excited about it, definitely something to look forward to, we're counting the days actually.  Dave's dog Maddie is coming to visit next week, so things are going to get crazy around our place, one dog is fun, but two dogs are aren't twice the fun as one might expect, more like twice the headache.  Have a great week, talk to you later.