September 26, 2005:  Hi again, hope everyone had a nice weekend, our's was busy as always.  Wednesday I found a local body shop that would repaint the Hyundai's passenger side mirror, all of the paint had peeled off of it in the last 4 years and it looked pretty bad.  They said it would be done by the end of the week and the charge would only be $35 for the work if I took it apart and brought them just the part that needed to be painted.  Friday after work I was able to get the front rotors off the Hyundai with out too much hassle.  Early Saturday morning I dropped them off to be resurfaced, dropped Lisa off at work, and went to go pick up the mirror.  They never painted the mirror like they said they would but promised it would be done Monday.  After doing my normal, boring weekend chores I went back to pick up the rotors.  I installed them with even less trouble than taking them off, which was a huge surprise knowing my history with working on this car's brakes.  I noticed a small problem that might have made them feel more warped but I straightened that out too.  I took the front seats out and spent 5 hours making the car look like it just rolled off the lot.  I was able to snap a few pictures in case we decide to list it on Ebay instead of trading it in.  We spent an hour or so that night working on starting off on hills, Lisa is definetely starting to get the hang of it, just needs more time behind the wheel on her own.  Sunday was kind of a nothing day, I cleaned up the garage and started putting away some of the summer stuff.  Lisa's new rotation has her up all night working on studies and cases and lots of other stuff that I don't understand and can't even pronounce.  She spent most of the day trying to catch up for the beginning of the week.  Today I picked up the mirror from the body shop and put it back together, now the Hyundai is totally finished and looks awesome again, hopefully we can get decent money for it after all this work.  The dealer contacted me today and said that I should expect the Ridgeline to arrive around the 20th of October, just about a month from now, that should work out perfect.  We decided that we'll be going back to Rochester for the weekend of my birthday at the end of October so we should have the new truck by then.  That will be the last week of Lisa's killer rotation so a weekend away will be in order for sure.  I'll also be able to have Jet do some more work for me so it works out great for both of us.  It's about time to crash for now, have a great week. 

September 19, 2005:  Hi again, hope everyone had a nice weekend, our's was cool.  Lisa and I got that power steering hose changed out on the Hyundai last week with only a little cursing, it went much better than I expected.  After much discussion we decided to sell it on Ebay instead of trading it for the truck.  We might have to go a week or so with just the Element but the amount of money we will make over what the dealer would give us on a trade makes it worth it.  I still have to get the door to open though, the dealer was no help at all.  Basically they said, "there is no way to open the door without taking the door panel off and there is no way to take the door panel off without opening the door" so they were going to have to break it off.  If there is anything that I'm really good at it's breaking things so I'll handle that myself and get a replacement from a junkyard after I fix the latch or whatever is messed up.  I'm getting the rotors turned this saturday and overhauling the interior too, this car is going to look like new when I'm done with it!  As soon as we hear the exact date for delivery of my new truck up on Ebay it goes.  The leak at my brother's house last week was just a bad seal on the shower drain, mostly caused by the fact that Bob Marley was living in the drain, at least the hair ball we pulled out looked like him.  Hot chicks are nasty man, nasty, they might look great at the club but don't look in their shower, makes me want to vomit just thinking about it.  The damage wasn't all that bad, a dozen or so ceiling tiles need to be replaced and we fixed the drain pretty quick.  I was home by 10pm so it went as well as it could have.  Lisa starts her first rotation today at a hospital and is pretty excited about it, I have to admit that I am too, this is the beginning of the end of this school for us.  Lisa was doing some research on getting her license in WA and she learned that she doesn't need the 700 hours she thought she did, she only needs half of that so we might be able to enjoy more weekends together this winter and spring after all.  The next few weeks are going to be crazy around here, my work is getting nuts because we will be moving our entire operation (control room for all of New England's power grid and 400 servers) into the new building they are putting up next door just after the 1st of the year.  We are getting heavy into the planning phase and I am getting projects piled onto me every day.  We also heard that replacing the new network person that got fired after her 2nd week isn't going to happen so there is nobody else but the two of us to do all the work, and the every other week on call rotation isn't going to change either.  All that and Lisa still has to continue driving the Element a few times a week to get used to the 5-speed before the new truck arrives in the middle of October.  She's only done it a couple times now but has picked it up very well, before we know it she'll be driving it to work everyday and have it mastered.  I went to Rochester Saturday to get the linework done on the thigh piece that is continued from my ribs, it went quick and I got to hang out with my friend Sandra that I haven't seen since before we moved to MA.  It was a quick trip but lots of fun, a new picture is posted to the left as always.  Sunday night after I got home we watched a couple movies, Fever Pitch and Sideways and liked both of them a lot.  We saw Fever Pitch in the theaters but it's such a great movie that we had to see it again.  I have to run for now, have a great week! 

September 12, 2005:  Well just when we thought things were going to slow down for us they picked right back up.  Last week was mostly a blur of going to bed real early and sleeping too late.  It was the first time we had both been home in a few weeks really.  Right after we got back from Seattle Lisa went to Watertown to see her family when they flew in from Florida for the long weekend.  I had to work so I stayed home with the dog, we chilled out, it was cool.  An hour after she got back we left for the camping trip and didn't get back until late Monday afternoon.  The rest of the week was unpacking, cleaning the gear and resting.  When we left for the camping trip we had new neighbors downstairs, they just moved in the night before, when we came home they were gone.  I guess they had an issue with the apartment or something.  Now we have a new person moving in soon, we hope she is as nice as the couple that was here for a few hours was.  A few weeks ago we started talking about getting a truck for moving the Rincon around, camping, biking, that kind of thing.  The Element is great for that but a little small and under powered for everything we want to do with it.  I missed the comfort and utility of my Sport Trac but not the lack of quality and workmanship.  A lot of discussion got us to the point that we would get rid of the Hyundai and replace it with a Honda Ridgeline for me and Lisa would drive the Element.  This was all hinging on us finding a sweet deal on a Ridgeline.  A couple weeks of research later and the Hyundai starts acting up, mind you it is still under it's 100,000 mile drivetrain warranty but past its bumper to bumper.  This time it was a power steering hose, probably the most expensive power steering hose you will ever see, especially on a $12k car.  This baby cost $200 and it's not even made out of stainless steel, just rubber and plain old steel.  That's the fun part, the not so fun part is that there is only 1 in New England that we could find.  I was able to talk them down to the list price of $170 and someone from work picked it up for me on their way home today, it's an hour out of my way at least so they helped me out.  After I fix this it won't be leaking anymore but the passenger front door still doesn't open but we're going to trade it like that, the thing isn't worth fixing at this point, we'll see what they give us for it on a trade.  Survey says: $500 to the man with the silver Elantra, lets hope it's more than that, we want to send her off with some pride left.  So that will be our week, hoping the hose doesn't totally break before tomorrow night and hoping that I will be able to get the old one off to replace it.  I've read that dealers have charged another $250 to change the part too, sends shivers down my spine to type that, cross your fingers for me.  Other than that things are good and mostly the same.  Lisa has been working crazy hours at the pharmacy this week and last, she needs to build up more hours to be able to take her exam early next year and seeing as she is on break they gave her a full two weeks, the money doesn't hurt either.  I'm still at work because my brother just called me to say that a pipe broke in one of his rental apartments in Hartford and he wants me to meet him there in about an hour to help him figure it out, Lisa went in to work for 1pm today so Isis should be fine until either I get home later or Lisa gets home at 9pm.  I'm sure this is going to be a lot of fun too, the ceiling hasn't quite fallen in yet but I guess it's going to any minute.  Well, I should get on the road, got a 45 minute drive to his house from here, have a great week. 

September 4, 2005:  September already, seems like the summer just started.  Things will be pretty crazy around the house this week, we haven't been home for more than a day in the last two weeks so we have lots of cleaning and relaxing to do.  We still have to unpack from the last two trips and clean up all the camping/kayaking gear before we put it away for the winter.  It felt nice to sleep in our own bed last night and I have to say I haven't slept that well in days, maybe weeks.  Lisa is going to be working a lot in the next few weeks to try to get in some hours before rotations start.  I'm on call a bunch coming up to make up for the time I wasn't on call the last three weeks.  It was nice to not carry that pager but I'll be making up for it now, they tell us they will be hiring another person soon, I'm not holding my breath.  Well, I am seriously too tired to rant on about how much we hate it here and how next June won't be here fast enough, you should all have that down by now.  We'll talk again when we get settled back into being home.  Have a great week everyone and take a minute or two out of your day to realize how fortunate we are to not be experiencing what our fellow Americans are down south.