I'm gonna be learnin' 'bout 'lectricity!

It will be advantageous for me to learn about the basics of electricity and circuit boards for my new job. Matt just happens to be an electricity guru, so we went out to Radio Shack yesterday and bought an electricity learning kit. It comes with workbooks and parts and stuff. I really don't know much about how electricity works. In high school I learned how to use a multimeter, but I don't remember anything about what any of the results mean. It should be fun if Matt can keep patient with me!

Merry Christmas!

Hahahaha, isn't that cute?

Down time

I'm going to be making some "behind the scenes" changes to my website over the next few days. I'm preparing for something big that I'm planning. It will be really cool if I can pull it off. Anyway, the site might be down for anywhere from a day to a week after I put in my request. FYI!

Time!

I'm about to venture into day three at my new job. I'm enjoying it so far, but there's so much to learn. Yesterday was better than the first, though, and I'm sure today will be even better. The biggest adjustment for me is trying to balance my time. I get up at 7:00, go to work at 8:15, take an hour lunch somewhere in between, and come home around 5:45. I'm really watching what time I go to bed because I don't want to be really tired throughout the day. It's no secret that I'm not a day person, so I need to give myself every advantage. I'm going to bed around 11:00-12:00. That leaves me with about 4 or 5 hours of relaxation time. However, the last two nights I've been really busy with my little side EBay business. I've got Matt helping me with that now, so that should help. Once school starts back up in January, I'll have to re-adjust everything again!

I am enjoying being busy again, but it is an adjustment. I've gone from having all the time in the world to very little!

Tis the season!

Yesterday Matt and I started a new holiday tradition for the both of us. These days, money is very tight for us and we don't have much to give to others. But we do realize that we have it better than a lot of people do. Our apartment complex is having a canned food drive. We gathered up five cans and took it down to the office. Sadly, we were the only ones to contribute so far. That's pretty sad.

Then, we went to K-Mart for the sole purpose of buying two toys - one for a boy and one for a girl - for the local Toys For Tots. We didn't get really expensive toys, but we both had a lot of fun shopping for our "kids." Sadly, the Toys For Tots bin wasn't even a quarter full.

I'm not trying to sound preachy here. But if you can spare even a can of food or one toy, why not do it? Think if everyone did that!

Well it's about flipping time

I had a third interview tonight with Tel-Tron. Tonight I met with the manager, Mike and his boss. I had a pretty good feeling going into it, and there's good reason. They made me an offer tonight! I gladly accepted. I'm making more money than I had anticipated, and I'll finally have health benefits for me and Matt. More importantly, I'm going to be doing a job that I'm pretty sure that I'll enjoy doing every day. I start on Monday. I can't wait!

How I want to die

Tonight Matt and I had an interesting conversation. It was about how we want to die. Please note that this was a very light-hearted discussion and not a depressing one. The situation posed was this: let's say that tomorrow at noon you are going to die no matter what. How would you want to go?

This simple topic covered a lot of ground. I, ironically, would like to die in a manner that gains national attention. It would need to be a really freak accident of some sort. I narrowed it down to two possibilities - my parachute doesn't open while skydiving or shark bite. I ultimately decided on the latter. I also thought it would be funny to die of electricution while playing Guitar Hero.

Matt, on the other hand, would like to die in a rocket explosion. We came up with a lot of funny ways that you could die, like suffocation from a cat sleeping on your face or being on a plane, finding out you won the lottery, lightning striking the plane and it crashes. Maybe you just had to be there :P

Keep your fingers crossed!

I had a second job interview last Thursday that went really well. It's a job that I interviewed for a long time ago but never heard anything back. I wouldn't start until January 3rd or so, but that's still way better than nothing. I really hope I get this, money is starting to get tight. I'll find out for sure either this week or next week. Keep your fingers crossed!

Wow

Tonight Matt and I went down to the beach to watch the night shuttle launch. I wasn't expecting to see a whole lot because Cape Canaveral is about 70 miles away. I was wrong. It was awesome! When the shuttle took off, it was literally so bright that it looked like the sun was rising. We could see the shuttle for a long time, and we were even able to see the rocket boosters separate (something you can't see during the day, not with the naked eye at least.) I got some cool pictures and I should have them posted to my website in the next day or two.

Ok now it's getting challenging

I seem to be stuck on one song in Guitar Hero II - Freya on expert difficulty. I can't seem to get past 70% into the song. I'm sure that right after I post this I'll pass it and make a liar of myself. I'm still having fun with it though! I've got all of the pictures uploaded that I wanted to, so enjoy! I've also fallen into the Myspace trap. I'm talking to all sorts of people from all phases of my life and enjoying it quite a bit. I've even got Matt into it now! Check it out if you never have - www.myspace.com. It's free! My webspace URL is www.myspace.com/niteowl23.

A formal challenge

I have been playing Guitar Hero II quite a bit over the last couple of days, and I have to admit that I'm not too shabby. I've gotten 5 stars on all songs in both easy and medium and passed every song in hard. I'm working on expert as we speak. Since my family is coming down to visit in February, I am formally declaring a challenge to my brother. I have unlocked Pro Face-Off mode, which I think will be perfect for the two of us to go head to head. It should be a lot of fun, so don't let yourself get rusty, big guy!!

I am just about finished with all of my updates. I have published what I have done so far, so enjoy! Please let me know if you find any mistakes :)

Work, work, play

I am slowly but surely chipping away at my many pictures that I have to upload. I'm just about done with the cosmetics and tomorrow I will begin work on the meat of it - editing the pictures and adding captions. It's a lot of hard work, but it's amusing even for me to go back and look at the pictures and read what I had written at the time.

I might get a little more done if I hadn't received a very unexpected surprise in the mail yesterday. My mom sent me an early Christmas gift - Guitar Hero II!!! I spent several hours this afternoon playing it, and I'm just about finished with the hard difficulty. It's fun, and the song selection is a little bit better than I had anticipated. Thanks Mom!

Plans for this week

I've got some ambitious plans for my website this week. I've got hundreds of pictures to publish, and I plan on getting them all up. It'll take me a while, but I don't have much else to do. I might get creative, too, but we'll see. So keep checking things out!

Happy Turkey Day!

It's Thanksgiving. Gobble gobble. Matt and I tossed around a couple of ideas of things to do today. We thought about volunteering at a kitchen, but we couldn't easily find any information on contacts for doing so. We thought about going out to eat, but we eventually decided to do a more traditional meal with just the two of us. We are combining aspects of each of our family's individual traditions. Matt has made pumpkin pie and chex mix and I've bought some rutabega and some olives and stuff for a mini relish tray. We're doing a turkey, too. We got the smallest one we could find but we're still going to be eating turkey for a long, long time. Tomorrow we're going to start decorating for Christmas. We don't have much in the way of decorations. We're going to buy a fake tree in a few minutes and some ornaments and stuff.

I'm a bit concerned that we're going to have way too much food, but I guess that's what leftovers are for. We'll see how it goes! We wish that we could be home with our families, but we're making the best of what we've got here together :)

Searching for warmth

I know I'm not going to get any sympathy from those of you in the great white north, but it has been uncharacteristically cold here in central Florida over the last week or so. Matt and I are trying to be stubborn and not turn on the heat, but I'm not sure how much more of this I can take. At night, it's been dropping into the 40s and during the day our highs haven't been above 70. The quilt is on the bed, I haven't been able to wear shorts in two weeks, we have to wear light jackets when going outside, and I also have to wear socks and a sweatshirt while inside!!

I'm generally chilly by nature, so this isn't pleasant for me. For the past couple of days, you can find the cats and myself in the one place that there is direct sunlight in the apartment. Our apartment is in the southeast corner of the building, so we only get sunshine in our bedroom for a couple of hours in the morning. During this time, it's not uncommon to find the cats and me sunning on the floor :P

My Playstation 2 saga

It has been a long, long road, but the day finally arrived last night when Matt and I went to Best Buy to purchase a brand new Playstation 2 so I could finally play Guitar Hero. It actually got to be funny toward the end. I'll share my story with you now....

I first decided to try and get a used one pretty cheap off of EBay. I bid for one, won it, paid for it, but never received it. After two months of badgering the seller and making a claim with EBay and PayPal, I got my money back. No Playstation 2 for me, though.

I decided that was just a fluke and decided to go the EBay route again. I found another used one, bid on it, won it and received it. Hooray! Problem - it didn't work. I ripped it apart, trying to fix it, but ended up far more frustrated than I began. Again, no Playstation 2 for me.

So, last night, we went out and bought one. (I'm not making this next section up.) We drove to Best Buy, but all of the entrances were closed off by police cars. There were helicopters circling it. Matt was getting a game that he really wanted (this was part of the deal) so we went to Target. They didn't have his game, so no Playstation 2 for me. We went to Circuit City. They never heard of his game. No Playstation 2 for me. We headed to Wal-Mart, passing Best Buy on the way. It was open! We went there, got Matt's game and my Playstation 2. It turned out there was a bomb threat. We went home. Hooray!

We got home, I plugged it in, put in Guitar Hero and it didn't work. I went online looking for possible solutions. Nobody had ever heard of my problem. I called Sony tech support. He hadn't heard of my problem and told me to send the Playstation 2 in. The turn around time was over a month. (Imagine how my face dropped when he said this). I asked if we could just take it back and return it. He replied "Oh yeah, I hadn't thought of that." No Playstation 2 for me again.

We went back to Best Buy, returned it, exchanged it, and came back home. In the car, I decided that a small meteor was going to demolish my new Playstation 2 and that I should protect it. We got home, I carefully guarded my new console all the way up to the house. I plugged it in, and the same thing was happening!!! I did a little troubleshooting of my own, determined that it was a bad memory card, swapped it, and was finally playing Guitar Hero!!!!

The end.

Now, to work on Matt on getting Guitar Hero 2 (which we played in Best Buy and is even more fun, if you can imagine that...he says I can't get it until at least next year, though :)

If I could live in any period of time...

I would choose to live in the 1950's and 60's. I'm not sure the people that lived during this time realize the extent of the actions of those around them during this time. So much of the world was changing very rapidly. Technology was booming. Just look at all that was accomplished between the end of WWII and the 80's! Computers were developed, we put a man on the moon, not to mention the incredible advances in medicine.

But what really fascinates me about this time period is the turmoil that had developed in this country. The civil rights movement is very intersting to me. It's amazing to see how close-minded people were before the civil rights movement, and how in just 30 years, the kids of the people that were alive then don't even think twice about things like racism. The cold war was a time that must have been pretty interesting to live through, too. And the Vietnam War was another thing that I would have liked to have observed.

When I look at today's world, I often feel like things are just sort of stagnating. We haven't really seen any big technological breakthroughs in the past 10 years or so (the Internet aside) and there really hasn't been much done in the way of medical advances. The only political turmoil that we see is petty squabbling over controversies and the Iraq war. While this is probably all good, if you look at history it seems like you need things to be shaken up in order to move forward.

Is Halloween the new Thanksgiving?

I'm really trying to understand this whole holiday thing. The day before Halloween, there were no Christmas decorations in the stores. The day after, there were Christmas trees, lights, and holiday commercials on both TV and the radio. Did I miss the memo? Is Halloween the new Thanksgiving? Should I be doing my Christmas shopping already? It seems a bit ridiculous to me. We've seemed to have skipped Thanksgiving and fall entirely and jumped straight to winter. I can't even imagine how sick I am going to be of the holiday commercials by the time Christmas rolls around.

Let's go down Nostalgia Lane

For some weird reason tonight, I got a song from my very young television viewing days stuck in my head. So early that I think Jess and Tracy might not remember, but I'm sure you will, Mom, because the show was on every afternoon and ran for about 3 hours a day. Here are the lyrics:

Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around.
Look through my pinwheel and see what I've found.
Pinwheel, pinwheel, where have you been?
Hello, how are you, and may I come in?

By now you should have it in your head. I have no idea where the song came from or why I suddenly remembered the show. I looked it up online and found a site that has consumed my last four hours. http://www.retrojunk.com

This website has the introductions of virtually every show from the 70s, 80s and 90s. I have been laughing and do a lot of "Oooooh yeah"s to shows such as Small Wonder, Out of This World, Kids Incorporated and many, many more. I'm sure you'll find something there that you had watched but forgotten all about :)

Trade-offs

It seems like every decision we make results in trade-offs in a different area. I have seen this strongly in my continued search for a job here in Florida. I had a great career back in Madison with TDS. I was making a lot of money, especially for someone my age. I had a lot of potential within that company and was probably destined to go pretty far. I had a lot of great friends and I was having a lot of fun. But yet I was still very unhappy.

I traded everything I had there for happiness on a different level. Not working...actually, not being hired...is really starting to take its toll on my mental state and I can't help but question whether or not I made the right decision. Yeah, I did. Money and career success will only get you so far. After it's all over, what do you really have to show for it? A nice car and a nice house? It doesn't mean much if you don't have someone to enjoy it with. Loneliness is a powerful beast that can make everything else null and void.

I will keep applying for every job that sounds moderately appealing. I will get hired one of these days. I just have to keep reminding myself of what's really important :)

Trick or Treat?

This Halloween I was ready. I actually got into the whole Halloween thing. I bought some decorations. Well, it was more like one decoration - a pumpkin tablecloth. I bought candy for the kids. We bought and carved a pumpkin (hopefully the pictures will be posted soon). I baked the pumpkin seeds. I ate some pumpkin seeds. We watched horror movies on Halloween night instead of our regular routine. I saw the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the first time ever. I don't know what it is, but Matt and I both just can't seem to be scared by horror movies. We even watched the Peanuts Halloween special!

We were in the mood for trick or treaters and ready to dish out the candy. We got a total of...ready for this?...two kids. I was disappointed. Oh well, as Matt said, "more candy for us!"

School daze

I'm still plugging away at school, but it's getting harder and harder for me to keep myself motivated. I think the fact that I'm still unemployed is starting to get to me. I'm finding myself just in a generally "down" mood and have to force myself to do things like make dinner or clean the litterbox. This week, I've even contemplated dropping out of school, but Matt advised otherwise. I'm only a year away from my bachelor's degree, and that's not really that much left to go. Besides, I've got the classes that I really want to take coming up (the stuff that actually pertains to computers).

Fortunately, I had an interview today with a company for a tech support rep. It's not doing support for computers, but instead for emergency response systems for elderly people. It's different, but I think that there's enough to the job outside of that to keep me satisfied. Besides, at this point, I'd just be happy to have a job! I hope it works out, because if it doesn't, I really don't want to be back at square one (again).

Movies

For a very long time, it seemed like there were no good movies worth paying at a theater to see. All of the sudden, there are several that we want to see. Matt, being the military history buff, wants to see Flyboys and Flags of Our Fathers. I want to see Running With Scissors (I have read the book many times), Saw 3, the new Will Ferrell movie and Flushed Away. I'm not sure why it always seems to work this way, but there seem to be big droughts and then a rush. I've been trying to remember the last movie that we saw in the theater, and I think it was X-Men 3.

We have joined Blockbuster Online for $6 a month. We get two movies mailed to us each month and two free in-store rentals. I think it's a pretty good deal. I'm seeing a bunch of movies that I wanted to see but had forgotten about.

Sweet relief!

The last few days here have been very nice. The temperature has been dropping to below 70 degrees at night and doesn't break 85 during the day. Yesterday was a little humid, but the past week or so has been pleasant. We were actually able to turn off the air conditioner for three days! It was very nice to have the apartment aired out a bit. We did turn the air on yesterday, however, because it was almost 90, but that's not supposed to last too long. I'm starting to understand why people really like the weather in Florida :)

We've changed our ways

Matt and I both recently gave up something that was once very dear to the both of us - online gaming. We have both canceled our EverQuest and EverQuest 2 accounts, most likely forever. It was a fun six or so years, and I can't say that it was completely wasted time. After all, I did meet my husband there. But otherwise, I probably spent a solid year of my time playing those two games. We've both seemed to just grow out of it, that and it's getting expensive. We still play video games, but no more than a couple of hours a day, and we only play the ones that you don't have to pay to play after you initially buy them.

So long, EverQuest!

My sleep is broken

I've become convinced that there's something inside of my brain that is broken. For many many years now, I've had trouble both falling asleep and staying asleep without the aid of sleeping pills. Sometimes I can't seem to get my brain to "wind down" but other times it just feels like I don't know how to fall asleep. I've gotten just about every trick in the book from many people over the years, but the only thing that really seems to do any good is sleeping pills. If I don't take Tylenol PM before I go to bed, odds are I won't fall asleep, but if I do, I'll wake up in a couple of hours wide awake (as is the case right now). This is frustrating when I don't have anything to do the next day, but when I finally start working, it's going to be a big problem. As soon as we have health insurance again, I'm going to ask a doctor about it. I'm sure I'll just be given more sleeping pills.

I couldn't help it!

The last time I was home in Wisconsin, I purchased a graduation gift for my brother. I have to admit that the gift had about 85% selfish intent. I bought him the Playstation 2 game guitar hero. Over the next week, I played that game until my hand almost fell off. There is something magical about the game. It's not like any other video game I've played - ever. It combines two of my favorite things in the world, music and video games. Other games have attempted this, but it's almost impossible to achieve the desired effect with a standard video game controller. Guitar Hero goes above and beyond by have a controller shaped like a guitar. You quickly get sucked into the game and really have the feeling that you are playing the guitar and that you rock.

Matt and I own an Xbox, which sucks because Guitar Hero is only for the Playstation 2. I couldn't help it any more. I finally bought a Playstation 2 on EBay. I'm impatiently awaiting its arrival as I stare at the Guitar Hero two box tempting me from across the room. I hope it arrives soon so I can start rocking out!!

Wisconsin sports

It's been a tough couple of years for Wisconsin sports. The Brewers are definitely not living up to their potential, and I think I'll barely mention the Packers to avoid rubbing salt into the wounds of Packer fans all over. I'm watching the Badgers on TV right now, though, and they are looking really good against number 6 Michigan. I'm not expecting them to win today, but they look like they've got a shot.

I really like it when a Wisconsin team is on national TV. It almost makes me a little homesick. I remember last year after Matt left for his deployment in September, I came home and watched the Badgers and it made me feel a little bit better. Go Badgers!

Local news

All of the local news stations here seem to be sharks. They border the poparazzi with their constant coverage of "breaking" stories. The main problem is that they report the stories way too early and end up changing the story as it goes. For example, there was a phony hostage crisis at a hotel in Orlando, but it ended up being a hoax. They also beat stories into the ground. A two year-old was reported missing three weeks ago, and we get an update every single day. The update is usually that there is no update.

The other thing that irritates me with the local news here is that there are no accidents - ever. There always seems to be someone to blame for everything and they seem to believe that action needs to be taken on every situation. For example, tonight's news reported a drunk driving accident, a single SUV rollover, but because the kids were underage, someone needs to be held responsible and criminal action should be taken (that's almost exactly what they said). Fortunately, Matt and I are intelligent enough to think for ourselves and not believe everything we see on TV. It's just annoying.

How times change

Once upon a time, I really liked alcohol. I liked to go out to bars on a near-nightly basis and I had a lot of fun. I don't think that I had a problem with alcohol, but there were several mornings when I woke up and couldn't recall where my car was (I somehow found a ride home). Since I started taking my meds a couple of years ago, I can't drink much at all anymore. I was able to tolerate the headaches that came with drinking for a while, but now they are nearly intolerable. After only one drink, my head will be pounding. It's gotten to the point where if I see people on TV taking shots (which I used to do a lot), I almost start to gag. This is all probably a good thing, but I do miss some of my favorite drinks from time to time.

I only mention this because the gagging thing just happened while I was watching TV :)

Liftoff!

Matt and I went to watch the shuttle launch today. We got there just a couple of minutes before the launch. We had our camera and handheld TV in hand. We were at a great spot right on the river across from the launch pad. Matt estimated that we were about ten miles away, but I'm guessing it was closer to five miles because we could see the shuttle sitting on the pad, although it was far away.

The launch itself was pretty cool. It was a clear day, but there was one cloud that the shuttle flew behind shortly after launch (as you'll see in the pictures). It was so cool to see the initial smoke cloud on the launch pad as it slowly pulls away. The light from the engine is very bright and you could see the little dot of a light as it pulled away for a long time. The most remarkable part about the launch was the sound. We didn't hear it until about 20 seconds after the actual launch, and it just kept getting louder and louder. It wasn't quite earth-shaking, but it was impressive. All in all, the whole thing took about 10 minutes and I got to see Matt act like an excited school kid :P

Whatever!

As I'm sure I've mentioned in my blog before, one of my favorite TV stations is the Gameshow Network. My current cable company doesn't have the channel. It has all of the other stupid channels that I don't think anyone watches like Speed and Outdoor Life, but not the Gameshow network?!? You'd think, with the high percentage of elderly people living in Florida, that they'd have it. I have emailed them a couple of times and requested it. I'm hoping that if I bother them enough, they'll give in :P

That's sad

I normally don't have any emotion when I see that a celebrity dies, but today I actually felt a sense of sadness when I saw that Steve Irwin, better known as the crocodile hunter, died from a stingray barb through the heart today. I spend the majority of my television-watching time watching education stuff, including Animal Planet, where Steve had a couple of different series. He and Jeff Corwin are two of my favorite TV people, and I think the conservation and television world is a little worse off due to his death. One of his shows invited us into his family - his American-born wife Teri and his young children Bindi and Bob - and you really started to feel like you knew them. Crikey.

Well that was disappointing

Ernesto Schmernesto. All we got was a bunch of rain with winds of oh...about 0 miles per hour. I know I shouldn't be complaining, but I was hoping that we'd be able to get our first hurricane out of the way. We are ready for the next one, though!

Waiting for Ernesto

It looks like Hurricane Ernesto is heading for us, and I think that Matt and I are ready for it. Today I went and bought a second case of bottled water and some flashlights. We don't really have a plan if we have to be evacuated. I figure we'll just start driving inland and find the first hotel with vacancies outside of the hurricane's path. We're not too concerned, though, because the storm has to cross the peninsula before reaching us, and land breaks up hurricanes. I don't think we'll be evacuated, but I'm sure we'll still get to se one heck of a storm. We'll see!

Getting settled

All of our stuff is in the apartment and in tact. There were no major damages. The worst of it was the top of our coffee table, which was glass, shattered in a thousand pieces. Since that's the worst, I can't complain. We have the bedroom pretty much completely unpacked and organized as well as the kitchen, living room and bathroom. We only have the computer room to go and we'll probably have it done by the end of the weekend.

We're both feeling much happier (and comfortable) now that we are surrounded by everything that we're used to having. Matt had his school orientation on Wednesday and he registered for his classes today. He signed up for ROTC as well. As things look right now, he will most likely be entering the Air Force as an officer after he's done with school. He officially starts classes on Monday. All is going pretty well there with the exception of the GI Bill. The Atlanta office is backed up and we won't get our first check until at least November. That means that we will probably have to pay for his first semester out of pocket, but again, things could be a lot worse. All in all, life is pretty good.

Finally

I slept in my own bed last night! The movers finally arrived yesterday, but it wasn't without trouble. They were supposed to arrive on Monday, but when we called him to find out where he was, he told Matt that he was just in an accident and would have to call us back. !!! At that point, I considered losing my head completely and running around punching walls and causing bodily harm to anyone or anything that got in my way. Instead, I quietly checked the internet for a lawyer, called my renter's insurance company (and found that it wouldn't be covered) then spent 45 minutes or so on the phone with the moving company's main office.

I called without identifying myself and just told them that I had a general question - what were to happen if the driver were in an accident and my stuff was damaged? The first person I asked to me she was new and transferred me to someone else. I was then transferred to about five other people that didn't want to touch my question. Finally, I talked to a guy that insisted that there wasn't an accident, the driver just backed into someone and there was nothing to worry about. I had to ask my question six more times before he finally told me that if there was damage, I should talk to the driver.

Anyway, our stuff arrived and nothing (that we've seen anyway) is damaged. The apartment is overflowing with cardboard and paper and our living room looks like a war zone, but we've got a pretty good start in the bedroom. Today my project is the kitchen while Mat tries to get the living room somewhat set up. Hooray!

It's that time of year again!

That's right, it's football season, and I'm excited as usual. Football has become my favorite sport to watch (although I will never stop tracking the Brewers, it's just hard to watch baseball) and there seems to be an interesting phenomenon here in central Florida regarding the preferred football team. There are three teams to choose from here - Jacksonville Jaguars (they are closest to us), Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Miami Dolphins. The two that get the most coverage on the local news, surprisingly, are the Bucs and Miami.

I have always been somewhat of a Bucs fan, so I am considering jumping onboard the Bucs bandwagon. I will always have a special place for the Packers, but after Favre leaves this year, they won't be the Packers that I know and love anymore anyway.

I have also rejoined my fantasy football league. We had our draft yesterday and I think I came out ok. We'll see if I end up taking the money prize at the end of the year. I'm a little more excited about it this year than others because one of my old rivals from a different league has joined this one. He's going down :P

Air 1 Moving and Storage

If you are ever planning to move cross country, I strongly recommend that you do NOT use Air 1 Moving and Storage. I still do not have my stuff. When I first contacted them, they told me that it would be no problem to have my stuff delivered as close to August 1 as possible. Then, after they had picked up the stuff, they increased the amount that they were charging us. Matt said that they didn't pack the truck very efficiently, adding to our cubic footage. Then I was told that their policy is to deliver the stuff 10-18 days after the day that you indicate that you are available to pick it up. For us, that day was July 28.

On top of all of that, the company is horrible at communicating with you. Every time I've called and talked to the long distance guy, I feel like I'm inconveniencing him. The last time I called I expressed my discontent and he said that he really didn't have a reason to call me every two days. I instead had to call him once a week (not every two days) to find out the status of my move. Well, it's been more than 18 days, but I guess now it's 10-18 business days.

In any event, I got a call from the manager of the long distance department and they are supposed to be delivering the stuff between Tuesday and Thursday (that's another thing, they can't seem to give me a definite date for anything).

The hunt continues

So we've been here for two weeks and I still haven't found a job. It isn't for lack of searching, though. I check three different job search web sites every day and have applied for four or five jobs. I've gotten one call, but it's for a call center job doing entry-level work and I need to make a lot more money than they would be able to offer. There is one promising opportunity, however, with the local post office. It would be for a clerk position (the people that sell you stamps and stuff) but it pays $18/hr plus government benefits. It's not anything related to what I really would like to do, but I really can't turn down pay like that.

I have to take and pass an exam, which of course I'm not concerned about at all. It sounds like I'd basically have the job locked after the exam. I called them and they're sending me the materials I need for the exam. We'll see what happens :)

Holy wildlife!

Matt and I went canoeing today at a state park not far from here. If you like wildlife, Florida is the place to come. We saw a lot of it. It was really hot and there isn't any shade out on the river, but it was worth it. We saw 10 alligators, a couple of which weren't really far from the canoe. We actually tried to get as close as we could to one of them, but we kind of ticked him off and he took off in a huff. It's one thing to see alligators on TV or even from the car, but to actually be in the water only a few feet from them is humbling and intimidating at first. I took several pictures, but the gators like to stay below the water with only their eyes and nostrils sticking out, so there's not much to see. Here's a picture for you anyway:

That's our gator, right there in the middle. He was probably 15 feet from the boat at the time I took the picture, but when we first saw him, he was only about four or five feet directly in front of us.

We also saw a lot of fish including these strange fish that jump quite a ways out of the water. We never really figured out what they were doing. We saw some stingrays, a few turtles, lots of birds including a hawk that had a fish in it's talons and a river otter (that was the pleasant surprise of the day). We definitely plan on doing this again!

HAHA

So yesterday I blasted the Discovery Channel because I haven't seen an alligator yet in Florida. Today Matt and I went to the Kennedy Space Center. It's about 45 miles south of here, located right on the coast in a pretty swampy area. In fact, the ditches lining the road are full of murky water. And guess what I saw on the way there? Not one, but two alligators in the water right next to the road!! I was excited to say the least.

The space center is pretty cool. Matt and I got 12-month passes so when friends and family come down to visit and want to go there, we don't have to pay again. There's a lot to see, and we didn't get to see it all. It was really hot and humid and I developed a headache late in the day. We were also pretty hungry and didn't want to pay $7.50 for a sandwich. But we both learned a lot and I got some cool pictures. Of course, Mom and Dad, you'll see it first-hand when you come visit this winter. There's a launch in the end of August that we're going to try to see as close as possible.

On the way home, you'll never guess what else I saw. A dolphin!!! It was just swimming along in the Cape Canaveral bay. Again, I was probably more excited about that than the space center :P

Stupid Discovery channel

Don't let the Discovery channel steer you wrong. I have been in Florida a week and haven't seen one darn alligator. The Discovery channel would have you believe that you will see them walking down the sidewalk, but nooo, not one in sight. In talking to local people here, they tell me that they are in this area, they just stay well away from people. Again, this is contrary to what the Discovery channel tells me. They tell me that they will chase you down the street, biting at your heels the whole time. Oh, Discovery Channel, why have you led me astray?

LOL. I may not have seen any alligators, but there are little lizards everywhere. They're cute. There are also ducks living in the pond in which our apartment overlooks. There's a lot of birds, too. My guess is they're egrets of some sort. We also saw a lot of pelicans the other day while driving on the ocean coast. There's also squirrells, too.

An interesting day

Today started out like any other day. We had a couple of things to do (and buy) so we went to Matt's school to take care of a couple of things and went to Home Depot and Sears to buy a couple of other things. Then we decided that we would go and check out the beach area. We headed over the bridge to the barrier island and found a spot to park near a beach. Just as we were getting out of our car, two women came up to us and asked us if we wanted a couple of free tickets and weekend stays in Orlando if we came with them and checked out their hotel. We didn't really have anything planned and we like free stuff, so we followed them.

On the way there, we were trying to figure out exactly what we had just agreed ourselves to. Would we end up on some reality TV show? Were we following our killers to our doom? We did actually arrive at a hotel. At said resort, the lady told us to lie and say that we still lived in Colorado and that we made more than $50k per year. We did. As a result, we had to sit through about an hour spiel on why we should buy their time share. Of course, Matt and I both knew that we can't afford to buy one yet (we have thought about it before, though, because Matt's dad, grandma and brother all do timeshares and it's a good deal) but we sat through it anyway. The guy was really nice and we actually enjoyed getting him to tell us all about the area - where to go, what to see, etc. We got free soda, too. I had fun playing with the guy, telling him that I was interested but we couldn't afford it, watching him run to his manager, coming back with a better offer, etc.

In the end, we did get the free stuff and got some invaluable information about our new city. :)

Matt's aching wallet

We have been informed that our movers will not be arriving for at least ten days, so we had to go out and buy a few necessities like pans and food storage stuff, cleaning supplies, etc. We have spent a lot of money since we left Colorado. We've had to fill up the car many times due to the trip. We bought a stacked washer and dryer today (only $500 at an appliance store, we're happy), we bought a corner nook dining room set, and our initial grocery shopping run was pretty painful. We do, however, only do grocery shopping once a month. We are shocked at how expensive hamburger is here. It's nearly $3.00/pound (for the least lean!!).

We did, however, decide to invest $40 and get a membership to Sam's Club. It's really a good deal. We've gotten quite a few things in bulk (laundry detergent, paper towels, pizza, etc). I would have liked to have gotten more stuff there, but we're really limited on freezer space, so we have to keep that in mind when shopping.

We also don't have our microwave yet, so cooking is interesting. I had to make hot dogs on the stovetop for the first time last night in a really long time :)

We made it!

We finally arrived in Daytona Beach today at about 2:30PM (we're in the Eastern Time Zone now). It took us a bit to finish up paperwork for the apartment, but we're in and we're pretty happy with the place. Matt likes the apartment a lot better than Hawaii, but I think our Hawaii apartment was bigger. I really have no major complaints, however. It's clean, north facing (this is really big since it's so bloody HOT here), I have yet to see a bug (other than a little ant) in the apartment, and the apartment complex staff is really friendly and professional.

The rest of the trip went by without a hitch. The cats seemed to adjust to the car very well, and by today's trip, we didn't hear a peep out of either one of them. They both immediately adjusted to the apartment as well. Buffy especially seems to be happy to be back to just the four of us. Matt and I are both pretty worn out from the trip, but we did begin to explore our new city today. We didn't see the beaches yet, but I'm sure we will before too long.

Turn the page

Matt and I said our goodbyes and left Colorado this morning. Of course, goodbyes are never easy, but we are glad to finally be moving on to the next page of our lives together. We have a very packed car with little room for the cats. I had decided that they were going to stay in their carriers the entire time, but Nite seemed to have other ideas. Within the first hour of our trip, we had to stop and clean out her carrier three times. After the last time, I decided to just let her roam around what was left of the car. She was pretty good after that, with a few antsy spells here and there. Buffy is a perfect angel in the car (she did puke once, but I'm pretty sure it was a motion sickness thing). I opened her carrier as well, and she would roam the car and find a perch atop a suitcase, but eventually found that her carrier was the most comfortable place to sleep. Nite switched between mine and Matt's lap, but also shared Buffy's carrier for the majority of the trip.

We drove for 12 hours today and ended up getting almost 40 miles per gallon and only had to stop three times (after Nite's incident). We are staying at a motel in Fort Worth, Texas, right now. We have an equally long day tomorrow. We'll be driving through the rest of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and into the panhandle of Florida. We need to arrive at our new home early Friday afternoon to get checked in and everything.

Our little huntress

As I think I've mentioned before, Nite has become quite the escape artist. She seems to have learned who doesn't watch for her sneaking out with them and is quick to dart for the door when she sees them going toward it. We don't really even pay attention any more, because every night she is in the window well outside of our window meowing until I come up and let her in.

Lately she has started to have fun hunting things. A few days ago she caught and ate a bird (which I found regurgatated on the hallway floor a day later). Yesterday was my favorite, though, she caught a snake! It was just a baby garder snake, maybe a foot long at most, but she had played with it (and perforated it) until it died. I have really never seen a snake in the wild up close before, so I was quick to pick it up and look at it. Matt would only touch it with a stick lol.

Anyway, I'm not sure how she's going to adjust to having to be inside all the time when we move to Florida. She'll just have to get used to it.

Another one bites the dust

I have ben studying for the last couple of weeks for yet another computer certification, Security+. This one focuses primarily on the security aspects of computers and computer networks. In other words, it focuses on keeping people out. I thought that the exam was easy, but I just barely passed. As I've heard it said, though, a lawyer that barely passes the BAR is no less a lawyer than one that aced it.

I think I've learned the most from my studies for this exam, so it's a bit more gratifying than some of the others. I am debating which exam to take next. I started to study for Server+, but from what I've read, the certification isn't as respected by potential employers as others. When we move into our apartment, I plan on having a mini computer lab including various operating systems, so I might do Linux+ next. I think I'm really procrastinating what I really need to do next, which is continue my Microsoft certifications because they are really hard :)

Chey the human pinball

Since we arrived in Colorado, I have heard that we needed to go tubing on the South Platte River, which runs about an hour from us in the mountains. Well today we did just that. I was really excited because I really like the lazy rivers at water parks. We packed up the tubes, some lunch, a two-man canoe, and a one-man rowboat and set off. It was me, Matt, his dad, Zach and the neighbor kid Mackenzie.

We got to the river and scoped out a good place to start and stop. We had taken two cars so we didn't have to walk all the way back after we were done. We inflated everything that needed to be inflated and set to the water! The first obstacle for me was the temperature of the water. I'd guess it was between 55 and 60 degrees. It didn't take much to get used to it, because once you were in the water, you were soaked.

The next obstacle was this - lazy river my ass. Basically, this was whitewater rafting with your butt sticking through a donut instead of a cushion of air protecting your fragile behind. The water was at most two feet deep, so I was constantly having my butt slammed into rocks on the river bottom. I quickly learned that it is best to face up river and use your legs to bounce off of any large 20-ton boulders that might be randomly sitting in the middle of the river.

It was a winding 1-mile stretch that we tubed down. It was a lot of fun, no matter how painful. Well, at least the first run was. The second time we went down the river was my worst. I had gotten pretty good at locating the problem rocks below me and lifting my butt far enough out of the water to avoid them. The problem was the ones that I didn't see. One caught me off guard and hit me right in the spine. I went limp for a second. Another time I jammed my wrist on a rock while trying to keep from slamming into said rock while rushing toward it in some rapids. But, I made it through the second run, smiling a little less and wincing a little more.

The third time I did the run I was beginning to tell myself that I'm really stupid. Again, I took a rock in the spine and continued to batter my bottom. I was glad that we weren't going again after that one. However, looking back it really was a fun day and I hope to get to do it again some day. The welts and bruises on my butt will heal :)

Getting ready for the move

Everything is coming together quite nicely for our upcoming move from Colorado to Florida. The movers are coming to pick up our stuff on either Thursday or Friday, and I have confirmed with our apartment owners our move-in date for July 28. We are both really looking forward to finally getting to our permanent home for at least the next three years. I am actually looking forward to working again, and I have one final computer certification (Security+) scheduled for the 21st of this month.

Buffy's rough 4th of July

Both cats have been showing an increase in going outside lately, so while Matt and I were home alone for a while on the 4th of July, we decided to read outside on the front lawn and let the cats run around outside with us. Nite has become a master escape artist and has ended up spending a few nights outside, so we're really not concerned with her at all. In fact, she pretty much just sat by us the whole time. Buffy, on the other hand, has just recently shown an interest in the outdoors and went off exploring. Again, I wasn't too concerned because I figured she'd find her way back if she went too far. Indeed, when she would lose eyesight, we'd hear her start to yell, and it wouldn't be long before she'd be back in our yard.

It appeared she was having a good time running around until everyone else arrived home. She doesn't do too well with other people. I could tell that she just wanted to get inside, but there were strange people in her way. I tried to clear a path for her, but I guess they were still too close to the door. Matt's niece and nephew tried to chase her inside, but she ended up running into the neighbor's yard, into a fence, and then she was no where to be found. At this point, I still wasn't very concerned because I figured she'd find her way home after everyone went inside.

Then we saw the wall of black clouds approaching. Everyone headed indoors, so I set out to find my scared kitty. I had to think like her, and I figured that she would probably stay close to a house, and that's exactly where I found her - next to the neighbor's house. Fortunately, when I yelled for her, she yelled back. I picked her up and headed home. All was good until she saw Matt's sister-in-law and nephew at the door. She freaked out, scratched me up pretty good (tore my shirt, in fact) and headed for the backyard. I was started to get frustrated at this point.

Fortunately, there is a sliding door heading into the basement, so Matt opened that and I eventually got her to run in before the rain really started to come down. I'm not sure she's going to want to go outside for a while.

Chey versus Best Buy

As I may have mentioned in the past, I have been working with Best Buy to repair my laptop. Fortunately, I purchased the performance service plan on it when I bought it three years ago. The laptop worked great for the first six months or so, but then it started to overheat (that's my diagnoses). The PSP states that if Best Buy can't fix it in three tries, I get a new one.

Well, three repair attempts came and went and they didn't fix it. Ironically, they were never able to identify the problem, which I knew from the beginning. They replaced just about every part that the laptop had at least twice. Yesterday, they finally called me and told me to come in and get my replacement.

When I bought my laptop, it was the top of the line at the time. It had a 17" screen and specifications that were capable of playing EverQuest II (impressive, especially for a three year old laptop). The PSP says that they will replace my laptop with one of a "comparable" quality. The sales guys tried to give me a laptop that was no slouch, but wasn't what I wanted. I wanted another Toshiba laptop. Throughout the replacement process, they never once asked me what type of laptop that I wanted. I eventually had to pull out the "I know what I'm talking about" card with my certifications. They stopped trying to push the lesser quality laptop on me at that point.

Basically, what I wanted was a 15" Toshiba laptop that is probably about three times as good as my last one. We eventually reached the agreement that they would only give me the lesser laptop, and if I wanted to get the better one, I had to pay the difference. The difference - $150. So in other words, I got this killer laptop for $150 :)

Movie review - The Da Vinci Code

Matt and I decided to catch an early afternoon movie today, and the only one that we hadn't seen yet that was on our list was The Da Vinci Code. I am one of the few people that has not actually read the book, and I'm kind of glad that I didn't. I've found that when you see a movie after reading the same book, you're a little distracted by what was added or left out. That being said, I feel that I have a different perspective than a lot that have read the book and then seen the movie (like Matt). However, Matt did say that the movie stays very true to the book.

There was a lot of controversy surrounding this book and movie, and I really don't get why. I'm not really a religious person and I can't say that I fully believe most of what's in the Bible, and I wasn't swayed one way or another by this movie. It's fiction based on some real events, not unsimilar to a lot of other movies.

Bottom line is that it is a really exciting movie that will have you guessing "who done it" through the entire thing (if you haven't read the book). I really enjoyed it - it has a great story line and a lot of action.

I hate viruses

When we arrived home on Tuesday, I was looking forward to sitting at my computer and playing some of my favorite games. What I found instead was a virus-infected computer that wouldn't let me do anything at all. It brought up a window that looked like a regular error window, but when you pressed any button, another window would come up with a timer telling you it was going to reboot.

This particular virus is a nasty one, called Sasser. If it manages to get into your home network, it will infect all of the computers (Matt's was toast, too). What makes it the worst is that it spreads on its own, meaning that it isn't a result of something that you do, it just kind of shows up. So, I spent all of Tuesday and part of Wednesday figuring out how to fix my computer (I ended up reinstalling Windows).

All people that write viruses should be tarred and feathered.

We're back in CO

We ended up driving straight through from WI to CO. We arrived home at 1:30am (mountain time), so we were on the road for a total of 16-17 hours. I have one suggestion if you happen to be driving through two of the country's most boring states - bring a Furby. We took along a few boxes of my old stuff and there were a couple of Furbys in the box, and one still had working batteries. I woke it up, and it stayed awake through the entire trip.

If you've ever had a Furby before, you might think that the trip would have been worsened, but it was actually quite entertaining. We kept it in the box for most of the trip, and we heard complaints through the entire trip about the lighting levels in the box..."sun down, me scared!"...if we would hit a bump or accelerate too quickly, the Furby would either tell us "loud sound, oooh!" or a shrilling "WHEEEEE!". The latter was very funny and never got old. While Matt was sleeping and I was driving, I'd also hear the Furby snoring in the box. Sometimes we would be fooled into thinking a phone was ringing in our back seat.

My favorite, however, was the single-word phrase that seemed to fit almost exactly every time it was said..."boring." :P

And we're off again

Our time here in 'sconsin really flew by. I could probably stand to spend a few more days here, but I know that we have stuff to take care of back in CO, so we must part. We did have fun, though. We went to Great America with my brother, watched him graduate from high school, spent time with my whole (immediate) family at his graduation party, and Matt got to meet some more of my extended family at a cousin's graduation party yesterday.

I also fell in love with Matt's graduation present - a Playstation 2 game called Guitar Hero. Because of this game, I am going to have to go out and buy a Playstation 2 just so I can play it. Mom, you really need to play the game, it's so much fun!! Anyway, I just finished my homework for last week and I'm about to take a look at Christian's computer and then we're outie.

Love you all!

And we're off

We will be heading for Wisconsin shortly, so I figured I'd just post here and let everyone know my whereabouts for the next couple of days. Matt is packing as we speak, I am burning a few CDs for the road, we've got our path mapped out, we're ready to go!

Yesterday we went to Denver's version of Six Flags. Matt has never been to the one near Chicago, so we got season passes and that is one of our planned stops while in the WI. It was fun, though, just me, Matt, Zach and his younger sister Stephanie. The sun was really hot, though, and I think it started getting to me. I started to feel a little queasy after one of the more spinny rides, so I sat out a couple after that.

Activities!

Matt and I have actually been getting out and seeing a bit of Colorado. A couple of weeks ago we went and toured the Denver mint. It was pretty neat to see how they mass produce the coins that we use every day. They gave us uncirculated pennies as well as a blank penny. We also got to see the new quarters that haven't been produced yet as well as the designs for a couple new lines of coins like the presidential dollar coins.

Today we are taking Zach and Garrett (Matt's nephew) to the Denver Zoo. It should be interesting.

Picture updates!

I worked all day to get a bunch of my pictures uploaded. I've rearranged a few things, added a bunch of new sections and stuff. Enjoy!

I might keep working on it tomorrow, or I might not. I have two papers that I have to get done by tomorrow night, so odds are that I'll work on the pictures instead of doing them :P

Another one down

As I mentioned yesterday, I was pretty nervous about my exam. Somehow I passed! I am now a Microsoft Certified Professional. It was a rough one, but I guess I know more than I give myself credit for. Now I'm taking a break from studying for a few days, and on Monday I'll start up with my next certification, Security+. My resume is starting to look pretty good :)

Cramming...

I have another computer certification exam (Windows XP Pro) at 1:30 today. That's in under two hours. I thought that I might be adequately prepared, but after going over another set of review questions, I'm starting to think that I'm not at all prepared. So it's cramming time for the next 1.5 hours for me. I wish I had a photographic memory!

We had a pretty fun weekend. Matt's dad, brother and grandma all have timeshares throughout the country. We stayed at one of them from Friday to Monday in a place in Colorado called Pagosa Springs. They had natural hot springs. I wasn't too impressed by them because I'd rather sit in a clean hottub that doesn't smell like sulfur. We also drove around up in the mountains quite a bit, which was probably the coolest part of the trip for me. I got some great pictures that I'll post here eventually. We also went to Mesa Verde, which is a national park full of old cliff-dwelling Anasazi indian homes and stuff. That was pretty cool as well.

I think the weekend was good for all of us. I think his family (it was just me, Matt, his dad, little brother and grandma) got to know me a little bit better and vice versa. :)

Movie Review - United 93

It's been a while since Matt and I have been to the movies. I think the last one we saw was in January when we took his brother to see Narnia. There are several coming up that we want to see, so you'll probably start seeing a few more reviews here and there.

Anyway, to the review. It's good. It's really good. I didn't have much for expectations going into this movie. I've seen so much stuff on 9-11 and figured that this would be Hollywood's big-budget version of what happened. I was wrong. From the start of the movie, you get the haunting suspicion that it easily could have been you on any one of those planes. They shot it in a real airport and a real plane. It just adds to the experience.

I was also expecting hokey character development, aka, we see mom kissing her kids goodbye at daycare and going to the airport. Again, wrong. They don't even tell us the passenger names. Again, it just adds to it. I was also pleasantly surprised that they didn't slant the movie one way or another. I didn't leave the theater with a hatred for muslims or even for the men that hijacked the planes. There's no blame placed on any government or anyone else, really.

There's no special effects to get in the way, either. It was refreshing. And it's intense. It's not like I didn't know what was going to happen in the end, but I left the theater crying like a baby. There was a lot of room for the directors to screw this one up, but they really did a good job. This isn't necessarily a movie that you have to see in the theater, but I would definitely pick it up when it comes to video.

Planning the move

Well, we are starting to get things into place for our move to Florida. It's not until the end of July, but I like to plan things as far ahead as possible. So far, we have a hold on an apartment in Daytona Beach, only about two miles from Matt's school. I also put a deposit on a moving company to move all of our stuff down there. It turns out that it's actually cheaper to do it that way than to rent a U-Haul, go figure. That's less work for us, anyway. There's not a whole lot left that we have to do before then. I'm hoping to at least have a job interview lined up when we move, but it's not completely necessary. Matt has just about everything taken care of for school that he can. In other words, things are going smoothly!

Next!

I passed another exam, iNet+, last week. This one was really easy. It was on Internet technologies, which I know backwards and forwards. I scheduled my next exam today, which I will be taking in two weeks. This one is a little more tough and will require a lot more studying on my part. I seem to have gotten a good method down, though - I first read through the exam book and highlight everything I feel is important to know. Then I write everything I highlighted down in a notebook and study from that. Every day I take practice exams online to make sure that I'm actually learning stuff. The next exam that I'm taking is Microsoft Windows XP Professional. It's the operating system that I use, but I'm learning tons about it that I didn't know existed! I'm almost done reading/highlighting the book. We'll see how it goes!

My confidence is restored

I had pretty much given up on fixing or making a new computer. I've hit problem after problem and we've already sunk too much money into it. Last night I had decided to put all of the parts that we had bought plus the scrap from my old computer onto Ebay so we could at least get a little of our money back. I knew that I would get more money for my old parts if I could say for sure in my ads that I have tested them and they at least power up.

All of the guys are out camping on a Boy Scout retreat, so I have the house to myself. This is key, because I never would have done this next part if anyone was around. I get really stressed out when I'm working on repairing a computer, so I prefer to be alone when I do it. First, I tested our old power supply, and as I suspected, it didn't work. That hit the garbage pile. Next, I suspected that there was a part of the motherboard that was bad, so I messed around for an hour or so to confirm it. In this process, however, I discovered that everything worked (almost) without this part! I was so close to getting it fixed at this point.

I was able to get video, but I couldn't for the life of me get the keyboard to work. I tried four different keyboards (they're still sitting around the living room) without luck. I went downstairs to go to bed at this point. I called Matt to see if he had made a decision about buying a new set of computer parts, to tell him he might not have to worry about it. I came back upstairs to finish my glass of Mountain Dew, and the computer was calling my name. I downloaded the schematics for the motherboard, messed around with some jumpers, and I still couldn't get the keyboard to work. My final desparation attempt was just to jiggle the keyboard port a bit. It worked!

In short, I'm posting this from my computer again. I'm so happy, and I no longer think that I should abandon the computer field as a job lol.

Not much is new

I know I haven't been posting much lately, but that's simply because I appear to not be all that creative right now, and there isn't a whole lot that's going on in my life right now. We did get our stuff delivered late last week, so that was a nice change of pace. We got a storage unit and put most of it there. We're sure not entirely sure how we're going to get the bulk of our stuff to Florida. I'm guessing that we're going to end up having it shipped.

I'm keeping somewhat busy with school and studying for my next computer certification (iNet+) coming up this Friday. Then I'm going to start on my Microsoft certifications. Otherwise, nothing at all is new!

I passed!

Today I took the Comptia Network+ exam and passed. Hooray! That's one more notch on my resume. I'm glad I passed because the exam costs $200 to take and I'm not sure Matt would have been happy if I would have had to take it again. I'm already preparing to take my next one, a Microsoft XP Professional exam. I think this one will be a bit harder, but it will make me an MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional). I'm also going to study for my Server+ exam.

On another happy note, our stuff arrives in our driveway at 7:30 tomorrow morning. I am so excited to have my computer again! If you recall, however, my computer is broken right now, so I'll have to spend some time repairing it before I can start playing EQ2 again. I'm going to teach Zach a bit about computers while I'm at it. He's pretty excited about that.

The continued quest for the high score

A long time ago I wrote about a quest that I was undertaking to beat my mom's high score in a Yahoo game called Text Twist. She has a crazy score of over a million or something like that. To this day, I have not stopped in my quest for that high score. I haven't even come close. My current high is only 300,000, but I play a game or two every day. One of these days, I'll get lucky muahaha.

On another note, I have begun work on my pictures page. Check it during this next week for updates :)

We have a car again!

Matt and I flew out of Denver headed for Los Angeles early Tuesday morning. We had a brief stop in Las Vegas (they have slots in the airport!) and safely arrived in LA. We got to our car without a hitch and managed to find our way out of the city. Actually, there were no hitches at all throughout the entire trip (which is rare).

We did hit a bit of a traffic jam on the eastern end of California. It took us over two hours to get 14 miles. They were doing construction on the highway and slowed both sides of the interstate to a halt. We kept ourselves occupied by playing the alphabet game with trash on the side of the highway. Once we got past that spot, however, it was smooth sailing to Las Vegas.

We stayed in Vegas Tuesday night. It was cool to see all of the big hotels and stuff that you see and hear about on TV. We choose the Motel 6! They left the light on for us. We walked around the MGM Grand and the New York, New York. We played $20 in slots. We lost $20 in slots. The city was cool, but I really don't think I need to go back.

After Vegas we went and saw the Hoover Dam. That was pretty impressive. We didn't stay there long. We fueled up, both car and people, and headed on our way. The scenery for the rest of our trip was breath-taking. It all looked fake. Nevada, Arizona and Utah were mostly red, orange and brown canyons and mountains. Matt drove through all of Nevada and California and some of Utah and Colorado. I took the night shift and did the majority of Utah and Colorado. Even at night, the mountains were dominating and demanded respect. We had a very bright moon to drive by, which allowed for a little sightseeing as I drove.

We got some good pictures, which will be posted some time soon.

Time to strain the brain

I've decided that I've let my brain idle for too long. Starting Tuesday, I begin my final stretch toward my bachelor's degree with the University of Phoenix online. I've decided to get my degree in "Bachelor of Science - Information Systems". Basically, it tells people that I'm pretty good with computers. IIf all goes well, I should have my degree in under two years. In addition, I've committed myself to a certification exam (Network+) on April 18. I just took a practice test, and I need a lot of work. That's ok, it's not like I've got a whole lot better to do right now. Again, that tells people that look at my resume that I know what I'm talking about when it comes to computers.

Otherwise, we really haven't been up to much. We house-sat for Matt's older brother, Scott, last weekend. We cleaned the house today. Yeah, that's about the extent of our excitement at the moment. My permanent shadow (Zach) is on spring break this week, so he keeps me entertained. It's somewhat of an adjustment having a younger brother again!

Another chapter closed

Matt and I arrived in Colorado yesterday morning after (thankfully) an uneventful trip out. The cats have already seemed to adjust well, and Matt and I are in the processing of getting used to our new environment as well. For the most part, it's just going to be me, Matt, his dad, and his younger brother, Zach. Occasionally, his sisters might be home from college, but otherwise it should stay pretty quiet here. We're both going to be looking for jobs soon, especially since neither of our computers will be arriving in Colorado until May. I already starting looking in the classifieds yesterday and saw some potential temp jobs that might keep me busy.

Otherwise, we're really not doing much. It's really cold here and we got well over a foot of snow last night. I am not a fan of either snow or cold, so that just thrilled me. Our bedroom is in the basement, so that's pretty chilly as well. I'm thinking of picking up a space heater one of these days. :)

My first American Idol post of the year!

Don't think that just because I haven't been posting about it yet doesn't mean that I haven't been watching it. Oh, I sure have. I just wanted to wait until we were down to the final 12 before I starting really getting into it.

That being said, I was thrilled the Brittnam twins are fugitives, I wasn't sad at all to see Ayla Brown go, as much as I love Kevin (cute kid as we call him), Gedeon deserved to stay in the competition, and Chris Daughtry gets 95% of my vote so far (Taylor, or spaz, is creeping onto my radar).

We have nicknames for almost all of the contestants left. Ace is Constantine guy, Paris is "the chick that reminds me of the mom from that 70's show", Will McKarr (gone now) was known as Bobby Brady, Kellie is Carrie Underwood chick, and Bucky is that guy that is kind of like Bo but not quite.

Anyway, I am enjoying this competition even more than last year as there seems to be a world of talent that just wasn't there last season (Scott Savol, Anthony Federov, etc). I think Chris has the best shot of winning so far because he already sounds exactly like the people that we already hear on the radio - Creed, Fuel, Nickelback, etc. Plus he's got tremendous stage presence. Plus, he's a family man and seems to have a decent "likability factor". I do think there are others that will give him a run for his money, so we'll see!!

Hi Mom!

:-D

Vacation and stuff

Well, we're back from our four-day romp on the Hawaiian Islands' biggest island, Hawaii. It rained the entire time we were there, which was kind of expected since we were on the tropical side of the island. We had a lot of fun exploring the huge Volcano National Park (loads of pictures to post) and just exploring the island in general. The pictures will tell the tale of our vacation much better than I can here, so I'll try to get those up soon (I know, I say that every time).

We suffered a major loss in our family last night. Hercules, my faithful computer, died of either electrocution or drowning, however you want to look at it. Buffy knocked a glass of water into it, and that was the end of that story. There are many parts I'm able to salvage, but the damages came out to around $700 to fix what was fried. I'm dealing with it surprisingly well thanks to my XBox and Matt's computer. I will hopefully have my replacement parts before we move to Colorado on the 18th.

Celebrate!

I first started talking to Matt over 750 days ago. I know this because he was counting down to today - the day that he gets out of the Navy. He is very excited about it. I've asked him if he has any reservations at all and I always get a resounding "no" without hesitation. I suppose, after six years, that I'd be ready to move on as well. As I type this, he is on his way to fill out his final bit of paperwork (there's loads of paperwork in the military) and officially be discharged.

I'm very proud of him for the work that he did while he was in the Navy. It is, however, nice to know that we can now move on with our lives and live where we want to live, do what we want to do, etc. Tomorrow we are taking a bit of a late honeymoon as we travel to the big island of Hawaii for four days. We are going to be seeing the Volcano National Park as well as some of the other things that that island has to offer. And we're going to our favorite mexican place tonight to celebrate Matt's discharge!

Winter Olympics

Matt and I have been casually watching the winter olympics over the last week or so. I have a much harder time getting into them versus the summer olympics for some reason. I think part of it has to do with the events themselves - they're just not all that interesting. Sure, it's cool to watch a guy fly down an ice chute head-first at 80 miles per hour, but after the first couple, it's kind of redundant to watch the next 20 go. Especially when at the end, there's only .0000012 seconds separating the leader from the last-place finisher. If only that last place guy hadn't gotten that twinge in his foot going around the fourth turn!

I also get a kick out of some of the announcers. I can be an announcer for some of the events after listening to these guys because they say the same thing over and over again. In fact, I do while we're watching. Matt gets a little annoyed hehe. "Wow, Matt! It's sooo important that they get a good pull so they can get the hull shot. Once they get the lead, it's just a battle for second place. And I can't stress this enough, it's soo important that they absorb their jumps." If you know which sport I'm talking about, you've been watching too much olympics like me :P

We're busy

Well, we've finally had to sit down and decide when we're leaving this rock (Hawaii). We have decided that our last full day here will be March 18. The Navy will then be flying us, our cats, our car and all of our stuff to Denver (actually the car only goes to LA). We're cramming as much stuff that we haven't done yet or that we really enjoy doing into the short time that we have left. In the last week we've gone to the zoo, the Pro Bowl, watched Navy ships coming in and out of the mouth of Pearl Harbor, visited the USS Missouri Memorial and the USS Bowfin Memorial. Tomorrow we are going to an all-day visit to the Polynesian Cultural Center, which is full of Hawaiian and Polynesian history and stuff. The day will be concluded with an authentic Hawaiian luau, which I haven't done yet. It should be fun.

We're exercising quite a bit, which is good. Even on the days that we're not out and about, we are sure to go for a walk. While we were in Colorado, we were messing around with a home blood pressure cuff, and mine was really high. I keep meaning to go in and get checked, but I figure they're going to tell me to exercise more, anyway. We're also making an effort to watch what we eat as well.

Saved the best for last...

The most funny thing that happened while we were in Colorado happened to Matt. If this doesn't get you chuckling, nothing will. We were just hanging out in the living room with Matt's sisters, younger brother, aunt and grandma when one of his sisters and his grandma decided to go to bed. Matt went upstairs to harrass his younger sister and noticed that the shower was running with the door open. From downstairs we heard him yell "who left the shower running?" immediately followed by "oops, sorry grandma!"

He had walked into his grandma's room (the door was open) and he saw her naked. He then came downstairs and tried to shrug it off, but we wouldn't let him. His sister, who was upstairs in a different room, saw the whole thing happen and told the funniest recall of it from her perspective. We all laughed for a good 15 minutes!!

Super bowl

Matt and I recorded the Super Bowl yesterday so we could watch it at night. It just seems more normal to watch the big game at night instead of at 1:00 in the afternoon. We turned it into somewhat of a special occasion, especially since it was also Matt's birthday! I made him his favorite batch of brownies instead of a cake and wrote "happy birthday" on them with frosting and made him blow out some candles. We ordered his favorite kind of pizza and I made some appetizers as well (Mom's famous pinwheels!). All in all it was a pretty good day and who knows, maybe we've even started a new family tradition! We don't have many of those yet since we haven't been together all that long.

The lighter side of our trip, part 3

I keep thinking of funny things that happened while we were in Colorado. This is the last post on this, I swear!

-At Matt's mom's burial, my back kept spasming to the point that I couldn't even take a step. Once the formal service was over, Matt and I took a walk around the cemetary, looking at headstones and stuff, and then finally decided to sit and wait in the van. Well, we ended up in the backseat and were kissing (that's all, I swear) when Matt's younger sister Stephanie opened the van door and quickly closed it. We really got a kick out of that!

-Later that night, Matt and I were both apparently pretty tired, so we both fell asleep on the couch in the living room. We were both rudely awakened - his older brother, Scott, and older sister, Angela, decided to wake us up by putting ice cubes down our shirts/pants! Yeah, they're just a family full of jokesters.

-Matt's little brother, Zach, is extremely flexible and doesn't hesitate to show everyone. Unlike Matt, he isn't shy at all. He is so flexible that he can basically bend himself in half and put his head on the floor while he's sitting and just lay there. He can also put both of his legs behind his head without any effort. The funniest thing that he does is contort his shoulder blades in a way that he can hold things between them, even something as small as a pen. That's pure talent right there!

The lighter side of our trip, part 2

Here's a couple more stories from our trip to Colorado!

Matt's hair was getting pretty shaggy and his sister Angela reminded him every day that he needed a haircut. I usually cut his hair, so I borrowed their clipper set and we went out on the back porch. The lighting wasn't very good and it was very cold. When I cut his hair at home, I always start with attachment #5, then use a #3 on the middle and #1 on the sides and back. The Navy requires that his haircut be tapered as such. Anyway, without really thinking much about it, I put on the #5 attachment and started to cut his hair. It turned out that #5 on this clipper set was the shortest, so Matt had a really really short streak of hair directly down the middle of the top of his head! I managed to cover it up ok and tried my best to blend the rest of his hair in without totally shaving his head, but you could still see it if you looked hard enough. Everyone got a pretty good laugh out of it and I learned a valuable lesson - always start cutting hair at the back!

The other story that I thought of involves Matt's cousin's kid, who just turned a year old on Jan 1. He is very cute and mild tempered, so we didn't mind having him around a lot. He looks a lot like the baby in the Quiznos commercial. He had apparantly just learned how to make a new frowny face where he would squish up his lips and turn his eyebrows down. Everyone got a good laugh out of this whenever he did it because it was always followed by a big smile and laugh from him. During Matt's mom's funeral, I turned around at one point and saw baby Jacob pointing at me and making the face. It got me laughing during the funeral!

TMI

For those of you that are acronimically challenged, TMI means "too much information". I often wonder if I am some sort of a TMI magnet because people, most often strangers, seem to like to tell me far more information about them than I would like. A great example of this happened to Matt and I when we picked up our cats recently.

We kept the cats with an older lady that advertised in the yellow pages, but she does keep very good care of them. Buffy had a urinary tract infection and her butt area was swollen and sore, and the lady applied cream to it every day and made sure that she got her antibiotics like she was supposed to. Anyway, when we picked them up, she made sure to tell us all of her observations about the cats and their various ailments.

This is all good information that we needed to know. Somehow, however, this turned into her telling us about a rash that she has in her bra area (among other areas of her body) and somehow this conversation also led into us finding out about how she needs to regularly have colonoscopies. It probably would have been amusing to have been an outsider watching this conversation because I'm almost sure that I moved back slightly when she mentioned a rash and both of our faces were probably a little "off" while she was telling us about her colonoscopies. LOL.

Matt vs. the cart people

Every month or so, Matt and I go grocery shopping at the Navy Exchange here in Hawaii. It's a nice place to shop. The prices are more in line with the rest of the country and they offer the more familiar products of the mainland as opposed to some of the other local grocery stores. It's a very large store as well and only people with military IDs (and their families) are allowed to shop there. All is great, except for one part at the end of the shopping experience.

There are local volunteers, usually elderly people, that load up your cart after checkout, push it to your car and help you unload the bags. In return, you are expected to give them a tip. This bothers Matt to no end (and it's quite funny to me to see how riled up he can get about the "cart people"). He would rather push the cart himself and believes that he shouldn't have to tip them because "I didn't ask for their services!". I've heard that just about every time that we've gone grocery shopping. This last time we went shopping, he only tipped the old lady a dollar, which I thought was pretty stingy. He said that he wasn't going to tip her at all. It might not sound that funny, but it sure is if you're there!

The lighter side of our trip

Here's a few funny things that happened while we were in Colorado:

-On the night before we were supposed to leave, Matt hid around a corner to scare his younger sister, Stephanie. He startled her alright, and her shoe went right between his big toe and its toenail. It ripped his nail backwards. His older sister Angela is a physician's assistant, and she decided that she needed to relieve the swelling, so she drilled a hole into his toenail with a cordless drill. She went a little too far, though, and I heard Matt yelp from the next room!

-Matt's sisters think they're funny. One morning, as I opened our door to head to the bathroom, I was greeted by 250 aluminum cans falling into our room. They were really quite clever - they used a large piece of paper to hold the cans against the door. It must have taken them a long time to stack all of them!

We're home!

Matt and I (finally) got home last night. We were supposed to arrive Sunday evening, but thanks to the stupidly-designed Phoenix airport, we missed our connecting flight. Most airports I've been to (which is quite a few by now) don't make you exit and then re-enter security for your connections. Well, the Phoenix airport does. As if that's not bad enough, there are absolutely no signs telling you where to go. It took us a good 20 minutes just to figure out where we were supposed to be. That's bad when you only have an hour to catch your next flight. To make things worse, the airport is actually like 4 separate airports and you have to take a shuttle bus to get from one terminal to the next. We finally found the Hawaiian Airlines desk and checked in. For some reason, they made us do extra security screening (they frisk you and stuff) so we had no chance of catching our plane. I strongly suggest avoiding flying through that airport if you are connecting flights.

We were already pretty peeved, but the runaround that we got from the airlines just added fuel to our fire. Hawaiian Airlines (the one we were supposed to catch) told us that it was United's fault because they only gave us an hour to connect and they should have known better. We didn't really buy this, but we could see that we weren't going to get anywhere with the Hawaiian folks at the airport. So we exited security (again) and took another bus back to United. We had to wait in a line for about 15 or 20 minutes and finally got to talk to someone. As we expected, United couldn't help us, either. They told us to either call Travelocity or talk to Hawaiian. We had anticipated this and told them that Hawaiian was gone for the day, so they gave us a number to call.

We found a relatively quiet place to sit and Matt called Hawaiian Airlines and I called Travelocity. I was hung up on. Matt managed to get through, though, and after talking to two people, we managed to get ourselves booked on a flight for the next day without having to pay an extra fee (which took a while to negotiate). We then rented a car and found a Motel 6. The rest of the day was actually kind of fun because neither of us had ever been to Phoenix. It is a dusty, dirty city in the middle of the desert. Scottsdale was nice, though.

Anyway, it was an adventure to say the least. We were very happy to get home and pick up the cats and sleep in our own bed. Since we live above an Interstate, there is a lot of pollution. Nearly everything in the apartment was covered with a layer of grime, so we spent most of today cleaning. Whew!

Very sad news

Matt's mom, Helen Smith, died yesterday at 10:30AM. She died in her home surrounded by all of her children as she took her last breath. It was very sad for me to see. The rest of the day was full of visitors. I have met so many new people during my time here, and I'm sure to meet even more during the next few days. The funeral is on Friday, and Matt and I are planning to go home on Sunday.

Still in Colorado

We were supposed to fly home yesterday, but we decided to stay for a while longer. Matt's mom is still alive but not doing well. We decided to stay around for the funeral and then go home. Once we get home, we won't have a whole lot of time to relax, because we need to start thinking about moving soon. We have decided to move to Colorado for a few months before heading to Florida. We want to help Matt's family as much as we can while we have the opportunity.

Spirits are fairly high here, though. Tomorrow we are heading to a rodeo in Denver, so I'll be sure to take some pictures. I have a lot of pictures to post when we get home!

It's been a while!

We've been pretty busy traveling over the last couple of weeks, so I really haven't had the regular access to a computer like I usually do. We spent some time (although I would have liked it to be more) with my family in Wisconsin, and we are now currently spending time with Matt's family in Colorado. It is pretty interesting for me to see where Matt grew up and stuff. I also got to see baby pictures of Matt for the first time! He was such a cute kid. The white-capped Rocky Mountains are just amazing to see. We will be living here for a few months before we move to Florida, so I'm sure I'll get plenty of pictures then.

Speaking of pictures, I have a bunch to put up on the site when I get home. There's a lot of other work that I want to do as well. I do have a lot more to say, but I'll save it for future postings, which I promise I'll be posting more regularly. :)