Whirlwind March

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted. But then I think about how much stuff has been going on and I'm not surprised. I think I last wrote when I was in Ketchum and that started the craziness.

After I came back from Ketchum I left for Nevada on Friday, March 9th to pick up Aaron. The weather was good and I made good time to Sparks. Aaron and I unloaded the car with all the stuff I brought him and then went on to my Dad's in Georgetown, CA. There we met up with my 2 step-sisters Rayleen and Alecia. Alecia's daughter Neira was cuter than I could have ever imaged. She's almost 3 and super smart. Her and Aaron seemed to get along well. I was proud of Aaron for how he was with her. We spent 2 nights there and then went onto Sacramento. We went by Alecia's place and then while Rayleen went home, Aaron and I went to see Jen. This is my friend since the 3rd grade and she grew up in Garden Valley and went through the same schools as I. We used to get kicked out of everything we did together because we could never stop laughing. It was great to see her and her cute apartment. She is blond and cute as a button and looks like Sarah Jessica Parker who I am a big fan of. I unfortunately did not get to meet her daughter as she was with her Dad. From the pictures, she's a mini-me of Jen.

In Sacramento, we also saw my friend Tricia who I met when she was pregnant with her son Sean, who just turned 15. She is a great woman who is done an excellent job at being a single mother. We spent the night with them and then went onto Auburn. After we got checked into a hotel, we took a drive up to ForestHill across the big scary bridge I don't think I've ever been on, but you see each time you go through the canyon from Auburn to Mom / Dad's in Georgetown/Garden Valley. We stopped at Lake Clementine and looked at the dam close up.

The next morning, I drove Aaron back home and we did some shopping in Sparks. We got him a bike for his Dad's, a desk for his computer, some food and his birthday present which was a hydro rocket. His 12th birthday is tomorrow and I am very sad that I won't be spending it with him. Even though I saw him and bought him presents and sent him a card this week, it's just not the same as being around him for the day and celebrating.

I ended up coming back a day early sine we didn't go to the Bay Area, I didn't want to pay for another night's hotel so I just came home. Aaron was happy because he got to spend a day at home with his computer, scooter and new bike before him and his Dad left for their trip to AZ to see his other grandparents.

When I got back, Dave was still gone on his trip to WI for management training for his new job. He was supposed to be home the next night, but ended up getting stuck in Chicago due to flight delays. I spent 3 nights at home without him and missed him terribly. When you're away from home, it's a lot easier to be without the people you usually see. Heather watched the girls while we were both gone and when I picked them up, we had a nice visit. Dave got home Friday and the next day his Mom came to visit. She flew home Tuesday so this weekend we are looking forward to sleeping in and finally having some down time and relaxing. I still have a lot of unpacking and organizing to do, but I've realized it's not going anywhere and if it's been boxed up this long and I haven't needed it, it's probably not the end of the world if I don't get to every last box anytime soon. I would like to get the garage organized enough so Dave can park inside again, but it is nice having the extra room all to myself :)

Packing in the Snow Part Deaux

So, I have learned a very valuable lesson when blogging. Apparently you can't "recover post" unless you've at some point done a "save as draft" at least with Blogger.com. I spent over 2 hours working on a long post Wednesday and when the power went off at the office, I lost everything. It's funny since I do user support for a living and always tell users to "save, save and then save again" and I hadn't saved myself. Ooops.

Last weekend we continued moving stuff out of my rental house over to Dave's as I am moving back in and need to be out of the rental by the end of March. Sunday we went furniture shopping again and actually found a sofa and snuggle chair that we ordered. It will takes 10 weeks for them to come, but now that frees me up to sell my loveseat. I've had my loveseat and entertainment center since 1989 when I lived in the Bay Area, renting a small room at my Aunt & Uncle's house in Redwood City. I've sure moved them around a lot and am happy that I won't have to move them again. I still need to get them listed on craigs list.

Sunday after Dave and I went furniture shopping we stopped by Cobby's on the way home and had some delicious sandwiches, soup and a pitcher of beer. It started snowing out and it was a nice afternoon. When we got home, Dave re-proposed, so I've got my ring back! Yeah!

Thursday (yesterday, seems to long ago) I headed to Sun Valley to come to the Ketchum branch of HTEH to do RAM upgrades, personality captures and swap out some PC's and bring back a bunch of old equipment. The Subaru I rented is now loaded up with pc's and monitor's to go back to Boise later today.

I recorded episode 10 of the Mind and Body Cast last night and announced the show will be going on a temporary hiatus until June when school gets out and Aaron comes to visit for the summer. I was listening to Tee Morris on Podcasting for Dummies and had read another blog post that Adam shared and agree that if you're going to take a break, just let your listeners know. So that's what I decided to do. We may do a Bonus Episode over Spring Break when I see him. Also, I'll be taking him his computer and his Dad said he would get him internet, so maybe when he has a PC, we can do recordings together remotely. It's just too weird for me to do the show by myself.

After I get Aaron from his Dad's in Sparks, NV, we will head to Dad's and stay over for the weekend. My step-sister Rayleen is coming up from the Bay Area and then we're going to see her sister Alecia in Sacramento on Sunday. I haven't seen her in probably almost 10 years, since Rayleen's wedding. She has a little girl and I believe is expecting again so it will be fun to catch up with her.

This week I broke down and bought another Ipod. I have a 5G video and love it, but since I've been working out, it's too big for that so I've been using Dave's shuffle. Well, since I listen to podcasts and not music, it doesn't work very well for that, so I went ahead and ordered a 4gig pink Nano. I love it!!! So now I sync the Nano with my laptop which has podcasts and then the video will sync with my PC at work here I have music and now the video podcasts that I watch. For those interested, since I had to make a list and re-subscribe to them all, here are the shows I watch (all searchable in Itunes):

Rumor girls
ABC News 20/20
ABC News Medical
Amanda on ABC
Cesar Milan
Command N
Cranky Geeks
D & D TV
DL.TV
DogBlog
Geek Brief
Hound TV
Joel Osteen
Joyce Meyer
Labrats
Mobuzz
Pet Trends
Rabbit Bites
Starring Amanda
Daily 10's Hollywood Rap Up
Masthead
VideoVoom
YaZooMa


For this week's new technical sites and things, I've just been updating Twitter and started listening to Tom Merrit's Real Deal podcast. It's really good. I've listened to Tom for a while with Molly and Veronica on Buzz Out Loud, but I'm really enjoying Tom on his own. His podcasts are brief, concise and very helpful, even for a nerd like me :)