Thank you to all of the fallen troops who died so we can live in freedom. You are forever in our debt. My prayers and thanks go to those who are currently in harms way defending my freedom, and the freedom of others.

The horrible cold that Thomas brought home as a souvenir from England resurfaced. He was sick for a week again. Thankfully, he had his respirator and decent medicine (why don't they sell Motrin in England?) so he was much more comfortable this time around. On Wednesday the 10th he turned 2 years old. The little boy who couldn't even breathe on his own 2 years ago spent most of the day singing "Happy Birthday" to the dog and riding around in his new toy. Our dog will howl at you if you sing Happy Birthday - but nothing else. Our dog is very strange.

No tropical storms in a while, and hurricane season ends in 3 weeks. I really hope we've seen the last of them for this year. We are still clearing up from the three that affected us. The roof is still covered with tarps - the plan is to fix that at the end of this month. Should be fun. The garden is almost completely cleared, but I have a feeling I'll be finding roof tiles for years to come. No matter how many times I think I've picked them all up I find more!

Obviously the NYY's didn't read my entry reminding them to pitch properly and hit properly. Oh well, maybe next year. Well done Red Sox and watch out next year, we'll be back stronger than ever to take our revenge :) Looks like I started a nice flame war over on the poll pages too... arf.

Got back from England on October 13th. Was so nice to be back in my home country for 2 weeks. It's very surprising what you miss (mainly food, in my case...). I didn't miss the cold weather or the prices though.... I forgot how much of a rip off England is!! The equivalent of $1.60 for a bottle of Coke, with 90ml less coke in it, that doesn't taste as good. Horrors!

Still, I pigged out on curry, proper chips and Batemans. Even better, I found out I have a cousin who works for Batemans who is going to see about getting me some cases shipped over. Joy! Also rediscovered Mr Kipling cakes, Lincolnshire sausages and cold tea loaf. Needless to say, I acquired the recipes for the latter two. The former, you can buy in the States thankfully.

My home town of Boston really hasn't changed much. This comes as no surprise to me, it hardly changed at all in the 18 years I lived there. A few new buildings (they call it a shopping center... it's not, it's 6 new buildings and they turned a street into a pedestrian area) and that's it. The traffic has certainly increased, we've been asking for a bypass for 50 years and they're still discussing it. Much quicker to walk! Everything seemed smaller, even my parents house. I'm told this is a fairly normal experience. But it's still weird.

The biggest thing for me though was to see my family again, all my little cousins are now not so little and I suddenly feel really old... :)

Strange emotions... I found myself happy to be back in my home and where I supposedly "belong", I'd missed England so much over the last 4 years but I was really surprised how homesick for America I was whilst I was there. When I first arrived, I didn't feel like an Englishman returning home, I felt like an outsider visiting a foreign land. It took about a week before I started to feel like I was truly "back". My frame of mind after returning is this... America has become my home and it's were I intend to live for the foreseeable future, but 4 years is far too long to be away from my homeland and it has made me appreciate it all the more. I intend to visit it much more often in the future!

It has been determined that Thomas loves flying, I was expecting 9 hours of hell but he remained on best behaviour for the whole trip and behaved so cutely that he made the 9 hours fly by in no time. What a great kid he is... :) I must tip my hat to British Airways, I flew on them in 2000 and was very impressed and I flew on them again for this trip and was equally impressed. The service was excellent, the plane was excellent (a Boeing 777) and the food was excellent too. What more can I ask for? Oh yes, what did you do with the dance music radio station you used to have??? Bring it back! Immediately!!

Meanwhilst, back in Florida and we got hit by ANOTHER tropical storm whilst I was gone. His name was Matthew and he didn't do any significant damage (and he didn't hit anywhere near were I live anyway). Can this be the last one? Please? We have a new Air Conditioner so the house feels wonderful - this is something we've been needing for a long time but we didn't have enough portraits of dead presidents until now.

Went back to work the day after I arrived home and haven't had a day off since. I'm really tired but am slowly getting over my jetlag. Thomas was completely messed up on his arrival to England, he was sleeping all day and staying up all night. He adjusted back to EDT fairly well though, thankfully.

To the Yankees. Start pitching the ball properly, and when a ball is pitched to you - hit it out of the ball park. We are not losing the World Series again! And to Boston, you're putting up a fine challenge but we'll still beat you tonight *thrrp!*. Hopefully.

Three hurricanes! I'm getting pretty tired of being hit by them! Maybe God is trying to tell us Floridians something? (Message received, we know you're great and powerful... please stop showing us!)

Charley knocked out the power for 7 days, Frances for 8 days. Jeanne was only 24 hours thankfully. My worst fear that Jeanne would cause even more roof damage was not realised because luckily she went further south than planned. I did get to spend the day watching the wooden straps holding my tarps down fly off the roof one by one, but enough stayed nailed down to to keep the tarp in place and prevent my roof leaking.

So, we take the boards down once more, clean up the mess again and thank our lucky stars we made it through another one. Hopefully, this'll be the last one for a while.

In other fun news, I drank far far too much last night and am really suffering as a result. I'll never drink again! :-) (yeah, right!).

The two teeth that have been driving me crazy and ruining one of my favourite activities (eating) are finally gone, pulled out by my very nice dentist. Having toothache on either side of your mouth is no picnic :-( I've learned my lesson that not visiting a dentist for 8 years is not a smart thing to do.

I will be visiting my parents this week, so two weeks in England. First time I've been back to my home country in 4 years so I'm really excited. Proper chips! With salt and vinegar! And curry sauce! From Tates!

Another week, another Hurricane. This one was called Frances. Next week, we say hello to Ivan and goodbye to my roof. I'm really, really sick of the weather right now! Frances was kind enough to cause our Uncle's ceiling to collapse so we have 10 house guests right now (4 humans, 4 dogs, 1 cat and 1 mouse). We still don't have power, but we do have a generator and my brother-in-law, who is an electrician, was kind enough to wire it directly into the mains panel. It works, but the AC draws too much juice to be useable, therefore we're sweating. We did not get so much damage this time, but the roof is severely weakened. If Ivan hits, it could be catastrophic.

The cat (and his aforementioned cousin as it happens) went to get neutered. Unfortunately, they found a rotten tooth so he got that pulled as well as his balls. He's not a very happy camper. He can now do a really good John Wayne impression, I know I'm being mean but it's cute! Our other furry child will be getting neutered as well soon. At least the vet's happy I suppose :)

We watched "The Passion of the Christ" finally. Now, I was brought up a Christian so I think I can safely say I speak with some authority on knowing what happened. I did enjoy the movie, but I thought Mel Gibson took things a little too far in places - shocking just for the sake of it, as it were. Some of the scenes were just unnecessary, the freaky baby in the devils arms for one. I don't remembe reading about that in Sunday school! Still, it was a good movie and I do recommend it even if you don't believe in that sort of thing. Just remember that the people who made it are very devout catholics and it really shows.

Interesting fact, 7 years since Princess Diana died today.

I should've kept my mouth shut about things returning to normal after Charley. Frances has decided to take careful aim, directly at my home town as it happens. It has 5 days to change course, or I'll (at the very least) not have a roof come Monday.

Thomas has a cold, so we're not getting much sleep right now. He seems a little better today so hopefully he's on the mend.

I listened to the new Prodigy album ("Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned"). I was so shocked at how bad it sounded I had to listen to "The Fat of the Land" just to convince myself it wasn't my music tastes that had radically changed. The album is truly awful, and it's not me, it's them. The absence of Maxim and Keith Flint is really really noticeable. They should just disown it and move on in my opinion.

Maybe I'm getting old but did anyone else feel that MTV's VMA awards really, really sucked this year? It seemed to be 90% Hip-Hop and the small amount of non Hip-Hop music they played was done by performers who should've been told polietly to not give up their day job early in their careers. Out of the whole show, I maybe enjoyed one or two performers.

My biggest beef with MTV is the hip-hop. They need to realise that the whole world is not dominated by one genre of music and start playing a variety. We're in the same situation now that we were in in the 1980s when they played nothing but rock music (not that I minded :-)).

Anyway, like I said - I may just be getting old.

Things are slowly returning to normal after Hurricane Charley. We lost power for 7 days and the house remained in a state of total upheaval as we cleaned everything up for another week after that. The only thing left to do now is get the roof fixed, for that we need the insurance adjustor to show up and give us an estimate.

Fun weekend, spent Saturday in St Augustine enjoying the sights. One of my favourite places to visit in this area :) Built half a fence yesterday, one again we're thwarted by the big spinny windy thing, the trees that got downed are now reduced to stumps that require the use of heavy equipment to move. Hopefully this week!

Well, as I write this it's 04:15 on a Saturday morning and I'm stuck at work babysitting a phone system upgrade. Whoever said IT was a 9-5 job had never worked IT :)

President Regan died on June 5th. A great man who did not deserve to spend his last 10 years with Alzheimers. I'm glad that he's finally at peace and hope that his family finds comfort in that knowledge also. I watched the funeral today and he certainly got a fine send off. I hope we made him proud.

I was shocked to see how frail Margaret Thatcher has become, she always seemed to be unstoppable and it's sad to see old age is finally catching up with the Iron Lady. Another great leader.

They finally found Joshua Bryant, the little boy who lived in the same city I do and went missing in 2001. Unfortunately, he was not found alive but buried in woods near Cassadaga. All I can say is, there are some truly evil people in this world. I hope they find his Grandmother's remains also so his family can give them both a decent burial. The suspect in the murders took the cowardly route and committed suicide.

Labour got their arses kicked in the local elections in England, looks like the stage is set for another Conservative Government. Ugh!!! Come back Maggie we need you!! The one time I voted in a UK General Election I voted for Paddy Ashdown, who has since retired. The alternative was John Major or the smiling idiot we have in power now. (Actually, the only reason I voted for Lib Dem is because they where the only people who actually came to my door asking for a vote).

Went to see the latest Harry Potter movie (Prisoner of Azkhaban). In spite of friends telling me it sucked I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Anyone else noticed that /. is giving out an awful lot of Moderator points lately? I use up my 5 points, reload the front page and 5 more appear. Maybe it's because I've been around so long, I dunno.

We finally got to see the last episode of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Definitely my favourite of the three movies but I'm disappointed they didn't include the Scouring of the Shire. I'll be buying the extended version when it's released to see if it's included (which it is supposed to be). I'd like to see The Hobbit and the Silmarillion turned into a movie as well, although the latter probably won't do as well. The next trilogy of books that's crying out to be made into a decent movie are Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian novels. Excellent reading!

Nope, I'm not dead.

Work has consisted for the last 2 months of lugging ancient (about 1994 from what I can gather) 19" monitors around, 500 of them and not so ancient (2003) Dell computers as we have updated the entire production floor at work. My back is not happy. Phase two will be lugging the old equipment onto crates and shipping it out of my life (hopefully permanently).

My life outside of work continues as normal. Thomas is now chattering away like mad, occasionally saying actual words and even small sentances. He'll be talking very soon and I'm really looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

I still don't have my full drivers license, not a lack of motivation but a complete lack of time to get down to the testing center. I drive everywhere now and wish I'd taken the time to learn how years ago.

We've been spending an awful lot of time at Universal Studios, taking advantage of our season tickets before the summer rush starts at the end of the month and the place becomes to crowded to be enjoyable. That new Mummy ride is really cool.

The news... lots of crap being thrown around over those idiot soldiers (and possibily their idiotic commanders) abusing Iraqi prisoners. This kind of behaviour is just not acceptable. With any luck, we'll have gotten to the bottom of it before US credibility hits even further lows.

Petrol prices here are getting really high, $2.08 a gallon this morning. I just have to keep reminding myself that when I lived in England it was over $5 a gallon. I don't think I'll be buying an SUV any time soon!

This writing in journal every day stuff just isn't working out is it?

Additional Information for this post. The Italian restaurant I was referring too is Giovanni's La Dolce Vita which is on Woodland Blvd in Deland, FL. They have a website as well. Tell them I sent you :)

My nephew turned 5 yesterday. The next generation just keeps getting older... and I feel even older! We, along with my Brother-in-Law and his wife went to Island's of Adventure to celebrate on Saturday. Finally got Kelly to ride "The Hulk" rollercoaster (been trying to get her on it for weeks :-)), she enjoyed it as predicted. This is my second favourite rollercoaster in the Orlando area, behind Krakken at Seaworld. Went on the Dr Doom ride (one of those rides that shoots you up in the air). Not worth the 30 minutes I spent queuing for it - borrrring. We went to see the 7th Voyage of Sinbad show which was very enjoyable, Thomas clapped through the whole thing so I guess he liked it too :-) Season tickets rock!

I listened to GWB's State of the Union speech which was mainly wibble but he made a few good points. Right now, I'm actively behind him on the new space projects and sorting out the health insurance mess and not much else.

It has been determined that (I think I'm spelling this right) Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, the Newlyweds couple are actually pretty good actors, as shown in this weekend's Saturday Night Live. I'm in shock, I find their own show irritating.

Yesterday...

Work was the same as error, nothing interesting happened beyond getting a Pepsi out of the vending machine that had already been opened. Hmmph.

Went to our friend Laura's in the evening for dinner - lot's of fun and a good meal. Thomas enjoyed playing with her daughter.

More of an interesting day at work, spent much of the day dealing with a new batch of supervisors moving to the Avaya Soft phone system. I like the system but the USB adapters we have to use for the headsets are very temperamental.

Listened to W's speech on the future of space travel. Agreed with most of it, which is another first. Seem to be having a lot of those with him lately! (Still not voting for him the next election, though). Now we watch his plans for space get shot down by congress.

Italian 3 Meat Trio Hot Pockets. Waste of $2.00.

For the first time today a Palestinian Mother blew herself up at an Israeli checkpoint. She'd have gotten into heaven by taking care of her young children rather than trying to be a Martyr. I fear it will not be the last. I hope the political situation stablilises in that part of the world one day.

What a week...

We drove up to New Jersey (14 hours in the back of a Honda Civic is no fun, let me tell you) last Wednesday. Alvin Winter, my Father-in-Law's oldest brother finally lost his battle with cancer. He was a good man who, after his father died, helped raise his younger brothers and sisters. He suffered with cancer for 3 years and I'm glad that he's now out of pain and living in a better place. I regret that I was not able to get to know him better. He was 54. We gave him a simple service as per his wishes and the Pastor (a family friend) gave an excellent eulogy.

We spent most of our time up north with the family but did manage a day trip to Philadelphia to see the liberty bell and old seat of government, which included an excellent tour about the Declaration of Independence and the writing of the US Consitution. Unfortunately, we had no time to go get a real Philly Cheese Steak :( The weather up north was unbearably cold: 2F, with a wind chill of -14F, brrr!! I've gotten used to living in Florida where it rarely drops below the 70's!

From the Sublime: George Bush is going to do a JFK and announce that he wants us on Mars in the next 20 years (not quite as catchy as "before this Decade is out"). For once, I'm 100% behind one of his policies. First off though he wants us back on the Moon. Two great ideas and I hope NASA gets the funding and we do it right.

To the Ridiculous: An F-15 accidentally dropped an inert 25lb bomb on Yorkshire. Oops!!

My linux box hasn't crashed yet since I put 2.4.24 on it (see my other Journal entries about 2.6). Fingers crossed it was just a 2.6 issue.

Robert Kilroy-Silk, the talk show guy, apparently wrote a column last April where he called Arab's "Suicide Bombers, Limb Aputators and Women Oppressors" and it was "accidentally" republished last week. Cue huge racism debate. The BBC has axed his show pending an investigation. I've not read the article, but I get the impression it's been blown out of all proportion as these things usually are.

And finally... I've got the worst stomach bug I've had in many years... I feel like Kenny from South Park right now *grin*.

Observation: Years go by quicker the older you get. My aim this year is to update this Journal every day, if I can. I'm already 5 days behind. Ah, well.

Another year and I'm not a millionaire yet. Ah, well. Financially stable would be nice at the very least! Maybe this year.

Had a fun Christmas and New Years, I think we'll need to build another house for all the toys Thomas got. He was thrilled with all the boxes they came in - just like a normal 1 year old. He is now walking (actually, running at full speed in exactly the direction you don't want him to go is a better description...) and trying to talk. He has also found buttons, and that pressing the Power button on the [TV, Computer, etc.] creates endless fun. Sticky tape is my new best friend.

Geeky stuff: I've upgraded to Linux 2.6 on my laptop and one of my servers. The laptop is running great, the server is apart from it keeps crashing every few days with no explanation. I think it's hardware related rather than kernel related though. Plan is to revert back to 2.4, see if it stabilises and if so, file a bug report.

The NASA Spirit Rover landed on Mars over the weekend - congratulations to them. Good luck Opportunity team. I'm also still holding out hope that Beagle 2 will be found which hasn't been heard from since Christmas Day.

So, Britney Spears got married on a whim, and then got divorced this morning. If it's a publicity stunt, it's not a very good one. The Crocodile Hunter guy fed a crocodile whilst holding his son (1 month old) which has created a media frenzy. Probably not one of his brightest ideas, but I doubt he'd put his kid in danger. Personally, I'm surprised he's not gotten himself killed already!

I turned 25 years old on the 16th, lots of changes in the past year the most important of course is that 12 months ago I wasn't a parent! My life is better now than it was last year but still not a millionaire yet. Maybe next year!

I seem to have spent the last fortnight doing nothing else but patching computers against this Win32.Blaster.Worm virus. Every time I think I have them all another one pops up. Gah!! Other than that, work is pretty quite whilst we are in between projects... calm before the storm by all accounts, however. I'm taking the downtime as an excuse to upgrade our nasty old Win NT 4.0 workstations to nasty not-so-old Windows 2000.

Thomas is now cruising, that is he's pulling himself up onto a standing position and then walking whilst holding onto furniture (or people, or the dog, whatever he can grab ahold of!). He keeps trying to let go and walk and has gotten very good at scaring the hell out of us every time he tumbles!! I don't think it'll be long before he's running around the house :-)

My other son, the furry one, ate a diaper last week and spent 2 days in the vets office whilst that was sorted out. I guess he's finally discovered something he can't digest.