November 9, 2005

It is one cold and rainy day today. It is so dark outside at noon that I can barely tell that it is daytime. Today is the two year anniversary of my mother’s passing. In so many ways it seems so recent and yet in many other way it seems so long ago. I suppose that we can say that about anything. It would appear to be just the “thing to say” about any event as time passes. At least now that enough time has passed I am having an easier time remembering mom the way that she was when I was growing up and not sick like she was for the last year or so. That is really important to me.

Dominica left for work at 10:00. Her very first IT job and her first day on that job. It is all very exciting. It is a ten hour shift with a one hour break so she is scheduled from 11:00 until 10:00. She should be home between 10:30 and 11:00. That is a long day but she will be done on Saturday night and have three days off in order to recover. It is going to take us a few weeks to get used to this schedule but it sure is a lot better than what it has been.

Dad picked me and Oreo up a little after 11:00 and we went over to the Omega Grill for some lunch. We also did some shopping at Walmart. I had been hoping to have been able to have found some seeds so that we could start raising some plants in the basement while my office has been relocated upstairs. We should have a decent amount of growing space all through the winter down there since we anticipate no office move until later next year at the very earliest. But Walmart has taken away almost all of their stock of lawn and garden supplies and has stocked that portion of the store with nothing but Christmas junk. So no luck there. I did find an orange bell pepper that I intend to eat and then harvest its seeds to see if I will be able to start four or so plants from that. I am hoping today that I will be able to find my old hydroponic system that is in the basement somewhere. I know that I still have all of it but I just don’t know where any of it is. It is a small basement so it can be hiding in only so many places. I am planning on setting up the unit that I all ready have as well as putting together a “from scratch” system using an old aquarium that dad has kicking around his place. Systems of this nature are really easy to work with but are only able to produce so much. Very handy for small home indoor gardens though.

While at Walmart I also dug through their new $4.88 bin and came up with Jaws 2, The Musketeer and Out of Africa. Not a bad haul for under $15. We have been buying very few DVDs these days and the bargains are getting better and better for what we do buy.

The rain has become a thunderstorm and I am very surprised that we still have electricity at this point. Normally it would have gone out by now. It is so dark out that the street lights on the culdisac in front of my office window have been on since 1:00.

I came across a great link that shows those of us with limited financial resources the best way to pimp their ride and get more bang for you car-mod buck.

Dominica has email and AIM access from work all ready. She has a phone now too but doesn’t know the main number, only her extension. So I can’t call her yet. She is shadowing someone at work today while she learns the ropes.

Late this afternoon I decided to watch Jaws 2 which I have not seen in many years. Maybe fifteen or more. Really hard to say. I definitely haven’t it in a really long time. It has been long enough that I can’t remember how it goes. I do remember that I used to like it even more than the original. But it has been a long time. I don’t have that as an expectation now. I know that the following films were terrible though. Especially the attempted 3D movie.

I did a pretty thorough search in the basement and in the garage and was not able to come up with anything in the way of a hydroponics system. I have no idea where it could be hiding. I asked Dominica and she didn’t know where it was either. Where do these things always managed to get to?

I also decided to watch The Muskateer from Miramax. About halfway through the movie the disc stopped playing so I switched to watching Roxanne with Steve Martin. I love that movie. One of the classics.

Jeremy is coming over to spend the night this Friday. We are planning on having one of the first Friday Night Games that we have had in a long, long time. I will be putting up an announcement shortly. I haven’t played AoE2 in a low time. I haven’t even had it installed in a long time. So I need to take care of that but it will be fun to get a game or two in after all of this time. Jeremy and I are planning on playing 2 vs. 5 or 2 vs. 6. Should prove to be a good time.

I have to be in Buffalo at 8:00 am tomorrow. That means that I really need to leave the house by 7:00. That is way too early for me. Especially with Min not getting in until late tonight. We want to watch a little BBC before going to bed. Tomorrow is the Microsoft launch event that has been sold out for some time. It should be a really good, fun day with a lot of valuable learning opportunities but it is going to be a long day no matter what. I believe that Steve Bulkley is going out to the show all day as well so I will have someone to hang out with. Andy is going to the afternoon portion of the event. This will be only the second time that I have seen him in the past several months! No one else is able to go to the show because it sold out before anyone else took the time to try to get tickets. It is a nine hour show so I won’t be home until after 6:00. Oreo is going to be staying with dad all day. At least dad’s house is on the way. I printed out my directions and my map from MapPoint (the same software as Microsoft’s Streets and Trips) so that I am all ready for the morning. I will be too tired to think about it in the morning.

Dominica made it home in just about half an hour. Her commute is not as long as we had thought that it was going to be. That is very positive. She really enjoyed her first day at work and is very excited about the availability of hot beverages. She says that they have between thirty and fifty different types of coffee and tea there. She is in hot beverage heaven.

For the moment, SGL 2 is working again and I managed to post a quick test audio blog. Who knows how long it will last. That services never works for more than a week at a time. I can’t believe that they use it as a marketing tool for their “pay for” service. After all of the issues and refusal of their customer service to respond to emails I would never purchase a service from them.

Min and I watched a couple episodes of As Time Goes By before heading off to bed. Only about five episodes left before we are done with the entire show altogether. That is very sad. I have been watching that show develop since around the time that it first aired in the early 1990’s. Getting to see a new episode now and again has been a part of my life since I was in high school! That is a pretty long time.

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