November 14, 2009

New kitchen faucet

Today we finally replaced the nasty old drippy faucet in the kitchen. The faucet we chose is made by Delta, it's called Bellini. We chose it because it was clean looking and was very tall which makes getting large pots under it easy and provides more room to wash those large pots too.

Here are some pictures of the process.

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April 26, 2009

NEW HOUSE

This is my first post after moving into the new house. We've been here for a month now, I'll be posting hi-res versions of pictures/videos in the next few weeks. Check my facebook (if you have access) for what's currently visible.

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August 18, 2008

Hail Storm - 8/17/08

Yesterday mom and I were in Albuquerque printing her boarding passes for her flight. On our way home I decided to take the scenic route through Isleta pueblo and then down Rt 47 in Los Lunas though Tome and into Belen that way. We made it to the Tome Art Gallery and it started to hail... Hard! I turned around and tried to get away from it, the hail was about an inch in diameter!!!
We ended up going home through Los Lunas on Rt 314. When we got into Belen there was hail piled on the roads/grass/roofs as if it were snow! There was a lot of water puddled up and several side streets had completely flooded. We stopped at the park near downtown Belen because all the trees there had been stripped of their leaves by the force of all the hail. The ground was littered with small branches mixed with large quarter-sized hail.
We got to where I needed to turn to get to my street and I couldn't because the runoff from the storm was washing over the end of the street so fast that had I tried my car would have been washed into the drainage ditch. We had to drive several streets up the road to higher ground before I could get into my neighborhood.
Here are some of the videos I took with my cell phone, my mom's digital camera has some more videos on it and once I get them I'll be adding them to this playlist on YouTube: Hail Storm Playlist.

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June 19, 2008

Heat wave!

According to my thermometer, this was the new high temperature reached today.

music note Currently Playing: Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

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June 18, 2008

Hotter still

Well I guess I spoke too soon

music note Currently Playing: Kanye West - Stronger

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Hot, hot, hot

So the past week or so has been insanely hot. Yesterday it got up to 99.7°F, and Monday topped out at just over 101°F!!! It was all I could do to keep from melting... last night I had to move my two servers into the kitchen to try and keep them from overheating; I think that they were contributing to the heat in the living room... I did have 3 computers in there.

Don't believe me?  Check this out:

Hopefully things will start to cool off, but I'm not holding my breath.

music note Currently Playing: Dashboard Confessional - Age Six Racer

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March 2, 2008

Moving...

Erin finished her Master degree requirements and we've decided that she is going to move to Alabama and live with her parents until I can find a job in that area.  We rented a Penske truck and spent an entire day filling it up.  Erin took Zack in her car and followed me in the truck.  We set out Thursday morning and made it to Oklahoma City that night.  We set out at a reasonable time Friday morning and made it to Memphis for the night.  From Memphis the drive was only 5 hours or so; we made it to Huntsville just after lunch time.

Erin's parents were able to get us a storage unit which so we spent a couple hours unloading the truck and filling the space.  We couldn't be up too late as I had a flight the next day.

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January 11, 2008

Back Home

So we made it home ok a couple weeks ago. We had a relaxing New Years, went to bed at 10pm after celebrating with the East coast. Zack got all trimmed nice last weekend and this weekend we don't have anything planned. We'll be posting pictures/videos from our Christmas this weekend and updating this site with links so check back soon.

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December 27, 2007

In the car, yet again!

So we're mostly packed for the trip back to New Mexico. We've got almost everything in suitcases or bags and in the hall ready to go into the car. We're not planning on leaving until around 10am as Meriah doesn't get out of work until around 6pm. Hopefully the drive will be uneventful (I'm sure it will be) and we'll make good time. We're taking Sat off from driving and will just hang out with Meriah, since we didn't get that chance on our trip out to Alabama.

We should be back in New Mexico sometime Sunday night, probably around 8pm. I'm not working until 10am on Monday, so I should be able to get some sleep before having to be back at work. Tuesday is New Year's and I'm not working a full day so that will help me recover, but Wednesday is a sale changeover so I've got to be at work extra early for that (UGH!). Oh well, no rest for the weary I guess.

Ok, sleep now!

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December 25, 2007

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas!! We're having a great time in Alabama, we just got done opening presents, having breakfast (at noon!), and getting things cleaned up some in the living room. Erin and I got a bunch of stuff that we had asked for, as well as a bunch of stuff that we didn't that we enjoy just as much. From movies, to tools, to games, to clothes; everything is great and we will get loads of use out of.

I won't bore everyone with a list of what we each got, but we were very glad to be able to come out to Alabama and visit family and hang out for a while (even if it was only for a week for me, Erin got 2). I am much more relaxed and have some great opportunities that may open up for me in the near future (keep your fingers crossed).

Alright, time to go back to everyone and visit.

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September 17, 2007

A World of Hurt

Last night around 5am I woke up and there was something in the bed, and it was not invited... It was a Giant Centipede!!!! Needless to say I got it out of the bed as quickly as I could, but I wasn't sure if it made it to the floor and even if it did I wanted to get it out of the house. So, I got out of bed and started to check the covers to make sure it was out of the bed, when all the sudden I felt a sharp pain in my toe! Instinct took over and I just reached down with my hand, grabbed/squished whatever it was and threw it.

Then I went about trying to find the darn thing, I'll mention that it wasn't until this point that I was thinking centipede; I hadn't actually seen it yet. I went to try and ease the pain that was making my foot throb, not to mention the fact that my toe was twice its normal size!

I spent almost 20 minutes looking for the stupid thing and finally found it in the corner of the bedroom on top of a box that was there. Needless to say it was in pretty bad shape, but wasn't dead yet. I made sure of that immediately by sending it down the bathroom water slide! Bye-Bye!

UPDATED (09/18/07): here's a picture of what they look like when not dead!
giantcentipede.jpg

This one was about 3.5 inches long, but they apparently can reach lengths of almost/over 12 inches! This is NOT something you want to have running towards your feet, as the bite does contain venom and while not lethal unless you're allergic, it WILL HURT and can for anywhere from 2-3 hours to 2-3 DAYS!

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June 28, 2007

Hiatus

My dad made it to Phoenix Tuesday without issue. Erin and I are going to Gallup tomorrow night to stay the weekend at his cousin's and then he will be staying with us all next week.
On the agenda for the week:

Can we do it!? We'll find out.

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April 1, 2007

Welcome Zack

Erin and I got a puppy this weekend!!! His name is Zack and he is an 11-week old miniature schnauzer. He is really cool and loads of fun, not to mention tiring. Loves to chew on everything and is full of energy. He's still working on making it outside before having an accident, but we're very close already to having him housebroken.

I've posted the first pictures here on my website, check them out when you have a chance.

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March 26, 2007

UPDATE: Back from Vacation

So we're back from our whirl-wind tour of New England. We had a great time seeing family/friends and we even got a little snow (~11")!! Glad to be back to our daily routine, and the water heater is fixed, but not replaced; our landlord was able to replace the plastic faucet on the water heater with a metal one! Now it shouldn't leak anymore! YEAH!

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March 7, 2007

Water, water everywhere... Not a drop to drink

So I came home today and after listening to the answering machine I heard a dripping sound coming from the closet with the furnace and the water heater in it. I open the door and I'm greeted by a running faucet at the bottom of the water heater and it's running down the floor and under the platform that the water heater is sitting on. I pulled the pressure/temperature relief valve and made it drip less, but it was still dripping. I put a cup under the drip and sat down to watch TV.

Erin came home and went into the closet to start getting things together to pack for our trip and discovered that the water had been seeping under the floor and into the carpet in the closet in our bedroom. We called our landlord and after conferring with his brother, the plumber, decided to replace the water heater because it's easier to do. So tomorrow our landlord, and possibly his brother, is coming to replace our water heater.

I'm hoping it doesn't explode overnight and spray water everywhere and ruin our stuff. That would suck royally. I tried to connect our hose to the faucet and run it to the kitchen sink but I can't get the hose to screw onto the faucet enough to create a seal so the water just runs down the hose onto the floor instead of into the hose and then the sink. What I've got is a pail propped under the faucet because a cup just won't cut it! AAAAHHHHH!!! I'm going on vacation on Friday for a week!!!

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January 19, 2007

Shadow - 1989 - 2007

Shadow was my first and only pet, I got her the summer before sixth grade. A friend of mine had a farm and their cat had kittens and he was giving them away for free. My dad and I went to pick one out and when I saw her I knew that she was the one I wanted. She rode home in the car with us and because we didn't have a cat-carrier I had to hold her on my lap/chest the whole way (not far, but far enough). When we got home she got away from me and hid under the front seat in my dad's car; it took us about 5 minutes to get her out and into the house.

She used to climb up the screen on the porch to the top and then, because she was afraid to let go to climb down, would stay there and meow at us to help her get down. She also sometimes did this on trees in the front yard when I would let her outside. She would get to about 4 feet up and get scared of the height and turn her little head around at me and meow until I got her down.

She would purr very loudly when I petted her, and she would dig her claws into my shoulder when I would hold her. She was playful as well as stubborn and territorial; when my brother gave my little sister a kitten a few years ago Shadow didn't want anything to do with her... she had been the only cat in the house for over 15 years, and now there was an "invader." They eventually were able to get along once Ziggy (my sister's cat) figured out that she wasn't the boss of the house.

I miss her, and it was a hard decision to make, but I know it was the right thing for her. I will post pictures of her once I get some in the mail.

EDIT: here's a couple of pictures I have from May 2006: image | image

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December 19, 2006

Oh the weather outside is... AWESOME!!!!

It snowed today!!! It's still snowing outside!!! It's supposed to keep this up until tonight, possibly into tomorrow morning!!!!
Check it out:

snow

snow

snow

snow (movie)

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December 12, 2006

Long time no update

I haven't posted anything personal in a while so here's a sort of update of what's been up.

Still working, just going through the daily grind doing the same-old-same-old. I need to hang on a little longer an the regional IT position I want to apply for is going to be posted. I also get my stock options in March for reaching the 6,000 service hour mark. Erin and I are gearing up for the holiday, Erin's family will be here the 22nd through the 26/27th. I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet, I've got a couple of ideas for people; otherwise I'm clueless.

I'm studying to take the A+ certification exam early next year and my regional coordinator is going to be spending a day here at my store so I'm going to ask him what kinds of things I can do to prepare for the position I want to apply for. I'm thinking of also going after the Cisco Certified Network Administrator (CCNA) certification as well.

I've got an additional computer in the house now, I got it from someone I work with who bought a new Mac Pro. I've been messing with it and µbuntu Linux; got it working then I tried something else so it's kinda in limbo right now. I was going to convert it to a DVR, but the TV-tuner card in it isn't supported by the linux I put on it to record TV.

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November 29, 2006

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

So it snowed this morning. Not much, and it was very light and melted before it even hit the ground, but it was still "snow." It was raining at home, but in Albuquerque it was snowing as I walked from my car into the store. Signs of things to come?... Let's hope so!!

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November 25, 2006

Thanksgiving 2006

Pictures of our second Thanksgiving feast are posted here: nm.computerdave.net.

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November 20, 2006

NINTENDO WII!!!!!

I sat in a hard plastic chair for 6 hours on Saturday night in the layaway department of my local Walmart to have the privelage of purchasing one of the first Nintendo Wii's for sale at 12:01am Sunday, November 19. I was #9 in line and let me just say that before you ask... "YES, IT WAS WORTH IT!!!" This thing is the most amazing game experience I've had in a long time. It's got some of the coolest features you could ever ask for:

What can I say, this thing is awesome!!! I love it, my wife loves it, her sister and her boyfriend camped out (read: tent/sleeping bags) at a Best Buy all night and got one each (one to sell on eBay).

Read more about the experience after the jump...

So here's how it worked at the store I bought them:


YEAH WII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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September 24, 2006

We're dorks

So we're a couple of dorks, we set up our new tent in our study to see what it would look like. The tent is 17' by 9'; our study... 17' 8" by 15'!!
link

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June 7, 2006

Everything is Hot, Hot, Hot

Well Monday I wrote about it being really hot, and on the way home I drove by that sign near our house and it said... wait for it... 105°!!!! It was frickin' crazy man!! Yesterday was a little more cloudy and it was only 93°, but still warm. Then today it thunderstorms and we get torrential downpours for like 20 minutes. I get soaked walking out to my car to put my windows up so I'm not swimming home and now my feet are freezing because they haven't dried out completely. Oh well, these past couple of days have reminded me of New England, you never know what the weather is gonna do from one minute to the next, we had totally gotten used to it being hot every day and this was a curveball. I don't care much though, we needed the water so desperately.

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June 5, 2006

So you think it's hot where you are!?

So you think it's hot where you are huh? Well yesterday in Belen it was 101° and the high for today... yup, you guessed it 101° AGAIN!!!!! I went outside to go get something to eat at McDonald's and I decided that I'd eat there instead of getting back in my car with my hot food and sitting in the sun. Yeah, I've had to resort to using my windsheild screens to keep the car's internal temperature down so I don't slow-roast on the way home in the afternoon!! BUT... it's not soo bad becasue look at the humidity level..... YEAH BABY, only 8%!!!!

101degrees.jpg

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A Bumpy Ride for a Smooth Vacation

Here it is... the long-awaited account of our recent vacation/trip to Alabama.

It all started on Thursday, we got up early and Erin dropped me at work and then went home. I worked the morning and Erin came by and picked me up and we went to lunch and then left the car at the parking location and got to the airport. We made it through checking our bags with American Airlines and security with no problem, we got on the plane and made it to Dallas without a hitch. Then we discovered that the flight from there to Huntsville was delayed about an hour. No big deal; we went and found something to eat... Oh wait! Everything closes at 8 except McDonald's!!!! Oh well. We got back to our gate and call Erin's mom to let her know that we're still waiting; she checks status online and sees "canceled!" WHAT!!!?? We ask another passenger and apparently they made an announcement while we were eating. DOH!!! Now we get in line to get re-booked. We end up on Delta the next morning at 7am because there aren't any flights after 10pm and that's the first one the next morning. We're given vouchers for the Marriot South and food (dinner/breakfast). And one more thing, you don't get your luggage. We go downstairs to wait for the shuttle (that's supposed to be there already) and manage to make it to the hotel an hour later. We got box lunches from the hotel, only there's no fridge in the room so our sandwiches spent the night on ice. We made it to the hotel around 10:45pm, the restaurant closes at 11pm and we weren't going to drink in the bar so we just went to bed.

Next day after the break -->

Friday we got up around 5am because we had to be in the lobby by 5:30am to get the shuttle to the airport. We check out and get a ride to the airport and then stand in line to get tickets/boarding passes since all we had were vouchers for tickets. We get our seats, they're not next to each other. We get stopped at security for an extra pat-down and then make it to our gate; we leave our tickets with the desk and they're going to try and get us seats next to each other. We find some breakfast in the form of weak coffee and a muffin. We get on the plane and make it to where? Oh that's right, Atlanta; not Huntsville. We make it to Atlanta and have enough time to ride the train/shuttle thing to the next gate and walk right onto the plane. We finally land in Huntsville, meet Erin's parents and then head to baggage claim to find out where our luggage is. American Airlines tells us to file a claim with Delta because it's not there yet and it will be given to Delta once it does arrive. We go talk to them and the earliest we could have it is that night, but probably not. Great! We give them the address in Tennessee where we'll be for the weekend and leave. We go to the PX on the arsenal and get a change of clothes and toothbrushes/deoderant, etc.

We get some lunch, head to the house and pack up some other stuff. Then we head to Tennessee. Have a nice time and hang out, then Saturday our luggage gets to Knoxville (the nearest airport) at some point and we get out luggage that afternoon around 4:30/5pm!!! So now we've been without luggage/medication/grooming stuff for: 50 hours!!!! WOOHOO!!!

NEways, our luggage had been searched and plopped back in the suitcases, but everything was ok inside. We were able to enjoy the rest of our vacation, but it was needless to say not the way we intended to start out.

I've got pictures and video from Tennessee that I will post soon once I put all the pictures together.

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March 31, 2006

Big time update

Many of my more recent posts have been kinda dry and short. I've got this grand idea that I'll put stuff on here every day, but that's probably a little unrealistic given my attention span sometimes. I've got a couple of projects in my head and that I'm working on and it's difficult to split my time up between them all. I'd like to spend more time re-working my website, as well as working on a model of the nuclear power plant that my dad is working on, and reading a new book, not to mention some minor improvements around the house (read installing a shelf in the kitchen). Erin and I have also gotten ourselves hooked on watching the first season of Lost; we've gotten through the 3rd DVD in the set.

I've been working every day and it's gets tedious at times, but I look at it as a stepping stone to bigger/better things down the road. I've spoken to my Store Team Leader at length and she's willing to work with me to help me get the necessary training/certifications that I need to continue on my career path. She knows that this isn't where I want to be; that I'd be much happier in a position where I got to use tech every day all the time, instead of once in a while here when someone has a question about a program. The computers don't break that often, not because they're well built/maintained (they don't have to be), but because the people using them don't know that much about computers so it's hard for them to muck 'em up. I'm hoping to get some certifications under my belt and then once Erin is done with her degree we can seriously think about where we want to go and I can start putting out feelers as to the possibility of moving up to a regional IT position within the company. I really don't like working in the store, well mainly I don't like working in a grocery store, but I'm in a much better position than I was when I was slicing deli meat and slinging chicken wings, but I'd like to get out of the retail world and into something a little more tech oriented; i.e. the regional help desk, or even a regional IT infrastructure guy.

Erin and I have been sitting down each weekend for the past 2 weeks and planning our meals for the upcoming week. It's been going really well and other than switching around the days, we've pretty much stuck to our menu. It's made the evenings much less stressful because we no longer come home from work/school and ask each other "what do you want to have for dinner?" We know and we just start making it. It's great, plus we have greatly diversified our palate by having things like fish, pork loin, and roast beef; no more just plain mac & cheese or some lame-ass chicken (we still have chicken, it's just more creative).

I still haven't figured out a good way to relax on the weekends. It seems like every chunk of time I get on the weekends ends up being used to do something. That's why I'm looking forward to the trips we have planned coming up. We'll be in Delaware the first weekend in May for Meriah's graduation, and then she's coming out here the end of May for a week. Plus we're hoping to either go to Alabama to see Erin's family this summer, or have them come out here (I still need to look again at my vacation time and see what I can afford to use to take time off - over a weekend will probably be best). August is when I'll be in Las Vegas for Dan's party for a weekend, then in September we'll be in Massachusetts for Dan and Niki's wedding. I just wish I could have a weekend where I didn't have to go anywhere unless I wanted to, and I could do whatever popped into my head. I know that's wishful thinking, but... um yeah.

Welll I've blabbed my head for a while and I can't think of anything else that's going on now that worth noting... OH, the other day the Dept of Agriculture came in to do their routine random audit for scan accuracy and we did awesome. The last time he came in to do this we had 11 discrepancies; this time we had 4 and if 3 of those things had had signs like they were supposed to we would have have only one thing wrong and that's a huge improvement. I was elated because it showed that I've been doing a pretty good job of making sure things are cool, and it gave me some confidence moving forward on my regularly scheduled audits throughout the store that I should not be finding that many errors as I go. Makes my job easier, and it makes the store look better. My goal now is for there to be 0 errors next time they come in to do this type of random 100-item audit. WOOHOO!!!

Ok, now I'm done.

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March 22, 2006

Snowing....

So, not only did it snow last night... IT WAS STILL SNOWING THIS MORNING!!!! And it continued to snow until part way through the afternoon. I took some pictures this morning, as well as a couple of movies with the digital camera, but I won't be able to get them posted online until later after I get home from work.

Check them out on nm.computerdave.net.

Yeah, so it was only a lousy couple-a inches, but I've been having serious withrawl issues since moving out here. I knew that it was psuedo-desert, but DAMN! Plus it's like people out here have never seen frozen water, it was crazy; I'm the only one going the speed-limit (75 MPH) on the highway, and people are giving me looks like I'm crazy. Get a clue dude, I'm from New England where we laugh at dustings like this and just jam the accelerator!!!! YEEEEHAAW!!!

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March 12, 2006

SNOW!!!!

It finally snowed this morning/last night!!!! Nothing much, but it's the first snow we've seen since getting out here to the American Southwest, and it's also the first precipitation of any kind since before Thanksgiving. I took some pictures after I got to work today and have posted them here: nm.computerdave.net. These pictures are of the Sandia Crest to the North of Albuquerque in the Rocky Mountain Range in North-Central New Mexico.

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February 8, 2006

Website... again

This past weekend I took a step towards re-organizing the website. Now if you go to computerdave.net you will not see what you used to, it's now a little more organized as to what's available from computerdave.net and takes you directly to it. Each sub-section of the site is being worked on right now and will evolve over time, please direct comments here.

I know many of you might wonder what was wrong with it before and truly there wasn't anything "wrong" with the site; I just didn't like it. I'm not sure I like it that much the way it is now, but it's better and cleaner. Please bear with me as I work on this a little at a time. I'll probably have some time to work on it tomorrow as I don't have to be at work until 1pm because I'm working overnight at the store with my coordinator and another guy from the helpdesk to renumber the IP addresses in the store and install another switch to allow for the handful of Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs); this will allow us to keep things like the registers, PCs/printers/servers, scales, and handheld computers separate from each other. It will also allow us to convert the entire store over to wireless networks in the coming months.
Now that I think of it, that means another overnight sometime in like June or something like that! UGH!

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January 2, 2006

2006

My family left yesterday morning and made it back to Massachusetts, safe and sound. I miss them already; it was hard to drive away from the airport.

So to recap:

Pictures should be posted later today; I'm not going to try and name them all or organize them in any way; they're all jumbled together and there's over 400 of them so don't ask me to either! :)

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December 27, 2005

Holidays 2005

Yesterday I posted pictures from Erin's and my first Christmas in New Mexico; our first married, and our first by ourselves. It was very relaxing, we didn't cook a huge feast, and we didn't have a party or go anywhere... it was nice. Pictures can be viewed here.

Oh and...

MY FAMILY GETS HERE

TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

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December 26, 2005

A Good Haul

So Christmas is over now, we've opened the presents, eaten the sweets, and slept to our hearts content (well almost). But, we've still got a little bit of Christmas left... my parents and my two sisters are coming out to visit for the rest of this week on Wednesday and we'll do a little more Christmas when they get here! :)

So here's the highlights:
Erin:

Dave:

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December 21, 2005

Greenery

Last night we put up some ornaments on our tree; simple colored glass balls, but it makes a big difference in how the tree looks. We also have a growing pile of presents to put under the tree, although some of them aren't wrapped because they were sent to us by our families and we've been instructed not to open them yet. I can't believe that Christmas is only 4 days away, 4!

Also, my family is coming in just under a week: next Wednesday afternoon!!!!! We can't wait, we've been counting the days since my dad made the flight arrangments back in September!

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Messiah, Holiday Parties

This past weekend was a busy one: Erin and I went to a co-worker of mine's cocktail/holiday party, Saturday night I went to my work holiday party at Copeland's in the city, and Sunday Erin and I went to see the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra perform Handel's Messiah.

The cocktail party was interesting to say the least, the boos was flowing heavily and there was great food, not to mention some wacky tobacky (we left when that started). We had fun and met some interesting and fun people.

Saturday's dinner was fun too, nothing like getting the store leadership and the team leaders out of the store and letting them have at it. We had a great time, and I got to chat with people that I see on a daily basis but know nothing about personally. It was good all around and the food was great.

Sunday's performance was phenominal, the soloist were good (especially the bass/baritone soloist). The orchestra sounded great, not very big but a great sound. The venue where this was, the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque was amazing; it's a new venue as of last year and the theatre where this performance was is very cool: the Albuquerque Journal Theatre. It's got a traditional Southwestern feel to, but the most noticable thing about the theatre is the polished copper on the ceiling, walls, and over the stage. The acoustics were amazing for such a small space, and the show was sold out and packed. We arrived a little early and the conductor was giving a lecture about Messiah before the show and then taking questions. That was different and very interesting.

We looked at the event calendar and hope to attend some other perfomances over the next 6 months or so.

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December 13, 2005

Christmas Tree

Ok, I finally got the pictures of our Christmas tree posted. Check it out.

This weekend we have a party to go to on Friday night that a co-worker of mine is having, and then I have a holiday dinner to go to on Saturday with the Leadership from my store (sorry, no Erin at that one), and then on Sunday we're going to see the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra perform Handel's Messiah! Exciting, plus my family gets out here 2 weeks from tomorrow!!!!!!!

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December 11, 2005

...and counting...

Only 14 days left until my parents and sisters get out here to celebrate Christmas and the New Year! I can't wait, it's been more than 7 months since I last saw them before we came out to New Mexico.

Erin and I got our Christmas tree set-up this weekend and we put the lights on it this morning, we don't have that many ornaments; hopefully we'll get some as presents, but we'll get some ourselves as well. We'll be shipping out our gifts to our family and friends this week so that we make sure they'll be there before the holiday.

Tomorrow we're planning on putting up our lights on the outside of the house, just some simple icicle lights on the front porch.

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November 29, 2005

Updated Pictures

Well I finally finished updating the pictures from New Mexico so that they're more easily browsed. I'll be working on the ones from the wedding/honeymoon this weekend so hopefully by the end of this next weekend they'll be ready. I re-attached the link to the wedding/honeymoon photos so that you can at least see them now instead of a page telling you they're being worked on; I'll leave it that way until I finish re-working them.

If you have any suggestions as to how you'd like them to be let me know, cause I'm kinda flying blind with the few (1) commments I've had so far about how they work.

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November 25, 2005

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving... we had Stephanie and Andy over and grilled a turkey. We had mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, crescent rolls, and sparkling cider. It was great and the food was delicious. We finished it all off with pumpking pie, cake, ice cream and coffee.

Today, I decided to join the masses of crazy people out to get the "Black Friday" sales. I actually made out pretty good, I got 7 new pairs of jeans and a few new Gamecube games that I've been wanting for a while. I've updated the list above because I did buy a couple of things that were on that list... oops, sorry. Hopefully no one had gotten any of those things for me so that they don't have to worry about duplicating something I now have, or dealing with taking something back.

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October 18, 2005

Fluffernutter

GUESS WHAT?! I found out that I can get Marshmallow Fluff out here in the Southwest! I've got to check with one of the stores around here to see if they carry it, but if not I can order it direct from the factory in Lynn, Massachusetts. :) I'm so happy, although it might take a little nudging to get some of the people here to actually try a Fluffernutter, or Fluff-a-nutter as I say. I can't wait.
At least I'll be able to have some of the things I'm used to from New England. If you're interested there is actually a website for Marshmallow Fluff that I found and it has some interesting facts about the product.

UPDATE: Well I was wrong, the only thing you can get out here is something called Kraft Jet Puffed Marshmallow Creme. YUCK!!! It's comforting to know that my parents are sending me some Marshmallow Fluff soon.

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September 28, 2005

Firecondor

I was able to upload the pictures from our trip to Colorado Springs this past weekend. They are posted here.

Also don't forget to check out my newly updated Movie Reviews blog.

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September 26, 2005

Garden of the Gods

This past weekend Erin and I went to visit her friend Patti and Rodney in Colorado Springs. We drove up on Friday afternoon, made it in about 5 hours and stayed until Sunday afternoon. We visited the Garden of the Gods, Seven Falls, the Airforce Academy, and the Colorado Springs Zoo. Pictures will be posted later today, once I get home and have time to transfer the images to the website, so stay tuned! :)

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September 21, 2005

Firelynx

I have finished uploading pictures from Jon's visit. Check it out: link.

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September 20, 2005

Plumplemur

My brother Jon came to visit us over the weekend (Thurs -> Mon). We had a real good time, we took him out to dinner the day he got here because it was his 22nd birthday; Saturday we went to the VLA (Very Large Array) and got some cool pictures; Sunday was kind of spent doing nothing much; and Monday Jon and I went to the New Mexico State Fair so he could look for a true southwestern hat; and then I dropped him off at the airport and went to work for a few hours. It was really great to have him come stay with us and we had fun, but I wish he could have stayed longer so we could have done more stuff together. I really miss being able to see and talk to him and the rest of my family; I'm really looking forward to my parents and my sisters coming out for Christmas, but Jon will not be with them.

I'll have to figure out something so that we can stay in touch more, he's my bro and we've been best friends ever since he was born. Sure we've had our ups and downs, but we always seem to work it out and laugh about it later. I'm glad that he's part of my life and I hope he feels the same way about me.

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September 10, 2005

Reminiscing

Recently I was looking at FaceBook.com and I started thinking back to when I was a freshman at Drew University; I got to wondering what some of my friends from there were up to. So, I started looking to see if I could find them so I could try and re-connect with them. I actually managed to find two of them that I was good friends with! Needless to say, I was thrilled. Jodi and Tony were two of my friends from Drew and I'm sorry that I didn't keep in touch with them after I left Drew; hopefully it won't be another 9 years until I talk to them again.

One of the main motivating forces behind this was my feeling that I've been less than a good friend when it comes to keeping in touch, especially when a great deal of distance was between me and my friends.

If anyone is reading this and feels that I've not done a good job of staying in touch, I appologize; please send me an email. I'm trying to get better at it, especially now that I'm extremely far away from everyone of my friends.

Posted by djkay at 9:44 AM | Comments (0)

September 5, 2005

Watercow

I've updated the New Mexico page with pictures of how we rearranged the study yet again, as well as the new kitchen table/chairs we got this weekend. A big thanks to Cheryl and Roy for helping assemble them as well as lending a hand by showing up in their truck to help us get it from the store to our house.

Update: 9/6/05 - the newest page of pictures also includes a couple of a creepy crawly we found in the study one night just before closing things up to go to bed. This one was about 3" long, but we've seen a few others that were closer to 5"!

Posted by djkay at 8:41 PM | Comments (4)

Firedog

Well I've noticed that I direct a lot of people to my website and I write these little "journal" entries and no one has anything to say about them? I'm not saying I expect to suddenly have 50 people comment on here, but since I've put this online not a single person has entered a comment about something. I'm also not saying that people have to comment but it's there as a feature and either I'm not saying anything interesting enough or the people reading this stuff have nothing interesting to say.

Oh well, last night Erin and I had Cheryl and Roy over for dinner; and they helped us pick up our dining set at Walmart since it wouldn't fit in either of our cars. They even helped us assemble it and then we had a nice dinner. They stayed and hung out and we all had a good time. Hopefully next weekend we can have Stephanie and Andy over since they've only been in NM for a couple of weeks now.

This weekend we bought a washer and dryer, but it won't be delivered until the Friday while Jon is here. Cheryl said that she'd pick them up for us and that works out great, Jon can help lift them into place.

I'm getting really anxiuos and excited for Jon to get here, and I also can't wait for my family to come out for Christmas. Erin and I still haven't figured out what we're going to do for Thanksgiving. I think at this point it's too expensive for us to travel anywhere. We may end up doing our own little thing, or possibly try and plan something with Cheryl and Roy so we're not alone.

Posted by djkay at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2005

Thunderdonkey

Pictures have been posted of how our new home looks now that we've gotten all our stuff and unpacked most of it. I say most of it because we still have about 10 boxes of stuff, that are only half-unpacked, sitting in the study; most of the stuff in them is non-essential.

Not much new is going on; Erin starts classes/office hours next Monday, and today is the start of my 3rd week of work. Network issues at work have been keeping me busy while I'm there, and the 40+ minute commute is also making things tiring. It's not too bad though, we're adjusting to the higher temperature, lower humidity pretty well.

I'd like to take a moment to say congratulations to one of my best friends and his new fiancé: Dan and Niki, congratulation you guys; you are two incredible people and I know that you will continue making each other happy.

Posted by djkay at 3:07 PM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2005

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Please excuse my absence from entries here. I've been really busy with wedding plans and traveling back and forth to Connecticut for stuff for the wedding. I'm hoping to get back into updating here more frequently; maybe not every single day, but more than I have in a while. I may even do several entries on one day and then none for a little bit. It will depend greatly on what is going on and whether I have time or not. As always, feel free to comment.

Posted by djkay at 2:43 PM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2004

Cordon Bleu

YEAH!!! The cookware and knives that Erin and I bought came yesterday. I'm so excited, I can't wait to use them. I got home last night and asked Erin what she wanted for dinner and guess what she said...

Friendly's!!!! I couldn't believe it, we just got all these awesome pots and pans, and she wants to go out. That's ok, I wasn't upset or anything, just surprised; so we went to Friendly's and had a nice time. It was good, we need to go out more and have fun more often. Hopefully after she goes to Minnesota and comes back we can have more time to do stuff like that.

Posted by djkay at 1:29 PM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2004

Things Change

It's interesting that just when you think things were going smoothly, something comes along and creates a bump in the road. I am starting my new job tomorrow, but at the same time other things in my life are starting to become less certain, less stable. I'm not sure what's going to happen and I don't need anyone to talk to (not right now anyways), but it makes me feel a little uneasy, and helpless even, that I can't do much to make things get better faster. I'll have to see how things play out and do what I can, when I can.

Posted by djkay at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2004

Gobble, gobble, gobble!!!

Man, did I eat a lot of food yesterday!!! Turkey, mashed potato, stuffing, gravy, squash, green beans, cranberry sauce, wine, fruit, cheese and crackers, pie, ice cream... And I brought some to work for lunch as well!
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday relaxing and eating great food; I know I did.

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