Once again, haven't written in a while. I'm getting married in 4 days.

I've decided to make the plunge again, and I've found a great woman who is very good to me.

Full church wedding, big wedding party. Groom side consists of 1 best man, 6 groomsmen, 1 junior groomsmen, ring bearer. I was left scrambling trying to find enough men for my side.

We have 135 people attending the reception, it is at a nice hotel in Reading.

My four year old daughter is very excited to be the flower girl, her and the fiance get along very well. I can't wait to see her all dressed up.

As far as the honeymoon goes - on Friday 10/28/05 we are flying to London. On Tuesday we are taking the Eurostar to Paris. On Saturday 11/5 we are flying home. We have purchased the airline tickets, but that is all so far.

My fiance knows what she wants to see in London, I'm handling Paris. I took a few years of French in high school, and I am listening to the refresher CD in the car. Any ideas for guidebooks for either city and maybe a pocket sized phrasebook for France? I have to order the books by tomorrow.

She bought me a Tag-Heuer watch for our engagement, she says if I'm going to spend a lot on an engagement ring, she is going to get me something nice too, isn't she awesome? Unfortunately because Overstock.com is jerking us around I haven't got it yet.

Last night someone walked into our company's headquarters and left with at least 8 laptops and 4 projectors. Did it around 7 pm.

This dude and his friend didn't know that we have a whole lot of security cameras. He covered his face on the way in, but didn't on the way out. Also someone saw a van cruise through the parking lot a bunch of times and wrote down the license plate. Two other people think they came face to face with this guy, but since we have been hiring so many new people they weren't sure.

My boss, and two others in our IT dept. lost their laptops. One of my coworkers lost his gym bag with a pair of smelly socks in it (probably to help carry the stuff). Luckily I took my laptop home so I could play "You Don't Know Jack 3" in the living room. BTW, anyone know where I can get "You Don't Know Jack, The Ride" cheap? I can't find it on Ebay. My fiance and I love playing the different Jack versions.

Everybody thinks they are a crime scene investigator today. Where is Sipowicz when you need him? Not that he's a good investigator, I just like his interogation style.

And I got a new friend anyway.

Welcome Ack!

Times have been good, got engaged. My daughter Emily is doing well.

I have zero motivation but still I've been really busy. I've been skimming through journals and posting a comment about once a week or so.

Here are some things I've done lately.

I went to visit our field offices in San Clemente and Colorado Springs. Had a lot of delayed flights and missed connections because of weather. Yes, all of my connections were supposed to be through Chicago. When the airlines can use any excuse to claim weather caused the delays they give a big "F you" to their customers.

Because of all my delays, I got to do ZERO sightseeing. Instead, I got to hang out in airports and be yanked around by the airlines. I did get to touch the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life but at the time, I was extremely tired. My Navy time was spent in every ocean but the Pacific.

Our company got some grant money from the state for IT training. I guess Pennsylvania has some programs to increase their technology industry. Our HR dept. told us to put a wish list of training. I did and all of it got approved. I was a very happy boy.

Last week I went to a CCNA class. I took this same class about 3 years ago but didn't put any of it into practice at the time. This time I'm getting the certs. I swear. Really. No kidding.

A few weeks ago I also took an Exchange 2003 class, ditto with the certs. No, really. This time I mean it. Really.

My daughter got potty trained. She is doing really well with it. From what I hear, number two is always hard to train for and she almost has that completely down.

Things are going well with the gf and I, although she thinks I get jerked around by the ex- too much. She gives me a hard time if I wind up having to cancel plans to keep my daughter. Yes, its short notice cause the ex- will never grow the hell up.

I feel its just part of being there for my daughter. I don't want my daughter to ever feel like she is a burden. I want her to always know I'm there for her. While I understand part of a relationship is the two of us spending alone time together, she has to understand what I'm trying to do for Emily. If I turn down watching Emily, who the ex- gonna get to watch her? Its a difficult balancing act sometimes.

Went to Pocono this past weekend for the NASCAR race. Watched Jimmy Johnson just run away with the thing. I don't like Pocono as much as the other tracks I've been too. Its too damn big you can see the other side of the track with binoculars. And for this race I had to throw away my binoculars, they got some moisture inside and they are pretty much worthless.

I was really sad and digusted last week. Friends of the family had a daughter who left for the Navy at 18. Right after boot camp she got pregnant from a guy who then got stationed on the West coast. She married him and stayed on the East coast, in Norfolk.

Anyway, this girl (we'll call her Stupid...or worse if you want). She got a boyfriend in Norfolk after darling hubby left. About a year ago the bf watched the baby when stupid had to work. Bf can't stand crying and beats the crap out of the baby. Messed the 4 month old up really, really bad. Broken ribs, broken legs, broken arm and she had to breath through a tube. Said the baby would never walk. No one got put in jail. Some charges got filed but the bf stayed out of jail. Stupid tried to make up stories to protect the bf.

So cut to the present. A year later. Bf is still not in jail, the baby is walking but still breathing through a trach tube. Doctors still don't know if the baby has much brain damage. In the middle of the night the trach tube comes out. Pulled out from the side where the baby had a really messed up arm. The nurse I told this story to told me those tubes just don't pop out on their own. Still, a week later, no one is in prison.

Makes me just want to hold my daughter and never let her out of my sight.

I got a Magellan Roadmate 700. Nice, but I don't want it. I know, strange, a gadget that I have no desire for.

I want to convert it into other cool toys for myself. We're talking $1,000 bucks here. Maybe a Creative Labs Nomad Zen MP3 player, maybe the new Kodak 5 MP camera. What would you buy yourself for new gadgets in about the $300 price range? I already have a Tivo and Roomba.

I have never bought or sold anything on Ebay and I want to do this without getting screwed. Any advice? I have a friend who does a lot of selling on Ebay, I'm going to seek out his help too.

Here are the latest pictures of Emily. I had them done so they would be back before father's day.

There is one of me with Emily in there. Here they are.

Went to gmailswap and offered up a $20 donation to the Victory Junction camp. Someone took me up right away and I made the donation. Got my account immediately afterward. 1 GB here I come.

Emily has been getting better with the potty training, she is almost there. Her mother told me she woke her up at 5 am to go potty...I'll save some money there.

Gotta run because Emily has her first dance lesson tonight. I have to spend 45 minutes near the ex-, yuck.

My mom called me the other day, she said there were Amish sharpshooters walking around near her house. I didn't know there were such things.

My mom lives out in the boonies, her next door neighbor is a corn field. At a farm about 5 miles away they had a fire and some of the cows got loose. These aren't your normal cows, these are big angry Angus bulls. One of these cows wandered out to a major highway about 5 miles further past the house and got hit by a car. The paper said the driver had to get airlifted. These suckers are huge.

These cows had destroyed some of the neighboring farmers' crop and some of the farmers had already taken down a few of them. I guess they have Amish sharpshooters who specialize in this type of thing. Brought in from Lancaster county, the heart of Amishdom, kind of like Mecca is to Islam I think. They had tranquilizer dart guns and they were in search of these cows. The cows decided to hang out in the cornfield beside my parent's house, so the snipers were going in to get them.

I don't know how they were planning on getting them out, they must have hired an English guy with a truck.

Tivo is now giving away the Home Media Option for free.

I'm going to write them and ask for my $99 back (well $50 after the rebate).

Found this quiz, thought it was kind of cool. It tests your thinking style. I'll put my results in a comment below.

In other news, it has been an extremely busy last few weeks for me. Our company moved into a new much nicer headquarters. I was the go-to guy on all of the major network stuff. This building is pretty nice, the Information Systems group now gets our own area, with a door between us and the users. One of my first steps after we moved was to get a door annunciator like you see at Radio Shack (motto: You got questions, we got blank stares). This lets us talk about some of our less intelligent users, safe in knowing they won't walk in on us.

Right now I am down near DC. Our company is doing a User's Conference starting Sunday afternoon. It is marketing's event of the year, although I don't know where the hell all of the marketing people are this weekend. This year they wanted the IS group down to help get it set up. Basically be grunt labor. Not happy about that one bit. We started unloading a truck at 6:00 am. Tomorrow we have to be back at it at 6:00 am.

I am a very tired boy and most of my weekends have been shot to hell lately. I had to give up my tickets to the Richmond NASCAR race and the Dover one too because of work. The only one I will get to this year is Pocono and that is my least favorite.

Things are going well on the personal side. I have consistently had my daughter about 70% of the time. At 3.5 years it really seems like this is where she becomes a mini adult. She is more in control of her feelings and a lot more self sufficient. Trying to get her fully potty trained, she has her good days and her bad days.

Heed Sam's advice and pick up the Leap Frog Letter Factory and Word Factory. She loves those two movies and walks around saying things like the B says Buh.

Things with the gf are going pretty well for me too. Its funny, but this is the most adult relationship I have ever been in. A good amount of give and take. It really feels like I am in a healthy relationship for once in my life. We both have similar opinions on things and we both have more professional careers. No more bitching when I say I am coming home late because a drive just failed and I have to wait until after hours to shut down the machine and replace the drive then start rebuilding the array. You know, the type of stuff that is a fact of life in systems administration.

We're both introverts, because of her job she just hides it better. We both prefer quiet evenings at home to going out all the time. She loves to cook and it is such a nice feeling to come home and have dinner ready for me and my daughter. She goes out of her way to help make life easier for me.

Got a call from the Ex-. She just got the paperwork in the mail, it is official, the divorce is final.

I'm hoping my copy is in the mail today.

WooHoo!

My company is finally interviewing for the second senior sysadmin person. This person would be my peer, there would be two guys junior to us. Interviewed a guy yesterday, about 10 years experience (compared to my 6 years). He has lots of certs and a Master's degree.

Its hard not to just dislike someone like that outright. For the last 3 years I've been the main IS guy here. While the two guys who are junior to me are pretty good at the day to day desktop support stuff, it just seems to me like they don't take initiative in trying new things or just coming up with solutions. So job security has always been easy for me.

Hiring another person would be a good thing, there are so many things that I need to do but the day to day stuff keeps me too busy.

They are also interviewing for an IS admin position. I think I've found my favorite candidate, although my main criteria is how cute she is :) Actually the girl we interviewed has about 4 years help desk experience, she just wants a change. And she's cute so that's always a plus. Good thing I haven't made my criteria clear during the interviews...think of the lawsuits.

The ex- signed the petition for divorce. It heads off to the judge.

I met the ex- at a Notary's office, got everything notarized, then immediately drove it to my lawyer's office. I had to take the day off work to ensure it got done, but it was a good use of a personal day.

Lawyer's secretary says it come back as quickly as 2 weeks or as long as 8 weeks depending on the judge's workload.

Time for a little Soup Dragons

Don't be afraid of your freedom
Freedom

I'm free to do what I want any old time
I said I'm free to do what I want any old time

I say love me, hold me
Love me, hold me
'Cause I'm free to do what I want any old time
And I'm free to be who I choose any old time

I say love me, hold me
Love me, hold me
'Cause I'm free to do what I want
To be what I want any old time
And I'm free to be who I choose
To get my booze any old time

I say love me (love me forever)
Hold me (and love will never die)
Love me, hold me
'Cause I'm free

Do you hear what I say
These are the words me hear from my grandaddy, come on
These are the words me hear from my grandaddy
Who say nothing in this world like when a man know he free
Free from the lackamissa (?)
Free from the dee (?)
Free like a butterfly
Free like a bee
These are the words me hear from my grandaddy
Said it's nice to be free, nice to be free
Free from the lackamissa (?)
Free from the dee (?)
Don't be afraid of your freedom

'Cause I'm free to do what I want any old time (I'm a new creation)
'Cause I'm free to do what I want any old time
(Don't be afraid of your freedom)
'Cause I'm free to do what I want
To be what I want any old time
I said I'm free to be who I choose
To get my booze any old time

So things are going pretty well with the gf and me. The gf took Emily out to a farmer's market last Saturday and then some other shopping. Saturday Emily called the gf "mommy". She also did it last night.

Now what approach do I take with this? Here are some factors to affect this:

She is 3 years old, she knows that kids have a mommy and a daddy, but the ex- and I have been seperated for the last 1.5 yrs.

The real mom has her about 30% of the time and it just seems like when I get her she is lacking in attention from her mom.

The gf is very good with her, they seem to get along great.

I don't want to get Em's hopes up too much. While things are going great with the gf, marriage isn't even a consideration at the present time.

Th gf and I have been keeping it low key around Em. Em hasn't even seen us hug.

I don't want to say "No, she isn't your mommy" what if things work out with the gf. I don't want to say "You already have a mommy", because in my opinion the real mommy doesn't do that great a job.

Anybody have experience with this, either from the point of view of being a stepchild, or an adult in my situation? Or just some good insight?

Picked up a great book, "Joint Custody With A Jerk". Totally suits as yesterday I just went off on the ex-. She yelled at me when we were trying to work out the holiday schedule. You see this year my Birthday falls on Easter. I was just talking, I hadn't raised my voice...until that point. Then I just plain lost it with her, I let out a string of obsenities on her. I love not having to take her crap.

How much April Fool's do you think the "editors" will ram down our throats again this year?

Not my first choice of bands, but tonight we went to see the "Indigo Girls". My GF picked up the tickets, and no she's not a lesbian, although her gay friend from college also went along.

You may be asking "Jeff, were there a lot of lesbians there". My answer to you would be a resounding "Yes!" All of the lesbians for a 10 mile radius around Reading PA were probably there. There was a pair of cute ones sitting in front of me. There were also a lot of scary scary ones with short spiky bleached blond hair.

The Indigo Girls put on a pretty good show. Next up for me, John Mayer next week. I am going to see The Alarm the week after that. I saw The Alarm on VH1s Bands Reunited and I'm not sure if those are the guys who are touring.