Twev1701.net

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Thanks Bertman!!

So far we’ve had a pretty mild winter. Nice temperatures, little snow, and other than some nasty wind storms, good weather throughout. Now we’re paying the price though. When I came home from Work Saturday afternoon, it was 50 degrees out. I changed the oil in Jess’s car, and even cleaned out most of the basement – with the door wide open and no jacket on. Now however, Canada has decided to bless us with some of their nice arctic air. Right now it’s a balmy 22 degrees out and it’s not expected to climb much higher then that today.

My computer had a major meltdown on Wednesday night, so if you’ve been wondering where I’ve been…now you know. I had the core system back up and running that night which was nice. I was up until about 3am when I started to really crash. I was just about set to shut everything down and go to bed when I head the bathroom light click on. I assumed it was Jess as the cats haven’t figured out how to turn the light on…yet. Anyway, Jess was in there on the floor. Apparently she had eaten something that had not agreed with her and it wanted out the same way it came in. Being the good boyfriend, I stayed up with her until she finally fell asleep in bed around 4:30am. I of course slept until about noon the next day since I had off. Then I spent most of Thursday finishing up my computer. In fact, it’s still not done 100% as there are still some driver discs for my scanner that I can’t find, I still need to install the drivers for my PPC and cell phone, and I need to reinstall most of my Adobe programs. Not too bad in any case.

Oh, I’ve also decided to do a re-mix of the programs I use. I’ve pretty much decided to go as open source as I can. I’m using Firefox for my browser (of course), Thunderbird for my email, iTunes for my MP3 player, and OpenOffice for my office suite. In fact, the only program that I am using that’s not technically free is Trillian Pro (cracked edition of course!).

Wen went out Friday night to eat at La Tolteca again. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a nice little Mexican restaurant that opened up about a year or so ago. The first time I ever had real Mexican (not counting Taco Bell) as at this little place in Kutztown Jess took me to. The food was vile, and so were the prices. I think I spent almost $30 on a dinner I would think twice about giving an inmate on death row. So, when La Tolteca opened up here, I was a little cautious about trying it. Well, the first time we ate there I loved it. It also just happened to be the night that we picked out her engagement ring. Funny how I remember these things, eh? Anyway, we ate there again on Friday night and the food once again, was out of this world. How about the prices you ask? We each got a dinner, me a soda, and the baskets of tortillas and salsa are free while you wait (we went through 2 baskets—soooo good!!). We got so much food with our dinners that neither once of us could finish everything. At the then when the bill came, it was a whopping $16! That’s right, $16! You can’t beat that!!!

I close once again tonight and then I am off the next 2 days. I have 1 small i/o call to make tomorrow afternoon. After that, I have to get some paperwork together for eBay, and then call around for some DJs for the wedding thing we’re doing. Jess is leaving early tomorrow (she worked late on Friday) so we can spend most of the day together. That will be nice. Wednesday night I’m going out with a friend from work for some eats and drinks. He said he was paying for everything, so I said I would be there!! I have this coming weekend off, but we’re not quite sure what’s going on yet. Depending on the $$ situation, we might be meeting some friends for sushi. That would be really cool. We may also take a trip down to Jersey and see her mom. But, we’ll probably figure out all the details closer to the weekend.

I have the day off today. I actually had almost the whole day planned out too, and then things got changed at the last minute. You see, I couldn’t sleep last night, so I decided to finish up the system I have here for a customer. The hard drive arrived yesterday so I threw that in last night and installed the OS. All I needed to do was go to the shop, activate Windows, and download all of the available updates. I had planned on doing that Thursday afternoon with JP, but as it so happened, we did it today. Not that big if a deal, I just had to move some stuff around.

I’m not sure what’s going to be happening tonight. I’m making dinner – that much I know. I have no clue if Jess and I are going to hang out together or just do our own thing. To be honest, I don’t care which one happens. If we hang out together, we’ll probably end up watching some Millennium or a movie, and if we do our own thing, I’ll probably end up play Guild Wars. Either way, not too bad of a night.

I’m off again tomorrow and I’m going to try and tackle some of the cleaning in the basement. Also, I have to take care of some paperwork for our eBay Store, which requires the faxing of like 20 pages to them to prove we are legit. I really think it’s harder to be legit then it is to be a scammer! Then in the evening we’ve been invited over to JP and Sara’s for dinner. Mike was supposed to be there but had to bow out at the last minute. DAMN YOU MARANCIK!!!

I close again tonight…alone. So, this is what I am going to do about it. I just loaded up Guild Wars so I could download all of the available updates, and tonight when I come home, I am going to play Guild Wars until I can’t see straight. I have been wanting to do this now for about month but just haven’t had the time to. Well people, tonight is the night. I literally have nothign else that needs to get done tonight, so I declare tonight Guild Wars night!!!

In other non-trivial news, we watched a movie called ‘Dreamcatcher’ last night. A most awesome flick and I highly reccomend it. True, it was a bit cheesy at some points, but all in all, a pretty good flick. Going to make a nice “personal copy” of it before I have to send it back to Netflix.

That’s about it. Just a quick little post before I head off to the hell that is retail. Oh, I had my interview yesterday for that position I put in for. I have no clue what is going to happen, and they won’t be making a decision for a few weeks. If I get it and accept it – great. If not, it doesn’t bother me either. I’ll still be right where I am at in hardware and that alright with me too. Later…

I would have to day that yesterday was the best Valentine’s Day I have ever had! And true to the sprit of the “holiday”, it had nothing to do with gifts received!

The started off decently, with me working with Lisa all day. We had fun, laughed a lot, and got everything we could accomplish done. After work, I went out and bought Jess a nice card that fit our relationship perfectly and a dozen red roses. I had considered a few days earlier to have some flowers delivered to her office to surprise her, but given that she has to walk a few blocks from her office to her car and it has been windy here for the past few days, I decided against that option. Also, having her come home and just handing her flowers is extremely lame. So, I came home, and grabbed her extra set of car keys. I went to where her car was parked in the city, and positioned the flowers on top of her steering wheel. I placed the card I got her across her dashboard gages, to which I taped the “Save Mr. Peanut” black wrist band that I bought her. (long story) I locked her car back up, and went home to prepare dinner for her.

Since money is in short supply this year, we decided not to exchange gifts this year, and instead of going out to dinner, I told her I would make her dinner. So, the first ingredient of dinner was good old fashioned hot-as-hell chili! As soon as I got home I threw on a Phil Collins DVD concert, and got right to work. After about a good 30 minutes, the chili was assembled, and I let it simmer for about the next hour and a half. The next step was the main course – southwestern chicken. I looked online until I found a recipe that looked really good. After finding one, I noticed it was already 4:20pm. She was leaving work around 5pm, which would put her here at about 5:20pm. So, I decided to clean up a bit before I start the chicken. So, I headed to the bathroom to shave and shower. After getting dressed, I proceeded to make the chicken. I needed to pound the chicken flat, but quickly found out that we have no meat mallet. So, an ice-cream scooper had to substitute. And let me tell you, it did one hell of a job!! Once the chicken had been flattened, I rubbed all of the pieces with garlic cloves, and then rubbed them lightly with some lemon juice. I put them in the microwave to keep them away from the cats, and then went and started the grill. While I waited for the grill to heat, I needed to grate some Monterrey Jack cheese. It was then that Jess walked through the door. She was early coming home since it was only 5:05pm, but it was cool. She love the flowers and card and even said she was so surprised by them that she started to cry in the car when she read the card.

Twevman: 01 Disappointment: 00

So, while she put her roses in a vase, I finished up the cheese. She wanted to know what she could do to help, so I asked her if she would mind giving me a hand with the appetizers since she came home early. She agreed, so her task was not to pick out some of the best nacho chips she could find in the bag. She did that and arranged them on a pizza tray for me. She asked was in the pot and I told her come chili. She tasted the chili and said it was the best chili she had ever tasted in her life!

Twevman: 02 Disappointment: 00

So, then I proceeded to make the appetizers. I spooned out some chili onto each chip, and then covered the chip with grated Monterrey Jack cheese. After they were covered in cheese, I topped each one with a piece of sliced jalapeño pepper. Now they were complete and ready for the broiler. I put them into the over and checked on the grill. By the time I came back inside, they were done. I took them out of the oven, and grabbed the chicken out of the microwave. I they the fillets on the grill, and cooked then through. (about 4 minutes) While I was cooking them, Jess came out and said she had one of the appetizers and said that they were absolutely amazing!

Twevman: 03 Disappointment: 00

When the chicken was cooked through, I topped off each piece with come grated Monterrey Jack cheese, and put them on the top rack to melt. After about 2 minutes, the cheese was melted to perfection. I brought them inside, put them on each plate, and topped them off with some black bean and corn salsa. I them spooned out some chili into 2 bowls, and topped that off with some Monterrey Jack cheese as well. With that, dinner was served. We each sat down and finally tried the chicken. To our mutual delight, the chicken was absolutely amazing. Everything was perfect!!!

Twevman: 04 Disappointment: 00

It was then that Jess handed me this bag. She has left work early and went and got me a little present even though we agreed not to get each other anything. She got me a very nice card, a small bag of peanut M&Ms, and a cool shirt. It was the perfect meal.

After dinner, I told her to go relax as I did the dishes. I was rinsing off the plates, and she came in and said she wanted some chocolate. I told her that I kept to her rule of no chocolate this year, and she told me she very much appreciated it. But, she wanted chocolate. So, I grabbed my coat, and we headed to the car. I took her to her Michael Mootz’s, her favorite candy shop. There, she picked out a nice box of 6 truffles and she was happy. We went back to the house and I finished up the dishes while she wrote her sister an email.

Twevman: 05 Disappointment: 00

After the dishes were done, we watched 2 episode of Millennium, and then watched House on TV. After all of that, we just spent the rest of the night relaxing together, and then went to bed early.

It really was the perfect Valentine’s Day!!

I love weather dudes. We’re getting a storm tomorrow, they’re all in a agreement on this. However, depding on who you listen to, we’re getting anywhere from a dusting, to 12 inches of snow Saturday night. Yeah…I could so do their job.

Speaking of jobs, I may be getting a differnt job at work. A position opened up early last week, and I put my name out for consideration. Apparently, at the moment, without even taking an interview, I’m top man for the job. The whole reason for me expressing interest in this job is for the better hours that come with this job (no later then 7pm and only 1 weekend a month), but I heard a rumor today that this will all be changing soon. If things go the way I have heard, this job will basically have the same exact hours that I am working now, which means working all over the map and only 1 weekend off a month. If the rumors are true and they offer me enough $$, I’ll still seriously consider taking the job. However, if the rumors are true and they done really sweeten the pot, then I have no reason to move. To be honest, I would move right now without any pay increase just to get the better hours. But, if they take those away from me, then they had better be prepared to replace the hours with cold hard cash.

Jess is sick as a dog, which makes the situation here interesting. I left work early last night so I could make it to Target before they closed to get her a humidifier, some medicine to go in the humidifier to help her breathe, and some cough medicine. The humidifier seems to really help her, but she’s been running a fever and she has terrible sinus/head pressure. I tried to get her to go to the doctor’s today, but she wants to be stubborn and wait it out until Monday to see if she will get better. At nights she falls asleep just fine, but wakes up in the middle of the night and then can’t get back to sleep. In fact, last night at around 4:30am she finally gave up trying to go back to sleep in the bedroom, and went out and slept on the couch. I just wish there was something more I could do to make her more comfortable.

Tomorrow is her Mary Kay party, and thankfully, I’ll be working all day. Although, I will be taking my lunch around the time the party starts, so that should be interesting! I think her sister Jenn and possibly her friend Katie is staying the night. Although with the storm coming, I’m sure all of that is up in the air at the moment. All I do know is that I am off Sunday and I will be enjoying a nice lazy day once I get the basement straightened up.

Well, it’s time to go install some software for a little project Joel and I have started. Later…

This weekend was both fun, yet exhausting. In fact, this morning was the first time I could sleep in, and as such, slept for a full 10 hours.

Som interestig things happened on Sunday at the ye old bridal show. The most interesting of which was seeing my ex’s mother, aunt, and sister there. Apparently, her sister is getting married, and that’s why they were there. I first noticed her mothier walking by when we were sitting at the fashion show (don’t ask!). I pointed her out to Jess, and literally a few minutes, all three of them came over and stood kind of right by us. My ex wasn’t there sadly, so no heart felt reunion took place. Anywho, it took them a while to notice me, but when they did, boy was it ever fun. Jess and I were laughin it up and halding hands, I was laughing it up with her mother on the other side of me…it was great!! They keep looking daggers at us the whole time. Jess even told me when she got up to make an appointment for invitations, they looked her up and down with daggers in their eyes. The totally funny thing about all of this is the fact that my ex broke up with me! If they’re looking at me with hate because I am truly happy and she is off being misirable somewhere, it’s not my fault! Ahh, I love how the irony of the whole situation 4 years later puts a nice big smile on my face!

I close for the next 3 nights at work. Honestly, I’d rather be opening, but, you’ve got to roll with the punches sometimes. It should all be good regardless.

I have switched a few things up here in the past couple of weeks that I haven’t posted about. After a love affair which had lasted almost 10 years, I am no longer using Norton as my avti-virus software. I used toi be a diehard fan of their Security Center/Suite software, but in the past few years, it has really become some serious bloatware. In fact, I even switched to Norton Corporate Edition last year to trim some of the fat, but I still didn’t like what it considered a virus and what it didn’t. So, I switched over completely to AVG. We use it for i/o Computer on our MRI disc, and it works great. Best of all, it’s freeware. So far, it seems to really get the job done.

The other program I have been using a lot of too is Barca 2 as my email client. It’s fast, stable, lightweight, and does just about everything I need it to do. I really liked Thunderbird, but I check about 11 addresses everytime I load up the program. It seems like it would only check out 8 of those at a time, and just forget about the rest. This is unacceptable since I need to get all of my email when I ask for it. So far, Barca 2 seems to grab every message, everytime.

On a lighter note, Jess and I have been hook on ‘Millenium’ for the past few weeks. I always love dthe show when Sci-Fi used to show it with ‘The X-Files’ when I lived at home, and I haven’t seen it in years. After Christmas, Wal-Mart slashed the price of season one on DVD to a nice $19.99. I picked it up, and Jess started watching it with me. Needless to say that when we reached the final episode of the first season, she pouted like a little kid on Christmas who didn’t get the dolly she really wanted. So, being the nice guy that I am (and wanting it as well), I went out and bought the rest of the series. Right now we’re on disc 3 of season 2 and loving every minute of it.

Well, it’s about that time for me to go and get ready for work and all. Later…