Positive Plethora

Thursday

2009-05-15T10:38:00.001-04:00

* 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

2009-05-15T10:35:00.001-04:00

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

2009-05-13T09:49:00.001-04:00

* 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

2009-05-12T08:44:00.001-04:00

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

2009-03-13T12:12:00.001-04:00

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

2009-03-13T11:37:00.001-04:00

* 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

2009-02-27T13:06:00.001-05:00

* 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!

2009-02-26T10:50:00.003-05:00

* 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!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-02-24T22:16:00.003-05:00

* 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!

2009-02-18T11:13:00.003-05:00

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

2009-02-11T11:06:00.001-05:00

* 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

2009-02-10T10:49:00.002-05:00

* 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

2009-02-06T13:59:00.000-05:00

* 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

2009-02-04T23:12:00.004-05:00

* 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!

2009-02-02T23:31:00.002-05:00

* 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

2009-02-02T00:51:00.002-05:00

* 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

2009-01-30T23:31:00.001-05:00

* 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

2009-01-30T10:33:00.001-05:00

* 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!!!

2009-01-27T22:31:00.011-05:00

* 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

2009-01-26T10:33:00.001-05:00

* 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

2009-01-21T12:23:00.001-05:00

* 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

2009-01-17T16:31:00.000-05:00

* 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

2009-01-16T09:23:00.001-05:00

* 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

2009-01-14T20:41:00.002-05:00

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.

Christmas Part III - Christmas Day

2008-12-26T22:57:00.005-05:00

* Opening all of my Christmas presents in the morning/afternoon. It took us over 3 hours and there were only 3 of us! We did fiddle with things in the middle, so its understandable. I love the stuff I got, from the fuzzy pj pants to the game controller

* Finishing my "Labrador Retrievers for Dummies" book. It was a great read and I learned a ton of new stuff. I'm extremely ready to get a dog! Then comes the hard part of picking a name

* Relaxing, having fun, and eating turkey!

* Getting ready to travel to Pittsburgh. The weather looks good and we're set to go. As a side note, this means that this will be my last blog post for just over a week, but rest assured that there will be plenty of positive things happening in the mean time, most of which I will probably forget by the time I try to post them.

Christmas Part II

2008-12-25T09:39:00.004-05:00

* Brian and Crystal were over most of the day yesterday (Christmas Eve) and we exchanged gifts in the middle of the day. They got me (among some other stuff) a book entitled "Labrador Retrievers for Dummies" which I am now more than halfway through already. I finally got to the training part, but have completed the choosing, grooming, feeding, and caring parts. I can't wait til I get a dog! After all, to quote the book : "The yellow lab puppy is, quite possibly, the cutest dog in the world."* Going to my parent's church for Christmas Eve

* Playing board game with my Mom

Christmas Vacation Begins

2008-12-24T09:51:00.002-05:00

* A safe drive from VA to SC where I will be for a few days before heading to Pittsburgh. The drive actually went faster due to a work telecon that I listened to for 3 hours on the trip. The bonus to that is that I didn't have to use vacation time while I was on the telecon.

* A fun Christmas party for community group, complete with too much food, white elephant gift exchange, and games

* A quite fun and entertaining Christmas party at Angela's

* Winning the tacky sweater competition at Angela's party

* Meeting new people, even if I didn't really remember any of their names by the time I got home.

* No more work for a while!

* Seeing most of my fam again

* Seeing TONS of presents under the tree...actually, most of them don't fit under the tree. (pictures to come in future posts)

* Way too many other things I've come up with in the past few days too list them all

Satisfied Cravings

2008-12-18T20:51:00.003-05:00

* Getting free pizza at our AMA bi-monthly "brownbag" meeting! I had been craving pizza for quite a while. So much so that I made pizza last night for dinner knowing we were having pizza for lunch :) Good stuff. This is the most attended brownbag...because:

* Annual end of the year bonuses were handed out after the brownbag. Yay! "Kevin's House Fund" is happy too.

* Finally satisfying a craving I've been having for some form of fruit or fruit juice for about 4-5 days now by going to Kroger to get juice. Tasty! (craving 2 satisfied today for those counting)

* Running into Carlyn and Jamey briefly at Kroger. I've never actually seen someone I know there before.

* I finally went to convert all of my coins to an amazon.com gift cert using one of the coinstar machines at Kroger and it got stuck. It didn't seem like the people working there were going to figure out how to get it open, but they finally did and got it unstuck. They were working on it the entire time Carlyn and Jamey were in the store (I saw them enter, then leave). For those of you who aren't aware, the Coinstar machines don't charge a fee if you get an eCertificate to a participating place like Amazon.com or Circuit City.

My Christmas Tree :)

2008-12-17T20:56:00.001-05:00

Charlie Brown would be proud

Relaxation

2008-12-17T15:06:00.001-05:00

* Getting my cleaning done while cooking so I could actually relax during my evening relaxation time instead of feeling guilty!

* Playing the new guitar hero after community group and not totally sucking at it in the process. I haven't played in a while and there are new songs (some of which I actually know!). "Irregardless" of what some people may say, knowing the song makes it way way easier.

* Going to the "holiday" lunch for the directorate. The food was good and it was nice to take a break from work and just chat with co-workers my age, even if I didn't win any raffle prizes.

--Tomorrow is one of my favorite days of the year...stay tuned to find out why

Sunday

2008-12-14T22:47:00.002-05:00

* Hanging out at Starbucks

* Hearing the kids singing really really loud during Kid Kraze this morning

* Getting a bit of cleaning done

* Playing a Twisted Sister song during KK...it was "O Come All Ye Faithful" to the tune of "We're Not Gunna Take It!"

Good Mood

2008-12-12T23:46:00.003-05:00

* More The Big Bang Theory this evening and yesterday. I always end up laughing even after the show is over.

* Keeping busy at work and actually wanting to stay late to work on something, but I managed to leave anyway. If I do it all myself, my co-worker will miss out! I know...I'm a nerd, but at least the big bang theory makes me feel normal, although I usually understand a lot of what they say....

* Andrew's graduation part I, even though I'm not there to see it

* Being in a good mood all week. Actually, I think I've been in an unusually good mood for 3 or so weeks now....odd, but good

* Biscuits, sausage gravy, and bacon for dinner :) Unhealthy but tasty.

The big bang theory

2008-12-10T21:36:00.004-05:00

* At some point a couple weeks ago I decided to watch "The Big Bang Theory" after a number of people recommended it. I saw one episode and figured I'd record more and just recently got the opportunity to watch them, and I absolutely love it. I downloaded season 1 after I ran out of episodes, and each one is awesome! I highly recommend it to everyone!
"Our children will be smart and beautiful"
"Not to mention imaginary."

* Being able to joke around with co-workers

* Getting a bunch of Nintendo games put on my computer so I can play them on my tv. I've got a controller on my Christmas list that will let me play all NES through N64 games just like having the real systems. (Though, it will be like using an N64 controller for NES and sega). I'm not quite sure how gameboy tetris will look like on a 40" screen... I will be getting a bunch of other system games from a co-worker over the next couple weeks, 2GB at a time.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-05T12:49:00.001-05:00

* A safe drive to and from my Grandma's house in southern OH. Even
though it was dark, rainy, and very foggy the entire 8.5 hr drive
back, the trip was still safe and relatively smooth...no major delays
or slowdowns.

* Eating until I could eat no more on Thanksgiving....twice. And
again the next day, and the next.

* Getting a bunch of useful Christmas presents from my Grandma. :)

* Getting an old Christmas tree from my Grandma. Its not very dense,
but it is a big improvement over no tree and much cheaper then getting
one myself.

* Decorating the apartment a bit for Christmas. I still have a few
lights to put on the balcony, but the inside is about as decorated as
it is going to be.

* Almost 1/3 of the way between Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations

* Going to a potluck at work. There was a ton of food and we got to
just hang around and eat for bout an hour and a half.

* Successfully (at least I think so!) leading Community Group

* Making a pot roast myself. It turned out to be easier than I expected.

Thanksgiving vacation begins

2008-11-25T23:22:00.002-05:00

* The start of thanksgiving vacation :) I'm all ready to go, just need a little sleep

* A wonderful evening at CG including a Thanksgiving dinner and much more!

* Getting everything done at work that I needed to get done, and then some.

Winning!

2008-11-23T23:18:00.004-05:00

* I hardly ever win anything. In fact I can't really think of a time when I've won something in the last few years, but today at the evening service I won a Waters Edge travel mug! I should have gotten one a while ago from a volunteer appreciation thing, but I was stuck at work and missed it. I had to toss a bean bag through a hole in a slanted board (the game bago) from about 20 feet away. Last time I tried, I hit the chair in front of me and the bag made it about 3 feet before hitting the ground. This time I did it overhand and half the bag went straight through the hole, and the other half hit the edge and it fell in! Almost a perfect shot, especially considering the board is supposed to help you slide it in...bah! who needs help! I really didn't expect to win one, and I was really really surprised when I did. To make things better, Dave won one too, and was in the same situation I was in. (supposed to get one but didn't and have been trying to get one for a month or so)

* One of my favorite songs played in church today which I refer to as "Glory to God" but I don't know its real name

* After cleaning my car windows and properly inflating my car tires (it got cold since I did it last), my car is almost ready for my drive to OH, just needs some more gas and I'm good to go!

A touch of life

2008-11-22T20:54:00.003-05:00

* After talking to tara about hard to kill houseplants the other day I finally made it out to buy a couple of plants to help bring a touch of life to my apartment. They are right up my alley...they require low indirect light, and can take the low 60s I keep my apartment at when I'm gone. If you can't tell why I picked out the pots I did, you don't know me well enough yet and should definitely ask me why! Here's what they look like (note: all flowering plants I saw require bright direct sunlight, so no flowers for me!)

* Taking care of a bunch of things I've been meaning to do, making it an all around productive Saturday.

* Only 2 more days of work before vacation.

* Putting all my mute math songs (recommended by Bryan!) on my ipod finally for use in Kid Kraze tomorrow.

* Feeling energized (no clue why, but I'm not complaining!)

* Hot chocolate

* Watching lots o tv without feeling obligated or sucked into it, just more of a background or small bits thing.

* Getting off work before 5 yesterday, ending a very very busy week (my boss was surprised I was still there at 3pm since I had far earlier hit 40 hrs)

* Snow in the morning (yesterday)

Whew!....That was a close one

2008-11-20T20:13:00.002-05:00

* Managing to recover my crashed computer with hopefully no negative effects!! I thought for sure that I had lost all my files since my last backup when I got a BSOD and windows would no longer boot, but after somehow installing a second copy of windows on the same drive (didn't know you could actually do that...) I was able to access all my old files and back them up. In the process of trying to wipe it and start over I discovered that I was actually able to boot into my old/real windows install! A few quick google searches fixed the problem of having a whole extra unnecessary copy of windows and my broken dell restore boot, so I think I'm right back where I was before the whole problem.

* Chatting w/ co-workers and my boss during another epic telecon....epic (11am to ~8pm...I left at 5:30, but if its like the one last week it will be going til at least 8) My boss was slightly envious of my simple PB&J that was easy to get/eat during the telecon

* Taking care of some much needed grocry shopping so that I could eat breakfast again and help keep myself from being really hungry/tired during work.

* Eating breakfast again!

Fall

2008-11-16T13:34:00.002-05:00

* The fall colors

* Getting out and getting my not so needed shopping done

* Chillin on a Saturday

* Highs in the 70s, after a few cooler days

* Ultimate! Even though I thought it would be canceled (and we had called it off) we ended up doing it anyway.

* Discussing Thanksgiving plans! I love this holiday...maybe its just for the food an fam, but its pretty awesome!

Catchin Z's

2008-11-13T22:34:00.002-05:00

* Sleeping in til 8! Just because I felt like it

* Talking to my parents on the phone

* Feeling productive at work and at home

* Speaking positively most of the day (something I'm working on)

* Remembering to update this 2 days in a row

God Day

2008-11-12T23:33:00.003-05:00

* Finding out that David & Angela got engaged yesterday!! It is extremely awesome and I am very excited for them! They definitely make a great couple and I wish them all the best!

* Getting a relaxing evening where I did not feel like watching tv, playing games, or surfing the net aimlessly, which quickly led me to start the book "Velvet Elvis" which is pretty good and thought provoking. I haven't gotten too far but I recommend it to anyone, as it was recommended to me highly by a number of people. No...it has nothing to do with Elvis or Velvet. Also, the title of this post was not a typo (no missing "o")

* Getting an answer to a question I had been pondering for community group which I thought I wouldn't come up with a real answer for. Sometimes it hits you!

Kneeboarding and Computer Parts

2008-09-15T22:43:00.004-04:00

* Getting to kneeboard behind Stew & Claire's new jetski!! It was a lot of fun and has left me quite sore, and I am looking forward to doing it again :)

* Playing ultimate with 7 people between church and kneeboarding, including 2 new people who enjoyed it! I hadn't played in at least a month

* Finishing up day 1 of my short 3 day work week

* Finally deciding on and ordering new parts to massively upgrade my old desktop. I haven't ever built a computer from scratch before, and this will be pretty much from scratch...hopefully keeping the case and power supply and replacing the rest. I'm on my way to making my own DVR :) Yes Tara, I'm a nerd

Big recognition for a job well done :)

2008-09-11T22:59:00.003-04:00

* Finishing up something at work that I thought would take a couple weeks in only 3 days!!

* Getting congratulated a lot by my boss during our weekly team meetings for getting as much done as I did! He even went on about putting it on my yearly performance review! Awesome. We weren't even in a time crunch. Not only was he commenting on my learning a new language and porting a program over, he also realized how much I'd been helping one of the other groups with their code/logic.

* A cooler morning and evening

* Seeing at least 6 people signed up for ultimate on Sunday...it might really happen this time :)

Upcoming fun

2008-09-08T08:59:00.001-04:00

* Getting out and riding my bike

* Chatting at starbucks about anything and everything, geeky and
non-geeky until midnight (yes, they close at 10pm)

* Finding out that Claire & Stew got a big jetski and that we may go
out and use it this weekend somewhere :)

* Hearing that my parents will be in town the latter half of next week!

Wimpy Storm Hanna

2008-09-06T23:17:00.002-04:00

* Watching tropical storm Hanna go by with no damage. The storm turned out to be pretty weak in the end, so I had no damage to my stuff :)

* Sleeping in

* Talking to my mom on the phone and finding out they are tentatively coming up for camping in mid Sept.

Helping Hands

2008-09-03T23:02:00.000-04:00

* Taking dinner to Robby & Suzanne since they have plenty else to worry
about with the arrival of their new daughter!

* Getting to work on some other people's "Matlab puzzles" as I like to call
them.

* Starting to learn a new programming language (C#) and actually making
quite a bit of progress.

Easing into the work week

2008-09-02T22:40:00.001-04:00

* Getting my grocery shopping done

* Getting to decide what I want to do next at work since there isn’t a lot that has to be done right now. A relaxing start to a slow (in a good way) work week

* Chatting with people online

* Getting bike advice from my boss

* Not having things pile up after a 3 day weekend

Busy weekend...Busch Gardens Twice :)

2008-09-02T14:29:00.001-04:00

* Going to Busch Gardens and dinner w/ Adam on Friday after leaving
early from work. That's 3 positives in one.

* Chilling on Saturday

* Getting to participate as Event Staff for the WEC groundbreaking
ceremony during which 75 people got baptized! There were
approximately 800+ people present for the single ceremony, and the
whole thing seemed to go really well :)

* Government holidays :) I love getting a 3 day weekend

* Getting my lazy self out of bed early enough on Monday to get an 8
mile bike ride in before it got too warm. I had been intending to do
it for a while, and was still willing to put it off another few days
when I first woke up, but something made me get up anyway...unusual,
but I think I know what it was

* Busch Gardens on Monday afternoon with Bill, Heidi and their ~6mo
old daughter Olivia. We rode a bunch of the rides and chatted a lot
in the process. It was a lot of fun and spontaneous on my end since I
got a message from them right after I got back from my ride.

* A fun, relaxing community group. I even hung around afterward to
chat and ended up staying until 11pm! Thats really late for me but it
was very good and something I had been wanting to do for a while.

* Being reminded that I need to keep up with this blog a bit more! I
truly have been too lazy about it recently.

Smallsat Conference, Logan Utah!

2008-08-19T21:02:00.012-04:00

I spent last week in Logan Utah at the Smallsat conference, my first full major conference...and it was a lot of fun. Besides all the free food and learning what is currently going on in the business of small satellites, I got to go to a state I had never been to, and go hiking in the mountains! We hiked 4 miles in and 4 miles out, up 1200 feet and back down. It was very hot with little shade. Here are some pictures from the conference and hike:

The conference building:

The view from outside the conference building:The hike:

Looking back at where we came from (twice)
Water! Cold Water!

Williamsburg

2008-07-25T09:12:00.001-04:00

* Finding out in the middle of the day that the meeting I was worried
about running well past 5 was canceled. It is normally a 2:30-3:30
meeting that runs til 5 or 5:30, but was scheduled this time for 4-5
and I REALLY wanted to get off at 5, so I was very glad it got
canceled.

* Going to Williamsburg to see Colonial Williamsburg, William & Mary,
and eat with Dasia, Lesley and Amy

* Light traffic on the way to Williamsburg despite the 1 nearly and 1
actual road closing accidents in the opposite direction.

Doing whatever I want

2008-07-24T09:04:00.001-04:00

* Playing ultimate in the pouring rain. I pulled up to the field
expecting maybe 1 or 2 other crazy people to show up and everyone to
decide that the storm was too bad and go home, but instead we ended up
with 6 on 6 from 5:30 to 6:45! We were all absolutely soaked and the
wind would occasionally take the disc and do whatever it felt like,
but it was fun and gave us something to blame some really bad throws
on. It was one of those things that most people would have called us
crazy for (especially due to all the thunder), but like playing soccer
on the flooded drillfield at night in the cold, its one of those
things you just gotta let loose and do once in a while.

* Getting a chance to do something at work just because I felt like it
and not because I was overloaded or scraping for stuff to do. It was
the development of a "nifty" sort of feature for a little down the
road and wasn't critical but I really wanted to figure out how to do
it and didn't have anything else pressing at the time.

* Sleeping in til 7:50 and still making it to work by 8:30 without much rushing.

* Getting my computer back to the way I wanted it minus copying the
files over. It took some odd manipulating and some help from online
freeware developers, but it worked....hopefully nothing will crash on
it for a couple months!

Ultimate, Relief, and Old & New friends

2008-07-23T11:43:00.001-04:00

* Playing ultimate again on Monday for the first time in a while. I
finally was able to run around while playing, and it makes a big
difference. I'm looking forward to playing today as well.

* Managing to get my computer back on the road to recovery after a
boot preventing error without losing much data (if any! we'll see in
a day or so how much was lost). Optimistically, its a hard drive
problem which I can cheaply upgrade to a newer better one and sort of
fix. It is currently in a semi-functioning state; good enough to get
my data off prior to reformatting and starting fresh.

* Going out to eat at a new place with Leslie, Dasia, and Amy while
they are all coincidentally in town. It was good to see both Dasia
and Leslie again and meet Amy. After dinner we went and hung out at a
local beach and it was like being back in my old grad office again in
more ways than one :)

Very Fun & Busy Weekend :)

2008-07-21T09:18:00.001-04:00

* We get a free lunch out at work every time there is a new hire or
interview. After responding quickly to and email last week asking who
was going to lunch I got the following reply from my boss:

Kevin,

You are one hungry dude.

Dave C.

Oddly enough, it made my day.

* Going to Busch Gardens ALL DAY with Dasia on Saturday :) We had a
ton of fun and got to ride everything that doesn't spin in small
circles. We even saw 2 shows, one of which was really neat. I think
Dasia enjoyed it even more than I did since she had never been there,
and it was very cool to be able to take a visitor to BG.

* Seeing The Dark Knight on Sunday. The movie was really good and I
enjoyed it a lot, but I won't ruin it for anyone here.

* Hanging out with Dasia and watching Batman Begins on Friday in
preparation for The Dark Knight on Sunday.

* Having an all-around great weekend

Dasia's in town!

2008-07-15T15:26:00.001-04:00

* Dasia is in town! We started making some plans to do things like
Busch Gardens and movies and lunches/dinners for the next 2 weeks
while she's in town working on a project at Langley. It should be a
fun time. I'm glad I work somewhere that people I know might need to
visit periodically for school/work related tasks.

* Cheesecake provided by Claire at community group!! It was quite
good even if it was still frozen :-P. Claire also had an amazing
sense of humor about the whole thing which made it very amusing.

* Finally finding a way to get videos/movies onto my ipod so I can
watch them on planes in the future if I want.

Back to normal

2008-07-13T22:27:00.001-04:00

* Getting to play ultimate on Saturday, or another form of a Frisbee game at
least. I hadn't really run around and played anything in weeks and it felt
good to get out and be mostly back to normal. I'm glad there seems to be no
lasting knee damage, and hopefully its all behind me now.

* Chillin in my apartment for most of the weekend

* Being excited about and looking forward to work this week...it'll be a
busy one, but I have goals and know what I'm doing. Programming is like a
bunch of little thought puzzles to me, and its fun to tackle them

* Going out to eat lunch after church with a bunch of people at Three
Amigos. It was funny to hear Dillon try to speak Spanish to the waiter and
end up saying things like "Thank you please" or "yes" (the yes was in place
of thank you)

* God is bigger than me; God is with me; God is guiding me

On track

2008-07-09T22:13:00.001-04:00

* Getting things taken care of at work to the point that I think everything
should fall into place right on time :)

* Making something for dinner that I really enjoy but had forgotten about
for a long time....chicken & cheese crescent rolls :)

* Getting caught up on my reading for community group

July 4

2008-07-09T13:31:00.001-04:00

So I fell a bit behind, but not for a lack of positive events this past week!

* Making fresh bread on Saturday...I'm still enjoying the benefits of that one!

* Hanging out with Stew and Claire at their place for many hours on
July 4! It rained most of the evening and there was a lot of thunder
so we decided to not go to the fireworks (which they canceled anyway).
We hung out and played many hours of rock band. I can see why people
like those games, and I'm definitely looking forward to playing again.
We also grilled out and had more food than we could eat. :) It was
also fun to play with Roxy and Slater (aka Conehead). It helped to
fill the wanting a dog need for a while. I definitely like labs.

* Finding out I am going to a conference in August. I get to go to a
conference in Utah for a week right by the mountains. It will be cool
to be paid to have a week long trip and do very little actual work :)

* Finding out Tara got an interview for a teaching job she really
wants, and Katherine finally has a job completely lined up! Congrats
to both!

* Waking up early Sunday morning truly motivated to go help out with
Kid Kraze. I realized how much I used to dread getting up in the
morning to make it to an 11am service, and how eager I was to get up
in time for the run-through at 8am every single time I do tech.

* Remembering to listen to Stu's sermon on Monday since I was serving on Sunday.

* Being motivated to start learning Spanish again. I have no idea how
long that motivation will hold up, but it feels good to have a
productive hobby.

* Many many many laughs at Community Group, and a few determined
fellow members prodding me about some things.

I know there are many many more that popped up in my head throughout
the week that I have not listed here.

Demo

2008-06-30T21:35:00.000-04:00

* A demo of our software development that went really well at work

* Getting in a little overtime without feeling like I was working over

* A fun relaxing, celebrating community group

Recovery Weekend

2008-06-30T13:10:00.001-04:00

* Sitting on the couch all day long Saturday watching movies and TV shows

* Watching the final Euro 2008 game Sunday afternoon. Congrats Spain!
It was an awesome game to watch.

* Going to a free concert Friday in City Center with Stew, Clair,
Clair's sister, Bill, and Heidi.

* Getting Gillato after the concert.

All work and no day/play makes you not like a duck

2008-06-27T10:46:00.001-04:00

* Leaving work late and seeing that it was still perfectly daylight
out, even at 7:20pm. It also helped to remember the number of days
that I left right at 5 and it was already dark in the winter. Evening
daylight is quite nice :)

* Watching 6-8 ducks play in a sprinkler in front of my apartment.
They kept taking turns running up to it and jumping and sticking their
heads in the spray from the sprinkler. They were far more entertained
than normal, and way more than I would have expected, especially with
a lake not more than 20 feet away.

* Setting up a repeating donation for Campus Crusade for my cousin.
If you have to ask why this would be a positive, you should give it a
try...just pick your favorite charity/church and see how you end up
feeling (its good..trust me!). Doing it is the only way to really
understand

Hump Day

2008-06-26T08:53:00.001-04:00

* Getting to play a little ultimate even if it meant walking around
the whole time

* Finding out my softball team won! (I couldn't play)

* Relaxing and eating sloppy joes in the evening :)

* Getting in an extra hour at work without it feeling like I the day
was dragging on

Coincidence? I think not

2008-06-25T10:15:00.001-04:00

* We had 2 tech people working together in Kid Kraze for the first
time in a really long time (as long as I've been helping). It was
helping things move a bit more smoothly since it really is a lot for
one person to do unless they're really used to it. The other tech guy
got a growing headache during the first service, and felt really sick
by the end of it and needed to go home. It was extremely fortunate
that there were 2 of us so I could take over and do the second
service. Coincidence?? Doubtful...

* Seeing 2 small fawn with some older deer by the road on my way out
of the office

* A fun night at community group. I even got to start off with one
round of rock band (I think that's what it was)

* My first night with nothing else planned in well over a week
yesterday evening. It was great to just lay around

* Juicy steak and fries :) :)

Fun Active Weekend

2008-06-23T10:08:00.001-04:00

* Going to Busch Gardens with Adam Friday. I got to work early so I
could leave early and meet Adam up at Busch Gardens. We rode
everything we wanted to and then headed up to Richmond to spend the
night at his parents house.

* Kayaking!! This was my first time kayaking and the weather
cooperated very well. We rode out for about an hour and stopped to
eat lunch in some shade, then headed back while exploring a tributary.
It was a lot of fun and I definitely hope I can do that again
sometime

* Playing a laid back game of ultimate with a bunch of WEC peeps

The Evening Athletics Continue!

2008-06-20T07:36:00.001-04:00

* Playing a large game of ultimate on Wednesday with 6 people per
team! Time flew by so fast that 7pm rolled around before we realized
it.

* Improving my batting in the double header Thursday compared to the
Tuesday game.

* The sound of rain

* The rain and hail holding out until just after I got home from the game

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-06-18T07:58:00.001-04:00

* Getting a TON of happy birthday wishes on facebook from everyone :)
:) They kept flowing in all day long

* Getting a couple birthday cards/emails as well, and even 2 phone
calls, one of which was the whole UCM crew at bible study!

* Playing Softball

* Going to Plaza Azteca for dinner with Dave, Meredith, Jon, and Bryan

* Opening my presents from my parents! I didn't get a chance to do
this until about 9:20-9:30pm because the day was so full (very good
thing!). Everything I got was blue, as was the wrapping paper, and it
was all very interestingly wrapped.

* An all around good birthday!

Free food, busy day, fun day

2008-06-16T21:53:00.001-04:00

* Free lunch at work since I was interviewing a guy for an open position in my group

* A very smooth/successful interview

* Playing ultimate for the first time this summer at NASA. There were 12 people in all including LARSS students and us old fogies :-P

* A meshing & discussion filled community group

Chipotle

2008-06-13T23:00:00.001-04:00

* Safe and quick trip to DC for a meeting on Tuesday. The traffic was very light and the meeting went well!! I even got to eat at Chipotle on the way back :)

* Very busy, quick, and slightly productive week at work

* Arrival of the weekend!! And a week ahead with fun busy evenings :)

Busy busy

2008-06-05T23:16:00.001-04:00

* Keeping extremely busy at work trying to keep my student(s) busy. Busy is much better than bored, especially when it’s the kind of busy that can be dropped at 5pm and not worried about until morning

* Making a lot of progress on various tasks at work on my own list

* Catching up a bit with Katherine!

Sean & Rebekah's Wedding & TX Visitor

2008-06-05T10:21:00.001-04:00

I had an amazing time in Victoria, BC Canada for Sean and Rebekah's wedding. I had never been further west than skiing in Colorado, so I have now expanded my travel distance. I also got to see both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans from the airplane/ground in the same day. The wedding was awesome and there were so many positive things that happened that I can't begin to list them all. I have been holding off on posting until I could list them all, but I'm getting further behind on everything afterward so I will need to leave it at that.

Right after I got back, Tara, Andrew, and Ange came up to visit!!! We had a really fun time going to DC, Williamsburg, and Jamestown as well as hanging out and expanding my restaurant visits in the area. I definitely missed hanging around them all the time (well, Tara and Andrew all the time, and Ange when she was around since we never actually lived in CS at the same time) and was very glad to have them stay with me for a few days. I now have 700+ pictures to remind me of everything we did. :)

Hopefully now I will start updating on a more regular basis as I am not going to worry about listing anything prior to today.

Vacation Approaches

2008-05-11T00:07:00.003-04:00

* Having a backup of my computer for when something went wrong…I knew it would pay off some day

* The team we are supposed to play on Monday wasn’t going to have enough people so they asked if they could move the game, and it got moved to a time I can make it now since it originally conflicted with community group (which is why Dave and Meredith couldn’t make it…they are the opponents)

* Finishing up my last full week of work before my vacation :):):)

Surprising Victory

2008-05-08T09:43:00.001-04:00

* Beating the best softball team in the league 11-5 !!!! I had been told repeatedly to expect to lose since the team we were playing has only lost one game per season for the last 4 or 5 years. We pulled it off by not hitting to their outfielders and playing well all around. I got to play second base which I haven't really ever practiced, but I think I learned a few things and will do even better next time. I had 3 hits out of 4 at bats and scored 1 run!

* Getting in an extra hour at work since the game was a late game, which I will use toward my vacation next week :)

* Not having to do anything else in the evening. My to-do list through Friday evening was complete :)

Under 1 week!

2008-05-06T22:50:00.001-04:00

* Just under 1 week until I leave for Victoria!!!

* Reaching 100 facebook friends…without just trying to add people to reach a number goal. Its really not about the numbers, but it was cool to happen to notice it said 100. My new community group leader was #100

* Getting a lot accomplished in the evening to finally make some more progress on my to-do list

Community Group Begins

2008-05-06T16:02:00.001-04:00

* My first community group meeting. I had heard to expect that it will take a few weeks for people to start to get to know each other, which is why the groups are closed. Our group seemed to get along and start chatting instantly, so we were leaps and bounds beyond where I expected we'd be after the first week. I now know what I'm doing almost every Monday evening for the next year.

* Another perfect evening to leave the windows open all night

* My softball team won their first game (even if I wasn't there!)

Worn out...in a good way

2008-05-05T13:13:00.001-04:00

* Playing ultimate with a ton of people for a couple hours. We actually had a 7 on 7 game for a while and more people came after some left! It was an amazing turnout. The weather was a little warm and my legs were jelly at the end, but it was completely worth it.

* Running Kids Kraze tech for the first time with no real glitches

* Leaving the windows open all night with a perfect slight breeze :)

Athletics

2008-05-03T23:03:00.001-04:00

* Riding my bike approx 13 miles J I decided to go out and ride because it seemed to help last week. Once I had gotten as far as I had planned to go, I decided to go around the development I was riding in one more time adding about 3 more miles to the trip. I was completely warn out when I was done but it was definitely worth it

* Getting a phone call about a pickup game of Ultimate right after I had showered after riding my bike. I didn’t know if I could handle it but decided to go anyway. It turned out to be soccer, but I still had fun and discovered that it seemed to have gotten a lot warmer so I didn’t last too too long. This should also help put me in shape for Ultimate on Sunday if it doesn’t rain.

* Finally getting my hair cut again so that it isn’t so long anymore

Busy Weekend

2008-04-27T22:27:00.002-04:00

* Going to Busch Gardens on Friday! The weather turned out to be quite awesome. To make things even better, I picked up my phone Friday morning and noticed a voicemail that I had missed Thursday evening, and listened to it to discover that Adam wanted to do something Friday or Saturday and suggested Busch Gardens on Friday evening. What a coincidence!?!? I met him there, as well as 4 other people, so it was a lot of fun.

* Laura's Bday party. After Busch Gardens, we went to Laura's bday party at a really nice house on a winding river. I hung out there and chatted with people until about 1am and then headed for home.

* Getting outside to ride my bike for about an hour on Saturday. It was good to get some exercise and I felt like I could have gone further if I wanted to, so maybe I will next time. I needed the exercise and bike riding is much more controlled than jogging. (There is fast pace and medium...jogging only has 1 real not awkward speed)

* Playing Ultimate on Sunday! I had much more endurance than the previous week, which is really good because it was 3 on 3. I am guessing it was due to my bike ride yesterday, and the exercise was paying off. I will have to do that more often.

House Party

2008-04-25T14:53:00.000-04:00

* Hanging out playing catch with a softball and frisbee at Yorktown
beach for a little bit in the evening

* Going to the WEC House Party, getting cheesecake from the cheesecake
factory :) and signing up for a community group! That makes me
officially plugged into the church the only 2 ways possible

* Finishing season 3 of "The Office"

* Making plans to go to Busch Gardens :)

70 and partly cloudy

2008-04-23T22:38:00.002-04:00

* Another lazy evening watching episodes of "The Office"

* Driving home with the windows rolled down because it was the perfect weather out

* Leaving the windows in my apartment open all evening and getting the perfect balance of breeze and temp

* Finally getting text messaging! (Hopefully I don't run over!)

The Office

2008-04-23T13:53:00.001-04:00

* Relaxing and watching many episodes of "The Office" in the evening

* Getting an electric bill approximately half of what the last one was :)

* An end to the days of rain. I liked the rain while it was raining,
yet was glad to see it stop too

Chicago!!

2008-04-21T22:10:00.002-04:00

* A fun business trip to Chicago! The trip was a lot of fun and had its own full set of positives. The flights were ALL on time (amazing!), the weather was awesome (the first days over 70 that they had had in 140 days (I heard that on the tv)), I didn't get eaten by a cougar (always a plus! don't forget that!), experiencing another non-lethal earthquake, a really nice hotel, getting authentic Chicago deep dish pizza, getting an authentic Chicago hot-dog, eating at Chipotle, a relaxed work portion of the trip, and much much more!! It was an all around fun trip.

* A neighbor helping me out when I was trying to back out of a parking spot and couldn't see out my back window. They were nice enough to point out an oncoming car that was nearly impossible to see. Neighbors being neighborly :)

* Successfully (mostly!) running the Wee World tech all by myself without any real training! There was only one minor technical glitch that I wouldn't have been able to fix, but I kept on top of all the mics, etc.

* Seeing the monuments in DC on my way back from Chicago from the airplane/airport.

* Only ONE MORE MONTH until Tara, Angela, and Andrew arrive!! Its also LESS than a month until Sean's Wedding :) Oh, yeah and Rebekah's wedding too :-P

The Sound of Silence...and others

2008-04-13T22:45:00.003-04:00

* the sound of: the rain on the car, the air past the car, the relaxing blinker, splashing puddles beneath the tires. It was also nice to have some near silence in a noise filled world

* 2 hours of ultimate Frisbee for the first time in a month! I had a ton of fun doin what I could to get points, even diving for it.

* Learning how to do the "Wee World" tech job at WEC...I had learned a bit of the "Kids Kraze" last week, so now I'm getting closer to actually potentially starting training.

New Shows

2008-04-11T10:55:00.001-04:00

* Hanging out in the evening watching The Office and Scrubs at
Alicia's house. I had never seen a full episode of The Office before
and it was pretty funny. It was also the first time I hung out with a
lot of those people outside of Starbucks on Sunday evenings.

* Driving home from work with the windows down and sunroof open! It
warmed up perfectly and became a really nice day.

* A really cool fog in the morning on the way to work. Granted it
makes it harder to drive, but the fog was really neat.

Softball

2008-04-08T22:41:00.003-04:00

* Softball practice even though it was cool and drizzly. I was very disappointed when I went outside and found out it was drizzling, but we still had 5 people from our team and 1 from the other to do a little practice.

* Calling Adam and making plans to go up to Richmond tomorrow for dinner a day early for his bday

* Another day at the office with no real deadlines so that I could be as productive as I wanted to be

Monday Monday

2008-04-08T22:15:00.002-04:00

* A day at work with no deadlines looming...I was able to be as productive, or unproductive as I wanted!

* Talking to Tara & Ange, and even Andrew on the phone for quite a while while I was on the road, and more on line after :) Thanks gals (and Andrew)!

* Finally making it all the way out to Garden Ridge to get some throw pillows

New Restaurants

2008-04-04T09:35:00.002-04:00

* Going to a new restaurant for dinner. I went to Plaza Azteca with some friends since the weather was not good enough for yorktown beach. The food was good and we hung around for a while just chatting. All in all it was a lot of fun.

* Finding out that my boss & project manager want me to go to Chicago in 2 weeks to meet with the other contractors. Originally they weren't going to have me go but decided that we had jumped passed thetop level discussion and they really needed a modeller who knew the low level details to go...and the only one is me.

* Hooking up my new HD cable receiver box and watching a little bit of TV in HD :)

Chili Cheese Fries

2008-04-03T21:38:00.002-04:00

* Looking around the kitchen and realizing the only thing I really had to eat was chili (which is a great option!) and then thinking that I really wanted fries. I though that fries didnt' go with chili and then remembered that they do in fact go! Mmmmm, chili cheese fries!

* The first softball practice. I had been looking forward to batting for a few days and it was fun. The practice was full of oddities...We broke a ball (might have been partially broken, but thudded when I hit it), an aluminum bat (that never happens!), and a windshield! I couldn't believe it, it was pretty action packed! At least the guy who broke the windshield broke his own.

* Sleeping in simply because I wanted to in the morning

April Fools

2008-04-02T10:38:00.001-04:00

* Seeing other people copying the joke Ange and I started a couple
days ago. When we started it, it was just for fun and spontaneity,
with no relation at all to April Fools Day. Marshall and Tracy copied
for April Fools day, and we all messed with people's heads :-P

* Amazingly warm weather

* Tacos and cheese fries, yum! I was baking fries and decided at the
last minute to toss some cheese on. I'm very glad I did!

Speedy

2008-03-31T22:19:00.005-04:00

* Not missing a single blog entry in March!

* A quick day at work that started from an empty schedule and a list of simple tasks. Perhaps what made it so good was the fact that a few of the tasks involved chatting with people about simple conceptual items

* Setting aside an hour in the evening

* More rain...and this rain brought 60 deg temps in the late evening

Planning!! ;)

2008-03-31T22:09:00.003-04:00

* Sleeping in

* Hanging out at Starbucks

* Accomplishing a lot around the apartment in the middle of the day

* The sound of rain

* Staying up late entirely due to an extremely fun set of conversations with Ange, Tara, and Andrew!! It was a whole lot of fun and we got a lot of planning done! haha! ;)

Lazy Saturday

2008-03-29T22:05:00.002-04:00

* Waking up and realizing there was NOTHING on my to do list for today! That hasn't happened in forever

* Getting a little organizing/cleaning done

* Cooking chili :) I like my chili and it takes a few hours so I only get to do it on Saturdays when I'm not running around. Now I'll have leftovers for quite some time.

* Looking forward to Sunday. Its a positive feeling so it fits here, not that I actually have to justify anything I put here :-P

Customers

2008-03-29T22:02:00.003-04:00

* A very entertaining set of phone calls from Ange! (with some input from the rest of the van headed to retreat)

* Finally having another meeting with our customer at work, and having him be happy with our work and ideas. We got a bit of a new direction but that is ok and we'll work through it

* Getting to work early. I needed to get up early and get into work early to get some stuff done that I hadn't done Thursday and I actually pulled it off. I really thought I'd probably sleep in and not get to work when I wanted to like usual, but I surprised myself and made it.

* Getting in a couple extra hours at work which I can use either next week or in May whenever I need them.

*Being told I could work 80 hours a week if I wanted to and then disappear for 2 months. I think my boss was at least partially joking but the thought of a 2 month vacation was an interesting one.

Yorktown Beach

2008-03-28T09:05:00.000-04:00

* Hanging out at Yorktown Beach! (nicknamed Thursday At Yorktown Beach [TAYB]) We played catch with both a softball and Frisbee, sat around and chatted, and played bean bag toss.

* Perfect weather for an evening outside...It was ~75 during the day and sunny :)

* Having a feeling like I had a mini-vacation when I got home in the evening

Aroma

2008-03-26T19:53:00.000-04:00

* Coming home to the smell of my crockpot chicken and dumplings.

* An evening to relax

* Seeing deer by the parking lot at work. I hadn't seen them wander out of the woods there before, but I can usually hear them. It was cool to see 2 or 3 of them wandering around by the side of the lot.

Tuesday

2008-03-26T10:07:00.001-04:00

* A theologically rich, interesting meeting!

* A fast day at work filled with meetings and other activities

* Finding enough food to last me another day so I didn't have to go
grocery shopping

* Getting laundry done

Monday

2008-03-26T10:05:00.001-04:00

* A quick efficient day of work, getting caught up on emails and other
things I missed.

* A relaxing evening with nothing important to do! I hadn't gotten to
relax in a long time and it felt really good

* Getting to bed early

* Catching up a bit with Ange who I hadn't talked to in forever it
seemed! I have no idea how that happened

Sunday

2008-03-26T10:01:00.003-04:00

* Having a fun cookout and watching my cousins cook everything they could find over the campfire. Apparently flame cooked grapes on a stick actually taste good! Celery, Dorritos, Carrots, and a number of other things were on the failures list.

* Having an extended family that really didn't want to see me leave. My youngest cousin even refused to stop hanging on my leg for quite a while!

* Safe drive back from SC to VA, and a return to a clean apartment.

Zoo & Park

2008-03-26T09:58:00.003-04:00

* Getting to finally really hang out with my extended family including my cousin and his wife (who I didn't meet until friday)!

* Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo! We went to the Greenville zoo for the afternoon and everyone enjoyed seeing all the animals. My youngest cousin Matthew had been extremely shy on Friday and hadn't really said a word to me, but he returned to normal and wouldn't leave my side for
the most part starting Saturday at the zoo. :)

* Reedy River Park. We went to the reedy river park in the center of Greenville, and once again the weather was perfect. The park has a (20 ft??) set of falls in it and a really nice looking walking bridge.It was funny to see my aunt facinated by the bridge since she is a
bridge designer/inspector.

* Going out to eat at Ryan's

Brian & Crystal's Wedding

2008-03-26T09:51:00.002-04:00

* BRIAN & CRYSTAL'S WEDDING!!!! The wedding was amazing. It was
outdoors, the weather was perfect, the decorations were great, and
everyone looked beautiful or sharp!
* Seeing all of my relatives and some of the people from my church at the wedding

* Finishing up all the last minute stuff in time

* My new sister-in-law Crystal!! :)

Rehearsal!

2008-03-26T09:48:00.003-04:00

* Brian's rehearsal!!!! The rehearsal went well and the weather was awesome. We also found out that the weather for the wedding would be perfect as well!

* Getting a lot accomplished toward making the wedding happen without any glitches

* Hanging out with my brothers

* Spending the night at Brian's

Wednesday

2008-03-26T09:44:00.001-04:00

* Half day of work!

* Smooth, safe drive to SC from VA. I made it with only a little
traffic, despite the heavy rain for hours. I was expecting the worst
when I left and was pleasantly surprised.

* Getting to see my family