Mere weeks

I’m looking at my whiteboard in my office and noticing that there are
less than six weeks until I’m out of here and up to Maryland for my
wedding. I’m absolutely thrilled at the thought!!

Been caught slacking

I’m slacking in most aspects of my life right now.  Christina’s gone for the weekend for some wedding planning in Maryland while I keep busy with work and ending my current infection of procrastination.

The setting of a long weekend alone and an absence of motivation is perfectly accompanied by this song: Middle East’s “Blood”

Wedding Trip #2

I’ve got a weekend of wedding planning ahead of me.

Christina and I head up to Maryland this weekend to flesh out some of our plans for our event.  Up to this point I’ve been fairly out of the loop.  This is sometimes by choice, sometimes by a simple turn of events.  I think this weekend will find me more involved.

I know that we’ve got the concept of the wedding rehearsal down, but I don’t know if we know all the details.  The idea is that it will be “if you are invited to the wedding, you’re invited to the rehearsal” type of thing.  More casual than the wedding, but I don’t think it’ll be jeans and a t-shirt casual.  More of a cook-out type of environment. The location is a manor near the ceremony and reception spot.  I’m really looking forward to this part of the weekend.  I think that the day of the ceremony and reception will be such a whirlwind that the rehearsal night will really be the time that I can hang out and socialize with everyone.

The ceremony location is set, but I think the most work we have left to do is related to the ceremony and reception.  That’s probably not uncommon.  Who knows, I’ve never been married.  One of the red flags in my head is a back-up location.  The ceremony is going to be outside, and we haven’t looked around for a site in case a storm rolls in.  I’m not sure, but I think we’ll have the reception outside (in tents) regardless.

Christina and I were up in Maryland months ago which I suppose was our first official planning trip.  That consisted of address lists for the folks we were going to invite and a bit of preliminary scouting for hotels and suppliers.  Planning for an event at a remote location has been odd because the actual planning takes place in concentrated spurts with lots of lag time in between.  Usually this  makes me worried as I tend to be a bit OCD when planning things I’m involved in or responsible for.  We’ve gotten some resources up near DC to help us out with a lot of this, so it’s all good.

I’m looking forward to taking some pictures of the different sites, and I was told there will be food tasting as well.

I like food.

your choice was right
no chance to be there now
i swear I’m done
no one to lead you back

it’s yours to find
it’s all you’ve ever done
you’re falling down
you’ll falling back to us

“As usual”

I saw this Carl Sagan video a while back, and got a chuckle when I saw this picture today.

Regarding hardware and air filters…

There’s something I never quite understood about the excitement surrounding a trip to Home Depot or Lowe’s on a weekend afternoon that so many men seem to share.  Was I lacking some male component that this didn’t appeal to me, or I thought of a trip to the hardware store as a chore?

No.  What I was missing was a garage.

The little, covered, unfinished, shelf-filled, peg-board-wall-covered haven that came with our house has unlocked a long-dormant manlier-man hidden inside this hardwired computer geek.  All of a sudden my to-do list is filled with things like “buy a shop vac”, “buy bike hooks”, “buy a dry-wall saw”.  All tasks lovingly checked off after a trip to the store.

Ever since we moved into the house I’ve found so many little things to do that aren’t actually necessary for me to get through my day, but the act of completing these tasks are tiny victories in a life that is filled less and less with free time.  These days projects at work span months and years, there are long time-spans between vacations, and a car loan that has years to go until that feeling of accomplishment with the final payment.

I wired my house for CAT6 Ethernet even though I have a wireless router.  I changed the air filter on my little Mazda 3 instead of having it done during my last service.  I organized all of my tools on the peg-board wall in my garage even though getting them out of my toolbox took no effort.

Does the fact that these tasks have to do with the house or car (as opposed to my computer) make them more acceptable to my fiancee?  Do I undertake these low return-on-investment projects simply because I know it’ll be a task I do on my own and can take care of my introvert?

Next stop: oil changes.

My Friday has begun

I’m off work tomorrow.  Christina and I head up north to meet with several DC and NYC cohorts to head out to the eastern shore of Maryland.  Right around here.  We planned this trip months ago as a Fall getaway, a way to see some friends that have been missing from our day to day, and as an added bonus, we’re going to look at the feasibility of having our wedding out there.  I can’t wait to see everyone.

We’ve got a few missing from the trip, but they’ve assured us they’ll be down to Naples this winter when their respective homes are frozen, which is excellent.

Begin geek section: In metaphorically morbid news, the gamer in me has a chronic illness and is starting to die.  I’ve had plans to upgrade the home PC and I’m finding that the money I’d like to put into the new system may not even be worth it. I’m also pretty much done with wargaming and other table-top games.  The time investment to enjoyment ratio is just too low.

When it comes down to it, the two things that make any sort of gaming fun for me are lacking:  time and the right people.

I may still build a new machine in order to stop using my laptop-acting-as-a-desktop sometime early next year, but with most of my gaming friends growing older, having kids, obligations, and other activities, the days spent in gaming bliss are hard to find when I look at my calendar.

So I took her by the arm, we settled down upon a farm
And raised our children up as gently as you please

And now my fur has turned to skin and I’ve been quickly ushered in
To a world that I confess I do not know
But I still dream of running careless through the snow

Asked and answered

On the 49th-month anniversary of Christina and I’s relationship, she accepted my proposal and we’re now engaged to be married sometime in the Fall of 2010.

There will be much rejoicing.

Seriously

I don’t know, I’m working on the theme here. Hopefully I’ll have something hammered out by Monday.

Go forth

The newer series of Levi’s ads are awesome.  I would love to create these types of sequences…

America

OPioneers!

Word is good

I work for a company that is part of another company.  I’ve been here for over ten months and am still learning my way around.   My boss is our main link back to the parent company, and he is often on trips coming back with stories of victory and woe.

Recently he’s been giving off a bit more of a negative feel that had me a bit worried.

As nice is Naples is for those that no longer need to work to get by, there isn’t exactly an abundance of technology related positions floating around.  I love my office here at work (a door that closes, dual monitors, huge whiteboard) and am actually elbow-deep in some interesting code, but these recent vent sessions were causing me a bit of worry.  Well today the parent company’s CEO came to meet most of us, chatted with us for several hours, and went out to lunch and the extremely-slow Naples Ale House.  It was a gesture of “don’t worry”, and for what it’s worth, I’m less worried.  My boss asked if we felt better and the best I could reply was, “For what he can do to reassure me, he’s done so.”

Basically when what I have to go on is the word of my superiors, the word is good… for now.

Until fully grown, you got a real good shot
Won’t help to hold inside, keep it real, keep it real, shout out