Welcome to my head. Hope you enjoy it.

Good day

2009-04-11T23:39:31Z

Today was a great day. The weather was awesome. We had a great time doing stuff outside for most of the day, enjoying the great weather. It is days like this that make me so happy to be alive and where I am.

Milton, that bastard.

2008-12-20T08:03:14Z

Apparently Milton, and nataspowers's essay on Paradise Lost have infected me more than I realize. For those of you not familiar with Paradise Lost and Natas' expose on it (ie did not go to high school with him), he postulates that Satan was the hero, being the only real person in it.

I have just spent the past two hours explaining to my wife why I, as Satan, would totally control all organized religions.

Yes, I have been drinking.

One of these days I'll get around to writing a real update to my LJ.

Nothing special

2008-08-17T00:30:03Z

It has been quite a long while since I've updated. Everything is going fine. I'm still working towards my masters, although I did get an A- instead of an A in my last class, so I no longer have a 4.0. Work is still good, and I've still got a job. I am going to NJ next week for some training, so I'll be gone for 5 days, which is a first. The baby is still growing (pictures can be seen here) and is quite a handful (more on this in a bit).

We've (read I) have decided to remove the popcorn on the ceilings in our house. The reasoning for this goes along the line of, when we sell the house we are going to have to have replaced, or pay to replace the carpet. It is also highly likely that we will have to have the inside of the house painted. Since this is true, I figure we might as well get some use out of the new carpet before we move. Also it is WAY cheaper to paint yourself than to get a someone else to do it for you. So, we should paint BEFORE we get new carpet. And since we are painting, we might as well remove the stupid popcorn and add a little more value to the house. I think we're going to go with the spray it wet and scrape method. I will update with the results (although it may be a year before that happens). Hopefully we'll even take pictures of it as we do it. We are starting with what will be the kids room in the hope of:

Getting it done before we have another kid (not pregnant yet)
Actually getting the baby to sleep in her own bed before we have another kid

In hopes of improving our odds on the last part we just bought some new sheets for Beka's old twin bed and put the bed down in our room. Hopefully Elora will like it enough to sleep by herself. Tonight is the first test of this.

As I mentioned earlier Elora is continuing to grow and develop. She has quite the vocabulary now, both spoken and sign language. The wife had a great idea when she bought Signing Time, aka Baby Crack. If we had Signing Time on repeat it would generally take about 5 or 6 times of the same 30 minute video for her to get tired of it. Of course you can just put on another one and then she is good to go again. This may sound like I am letting the TV baby sit my kid, and to some extent it is. But she has also learned a lot from the videos. This has definitely improved our ability to communicate with Elora, and gives you back up way to figure out what she is trying to say (very helpful with kids when they are just learning how to speak). She can "say" many more words in sign language than she can actually speak, although she knows what the words are when she hears them.

She also enjoys doing "grown up" things. We recently got her a booster seat to sit in, instead of the high chair, and now she loves to climb up in it and sit at the table eating (mainly chips and apple juice, we're still working on the nutrition bit). Of course she occasionally makes a mistake and leans too far out of the chair and falls (this has happened twice), on her head. It doesn't seem to affect her much after the initial scare, and as long as we apply a cold pack to it there isn't even very much bruising. It is amazing how many times children hit their heads on stuff. It is also equally amazing how it doesn't seem to faze them at all.

On a different note we have entered that special hell that is reserved for parents of small children. She has recently discovered Tarzan (the Disney movie), and now requests it any time it is not on (this request takes the form of her saying "more babies" and also signing "gorilla"). The really painful part is that she only like the first 30-40 minutes. This is the part where Tarzaan is still a baby/young boy. As soon as he grows up she looses interest and will wander around doing other stuff. So, now there is an almost constant sound of Phil Collins signing in my house. I have no particular grudge against his singing, but after you hear it the 1,000th time, you really just want to find him and kick him in the balls, repeatedly. We have tried to interest her in other movies, like The Incredibles, but to no avail. We can always put on Signing Time, to relieve the Phil Collins, but there is only so much of that an adult can stand.

Ahh, the things we do for love.

I am now being asked repeated for more juice from the little one, so off to parenting I go.

orderb13 @ 2007-07-22T08:42:00

2007-07-22T13:53:04Z

We have now finished. We got the book yesterday at 9:00 AM. I came home and read until about 5:30 (still had 100 pages to go), when I let my wife read it. She read it all through the night and then I finished reading it this morning.

I am glad that she finally explained so much of the back stories of the different characters. The Bloody Baron was a nice touch. As was Dudely's little transformation.

One thing I didn't see was someone that hadn't done magic before doing magic. JKR mentioned that this would be in the book in one of her interviews. Was that there and I just missed it?

I'm unsure of what I think about the Epilogue. Perhaps I just wish there was more, although it feels like she is leaving it open for her to write more about the second generation.

I am surprised in the casual way she killed off Tonks and Lupin. You don't even get to see them die, you just see them dead.

I was hoping for more redemption and acceptance of Malfoy.

Those are just some quick thoughts about it. I will now take care of my little girl.

New bank anyone?

2007-07-20T21:38:27Z

After my being a solid Regions customer for 12 years, they have finally pissed me off enough for me to dump them. I will relate the entire story some other time, because it is a comedy of errors, when I do not have strep throat and feel like I've been beaten to death with a 2 x 4 and then brought back to live to have it done to me again.

What I am asking for, dear reader, is suggestions for a new bank/credit union. So if you like your bank/credit union (and we are eligible to join the CU) let me know. Also, if you hate yours for some reason, let me know that too so I can avoid it.

Thanks,

More than meets the eye

2007-07-14T03:23:29Z

Screw Harry Potter, go see Transformers! OMFG! It was awesome. Must have this when it comes out. Might go see it again soon. Will now go dream about it.

Movies and Shows

2007-06-23T01:25:07Z

I want to go see 1408, but my wife hates horror movies. Who in Memphis wants to see it and when?

Also, just finished watching the series finale of Stargate SG-1. It was ok. Apparently Stargate Atlantis now has Jewel Staite in it, for those interested.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

And things continue

2007-06-08T01:41:20Z

Things are still going very well here, if somewhat busy. I've been having a good time in general and really enjoying being a dad in particular. I can't wait to get home and spend some cuddle time with the little girl.

Two weekends ago (Memorial Day weekend for the people in the States) we had some friends, Kim and Joe, come up to visit from Atlanta. I took a day and a half off of work before they got here to clean the house up and we finally got EVERYTHING put away and the entire house clean. Had a blast while they were here, just hanging out, cooking, playing games. Lots of fun. It was sad to see them go as we don't get out much anymore and hardly anyone ever comes over.

This past weekend we drove down to my folks place in Birmingham. It was interesting to see how much room my Jeep DOESN'T have when you have a puppy, a 4 month old, two adults and all their assorted stuff. We were able to get everything in the car without crushing anyone, if barely. When we go down in July we'll take the car top carrier just to make things easier. The trip definitely drove home the need for a new vehicle, one that is bigger. So we've been talking about mini-vans, although we want to wait until next year to buy one in hopes of someone actually making a hybrid version. The trip down only took 4.5 hours, but the way back took just about 6 since the baby was more awake and we had to stop more often for her.

The visit with mom and dad was lots of fun. We talked about children and families a lot and just had a good time catching up. We introduced my parents to Rook, which Kim and Joe introduced us to. They enjoyed it and look forward to seeing us again to play it some more.

This coming weekend we are going over to a friend's, Kelly, house here for Saturday afternoon. She was my friend in HR when I worked for ~~hell~~ Service Master, and got me Beka's email address so I could ask her out. She also has a little girl that is about a year old. Should be fun, and maybe we'll take Rook with us.

Things at work are going well. We are really busy since we fired one of the guys. He was one of the worst programmers I've ever had the displeasure of working with, but he did a lot of little crap for people in the company (a real programmer would have set up something so the users could do this stuff themselves) that we ended up getting blindsided with. Not to mention they keep piling on the projects and not giving us enough time to do any of them. Such is life.

I finally got my acceptance letter from Univ of Memphis. It only took them a month to mail it. My opinion of the school drops every time I have to deal with it. Really wish I had done a better job as an undergrad now. Oh well.

We have reached our year-end financial goal a bit early. We were wanting to have paid off $10,000 of our credit card debt by the end of the year, but we actually made it by the end of May. We have re-evaluated and decided to try to pay off an additional $10,000 by the end of the year, but this one will be tougher since I'll actually be in school in the Fall and have that tuition bill. We'll see how it goes.

I convinced the wife to play X-Men Legends with me on the PS-2. It is a good experience for both of us. She didn't grow up with video games so a lot of the skills that I take for granted she lacks, which can be frustrating at times, but it good practice for me, and she is learning very quickly.

I've also managed to loose 19 lbs in the past couple of months (I just weighed in at 200.8). I need to go and get a new belt since my old one doesn't do that good of a job holding my pants up anymore. I can also fit back in my one pair of jean shorts that haven't fit in years. I'm hoping to loose lots over the summer since I'll have less time come Fall and school. We'll see if I can get down to 185.

That about wraps it up here. Hope everyone is having a good time.

orderb13 @ 2007-04-21T13:07:00

2007-04-21T19:10:10Z

The last and next to last hole in my belt have been battling it out for supremacy for the last couple of weeks. Some days the next to last feels just too loose and I have to go to the last, some days the last is just too tight and I have to go back up. I've decided to make a determined push so that it will go to the last and stay there. Then I'll have to get a new belt, one that is smaller. :-). I'm down 12 lbs so far, but the difference is much more noticeable than that since I've been putting on muscle at the same time I've been dropping fat.

I've also decided that it is time to split up my upper body workout. I've been doing upper body once a week and lower once a week. Today I worked out my upper body for 1.5 hours and wasn't really tired, but decided to quit because I was bored. So I'll split it to do pull muscles (biceps, lats, etc..) one day and push muscles (pecs, triceps, etc...) another. Also the baby will be old enough next week to use the day care facilities at the gym so the wife and I can maybe start to play some racquetball. I miss playing it.

Work is going great. They actually came through on their promise of a big raise, which was actually a promotion and raise. They gave me another $10,000 a year, a extra week of vacation, increased my bonus pool from 2 weeks of pay to 5 weeks of pay, as well as putting me on the fast track for retention bonuses (these are basically thanks for working with us for so long, not sure about the details since it is still a couple of years off before I start to actually get one). All in all I am defiantly happy I stayed, especially since I was really thinking they'd just give me about 2 or 3,000 and that would be it. Love my company.

Grad school is still up in the air, mainly because UM is stupid. I applied for admission to a degree program last year. When you do this (and they don't tell you about this part either) you can no long enroll in classes until you've been admitted. The fact that you've been non-degree seeking is apparently irrelevant. Well, I applied in late October. In November I called asking about the status of my app. They had received everything but my GRE scores. I told them that I had my scores mailed to them when I took it in May, but apparently they lost it. So I had to send off to the GRE people, and pay them to resend my scores. UM got them at the end of December. It took a month and a half for GRE to get off it's ass and do something (let's here it for monopolies, THIS is a prime example of why they are bad). So, no admittance for me this semester. I figured they'd just take my app and review it and admit me next semester.

Fast forward to May. I haven't heard anything back from them so I call them and ask what is up. It turns out that even though they have EVERYTHING they need, and NOTHING has changed, I have to re-submit my app, AND THE WEREN'T EVEN GOING TO CONTACT ME TO TELL ME THIS!! I remember now why I hate universities so much. So I re-submit it (which is fun because apparently you can only submit once per email address, so I had to use a different email address, dumb asses!!!). Well, here it is the middle-endish of April and they still haven't given my application to the department, even though it is ready. They suck so much. If I didn't have a crappy undergrad GPA and need to get a new degree to prove later on that I can indeed do well in college I wouldn't bother with this shit hole.

On the bright side, assuming I do actually get admitted for Fall I could take up to 23 hours of classes. I'm pretty sure that would drive me insane, what with working and all, but I could. I'm thinking I'll take 8 or 11 hours. We'll see.

On a completely different note...

I've noticed that my tastes have changed as I've aged. Specifically in music. When I was young (16-20) I was really into hard stuff (original Korn, Godsmack, pretty much anything filled with hate). As I aged I have toned it down to more angsty music, but less hate (Breaking Benjamin, My Chemical Romance). Now I still listen to that stuff and still enjoy it but I like happier music now too.

Just a side note.

Now I will go call my wife and find out why she is a hour late coming home and maybe we can go to Lowes to buy some stuff we need for the house. By everyone.

orderb13 @ 2007-03-25T11:56:00

2007-03-25T17:54:20Z

I look back at the place I was when I started my journal and where I am now and it amazes me. I started to help me deal with a rough patch of life I was going through and now I'm the happiest I've ever been.

Things continue to go well here. The baby is cute as hell and the wife is great. If you want a more detailed update of the babies progress then you should read caridad's journal, as she details stuff like that much better than I do.

The big events in life always affect you ways you'd never imagine and this is no different. Having a little person that depends on you (or at least you and your SO) for everything changes your whole world view. You really have to grow up and be responsible, at least about some stuff. You can still be irresponsible about the little stuff, but the big stuff you have to just accept that things have changed. There are days when I wish this wasn't so, but I always feel like it is worthwhile.

So in the vein of being responsible I realized that I really, really needed to start hitting the gym more than I was in the past. I've been going 4-5 times a week for 5 weeks, and due to injury, only twice one week. I've managed to drop a little over 7 pounds, which is fine, but not really my goal. I am shooting for removing my beer gut, and I have managed to loose over an inch (my "fat" pants went from being a little tight to being a little loose, and I had to tighten my belt a notch), which is nice and satisfying, since I'm also gaining muscle mass, so weighing isn't really an accurate measurement of progress. I'm up to doing an hour of cardio when I go to the gym on cardio days, or running about 2.5 miles when I go for a jog, which generally take me about 20-25 minutes. Not my best, but I'm getting better and fully expect to be back running 5k's around the 25 minute mark in a couple of months. Recently caridad and I have taken a couple of walks with the puppy and the baby since the weather has been so nice. I'm hoping to make those a regular part of my exercise for the days when I don't go to the gym/jog. I'm also kind of hoping that sometime in the not too distant future I'll start getting up in the morning and jogging first thing again, like I used to do back in high school. I'm hoping that getting into a regular exercise routine will help my daughter start early and continue for her entire life.

Also we have started a budget are sticking to it pretty well. For those that don't know I managed to rack up quite a large sum in credit card debt in my younger years, close to 40k worth at it's worst. The wife and I made some progress in reducing it back when we both had jobs, but we also had other things to spend our money on (ie getting ready for the baby). Now that we are on one income things are much tighter but we are still managing to make some serious headway. Our goal it to reduce it by 1/3 by the end of the year, although I really think we can get it to 1/2, considering we've managed 1/6 is 3 months, and I should be getting a raise next month. I thought it would be hard to do this, but it turns out that is amazingly easy.

I know that some financial experts tell you not to play the balance transfer game, and to pay off the debt with the lowest balance first (Dave Ramsey, I am looking at you), but that isn't the tack we took. We did play the balance transfer game, but we played it intelligently. When we first started this there were several credit cards that had balances and APRs that were above 20%. The reason that financial planners tell you not to play the balance transfer game is that if you are not careful you'll end up owing more because of balance transfer fees (which are generally 3% of the balance transferred). Basically we evaluated all the offers that came in and evaluated the following:

What is the APR on the balance transfer?
What is the life of the APR on the balance transfer?
What is the APR of the balance we are transferring off?

What we eventually came up with is that we'd only accept the offer if

Either
1. The APR was for 0% for a decent amount of time (defined as 6 months) AND
2. There was no balance transfer fee AND
3. We we likely to be able to pay off the account before it defaulted back to the higher normal APR
Or
1. The APR was fixed for the life of the balance AND
2. We'd save more in finance charges than we'd get hit with the balance transfer fee (although in reality we only ever accept 1 offer that had a balance transfer fee, the rest all had no fee)

So we ended up with 2 cards at 0% APR (one expires in June the other Feb of next year) that we should be able to quite handily pay off before they expire, and then the rest of our balance is all on one card (American Express Blue), at a 3.9% APR for the life of the balance (probably about 2 years).

The second arrow in our quiver was our budget. In order to help pay things off as quickly as possible we decided to cut out eating out, for the most part (we budget $50 a month). Instead we cook every meal at home. This allows us to spend only $400 a month or less on food. Think about things for a moment. Let's say you go out to eat for lunch to somewhere like Taco Bell. If you get a combo meal then you spend 5 bucks. If instead you stay home and make a sandwich you spend about $1.50 (with chips and a coke). This is for a cheap lunch. If you go somewhere and have a nice, but not too nice, Italian meal, let us say, then you will probably spend around $20 a person with tip, not including alcohol. If you make the same meal at home, you'll spend, at most, $6. We also started driving the wife's car everywhere, instead of mine (she gets about twice the gas mileage I do). Started shopping the sales since there are two grocery stores that are the same distance from our house. Turning off the computer more often. We even canceled our cable (still have internet), which saves us about $30 a month, after accounting for the Netflix account we set up to replace it. Instead of buying books we now go to the library and check them out. All these things quickly add up to saving some serious cash. We also take a long and hard look before we buy anything that might break our budget, and then try to save as much cash as we can by buying it on sale or with a coupon, even it it means putting of the purchase for a while.

So, if you're finding money kind of tight, you might also considering implementing some of these procedures. It will make it easier if you use some software like Quicken so you can actually see where all your money is going. You also might find the cooking in bit easier if you sit down and make a meal plan every week before you go buy groceries. This will also help you out when you are standing there saying "I'm hungry, what do I want to make?" This phrase used to be quickly followed by "Fuck it, let's order pizza." in our house.

We are looking forward to being credit card debt free, after which we'll tackle the mortgage, and I'm looking forward to being in shape again.

Oh yeah, if anyone actually wants to come over and see the baby you are all welcome. You might want to call and make sure we are all here and available, since Beka gives piano lessons on Wen night, and is in class Tuesday night, but we'd love to have company and so would the Duchess puppy and baby.

Baby Update

2007-02-03T03:54:46Z

Ok, so I promised baby photos and here they are. Here is a selection of low res and here is a selection of high res. Incidentally I am wanting to start a website for the family, and was wondering if anyone knew of a good free web hosting company. I don't need any scripting, just plain old HTML, but it needs to be able to host the photos as well. And if you don't know of a free one, but know of a cheap one, that is good too.

Now, on to a more detailed description of the arrival Elora.

Sunday

We gave it our all to induce labor ourselves instead of having the doctors do it. We went off-roading some in my Jeep, went to the gym, hot showers, caridad had even taken Castor oil. All of this was to no avail. So at 8:00 PM on Sunday the 28th we reported to the hospital.

First thing they did when we got signed in was to give Beka an IV. The nurse took two tried to get it in, the first time she rooted around for about 6 minutes before giving up. I was watching the entire time and almost passed out myself. It was really disturbing seeing the needle wander around in my wife's arm.

After the fun IV incident they put in a Cervidil Strip which helps to soften the cervix and get it ready for delivery. This is at about 9:45 in the evening. Beka isn't allowed to move around for 2 hours so I leave her with her sister Sarah (who was staying the night) and come home to let the puppy out to pee and check on her (she had a really bad ear infection). I get back to the hospital around 11:30 and then we walk the halls until almost 1 AM trying to induce labor. With nothing forthcoming we all try to get some sleep. Beka in the uncomfortable hospital bed (of course what bed isn't uncomfortable to a 42 week pregnant woman?), me on the painful recliner thing, and Sarah on, I assume, an uncomfortable bench.

Monday

4:00 AM

We give up pretending that we are actually getting any rest and get up. Beka takes a shower and we chat nervously while waiting for the nurse to come in and start the Pitocin drip (Pitocin is what they give to women to induce birth).

5:40 AM

The nurse comes in and starts the Pitocin drip. I head home to shower and put the puppy out again, give her her medicine and get an hour of real sleep in our bed, since it was unlikely for anything to happen right away.

7:15 AM

I return to the hospital with Chick-fil-a in hand for breakfast for Sarah and myself, as Beka was not allowed to eat anything. We now talk some more while waiting for things to develop. Beka's contractions are getting stronger.

8:25 AM

Sarah is picked up by my father in law, leaving Beka and myself to waste time until anything happens. We play some card games and talked while waiting for the doctor to show and look at her. The contractions were slowly getting stronger.

9:30 AM

The doctor finally comes by to exam Beka. I had stepped out to go to the bathroom down the hall instead of invading the room with my stench and so missed it. The doctor said everything was looking good and things were progressing nicely (3cm dilated) and went ahead and popped her water in order to move things along even faster. We continue to play card and talk between the increasingly strong contractions.

10:30 AM

The baby's heart started to drop from around 140-160 to 80, which is VERY bad, after contractions so they rolled Beka on her side and gave her O₂. They also stopped the Pitocin drip and cranked open the saline all the way. Needless to say I was terrified.

11:33 AM

Everything is going fine now. They haven't turned back on the Pictocin so Beka asks the nurse if she can get up and walk around some, or even get in the shower and let the hot water run over her back. The nurse says she has to get permission from the doctor before they will allow it and she needs to see how far along things are because the doctor will ask. When she measures Beka is 4 to 5cm dilated (which is about half way). She leaves to go call the doctor and we get Beka up to go to the bathroom.

12:15 PM

The nurse returns with permission from the doctor for Beka to do whatever she wants as long as the get 15 minutes of monitoring on the heart rate/contraction monitor out of every hour. Beka says "Good" and starts to stand up to go to the bathroom for a shower and then says "I feel like I need to push", the lies back down. The nurse puts on a glove and feels and says, "That is because it is time the push. The baby's head is right there." She has me page the nurses station and tells them to call the doctor and tell her that she needs to get here right now. She also tells them to go ahead and bring in the sterile table and the delivery nurses because the baby is going to come any minute now and it is unlikely that the doctor will make it in time. The nurses come in and gown up and we all sit around waiting on the doctor to show while the main nurse tells Beka not to push.

12:33 PM

Elora Hayley Sawyer bursts out into the world and is, quite literally, caught by the nurse. She flew about 8 or so inches through the air. The doctor had failed to make it in time (we found out later that she was delivering another baby across town). I go and watch them clean her up for a bit while the nurses take care of the after birth stuff.

There is no feeling in the world that compares to seeing your child for the first time. It truly is a magical moment and it brought tears to my eyes. Everything was going to be different from then on out but I have never, ever, been happier.

All in all it was a good delivery. Beka had made it through without pain meds, or a C-section, like she was hoping. There was no tearing and the doctor gave her a clean bill of health to do whatever she wanted as soon as she wanted. She is still supposed to take it easy, but she isn't restricted like a lot of new mothers are.

I am pretty tired, so I think I'll end things there. I'll post about coming home and the dog's reaction to Elora later, for I am now to the bathtub and then bed.

Announcement

2007-01-31T02:51:54Z

Just a quick announcement before I catch some shut eye.

Elora Hayley Sawyer (this would be my daughter)
born on Jan 29, 2007 at 12:33 PM
6 lbs. 15 oz.
19.5"
brown hair, blue eyes (will most likely change)

Both mom and baby are doing great and came home today.

I will post some pictures and fun labor stories when I am coherent enough to spell my daughter's name correctly on the first try

Idiots

2006-10-31T00:17:31Z

I am bored and in class with a computer, therefor it is time to update my LJ.

The dumba$$ network admins at work have been messing around with stuff and now LJ is blocked. They've also screwed up our network connection to our NJ office even more than it used to be. IT constantly amazes me that people as stupid and ignorant as I see in IT every day actually have the balls to call themselves admins/programmers/dba/whatever. Seriously, most of the people in this field are so stupid that I'm convinced they have to hold their breath while they are typing because their brain is incapable of breathing and doing anything else at the same time.

Consequently, my recent grad school classes have let me now see how this happens. My classes are a complete joke. Really, they are. The people in them are some of the worst students I have ever seen. UA was not a bastion of intellectual activity, by any means, but compared to UM it was populated with Einsteins. One of the classes I'm taking is Data Structures, and is such a waste of time. The class is 2/3's done and we haven't gotten to data structures yet, we been covering how to use Visual Studio's IDE and BASIC (as in simple, not the language) programing, such as arrays. This is the third programming class these students are suppossed to have had and they don't know what an array is. Most of them seem to want to do programming because "it pays well". Hell, I'm pretty sure that I know more about programming than my prof in this class does.

So yeah, I'm pretty frustrated. I imagined grad school would teach me fun things, or at least teach me something I didn't know that would be useful. Nothing so far. Of course, I'm only taking 1 grad class and 1 undergrad. Oh well, maybe my next set of classes will be better, but no hopes.

You might be wondering why I don't just stop wasting my money on the stupid masters until I get to a place with a better school. Well, because *I* was a moron when an undergrad, my GPA sucks. So I'm using school here to prove to my next grad school (whereever that may be, and for whatever program) to prove that I actually can be a good student. So yeah, I was an idiot and now paying for it, and will continue to pay for it for probably the next 5 years or so (if I only take 1 class a semester, two semesters a year).

Of course I'm not really sure how much longer I can stay in IT. I'm definatly starting to feel burned out. Could be I just need a vacation though.

So bored.

Job and whatnot

2006-08-13T17:33:02Z

Time to post an update I guess.

I went and interviewed with the other company. Everyone there was in ties (I hate wearing ties). The interview went well. When I went back to work the next day the boss and I talked. I told her that I didn't want to leave but I really needed more money. She said she would see what she could do but since this was out of the normal cycle she'd have to go to the CEO again and it was unlikely to change, but that in April they'd get me a kick ass raise (10+%) and they'd give me a great bonus too. Even with the other raise it wouldn't be as much as I'd be making from the other job, but I really like working where I'm at. So the wife and I talked about it and we decided we could make due with what I'm getting. I went back and told the boss and she was quite happy.

So, much less stress now that things in that dept have settled down.

The other night there was a nice little thunderstorm here. The Duchess puppy is very frightened of them and gets in bed when they happen. This occurred around 3 AM. Since there was no room for me, the dog, and the wife in the bed I couldn't get back to sleep since I felt like I was going to fall out of the bed. So I decided enough is enough, it is time to get a new bed. Yesterday we went bed shopping. We ended up with a REALLY, REALLY nice and soft king sized bed. It was suppossed to be delivered last night between 6-9PM, but it was not :-(. I called them a little while ago and they explained that while the system reserved that time for the bed to be delivered. It was actually too late by the time we bought it for it to get delivered that day. This translates to: The wharehouse is full of lazy ass's and didn't notice that they were suppossed to. They said that it would be delivered between 4-7 today. Yay!

For those of you that are in the market for a new bed Mattress Firm is having their 20th Anniversy sale so now is a good time to buy from them. They have all kinds of good deals and some good financing if you qualify (6, 9 or 12 months no interest, no payments, or 20 months no interest equal payments so it is actually paid off at the end). I'm looking forward to being able to sleep soundly at night again, as I haven't been sleeping as well for the past couple of months due to the old bed wearing out.

And that is pretty much all for now. We should find out the baby's sex in a couple of weeks.

Later

More changes in my life

2006-08-01T16:02:47Z

Since I'm sick and at home I guess I'll update this.

I've been getting job offers (by which I mean recruiters contacting me about jobs) since I started to work where I currently do. They have been ignorable (only a couple to 1-15% pay increase and contract to hire). Recently I had two offers in two months where that were from 40-50% more than I'm making, which is a completely different story.

Now, for those that aren't aware (somehow), the wife is pregnant and wants to quit when the baby comes (in Jan). So, this would go a long way to making up the difference when she quits.

The problem being that I really like my job. I like the location (it is close to home), I like the beneifits, I like the people, I like the freedom that I have there, and I like the actual work that I do. What I didn't like, and never really have, is what they pay me. So I went to my boss (which will be referred to as S) and laid it out for her. She doesn't want me to leave so she said she would see what she could do. I told her I needed at least 25% more to make me stay.

Today I hear back from S's boss (which will be referred to as J). J. said that the most they could get me was 16% right now, but she would give me more of a bonus than she was suppossed to, come bonus time, and then in April she'd try to get me another raise.

This is the same day I have a phone interview with one of the other companies (this one is paying 40% than what I was making, or 21% more than what I'll be making with the raise).

I told her I would have to run the number to see if that was enough. She was really cool about it. She completely understood that if it wasn't enough I would have to go else where. And we all agree that the company has to make some changes in what they are paying their tech people if they want to attract, and retain, really good programmers.

I've got a face-to-face interview with the company tomorrow. I expect it to go well and plan on taking the job if they offer it. I mean I really can't turn down that much money unless the place really sucks or something. The good thing is that even if I go I'll be helping S. and J., in the long run, by showing that they aren't paying enough, since they'll have a hard salary that I left to get (I'll tell them what I'll be making). Although I really will hate to leave them, but needs must.

While Beka and I could get by on what they are paying me and pay all the bills, it would leave VERY little wiggle room and require me to get more student loans for my masters. If I get the other job then I won't need the loans and we'll have more wiggle room if unexpected exenses come up and we'll be able to pay off our debt faster.

The down side to taking the new job is that I'll have to commute INTO the city for work, but such is life. The up side is that I'll be working in the banking industry, which is generally really hard to get into, but once you're in you are in good shape.

On a different note I'm almost done with my summer class. I have a test on Wen and final on Mon. Yay. What a joke. I'm going to lie down for a bit now. Later

T minus 7 months

2006-06-26T21:03:59Z

I'll get to the title in a bit. First a general update.

caridad and I decided to buy a house instead of renting one when the lease expired on the house, so we started house shopping. For those that don't know house shopping is exhausting. It saps the strength right out of you. After only a month we found a house we liked and started the purchasing process. On May 30th we closed on the house. On May 31st I started my first class on the way to grad school (it is an undergrad class to fill in some holes).

We planned on moving in on June 3rd. Had the movers scheduled and everything and the cable guy was coming out to turn on our cable. During this time work is extremely hectic in a push to get our new e-commerce site up and running (we are currently 2 months past the launch date, and it isn't launched yet). Also the washer decided to break about then, so we have to go to my in-laws in order to wash clothes.

So I'm stressed from work, stressed because we are moving, stress from lots of little things like the broken washer and what not and there is another stress (related to the title, which I'll get to later). Then on June 1st my grandfather died. So, I started smoking again (kind of stressed). The viewing got scheduled for the 3rd from 6 to 9 PM and the funeral was on the 4th.

On Saturday we wake up early and drop the puppy off at the vet to be boarded. The movers show up at 8:00 and we begin to move. I thought it would take at most 3 hours for them to move us. They finish LOADING at 12:00. So while the movers are unloading at the new house (which is great, btw) the cable guy shows up to install cable. The movers finish around 2:30. The wife and I frantically unpack enough to find clothes to go to the funeral in and shower and pack back up and leave town.

We arrive at the viewing at 8:00. There were lots of people that came and it was good to see some relatives I hadn't seen in a while. After the funeral there was a family get together and a I learned a lot about my grandfather that I never knew. It was interesting. We stayed around on Monday to help with things that needed to be done and walked through his house once more. Kind of sad. We left Monday evening and got back in town late. I think I held it together pretty well and it was made easier by having my loving wife there.

Of course the biggest change in my life relates to the subject line of this post. Sometime around January 13th, if everything goes well, I will become a father. Yes, you read that right.

Needless to say, things are kind of hectic around the household. We told our parents and siblings yesterday. My parents were all happy (after asking if I was kidding). My brother cackled when we told him. Her parents were very happy to have their first grandchild on the way.

I am fairly nervous and pretty scared. Not really sure how to be a dad, or if I'm ready for it. Of course, it is going to happen even if I'm not ready, which kind of makes it worse, kind of makes it better. There was so much I wanted to do before having kids, so much I wanted to see. Of course, the same was kind of true about getting married and I don't regret that.

This year has definitely seen the most change in my life ever. It doesn't look to be slowing down either.

Spend some money

2006-04-14T20:40:47Z

Well, I'm at work and I'm letting my mind relax while it thinks about some stuff. So I decided I would write here.

A couple of weeks ago I started getting splitting headaches. Really, really, really painful ones. The fist day it happened I came home from work and since it hadn't stoped hurting (it didn't hurt as much, but it was still there) the next day I decided a trip to the doctor was in order. They did some field sobriety tests on me and then took some blood. A week goes by and the headaches continue. They get better, they get worse, but most days my head is hurting. I go back to the doctor and they say my blood work is fine so I need to have an MRI. This past Monday I went in for the MRI. Haven't gotten my results yet. :-( I was hoping to have something by today but apparently not.

On a completely different note, caridad and I have decided to buy a house (assuming I don't have a brain tumor). This has led us to explore the memphis house pricing. :-(

So, the delima is, live in Memphis, close to school or move out to Bartlett and buy a newer, bigger house for 100,000 less. It is really disturbing to see the drop in price that happens by just moving out 10 miles.

If we weren't both starting grad school (assuming I'm admitted, since I haven't applied yet) I would definatly say moving out to the Bartlett/Cordova area would be our best move, but since we are I'm not too sure it is the best move. Living where we do is very convient for both of us since traffic is light going to and coming home from work and it is close to the school.

Yep, that's it for me for now. I'll let everyone know when I get update about the MRI.

How the wedding went and other things

2006-03-28T13:55:42Z

So, I am now actually going to post how the wedding went. The funny thing about it is that I don't really remember alot of the details. I remember the generalities and most of the stuff that went on before hand, but once I walked down the isle it all got kind of blurry until it was over and we were in the car to leave.

The wedding was suppossed to start at 1:00 PM, so caridad and I were suppossed to start taking pictures around 10 AM. I was suppossed to drop off her dress at the Gardens, where she was getting ready at 9 AM and then go home and get ready and be back by 10. Well, needless to say not everything went as planned. I dropped off the dress at 9 but didn't get back until 10:30. That wasn't really important since she wasn't ready until about 11:00-11:15. We were suppossed to take family shots starting around 12:00. They didn't start happening until 12:30. So I'm stress out, she's stressing out. The families are running around and I'm trying to herd them all together for pictures and it was like herding lemmings or something. We didn't get all the pictures we wanted but oh well. The cermony started around 1:15 or so. After that I don't remember much. We got married, and mingled and danced and mingled and then we were in the car leaving.

So there we go, a condensed version of how the wedding went.

Now the other stuff.

The GRE was just as annoying as I thought it would be. I did get out of it early. I wrote nice 4 or so paragraph essays for the two writing part. I was really hoping to break 1400, but I didn't. I got close though, 640 verbal and 740 math. That should be sufficient to get me into grad school here. I'll just have to do really well in grad school here to get into better programs elsewhere later.

Now I must accomplish some work.

Later

Wasting time

2006-03-24T15:50:08Z

So, it has been a while since I updated (not really sure when the last one was) and I've got some down time (finally) at work, so I decided I would do the deed.

Being married is good. We still haven't managed to unpack everything yet. I'm hoping to get everything unpacked by the time we move, which will be in May or June. We are hoping to get a cheaper place to save some money, but we will have to see.

I take the GRE tomorrow (yuck). I plan on starting on my masters in the fall in Engineering Technology (basically applied CS). This should be interesting and definatly help out in the future when I look for another job. On the down side with working full time and taking classes for a masters I'm not going to have much free time. Of course my wife is also probably starting her masters in Collaborative Piano in the fall, so we'll be busy together. Of course she wants to quit her job when she starts grad school so she won't be as busy as I am. I would like her to continue as long as she can stand it, extra money is always a good thing.

I'm hoping to get the place cleaned up enough to start having people over for games and what not soon (of course I've been hoping this for a while now). Maybe I'll be able to get the wife to unpack some this weekend.

I no longer go out to eat nearly as much as I used to. As a matter of fact we've eaten at home for every meal this week so far. Doing a lot more cooking which is lots of fun. After some rough starts we actually mesh pretty well in the kitchen. Usually it is one of us doing "primary" and the other helping, but sometimes we each have our things we are responsible for. It's pretty fun.

So yeah, pretty sedate and everything. Kind of nervous about the GRE, but such is life.

Back to work for me.

Year in review

2006-02-02T14:42:23Z

So, I realize that it is a month after the new year, but I've been kind of busy, so I will post my year in review now.

This past year was definatly the most interesting year I've had so far. The end of January I quit my job at Service Master because I had gotten a job contracting with Brother. I then started watching Buffy and Angel and finished all of Buffy and most of Angel in the two weeks I had in between jobs in Feb. Nothing really notable happened much for a bit. I started going out to lunch with caridad more often. Dragon Con came and went. Had a lot of fun there. We played Order of the Eye one more time and totally kicked ass. After two years in a row as major plot characters I am ready to give plot characters a break for a bit. Shortly after Dragon Con caridad and I had a DTR (define the relationship) talk where I told her we couldn't ever have anything because of her religion. About one month later we were engaged. Spent the rest of the year frantically planning a wedding and taking ballroom dancing lessons. Went and visited my brother over christmas.

Yep, that is my year in a small nutshell. Ok, time to do some work. Next I'll post about the actual wedding itself.

orderb13 @ 2005-11-11T13:37:00

2005-11-11T19:38:13Z

So it looks like Jan 28 2006, is the day of reckoning. I am excited. We will be doing invites and stuff, and I need anyone that wants to attend addresses (except you, nataspowers, I know where you live) and full names or you'll just going to get my best guess at how to spell it and it will look funny.

So yeah, email me your names and adress (email is on my info page).

Now back to work. Suck ass.

And it continues

2005-11-07T16:16:37Z

So, everyone welcome caridad (Beka) to LJ.

This weekend I took caridad to meet my folks. I had it all planned out and I was going to make my mom cry. So we get to my folks at about 10:30 and I introduce her to my parents as "the woman I'm going to marry". Their response was "Yeah, we figured it was something like that". Talk about busting my bubble and everything.

Oh yeah, I'm getting married. No, the date isn't set yet, but it is sometime between tomorrow and April 3. We are still debating exactly when.

Anyways, I digress. I was so looking forward to having my mom break down (I know, I'm a mean bastard), but it didn't happen. Oh well. The weekend was good. They grilled her some. My dad sat us down and gave us a talk about getting married. We'd already talked about, in detail, every point he brought up. It was kind of funny.

She got along really well with my parents and they love her. It was a really good weekend.

We took a book with us called Don't You Dare Get Married Until You've Read This! It was a pretty funny book. We went through the questions on the way down and the way back. There were a lot of good questions in there that most people should talk about before getting married. We'd already discussed the vast majority of them though, due to the whole difference of religion thing.

I feel really good about this, better than I've ever felt about anything, and I really can't wait.

We've already told her parents and her dad and I had a chat. I was going to ask his permission but he started talking as soon as I got to his office (he's a college prof) and ended up giving it before I could ask for it.

We're meeting with her folks later in the week to discuss the actual wedding. We're wanting to get married in the Virgin Islands, but once again, plans may change. Each day the courthouse looks more and more attractive. So I'll keep everyone updated.

This past month has been the best of my life.

Cheese and wine

2005-10-27T15:34:56Z

I think my jaw is either going to fall off or I'm going to have HUGE jaw muscles when I finally get done quitting. I'm chewing gum non-stop. Well, not completely true. When I sleep I don't chew gum, but that is pretty much it. :-(

It is the tiniest bit easier today. I didn't go to M-night last night because I was afraid that I'd smoke since almost everyone there does. Instead Beka and I went costume shopping. I got mine and it works pretty well. Unfortunatly hers didn't fit at all. Apparently a "medium" in this costume is meant for someone who is about 4' 9", not 5' 9". Not sure what she is going to do for the party on Saturday. We shall see.

Hard work

2005-10-26T13:36:28Z

So, I got up today, at little late (need more sleep). Took a nice hot shower, and then put on the patch. So maybe I'll actually be able to quit smoking for good this time. Good thoughts and encouragment are greatly appreciated.

Where was I?

2005-08-16T13:42:16Z

Ahh, yes.

So, I must go pee in a cup for a drug test. Love doing that. Unfortunatly I had just peed before I got called into HR's office. So on my way to the drug testing place I realized that I didn't have to pee. So I stopped at Taco Hell and had a burrito and drank lots of water. Even doing that it was a close call.

So after making the neccesarry deposit I drove downtown to meet the boss. We were going to an event that we had done the webstuff for. We walked around for a while and talked to the people about it and what not. The boss took copious notes.

After that she took me to the Saucer. Then we had a couple of the $30 beers and the cheese plate. Then went home around 5.

Overall, not a bad day yesterday.

Now I must go tell HR that I accept the position.