Thursday

* Meeting Kim when I got off work and hanging out for a little bit before going to Historic Smithfield to meet one of her old professors and friends for dinner.  The dinner was great and Katy Cave was really really nice.  I enjoyed meeting her and her kids and we chatted for a long time.  Now she has met me and I think she approves.

* SACD picnic: the directorate I am in had a picnic so I got a nice break from work in the middle of the day to eat and socialize.  It was great to get out in the amazing weather and relax for an hour or so

* I slept in once again and got to work when I felt like it.  The rest of the workday went by very quickly

Wednesday

So I'm posting this a day late, but at least I finally remembered!

* Sleeping in because I just didn't feel like getting up.

* My softball game got postponed.  Normally that would be bad, but I really needed a night to do nothing.

* Relaxing at home and doing a few domestic activities!

Tuesday

* Being treated to B-Dubbs wings by Kim's parents

* Working a short day

* Light traffic on the way to VA Beach

* Watching most of Flashpoint.

Been a while

So it has been a while, and I need to get back in the habit so here we go :-)

Over the past month+:
* Moving into my house :-)

* Getting everything unpacked

* Painting my guest bathroom and finding nice shower curtains for both bathrooms.  It looks a lot more like a real house without cheap vynil shower curtains.  The decor of the house is slowing transitioning away from bachelor pad style and I like it.  I feel more grown up.

* Passing the 3.5 month mark w/ my amazing girlfriend Kim :-)

Monday:
* Hitting a triple in softball!  I didn't know I could hit it that far.  In fact, my first one went 3 feet or less from home plate.  My hit last game went less than 1 foot.  Hitting over the outfielders head was as much a surprise to me as anyone!  To add to the fun, I brought in a couple runs, and then made it home on the next batter. :-)

* Hanging out at CG and acknowledging my ditches that I need to dig.

* A quick day at work filled with meetings that made the day fly by.

Bonus Post

I thought of too many more things so I had to make another entry now:

* The A/C has been out all week at work, but luckily it has been cooler most of the days so that we don't overheat inside.  On the 2 days it was warm/hot inside, I was allowed to go home early and work from home :-)

* Only one more night in my apartment!

* Hearing about all the great things that are going on on Kim's mission trip to Bay St. Louis, MS this week.  It has been a busy and exciting week for both of us in different ways and it has been fun to share stories.

* Kid Kraze went smoothly on Sunday even though I was the only tech there in the morning.  Some days I would be far too out of it to run it all myself, but not this Sunday thankfully!

* Eating Thin Mints at work...mmmmm

The Move Part I

* Slowly and steadily moving loads of stuff from my apartment to my house to keep the stress of moving all at once off.  It was nice to have a month to move and I haven't felt behind.

* Getting my new fridge delivered :-)  It is bigger than the one in my apartment but nothing fancy.

* Picking out a washer and dryer. 

* Only having 1 thing I want to try to go to the store to get before Sunday.

* An empty looking apartment

* Having WAY too many boxes...it is far better to have too many and get rid of some than not have enough!

* Getting everything lined up for my move tomorrow Morning.  3 volunteers and all :-)  Thanks guys!

New Kid Kraze Ideas

* We had our first KK production meeting since I joined the production staff to throw around ideas on how to improve the experience.  There were a lot of good ideas and a ton of discussion.

* After a dry spell with exercising I managed to get myself over to the apartment gym to get on the elliptical for about 20-25 min.  I really needed the exercise and it felt good to get a little.

* Having leftovers in the fridge when I needed a really quick dinner.

And so it begins!

* Kim and I changed the locks on my house yesterday so now I can really begin to move things over without fear of someone else having a key to my house.

* Dave came over to view the house and I got to give the quick tour for a second time. It is pretty neat that he lives so close by. I certainly enjoy giving the quick tour around my place.

* Kim brought dinner with her when she came to my house so we did a little picnic in my empty dinette area! I completely didn't expect it and it was very appreciated! The food was great and it was my first meal in my new house. She also became my first visitor :-)

* The sellers left the roman shades in the bedrooms that I really liked :-) Apparently they are really expensive so I'll have to find something else to cover the remaining windows.

* Near the end of the evening it started to sink in that I had a house. Once stuff starts to move in it will sink in some more.

HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!

* I GOT MY HOUSE!!!! The final walkthrough this morning and closing went really well and I am now the proud owner! I don't think the fact that I have a house has really set in yet, but I'm sure it will by the time I stay there one night. I've got a lot of work to do to get all of my stuff over there and my address changed with every company imaginable, but its really exciting!

* Talking to Kim about my house and getting constant reminders about how excited she is for me!

* Hanging out with Kim over the weekend on a number of occasions!

* On friday I got to play laser tag for the first time in a long time and I loved it. I didn't do as well as I thought I did but it was still a lot of fun.

* Over the last week I've been able to disappear from work whenever I needed to to take care of my house and everyone has been really flexible about it. I'm very fortunate to have a job that allows me to do things like that

* Here's the picture I mentioned in the last post. I really like it:

Yay for a holiday!

So I really haven't been any good at keeping up with this, even though it should be exceptionally easy at this point!

* Dinner at Bill & Heidi's on Friday with Kim was a blast. Heidi made some awesome chicken lasagna and Kim & I brought brownies and icecream for dessert. We hung out and played 9s and watched Dan in Real Life. I felt bad for Dan throughout most of the movie. Heidi also took the first pictures of Kim & I together :-)

* Valentine's day was fun and relaxing. Kim & I went to Hayashi Japanese Steakhouse in Williamsburg for a late dinner. We didn't get to eat until close to 10pm, but that didn't matter too much to us. I made a chocolate cheesecake for dessert and Kim really liked it :-) Win one for chocolate cheesecake! We felt like our stomachs would explode but we at most of our small slices. I made her take some home for her Mom and later she shared some with a friend of hers too. They all liked it.

* Hanging out with Kim for the majority of our day off thanks to Washington (and Lincoln, whose name isn't actually on the Holiday...its not actually Presidents Day). I got my butt kicked in Wii bowling, golf, and tennis, but it was still a lot of fun. :-P I will improve my skills slowly and win one of those some day! We ran some errands too, and Kim got me a new devotional book that she really likes. Thanks Kim! All in all it was an awesome day off.

* On Monday I also met some of Kim's former Chick-fil-a co-workers when we picked up lunch to meet her mom at the school where she works. I also met some of her mom's co-workers/friends and they all seemed to like me. I had no idea I'd be meeting so many people but it all was very amusing. I even got threatened once, but I think I'm safe :-P

Tuesday Tuesday

* Making some preliminary plans with Adam for the 21st or 22nd.  If the weather cooperates we may be going hiking :)

* Finally making it out to get groceries so I can eat whatever I want again!  Its the simple things in life

* Plenty of emails, texts, and IMs from Kim throughout the day :-)

Amazing Weekend

* This past weekend was a big weekend that I spent the entire week prior looking forward to. Kim Gibson is now officially my girlfriend!! :-) It has been a very exciting 2 weeks and 4 dates since I first got her name from Bill Sprouse and sent her an email to meet. Bill set us up on a blind date without even knowing who Kim was, and it all rolled quickly from there! This past weekend we got to watch a movie on Sat and hang out on Sunday for most of the day starting with Kid Kraze in the morning and ending with a John Tesh concert in the evening followed by a late dinner with some of her BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministries) students.

* The John Tesh concert was a LOT better/funnier than we had expected.

* The weather was completely amazing on Sunday with a high near 70 and bright and sunny.

* Changing my Facebook status and getting comments on it via Facebook, in person, and through emails from many people.

* Squealing friends who saw Kim and I. I won't name names but you know who you are :-P

* Did I mention Kim is officially my girlfriend!? Hopefully I don't embarrass her too much! haha. If you look at the posts over the last 2 weeks you will see references to Kim without her name mentioned, but now it is in the open.

* Way way way too many other things to list!

TNL

* My afternoon meeting got out on time so I got to go home at 4:30 which was a much needed break after getting out around 7:30 wednesday

* TNL!  WEC did Thursday Night Life which is an extra worship service on a Thursday where they sing songs and talk about the building and plans for the church.  Our new move in date is May 30!  It will be here soon.  I was excited to see the new Kid Kraze area and I'm glad it has no windows so that we can better control the lights for more of an effect.

* I have gotten a few more yes's from people saying they'll be at lunch on Sunday.  Its been a long time since a group has gone out to eat after church.

Looking Ahead

* I worked some overtime today sitting in on a telecon that ran well past 5, so now I can take more vacation later if I want to.

* My plans for the weekend have begun to solidify. It will be a busy Sat evening and Sunday, and I'm really looking forward to it!

* Keeping in touch with a bunch of people over the last 2 days. I think I've answered more questions and chatted more than I have in a long time.

Case of the Mondays? Not quite!

* Even though there was no community group this week, I still got to hang out with Stu and Claire and watch new episodes of House and 24. I do enjoy both of those shows and the new episodes were good!

* At work today I kept busy during my afternoon meeting by doing a variety of email/IM things which was a much welcomed relief for the day since I had already accomplished all I needed to.

* Getting out of a post-meeting meeting that was about to start at 5:10pm. I think my boss would have preferred that I was there, but he let me go anyway :)

* Starting to make plans for the weekend!

Super Bowl Sunday

* I was one of only 2 Steelers fans in a room full of Cardinals fans, with plenty of talk back and forth. I was very nervous at points, but the Steelers pulled it off, and I didn't even get immediately thrown out of the party! The party was great :)

* Stu's sermon this morning at WEC made me think 2 main things....Dang, I'm lucky, and I need to be careful. The first was a great feeling, and the second was a much needed caution, so a 2 in one positive for this morning.

* I hung around to chat with a couple people briefly after church, which I don't usually do when I'm not working KK. I enjoyed the socializing, espcially since there is no community group this week.

* I found out yesterday that my new community group is the same as my old one, with some extra people including Dave & Angela!

* I signed papers for my house, requesting 1 repair. This brings me one step closer to home ownership. I also found out that the people I'm buying from are doing a home inspection of the one they want on Wed...this is good news since I can't have the house til they find another.

The weekend begins

* Listening to one of my new favorite songs during work.  The song is "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath.  I played it at the end of Kid Kraze last Sunday and one kid did a dance for the entire song.  I love when the kids get that into stuff I play.

* Kim T's Bday fiesta at Salsa's!  Burrito San Jose...mmmmmm

* Standing in a parking garage and chatting about whatever came to mind for over an hour

* The weekend!  I love weekends, and this should be a pretty good one.

Eventful Week

* Those who I have talked to recently know that this has been a very eventful (all in a positve way) week, some of the basics of which have appeared in my blog.  This week closely rivals the day I presented for my Masters and got a job offer email at the exact same time.  This week has ranked highly enough to get its own general entry here.

* I had a home inspection done on Wednesday and it went really well.  There were only a couple of minor problems including very minor moisture damage at the bottoms of a few locations (can fix w/ caulking), an inappropriately sized over current protection on the a/c unit (asking the seller to fix), and uneven distribution of insulation in the attic (can be fixed by pushing it around in about 5 min or less).  All in all, I was very impressed (so was the inspector) with the newness and quality of everything else.

* During our epic telecon yesterday we found quite a few amusing articles on cnn.com including one of my all time favorites that you just have to see for yourself.  Make sure you watch the video, and read the links below it.  I don't generally distribute "funny" things, but this was hilarious.

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/Road_signs_warn_of_zombies

MY NEW HOUSE!!!

* I GOT A HOUSE!!!
* I GOT A HOUSE!!!
* I GOT A HOUSE!!!

[EDIT 1/28: I should have pointed out that the stuff in the house is NOT mine...]

Fun times

* On Sunday morning we were getting ready for another great week in Kid Kraze when we heard the WEC band practicing "One Way" for 'big church'.  One Way is our favorite Kid Kraze song, so we ran into the gym (the 'sanctuary/auditorum' since we meet at the Y) and started doing the motions for the song that we do in KK.  It was amusing enough (and fun for us) that Phil had to close his eyes to keep playing and singing without laughing at us.  We threatened to dance while attending the evening service, but backed down when asked not to...  Fun times for the KK staff

* The DeLongchamps are leaving VA for Houston and we had a going away party on Saturday.  It was cool to hang out with a few people I knew and a bunch I didn't to wish them a safe trip and fun time in Houston.  Good luck Chuck & Ambre, you will be missed!

* Hanging out at Starbucks at chatting

* Putting offers on houses.  This is a good thing, even if they get rejected.  Oddly enough, the first offer being rejected was met with a feeling of relief.  Who'da thunked it!

Shout Out

* Getting a shout out in Dan Carman's blog...proof that often we are lead to say the right thing at the right time even if we don't realize it ourselves (thanks Dan!).  Also part of this positive is the amusing comment he left on mine regarding paying homage to crackers.

* Having multiple people volunteer to help me move when the time comes, and even a place to stay for a few days if need be. (Hmm, this seems to be like what happened last time I moved)

* Finding a house that I want to put an offer on.  Now I just have to hope that they can come down to my price range!  If not, I'm sure I'll find another place cheaper.

House Hunting

* Getting a ton of house hunting done from 9-12:30 this morning. I can't
believe that my awesome agent and I made it through 15 properties in that
time period! Props to Carlyn!

* Narrowing down my list to 4 places, with a clear leader, second, and tie
for third. Now comes the hard part right? So Exciting! I'm going to
revisit the top 2 hopefully on Monday.

* Hot chocolate on a cold cold day of house hunting.

Epic Telecon

* Trying out the new TownHouse FlipSides (I think thats what they're called).  They're pretzel on one side and cracker on the other, and quite tasty :)  I got the cheddar ones by accident but I like them.  Its a nice change from daily Cheeze-Its.

* A project I'm currently on at work requires weekly epic telecons.  They are truly necessary to complete the task, so no complaints there.  By "epic telecon" I mean the kind of telecon that is scheduled to take 6 hours, but everyone knows will take far longer, so there's really no suprise when they run over.  The good thing about the epic telecon yesterday is that sitting in a room w/ my co-workers with the phone on mute, we go through cycles.  One part of the cycle is silence and concentration, and another part is chatting about whatever comes to mind.  I enjoy that part of the cycle when it comes around, and for that reason (and the overtime when I had nothing better to do), I often enjoy the epic telecons so long as they only come around a few weeks of the year.

* Finishing my first look through all of the properties Carlyn sent me online.

Its been too long

Its been a while and way too many great things have happened, but here are a few of the biggies:

* Safe return from SC after new years.

* Officially starting the house hunt! I've been pretty stoked about this for a few months now, and I have finally started looking at houses. I've got a real estate agent I know (Carlyn), and info from a couple banks. I've looked at a few houses already in person, and I have a ton more to go, which should make for a very busy Saturday. Looking through 100s of online listings has kept me busy. Who knew there could be more than 250 properties for sale within 20 min of work, when work is next to a river so they aren't in all directions. Claire even helped me out and found one that wasn't in the big list from Carlyn.

* AMA (my company) won the major contract for NASA Langley again, so now I know I have a job past March 31! We all were fairly convinced we'd get it, but it wasn't definite, and sometimes things like that switch companies (that's how AMA got it the first time)

* Many many more, from cold weather, to CG moments, to just about everything.