Baptism

Today is the day little Christina gets baptized. We need to leave in another 2 1/2 hours. I'm not sure which church she's getting baptized at - my mom handled all the details. Dad, Mom, Margaret, and I will be heading down in one car, and I'm not sure how long we'll visit. I'm guessing we'll need to get back to the house fairly soon so we can prepare to head to Virginia.

In work related news - my boss came up for the week, and he's explained a little of what needs to be done. In summary: he's really busy in December and January so he can't keep up to us especially if we're a bit slow getting work back to him, the design work is a bit too interdependent on both of us working together and he's guessing it will stay that way permanently, and he needs to have us in Florida to keep this project going.

I'm heading to Florida!

I've given the house owner 90 days notice and I should be out of the house by January. Last summer, Florida was boring. This year, I'm going to do things a little differently. Since I'll be there a whole year, I'm thinking of signing up for karate classes during the week, go swing dancing on the weekend, read in my spare time, and upkeep a site for extempers.

Another Week and a Half

My brother is almost married! I'm heading down (with my mom) to his place until the wedding. After the wedding, my mom and I may stay around a bit, but with my brother and his wife away on their honeymoon, there won't be much to keep us busy.... after the wedding. A lot of family is coming down, so we'll be quite busy visiting until the big day. Almost all my aunts and uncles on my mom's side will be coming down... kind of a mini-reunion.

I'm looking forward to the visit and seeing Jesse... and seeing him married. I can't think of a good best man speech, so I probably won't give one. It would be nice, and I'll keep at it. Maybe I'll ask my dad for ideas.

Thursday is a Work Day... maybe?

Nothing special about today. Work is going really slowly though. I had a total of 3 hours of work yesterday. Hopefully, he'll get the next assignment to me and I can get a full day of work finished. I haven't had a full day this week. :-( As much as I like the job, if I can't get 25 hours in a week, I'm not sure I can stay. My boss is coming up near Christmas, and he has a few things to talk about - some of which are hopefully 1) the next big projects for work and 2) going down to the main business to work; both of which would be VERY beneficial for hours worked.

I'm sitting here waiting for an e-mail for today's work, and I thought I would post my current thoughts on work. I tend to spread out work throughout the day - perhaps if I put in more effort to getting work done earlier in the day, my boss could get back to me faster. I'll try that today.

Quick update

It's late but I wanted to get a short update completed. I had a wonderful weekend at home. My mom and I chatted a lot, dad showed me his bikes and magic tricks for the upcoming new year, and Margaret and I beat upon each other mercilessly... yes, it was a good weekend. I finished it off by coming back to the apartment and watching "Big Trouble in Little China". Oddly enough, I've seen it before - probably at a motel during a craft show. Think of a script put together in an afternoon, cast that evening and filmed the next day... that's the type of movie it was. Nothing made sense. It was a blast to poke fun at the movie!

Almost done

Whew! I've been busy the last few days. My boss leaves tomorrow, so I should be able to slow down just a little. Unfortunately, all the steam I've built up will die Wednesday as I spend most of the day in Butler. I have two appointments, maybe three. I'll be debating with Olivia and I need to get together with her to figure out the case, who's doing what speech, evidence... there is a lot to cover.

Today in 30 seconds

Work is moving well again - I'm working more hours. Goofing off is taking priority too often. School work is going well. I was accused of being a stacker by someone I haven't seen in almost 6 months. My contacts hurt. Toe is healing well. My Jackie Chan impression isn't going so well - but I'm getting better. Had a VERY nice conversation tonight... more like relaxation with some serious subjects of conversation. I broke down and bought a veggie wrap for dinner. Worked out tonight. Haven't watched "Raising Helen" yet. The band Aqua is great. I have "Forces of Corruption."

Ah. My life in 30 seconds.

Fridays are wonderful

I'm on my way home today. Weekends are the best part of the week. It's where I get to go home, do chores, mow the lawn, weed-eat, help my dad, do hebrew, go over finances.... ah. Heaven.

I can't believe the amount of time since I last blogged. Time has flown! I was guessing early last week, but no! Almost three weeks ago! I'll try to make up for lost time now that I know how poorly I'm keeping my blog updated. At least I'll try to blog more often. :-)

Dan, one of my apartment-mates is moving out today or tomorrow. He's moving to a cheaper place and a college student is moving in through December. Plans after that will depend on whether the college student (Ben) get's a full time job or not. Brandon, my other apartment-mate is moving out at the end of October here, and in December, I start to be the renter for the house. So... I start renting the house in December, I'm subletting the workspace for part of the rent, and hopefully I'll be able to find two others to help offset the rent. The likelyhood is good I would say. Ben *might* stay on, Lauren and Stew could be staying, Someone else I haven't met may be looking for an apartment, and Mark is looking for a place. Ah, the joy of planning.

Brief update

I just wanted to post a quick blog. My mom left today for YP craft show. I decided against attending the Grove City speech team at the tournament this weekend and instead decided to help my parents at the craft show.

I know my parents can't actually check this blog until they get home Monday, so I'm going to let the rest of the readers in on a small surprise I have for them! It's not a big present, but the car I'm driving (It's the one my parents usually drive for business) has part of the felt on the roof loose (227000 miles. The car has served us well!) We've tried all sorts of products to re-attach the felt, but nothing has worked. Today, I bought some pins and pined up the felt. Hopefully the pins will hold. All it took was time to figure out what positions would keep the pins from falling out. It's not anything big, just a bit of felt and time, but I am inordinately pleased and looking forward to showing Mom and Dad!

Best songs heard today (both have been favorites for the last two months):
When the Broken Hearted Love Again
Be a Man

Back in Action

It's been two weeks and quite a bit has happened, so it's a bit hard to know where to start. I'll go in chronological order, which means the big events are not the first events

I came back to GC and am slowly catching up to what I should be doing. In essence, after getting back from Florida I took a week and a half off of work. I am just now starting to get into the habit of working full time again.

My parents have a big craft-show for three weekends this month and I've been pretty busy helping them. Mom and dad could get it all done themselves, but if I'm in town then I'll help because just one more person can make things go a lot smoother. There isn't so much rushing around or worry. After a month and a half hiatus, going to craft shows and spending time with family again is a lot of fun.

I'm also attending classes at gcc again.

But the biggest news is that KATIE had her baby! Christina entered the world healthy and well. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to put up, but that is on the to-do list for today. When I get a picture or two and actually see the niece for myself, I'll give a more complete update.

Final tidbit about myself for today - I did my first hard workout yesterday and I had a small moment of panic when I tried to get into my car to go home. I couldn't get my backpack off! I know it's not quite the most glamorous fear to have. Fear of heights or fear of flying is so much more popular, but some of my biggest fears is not being able to get my backpack off, wearing a shirt far too small, or getting stuck in a snowtunnel. None of them are very dangerous. :-) The problem yesterday was, that after a workout, my muscles are swollen and the muscles are tighter than normal and can't stretch as far, so I can't touch my shoulders and I couldn't reach the strap on my shoulder. I also couldn't bend enough to push my left strap off my shoulder with my right hand. Quite a predicament.

Airporting

This is a hobby, created just for airport aficionados. If you wish to start enjoying this hobby, there are a few rules which must be followed in order to get the maximum effect from "airporting".

1st: Arrive at the airport earlier than any person in their right mind would.
2nd: Check your bags. But wait! You're too early to check bags. You should have arrived early enough to wait at least an hour before bags can be checked.
3rd: You must plan your trip around high terror alerts. Anything less than level orange doesn't let the X-ray line pile up enough to be a proper airporting line.
4th: Go to your gate to wait at least four hours until your plane takes off. Notice I said "wait." Wait does not include sitting in the cushioned chairs provided... because the previous flight using the gate hasn't left yet and all the seats should be filled.
5th: If you can find a power outlet within 50 feet of the gate, you can still be an airporting hobbyist, but only if the first two outlets you found were unavailable for productive use... i.e. they don't work.

If you carefully follow these steps, you too can be an airporting hobbyist.


Three friars opened up a flower shop. The local florists were outraged because their customers were buying flowers from the friars. Complaint after complaint failed to change the friar's minds, so the florists hired "Hugh's Friendly Removal Service" to take care of their problem. That evening, amid broken pots and a sea of flowers, Hugh convinced the friars that the town could not support an extra florist shop - proving, yet again, that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.

It's Monday! I don't have time to put out a full post on my trip to SeaWorld, but here are two pictures I thought you might enjoy




















I didn't zoom in for this picture so I had to do a lot of trimming. For some reason the picture came out almost perfect and the guy doesn't look blurry at all. I think he's doing a flifus. (I think that is how it is spelled). This was the end of the day at the pearl diving exhibit. You could buy your own oyster with a pearl for just $14.95! (But small. I saw a few and they were very small )
















The one and only picture of me at SeaWorld. There were four divers at the pearl diving exhibit and I asked someone to take my picture. This diver (Celeste from Texas I think) was by far the most entertaining. Kids would go up to the glass and put their hands on the glass and she would come down and put her hands matching, or play patty-cake with them. Quite the showman... but what do you expect - she is smiling in chlorine water... that must taste terrible! eww. :-)

A Busy and Fun Sunday

Two more days until home sweet home!

All of Sunday will be spent at Seaworld. It was my last chance this summer to do something fun and I didn't want to miss anything.I've already gone to Seaworld but I have season tickets so it's hard to pass up a second time especially when I didn't see everything the first time.

I'm heading home Monday evening and then classes will be starting the following day. I still haven't officially signed up for classes. I'm having a little trouble getting ahold of the admissions office. I could call and e-mail more, but since I'll be nearby in three days time, I decided it would be easier for me to just walk into the office and see what I can do.

One of the classes I wanted to take conflicts with another class, so it looks like Hebrew III will be my main class this semester.

Since I've been here in Florida, I've had the opportunity to go swing dancing a few time and I am hoping to keep it up once college starts, because there is a swing group on campus. I guess fencing is going to be too much, escpecially since I am planning to continue helping the speech clubs around this side of the state.

I need my sleep. I'm looking forward to seeing family soon. For those of you with a high speed internet connection, I found this video of breakdancing very fun and impressive to watch. A lot of the enjoyment comes from the music. I wish I could find out what the accompanying musing is. Oh well! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAMTEJfmLyY

I had already taken off my contact by the time I started blogging, so I have NO idea how many words are misspelled. Good night!

A Normal Day

I managed to sleep a lot this morning. The pace of life picked up as I reach the middle of the day. I rebelled from work for an hour and a half and ate a bean burrito. Started back to work until I was too old and tired to see the screen at which point I went to my computer and did whatever struck my fancy. Now it's off to sleep.

If the schedule for today is accurate for my life span... then in a few years I should start globe hopping trying various restaurants selling Mexican food. Cool.

A bit better today

After last week, I was more determined than ever to get a few more hours work per day than I did last week. And how did I start... I managed to sleep in a bit this morning. So it wasn't a great start, but I managed to work pretty steadily throughout the day and at this point, I'm doing pretty well.

I'm going to attempt an early morning tomorrow, so it's off to sleep again.

UPS finally came for my camera and video card... and although it was sent to me in two boxes, the UPS delivery man only had one pickup ticket for the two of them. I was upstairs when the man came so my boss unpacked the boxes and put them into one box and sent it off. It makes me slightly nervous to have Amazon pick up one return box... does that mean I should put both in the same box or did I goof and is another pickup going to happen tomorrow? I don't know.

I did get about a dozen pictures with the camera while I was here.

Here is one of my coworker D with his red fedora - red fedora's rule!. Just in case you're interested in pure coolness embodied in a hat - go see RedHat Linux or http://www.trickswithhats.org/tricks

Time flies when having fun but...

Work has been going pretty well this week. There has been no major delays, no sleeping past the normal start hour. I can't quite figure it out though. I'm still averaging just under 9 hours a day. I'm POSITIVE that I'm doing more than that, but I've been pretty careful to keep track of hours this week... and under 9 hours a day is what the hours show. I just can't figure it out. It makes work less satisfying when you put in what I thought to be a long day for every day during the week, pushing yourself every day, and finding it to be only a little over what was already being done... I just can't figure it out. The only conclusion that I can come up with is that I'm not trying as hard as I think I am. :-)

I'm also going to return my camera I bought. I did want a nice camera I can use, but that is the sticking point - "camera I can use." The camera is just too large and heavy to carry around everywhere I go. There is also a problem with shots without the flash - they usually blur slightly (no anti-shake option in the camera). The battery life is great ( part of what makes it too heavy ) but the video the camera takes is not very good. I suppose the original video it takes is fine, but the video encoding into a format I can watch on my computer is terrible. I can plainly see the color squares that make up the image. The final straw that broke the camel's back was the camera is very unreliable about reading the memory card. I've lost several pictures and two videos because of errors writing data. One of those videos was over an hour and a half long. And it is not something that can be redone.

The camera is very good with a tripod and it isn't designed to be a video taking masterpiece, so I knew to expect some design issues that wasn't what I was hoping for, but I don't want a tripod. I was hoping that the camera could take pictures just fine without a tripod and I was expecting much better quality from the video....

Whine, whine, whine... That is what it sounds like I'm doing! As I heard recently, "Whining is a poorly understood form of prayer." Maybe by other people, but I know that God understand perfectly... and says no. :-)

Count up is at day 2.

As one more side note, after I wrote this, I put it through a spell checker... and there were no spelling errors! That doesn't happen very oftn with bihg postts.

Movie Hour

For work today and tomorrow, were making up a mock project and video-taping, but not quite. Because we need to see the computer screen and the text being entered, the computer is making a video of the screen as we do the presentation/walkthough, and then we're using my camera to record the audio to interlace later. I may add the camera's video into a smaller window in the corner with us working at the computer at the same time - two videos at once. It will be cool! :-) The camera did come in useful for something other than pictures... and if I have a tripod, it looks professional. Still, the camera is a bit on the larger size, but how can you compete with an 8 gig picture card!

I had some late night conversation recently that were a lot of fun. Catching up with friends and family is ALWAYS good. It's not always fun, because heartache can be involved, but it is always good to learn about each other and be there to support each other. And though it be good, it is not something I do naturally, but I'm working on it.

Camera Mayhem

Lunch hour!

My camera came at 4:50 yesterday and I started working with it and seeing what the camera's capabilities are.

Pro: Good zoom, nice images, video with some poor sound, highly customizable, lot of options, very fast pictures, and good picture card (8 gigs), and I can hook it up to the TV and use that instead of the camera screen.

Con: It is BIG - 9 1/2 inches when fully zoomed out, the manual is thicker than most car manuals I see. The combinations available with all the options is a little too much to grasp, and I still can't turn off the flash.

Commies - a great word for those of us who haven't given in to peer pressure at a slightly homogenous college.

In other news/musing (Don't worry, my musings will come to an end today - at least for a while), I've been talking to some friends online in the recent evenings and I've been wondering what they are up to. D has written some nice articles, C is doing well but the conversation ended before much news was shared, I keep trying to talk with A, but after 5 minutes, one or the other of us needs to go do something and not much gets said. I even saw Mr. Miller Time himself (inside joke for bowling commies). I guess I'm just repeating what I said three posts ago, but still, I'm looking forward to seeing friends again - especially commies - I guess that includes the honorary commies too. :-D

Recent Musings

My summer has been going great. The people I work with are a blast. Funny, intelligent, and laid back. I enjoy my work and there isn't much I can't do here if I put some effort into it. Weekends at the beach, swing dancing, volleyball, playing piano, free arcade games, or hours and hours free to just read ( of which I've taken advantage ), and I'm feeling great physically (a bit overweight, but I'm rather pleased anyway). There are some definite downsides to Florida: I am not near my family and able to visit or help, I don't have my family nearby, I can only talk to most of my friends online by typing, and work is consuming as the time here draws to an end... I think those are the only 3 disadvantages, but they are huge.

When I go back to Pennsylvania, I'm going to be taking classes I'm looking forward to, and almost all the downsides to the summer will go away. I've never believed that happiness comes from comfort, money, or friends, and this summer really seems to show it, because with all of it's benefits, I am not looking forward to returning to Grove City - or to staying here. Both ways look a bit bland to me. Staying here, going home, or doing something else doesn't appeal much to me. Certainly, whatever I do will lead to something new and I do look forward to that, but there doesn't seem to be much puprose to it if I start weighing things like how much free time will I have, will I be able to visit friends and family, will I make enough to be able to spend?

There is a path that leads to peace and joy - it is only when I turn to my Savior that things start to look up. The more I focus on Christ, the less important my current circumstances are to my outlook on life. I know that Christ does a reforming work in us if we allow him, but I really can't discern what the difference is in my outlook, just that there is a difference. I suppose it's because I can rest in Christ and he gives the peace that passes understanding. Part of what Christ seems to be doing is reminding me of the good times, in the past, present, and time to come. He reminds me of the endless awe and rejoicing that fellowship with him will bring... and I'm happy. It's not that my circumstances improve or I sin less - I'm happy because He reminds me that this is not my final home, and even it's greatest happinesses are pale next to being in Him. How I look forward to the day I see my savior face to face. Wow.

Topic Three.

Three: I'm getting a camera! I am sooooo excited! It is going to arrive here late tomorrow and then I can take pictures of this place in Florida. Who knows! I may even be able to post a video or two so people can see what life is like near Orlando. The camera is a Samsung Pro 815. It is fairly expensive for cameras for people who don't know how to properly use a camera, but if I keep it for 6 or 7 years, I think the price is pretty good. Oooo. Almost midnight. Blogging, talking with friends, researching extemp... it all takes up time.

28 More Days Until Home Sweet Home

Let's hear it for the title "Days Until Home Sweet Home"!

I've used that title for so long, I just couldn't quite give it up quite yet. :-) There really isn't much new information to share, so I'll just start going through the 3 or 4 things that have happened since the last blog.

One: I went home last weekend (surprise!). While in Tonawanda, I had a good visit with Ryan and Katie for a few days. Since I live almost 2 hours away from them, seeing them was a blessing and something I hope is repeated. If you could pray for Katie and Ryan, I would appreciate it. Things seem to be going well for them, but they are coming up to a busy tie in their life: they are newly married, expecting a baby in a month, and Ryan is looking for a new job. Since we were within 5 minutes of Niagara Falls, Ryan and Katie when and saw the Falls both evenings up there. They took several pictures and came back with quite a few stories of Canada, the falls, and Canadians. I think my favorite story is their coming back into the US, after the light show on the falls. *.... I'll tell everyone about it later as soon as I remember the details better. I got half way through and couldn't remember the questions the US agent asked .... *

Two: I went swing dancing at OSU last Friday. It was a blast. When I visited Jesse's swing dance lessons a while back, there was a advanced swing dancing demonstration, and it was really cool. The leading couple at OSU blew it away. It wasn't that it was so much better, but the couple made it look smooth and refined while doing a lot of different combinations fast. They looked like they would be just as comfortable on a ballroom floor. I was impressed. Almost 3/4 of the group was new and everyone leaned new steps each week. I'm planning on going back this Friday and dancing. The dance floor composition was a little odd: guys outnumbered girls!

Four and beyond: Saved for later. I need to get back to work.

Random information/feelings: I'm really looking forward to going back to PA. Not only do I have great college classes lined up, but it looks like the local speech and debate teams are really working hard on extemp. I'm also looking forward to seeing friends. One big downside of being in Florida is not seeing friends at home. I'm looking forward to seeing what's going on with G, how BF is doing, if A and J bloomed over the summer, and just talking to C and the commies. (No, I do not expect anyone to actually know who I'm talking about. If you want to know who the initials are, you'll have to talk to me. :-D )