blarg

so if you cant tell by my 5-6 month absence this year, ive either been busy, pre-occupied, or lost interest in this thing... im not entirely sure which is the winner. some morbid manifestation of them all? perhaps.

[cincy.house]
most of you are pretty up to date because one of the main reasons i started this thing was to update my long lost family back home on the status of the house and cincy in general [this was before the name change & relocation obviously] since relocating, i talk to most of you much more often and we discuss these things more often. but i suppose there are perhaps those of you out there that have read this blog from afar or perhaps dont stay in such close contact with me - to you, i do apologize, and will henceforth briefly update you.

the short answer is that nothing has happened. we finally finished reconstruction the last day of september, and we've paid everyone everything we owe them. we put the house back on the market, but had no interest worth mentioning in it since [nearly two months now?]

the crazy girl has popped up over and over and in the last 6 months we were forced to retain legal services and subsequently pay a shit-ton [i think thats metric] of money for essentially nothing. about every two months she pops back up with some nonsense amendment or letter that we have to pay to have our attorney, yet again, squash, disprove and render pointless... and then she disappears for two months.... i guess its about time for more of her nonsense? who knows. who cares. shes certifiable.

other than that, we discussed at great length the option of renting the house and have since gone through all the necessary paperwork and such to hire a property management company to handle things and get it rented out. they have another couple of weeks to find a tenant before the 45 day deadline - that come to think of it, i have absolutely no idea what happens after it expires. they seem certain that they can find a tenant before their time is up, so here's hoping they are correct. if we do manage to successfully rent this thing out it would cancel out the payments we're still making on it and in the end actually service as a modicum of additional income - sweet!

and that my friends, is the house update. such as it is.

[work]
work is good. staying moderately busy working on a handful of things. i still really enjoy my job and the freedom its granted me in addition to the obvious benefits of being gainfully employed. no worries here, i appear to be quite secure in the continued availability of my position as well as the continued happiness of my superiors. time and again i appear to have exceeded their expectations and they continue to assign me more responsibility, more respect, and more inclusion in things than i ever really could have imagined. as far as fellow employees go, i honestly like everyone ive met and have reoccurring contact with. there are certainly a few here or there that tend to have less than ideal personalities, but hey, to coin a common cliche - thats why they invented 32 flavors, eh? i dont mind. if im having a day where someone or someones are becoming an annoyance for whatever reason, i can simply turn up my headphones, shut my door and drown out my surroundings while i work away in the comfort of my office. [well, until i start to cook and have to allow in some ventilation, but those are sufficiently spaced intervals.] in summary, work is good.

[everything else?]
not really sure what to say. i could update you all on my wifes life, but really, shouldnt she be doing that? i dont really have the inclination.

||gadgets||
i did get a new toy for my birthday last weekend - yes, you missed it, and i'll only forgive you in the wake of lavish gifting - a kindle fire. you've probably seen them in the news, theyre supposed to be one of the most popular gifts this holiday season and are expected to be the only realistic rival to the ipad2.

i can say that in the few days ive had this thing it has completely abducted me. i am engulfed in its intricacies and discovering what all it has to offer. the main reason i wanted one was for games, movies, and books to take along on our cruise in a couple of weeks and so far im not disappointed in the offerings.

i havent yet started to purchase books for it, but ive done extensive wish listing on amazon and will soon make some decisions about purchase. the quality i can get in video is more than satisfying although i havent yet figured out how to get movies/tv shows directly to the device instead of streaming from the cloud... [apologies for all the tech-jargon if youre clueless] and lastly the games.

ive never been too terribly into mobile device gaming, but im starting to understand it a little better. other than a few word games that were mostly encouraged by the wifey, i hadnt really found any games that interested me much on them. oh sure, i test drove a few and they were fun for a little while, but after about 5 minutes, i was bored with most of them. not that i really have a ton of time for gaming anyhow, but its certainly part of the device experience these days. well, since acquiring my fire, ive found a few games im really enjoying. one is a pinball game that really took me back to pinball on our old win95. man its been years since i played that, but i rather enjoyed it then, and had a good time tinkering with it on the fire the other day. and then last night i really found some winners. i rediscovered mahjong [again, probably not since win95] and had a good time cussing it as i relearned the game, and even better was a crossword puzzle game. never been huge on crossword puzzles, but this proved to be very enjoyable as karen and i teamed up and spent a solid hour or two trying to solve the puzzles. we dont really play a lot of games together and this was actually a lot of fun for me, so that seems like a winner.

other than that, karen seems to be a bit annoyed with the thing, and im afraid shes starting to regret gifting it. i dont feel like ive really been playing with it to the extent of ignoring her or neglecting my husband-ly duties, but she certainly seems off-put whenever i pick it up. im not sure why really, but im obviously not seeing things from her perspective. honestly, im just really enthralled with figuring out all that it can do and how it does it, and once the newness and the mystery wears off, im sure itll be less enthralling, and hopefully less intrusive. either way, i am enjoying it. =]

||house||
the only other item i really feel inclined to comment on is houses. not the one in cincy though, here in houston. for those of you that dont already know, karen and i have taken a serious look at things and have decided we are ready to buy in houston, and as such, have begun the process. we met with a mortgage adviser at our bank and found out that i have awesome credit and we've been unofficially approved for a more sizable  mortgage than i had ever expected and with a very reasonable interest rate in my perspective.

we've enlisted the help of a close friend/realtor to help us with the search and have started scouring the city for that perfect house. so far we havent found it, but have been able to really start nailing down what things we do want, dont want, areas and neighborhoods we are and arent interested in, things we're willing to compromise on, and the price range we actually want to be in - and what that looks like in terms of potential houses.

its a process and its ongoing. ideally we'd like to close on something before january 1st for financial reasons, but at this point its not looking terribly likely. who knows, perhaps that perfect-for-us house is lurking just around the next corner. in the meantime we have some solid options that we're planning to try and get showing for by the end of this week. we've already done one round of these that was a little disappointing, but thats all part of the process, im not discouraged yet.

hopefully it all turns out.

hmm...
so i guess thats all i have for now. not much of an update, sorry. hope i didnt ramble too much. really hope you all had a happy thanksgiving - please do me a great favor and ignore anything and everything fox news is reporting about the president's non-official thanksgiving you-tube video. actually, if you really want to do me a favor, never watch fox news again - what a bunch of idiots...

okay, thats it.

ststststatus.update

hello blogonites.

so i guess its been about a month since my last update on the state of affairs in the htx. while i cant say its been a terribly eventful and exciting month, its certainly had its milestones... as follows...

[june 4]

we attended/participated in the houston aia's annual sandcastle competition in gtx... see pictures of some of the castles here...

[june 7]

the wifey and i had our annual anniversary [heh, i crack myself up...] and as usual i showered her with gifts, threatened to take her to wendy's, and then took her somewhere much fancier [well, at least a little, lol]. this year was a particularly difficult dinner to plan as i was trying to rival last year's dinner at the melting pot ...which is pretty much the all time greatest karen dinner imaginable... it was quite an experience. not only that, but having just moved back to the h-o-u, i really had no idea what my dining options were, and ended up spending hours on yelp, open table, and other such websites trying to find a good idea [and ended up with like 40... geez... ] eventually i settled on Philippe, a fairly new, fairly swanky, establishment in the greater galleria area owned and operated by a fairly famous chef [allegedly... id never heard of him, but then again, im not exactly a houstonian-socialite-extraordinaire...]. it ended up being a pretty great experience and a pretty great night overall. the food was fairly excellent overall and for my "foodie" readers ill take a short deviation from the flow of the blog to discuss our meal, those of you uninterested, feel free to skip ahead a little...

*****

for drink starters we had a few cocktails. i had my standard crown & coke while karen sampled one of the special cocktail concoctions from the menu, the sheriff - el jimador tequila, pink grapefruit + red chile flakes. mine was ethereal as ive been off soda for a good month and a half at this point and that one half glass was beyond amazing... karen absolutely loved hers as well. she pretty much loves anything with grapefruit [more on that later...] and really enjoyed this drink. i had a sip and can say that i agree, it was quite yummy - for a fruity girl drink with an awesome name. ;]

for food starters we chose the crab + avocado from the 'contained decadence' section of the menu. id read a number of reviews boasting this particular appetizer and was pleased that karen wanted to try it as well - sounding pretty delicious be the description - crab + avocado with lime, cilantro, olive oil emulsion. mmmm.... the contained description above alludes to the fact that this little dish is served in a mason jar and comes with toasted bread slices to spread. the crab was absolutely some of the best crab ive ever had. it was so tender and juicy and the complements of avocado, cilantro, and lime made for a southwestern savor that was over the top. my only complaints [and i hesitate to call them that] were that the emulsion made for a frothy substance on the top that was a little strange at first, and that it didn't really come with enough toast to compliment the entire jar. however the second point is moot, considering they served some quite satisfying bread complimentary to the meal, and were happy to refill as needed - it was warm and delightful.

on to the main course. karen decided on the texas caesar - with bbq-brushed skirt steak, cactus, & shaved grana padano. i chose the mascarpone risotto - with red wine-braised chicken, bacon, & mushrooms. and to celebrate the evening, we decide to buy a bottle of bubbly and chose the segura viudas, brut cava - which one of the managers later made a point of mentioning was one of his favorites. im by no means an expert on wine vintages or brands, but we enjoyed this one very much and were glad we ordered it. first off, the presentation was excellent.

karen's salad arrived on a large boat-shaped dish and was loaded with ample skirt steak. she was satisfied with her selection, but wished the bbq sauce wasnt quite so prominent - it pretty much covered up all the other flavors. but the steak was definitely tender and juicy and prepared exactly as she liked it and all of the greens were crisp and fresh.

my risotto was certainly no disappointment. in fact, id say it was in the top 3 dishes ive ever had! the risotto itself was creamy and soft, the sauce was amazing! in addition to that, the thick cut bacon was delicious and complemented the mushrooms - so flavorful! - and braised chicken perfectly. the chicken was well cooked and melted in my mouth. my dish certainly had all of its flavors represented and i couldn't really pick any one outshining the rest.

and finally, for desert. we just couldnt pass up the texas "millionaires" tart - chocolate-caramel-pecan tart, texas grapefruit salad, & jasmine cream. [remember the mention of grapefruit?] now if youre anything like karen and i, when you first read that combination of ingredients you probably took a double-take and pondered the idea of chocolate, carmel, grapefruit and jasmine and scratched your chin a little... and we certainly dont blame you! what an odd combination to image... but if you are in fact like us, then you couldnt resist indulging your curiosity either - and boy-howdy, we were rewarded. the flavors compliment each other in a way you just wouldnt imagine! i was stuffed from my early dishes so i only had a couple of small bites, but karen certainly enjoyed her dessert =] [sorry, forgot to photo that one!]

*****

overall, a pretty great dinner, i would definitely recommend it! on top of that the restaurant had a very well designed interior, with kind of an edgy industrial feel over a chic elegance. karen and i loved the wine-box-lid bars and the super tall backed booths. our only complaint was the use of acoustical ceiling tile over the stairway/lounge [eww!!] but then again... we're rather snobby about acoustical ceiling tile, haha, so that was an unavoidable criticism from us ;] other than that, it was a little on the noisy side, but we were able to enjoy our light conversation between mouthfuls just fine. the management and staff were extremely friendly and went well out of their way to make sure our night was special. i give the entire experience 4.5 out of 5 stars and will certainly keep it at the top of my list for any special occasion dinners in the future. [at $$$ its not exactly something karen and i can afford to enjoy on any given day, lol! although was completely reasonable for the meal and experience!]

by the end of the night we were stuffed silly and ended up relaxing on the couch with the mutt watching one of our favorite tv shows before turning in with satisfied tummies =]

[june 11]

fragment/ornament - an installation intervention by artist karen brasier.

some of you may remember the blurb i posted in my last blog about karens upcoming [at the time] art show. well on june 11 that show came to fruition - after lots and lots of hard work on karen's part [and only a moderate lots on mine, haha, ever the artist's assistant...]. as part of the ongoing art-walk events held in downtown galveston by the galveston art center karen hosted a special showing of work shes been working on recently in the original home of the galveston art center in its gutted and partially reconstructed state [see:hurricane ike...]. temporarily the gac has relocated to a new location to maintain the day to day while the original building is under reconstruction. however, the progress has stalled out for the moment as theyve run out of money and need approx. a million dollars to be donated to complete the renovations fully. the space is pretty interesting to be in at the moment, and the show was quite successful in my humble opinion - presenting both the opportunity for people to see karen's recent works and also a forum to expose the public to the current state of the facilities and discuss whats still needed to bring it back to life. karens work for this particular show was a fitting accent to the state of the building as we were required to construct temporary walls for occupancy and the theme of her show focused specifically on elements of fragmented architecture. im quite proud of her and this most recent endeavor and can attest to all of the very hard [extremely sweaty!] work that went into getting this show together.

she still has big dreams and goals for her art, so expect much more in the future - ill certainly post as things happen =]

well... theres much more i could say about the house at this point, but this post has gone on long enough, and i think ill save that particular topic for the near future - and hopefully have some updated pictures to show for your patience!

hope youre all having a fantastic week, hug your dads this weekend and have a happy dads day!

sayonara.

catastrophe_part...five?

i think thats where we left off... i suppose i could just look and find out, but wheres the fun in that? sounds like work to me ;]

so when last we left.... crap i am going to have to look to see what all i need to fill you in on... hold on...

...

...

...

...

...

...oh yeah, it is five, cool!

...

...

...

... ah. okay, so lets do this right.

[house erm... recon]

so when i last updated you fine folks, near the end of the previous post under the heading [substance] i notified you that the roof was finally finished ::dance!:: and we're very excited about that. =]

additionally, it hasnt leaked at all since ;] and we hope it stays that way indefinitely...

well, i also told you the interior was being prepped and cleaned for reconstruction to begin and while i didnt know it at the time... that wasnt exactly accurate.

as it turns out cincy had been getting a LOT of rain and if you remember, rainbow intl. is primarily a disaster response type business. [thats how we found them in the first place] well as it turns out, they were getting so much rain that all over the city people were having issues with basements flooding, sump-pumps breaking down [which caused basement flooding] and so on flooding this and that. well... rainbow ended up getting a ton of calls and basically made the call to abandon our house for 2 weeks to go help these other unfortunate souls and work halted altogether on our house. now we didnt know this at the time, but thats what ended up happening. luckily, our roof is in good shape and as far as i know our basement didnt flood, so no harm - no foul.

when i did end up talking to him again [early last week] greg apologized profusely for the circumstances and assured me that my project was now their primary focus again and that he intended to make up as much lost time as possible. honestly, i cant exactly be mad about it, after all, WE WERE IN THE EXACT SAME SITUATION, and besides, thats what they do. and we love them for it. =]

so since then, they have in fact started, and last i heard completed, the cleanup - further demo - prep work - etc -in preparation for the reconstruction to begin.

in fact, as of yesterday i found out that theyd started re-framing in places where they needed to rebuild walls and stuff and the electrician was working his way through the house as well! whoop!

so things are definitely back on track as far as the recon goes.

additionally, i had a nice long conference call with greg and the rainbow estimator middle of last week and we did an in depth review of their estimate, going over just about every item to make sure that we were on the same page. and cool thing we found out, we're basically getting a new kitchen! =] all new cabinets, counter-tops, island, plumbing - all of it! the only thing they arent replacing is the appliances, but those were all second hand junk anyway ;]

so that certainly increases the value of the reconstruction. and in addition to that we're also getting a few things here and there added in that werent really on the list originally, but hopefully we can get covered, so when this is all over the interior of this house is going to be almost completely brand new!

[now the not so good news...]

we're not happy about this buyer. so far they have been completely unwilling to work with us in any way to negotiate compensation for all of this new work thats being done and the added value of the work to the house. we've made dozens of attempts to get them to work with us, even going so far as to give the buyer anything she wanted as far as customization when we started the recon process, but she has been nothing but silent. either her realtor hasnt passed along anything to her [in which case hes a pretty shitty realtor and not representing her best interests at ALL] or else shes really just not interested in working with us at all. either way, we've had enough of the bs, and we're looking for a way out of this contract. the realtor has assured us that there will be interest in the house when this is all over [we've had 2 already!] so if we can get this thing back on the market, its looking good.

if that wasnt enough of the bad news, if we cant figure out how to get out of this contract, based on preliminary estimates of what we know is going to happen, the realtor is estimating the value at the house at about DOUBLE what we agreed to sell with this buyer. that is just so far beyond not fair or legit or anything right that i cant stand it. so if it comes to it, we WILL find a way out of this contract with this buyer even if it means getting lawyers involved. however, that probably wont be necessary. we've been doing a lot of research and as far as we can tell we have a number of options for an "out" based on the way we handled [or didnt, as it were, lol!] the contract throughout this process. nothings been decided yet, but we have 2 very good possibilities to get out of this contract right now [one i just found out about half an hour ago!] so we're feeling pretty confident. if it comes down to it though, we'll do what we've gotta do to make this right.

[other non-house stuff]

so thats really it for an update on the house, things are going well with the recon, and will hopefully work out well with the contract in the near future.

other than that, life has been steady. karen is working a lot, im working a lot, outside of work we're doing the norm. im still working out consistently and i think ive lost some weight even though the number on that scale hasnt budged yet [muscle weighs more than fat you know...] but im feeling good about it. if nothing else i feel better and my clothes fit better [actually, some of them are starting to sag a little] so i know something is happening.

coming up in the near future, Karen has a show as part of the galveston art centers monthly "art walk"s where shell be exhibiting a bunch of art shes been working on since moving back to texas. anyone in the area is welcome to attend, and you can read more about that... here.

and heres a little taste as well.

[image courtesy of the artist]

alright kiddos. i think thats it for now. feel free to comment if you'd like to know something else, or e-mail me... whatever. =]

out.

ineptitude.

do you ever feel like youre simply spinning your wheels? like youre seeking some grander purpose thats just beyond your grasp? ever contemplate if you actually do anything of merit with the time god has allotted you? or like youre just drone-ing along, a worker bee in a cosmic hive, fulfilling your day-to-day responsibility, a cog in the proverbial machine... do you ever walk away at the end of the day questioning if you've actually done anything of real worth?

im having one of those days.

dont get me wrong. im not unhappy, im not sad or depressed, im just feeling a little... well, inept. i chose that word for a reason. its about as perfect as it gets for my current state of mind.

ive been thinking about design more and more recently. partly because im actually being afforded the opportunity to do some in limited degrees, partly because im not really doing it. partly because im starting to yearn for it again... that friend ive lost touch with over the last 3 or 4 years... stupid economy...

and the more i contemplate... the more i experience...

the more focused my vision gets on the areas in which i truly want to design...

i wish id finished my second masters - urban design. i really do enjoy it [or wish i enjoyed more of it to be more accurate... sigh...] i was so close, i could almost touch it... seriously, 9 credits... thats just... nothing. thats a light [please note the formatting irony, haha! i kill myself...] semester in grad school. i could have done it with half my brain turned off... and yet... life tends to take us on a path inevitably not the one we set out on. im not bitter, not by any means... but ive been thinking a lot about urban & landscape design. along with my typical musings of architectural, graphic, and web design of course. and well, im a designer. there's no escaping it [granted, i didnt add any adjectives to that term. ill be the last to ever admit anything ive designed is "good" but design itself, alas... you are my curse...] my mind is incessantly toiling over some idea or another... im also a doer, ive certainly discovered that. i have a passion for getting my hands in the actual work. ive gotten hooked on the high that comes with accomplishing something you can touch, see, something with resolution. to whatever degree that may be... and i miss design... ...did i ever truly have it?

i digress...

[substance]

i know i havent update anything on the house recently, and well... thats because things have stalled out for the moment. as far as updates go, i can happily report that the roof is finished. whoop! [for all those fellow ags out there] they finished the roof about a week and a half ago and have since been getting the interior of the house thoroughly cleaned and prepped for interior re-construction. and then theyve had some rain delays [will it ever stop raining in cincy?] and so they should be getting to actual work very soon. in the meantime we've been working with the flooring guy to pick out flooring and we've done that successfully as well. we're going with a light-mid-tone neutral carpet throughout the majority of the house and then in a few key places we have a medium-dark hardwood laminate that will replace vct, tile, etc. as needed.

we received some discs in the mail yesterday from rainbow with pictures of the carnage and devastation that has become our house being gutted, and then some pictures of the roof going back on - my first actual glimpses at the roof of our house! [3 years too late?] the roof looks fine enough to me, im satisfied. but the interior... it hurts going through those pictures... knowing how much we put into that house, and seeing what its been going through... i may post a handful later, we'll see...

at work things are slowing down a little, but at the same time, gearing up. i feel kind of in limbo between projects right now. one is winding down and my services are limited on it, another is starting up and my services arent needed yet. and in the in between, ive been working on revising our standards, templates, documents, etc. to stay current with the better ways we've discovered to do things [as well as overhaul the copious grammatical and spelling errors of my predecessor.... heh. hes a really nice guy, but he certainly was not an English major. to that fact, nor am i. however, i do have a knack for seeing blatant errors at times.] as well as a new pet-project on the side that is filling some of my time - but i wont get into that here. truth is, its an internal thing, any information i could potentially divulge is more or less restricted, so im pretty well unable to say much on the subject anyhow.

outside of work.. karen and i finally joined a gym. we'd been talking about it for a good 2 or 3 months, and then 3 weeks ago i just, did it. i can be impetuous like that at times. just, stop the talking and do it already. at any rate, since joining and then getting back on a better diet and a supplement regime, im feeling much better physically, but im frustrated with the overall state of my physical self. 4 months outside of a gym took its toll on me. im fighting just to get back to where i was before i left cincy. which is troublesome, because when i was in cincy, i was fighting to get back to where i was in denver. needless to say, the road ahead is long and arduous, and im impatient. ive worked too long and too hard in the past to get to where i was, and now to have lost it all and feel like im starting over... its a mental obstacle to say the least.... luckily, i have all the drive and discipline in the world when it comes to working out [plus ill admit... i can be a bit of a workout junky at times. it is an addiction, although i wouldnt say a negative one, haha!] so i should have no problem sticking with it. i just hate the waiting and the time it takes to actually see results.

and other than work, and working-out. well... there's not time for much else.

saw the fam for easter and had a great time. took the mutt to the beach and he had a blast.

things are generally fine, although some things are frustrating and trying on my patience [do not even attempt to broach the subject of finances with me. seriously.] finding a church in houston is proving even more difficult than id imagined [and i have a pretty wild imagination], and i regret to say, im getting disheartened with the search. ill never find what i had in denver again, i know that. but its so difficult in texas. finding any church that isnt plastered with a denominational marker is difficult enough, finding one that actually fits... harder still. finding the perfect one, well... i wont say impossible, but i think you get the gist. i love texas, i do, but dammit... i do not like closed minded people. and sadly, we have more than our fair share.......

all in all. its just one of those days. ineptitude. yep, that does it...

lone.star.livin'

as i sit here typing, the window next to me depicts the serene images of leisurely life at its utmost. the palms gently swaying in the sea breezes, the small song birds happily chirping and flitting around playing a lively game of tag, the hint of saltwater and sand floating on the air, and of course the rousing chorus of the 3 pugs chasing each other, fighting over the most select toy, and all-the-while attempting to breathe through their genetically deformed air passages... [the latter, perhaps less serene...]

yes thats right y'all, im in texas. and on the texas coast to be more specific. home-again-home-again-jigitty-jig.

its been several months since i last updated the ole' blog, and much has changed. most of you that actually read this are close enough that you're already aware of most of the events of my life, however, supposing there are the rare few out there in the entire world [and beyond...?]that might per-chance stubble upon this and decide its worth a read, follow-along as i briefly wrap up the major events of the recent past and set the scene for future-posts.

[the.job.situation]

when last we spoke [er, wrote?] i was embarking on a little adventure of landscaping with my friend from n'awlins and we had completed a few little jobs with some success. well that lasted about as long as you read.

we never ended up getting another job [i think it was really just the seasons changing] even though we bid on a number of them. after a couple of weeks however, i was desperate for cash-flow again and sought some other income situation.

i still had the itt job at this point and was enjoying my first class [and getting the hang of it a bit more as time went on] however the minuscule salary of a new adjunct teaching one class is not something to sustain one's extravagant lifestyle... ;]

so to shorten the longevity of my verboseness in the instance, i posted an ad on the church website boasting my qualifications, and through a series of serendipitous events, i ended up working for jones the florist [the name in florists in the greater cincinnati area] that ended up being a pretty great experience for a few months. i started out doing candy bouquets[if you dont know what that is, just go to their website...] and as it would turn out was quite the craftsman. i picked this little skill up very quickly and in a few days was pretty much the fastest person on production in the place. so i candied for a couple of months while they got through some big seasonal orders and then when the seasonal time was up i inquired about staying on for a bit longer if theyd have me...

meanwhile - in those months at jones, i had been offered and accepted another classes for the following quarter at itt, took up karate in my "spare" time, and then as i looked into extending my stay at jones, was offered and accepted 2 classes for the upcoming quarter and had a couple of promising interviews.

one of the interviews was with one of the biggest architecture firms in cinicnnati [and while i wont play the dropping names game, they're huge and "worldwide"...] and i was very excited about the prospect. this was the dream job in the cincinnati area and since karen and i had resolved to sticking around there, this was a big deal. in conjunction with that, i started interviewing, via the vast world-wide telecommunications network, for a position in a construction firm in houston. [spoiler alert! if you havent yet read the title of the blog.... um.... dont.]

well jones decided to hire me on as a delivery driver because of my mad-skillz and obvious awesomeness and i enjoyed working for them through december. the interview with the b-i-g arch firm was less than fruitful in the immediate present-tense sense of things - although it was a great feeling knowing they were interested and seriously considering me! - and as it would turn out i was offered and accepted the job in houston. [shocker. i know.]

thus begun a whirlwind of activity revolving this drastically life-altering occurance...

[h-t-x]

so... heres the run-down on h-town.

i interviewed for this position for a bout a span of a month's time and on the friday before karen and i were supposed to leave for our annual christmas voyage to the south to see the family, the construction company emailed me the offer letter.

i thought it over [but not for long - this was an amazing opportunity!] and discussed it with family and friends over the weekend, and then first thing monday morning i accepted and we got the ball rolling.

the next day [tuesday] karen and i flew out to texas for our holiday vacation and i stayed in loose contact with my new boss via email - and while we were in texas anyway and so near our soon-to-be-home, we decided to get started on some of the more menial tasks of setting up bank accounts and starting the apartment hunt...

on the 28th of december we flew back to cinicnnati and at this point it had been decided that my start date would be january 10. for anyone not doing the math, thats about a week and a half that i had to be back in texas and ready to start the job with my truck, and any belongings of mine that i would need in texas, as well as helping karen as much as humanly possibly to pack up our house, get rid of whatever we werent taking and generally begin the moving process...

i needed to embark on the cross-country drive by no later than the 5th to have 2 days for the actual driving part and a couple of days to get settled in and ready to start work on the 10th.

so between dec 28 and jan 5 karen and i worked like crazy people to go through our entire house and get rid of anything and everything we could do-without so that we didnt have to move it cross-country.

we sold off furniture on criagslist, had an extensive garage sale to rid ourselves of smaller items, donated a ton of stuff to the church and local clothes-closets, had contractors come in and do some of the final repairs we just hadnt gotten around to yet on the house and now had no time to do and needed to be done before the move/sale, got the house put on the market and worked with the realtor to figure out the best plan of attack, said goodbye to as many dear friends as i could before i left, and in the end... karen still ended up having to stay in cincinnati another 3 weeks after i left to finish all of the above...

of course that then precludes to the ensuing madness of my driving to texas and staying with josh and cassie for the short-term while i searched for an apartment and a place to move all of our crap, started the new job and got settled in, had miscellaneous issues with the truck that needed to be dealt with [for instance i ended up needing to have all 4 tires replaced after the journey south, or the entire engine maintenance checkup i was 10,000 miles over-due on, etc., etc., etc.... ]...

in the end however. we arrived safely. we got everything moved. we found an apartment. i started my job and have settled pretty well into it. karen has since found a temporary job shes enjoying teaching swimming lessons in houston, while still searching for that perfect career job of her own. and last - but certainly not least - we have had quite the rollercoaster of events surrounding the sale of the cincy-house....

but that my friends... is a story for another time.

and with that - im signing off. hope to post more soon-ish, but with life's many obstacles, who really knows?

god bless texas, and have a good-un y'all. =]

epic.blogging [three]

post intermission two...

[again, if you havent read the previous two posts, there may be some spoilers in this one..]

so for the final post im going to discuss the other pretty big news in karen and my life over the past 6 weeks. honestly its been a pretty drastic change in retrospect and has been quite life altering. however, i cant say its a negative change...

well, enough with the stalling, the topic of this post is our new addition to the family. no karen isnt pregnant, so if thats where youre mind is going... stop it. karen and i are not in a place to have a kid and neither of us wants to right now... [if ever?] however, since before we even bought the house karen had been hinting [and pretty blatantly] that she wanted a dog. well, we finally got one.

after months and months of karen mentioning she wanted a puppy and us going through the cycle of her looking for them online and visiting the local spca, at the beginning of september the stars finally aligned. we were in bed and both tinkering on our computers before calling it a night [kind of the modern version of the couple reading books together in bed before going to sleep, lol] and unbeknownst to me, karen was yet again searching for puppies. well she happened to come across a little black pug for 25 bucks and she just melted at the sight of him. she quickly had me look at him and even i had to admit he was pretty cute, so i seceded and said she could have him. she quickly emailed the guy selling him and said we were interested and then 15 minutes later he emailed her back. sorry. he had already sold him... so karen went to sleep rather upset that night at the loss of her perfect puppy.

as the next morning came i had already forgotten about the puppy but karen was still upset about it. so we went to run errands for the day and in an attempt to cheer her up i insisted that you just never know. anything could happen, right? what if he didnt like the person that was supposed to buy him? so she cheered a little at that thought, and i shrugged the whole thing off expecting to just go back to normal for a few months until she came across another pup she just had to have. well little did i know, that all too often im more right than i even know....

a few hours went by and we were working on some project and not really thinking about it at all when suddenly my phone rings. i answer it and of course, its the guy selling the puppy. he wants to know if we're still interested because hes had two people now that lied to him and never showed up and the puppy is ours if we want him. so i hang up and before i can even tell karen the good news, shes already over heard the conversation and practically tackles me to the ground jumping into my arms to hug me. apparently shes still interested....

so we go get the money and drive over to the guys apartment to meet the little puppy and karen falls in love instantly. at this point, its official, we have a new member to the family. well his back story [because ive been asked every single time, so i may as well tell you] is as follows... his original owner flaked out and randomly moved to california. in the process she totally ditched the poor little guy with a relative. well the relative hasnt heard anything from the original owner and doesnt expect to and lives in an apartment that doesnt allow pets and needed to get him into a new home. his name is gizmo [definitely not our choice... at all...] and well, he knows his name, so we cant change it. he was about 11 months at the time and is now about a year old. and lucky for us this was a package deal. for the 25 bucks they were asking he came with a huge cage, the kind you have to get for big dogs that dont fit in the little crates, he came with a chain for outside, a retractable leash, and a really nice harness that goes around his neck and legs. and if that wasnt enough, he also came with some puppy bath stuff, a pillow, a bag of food, food bowls, and a number of toys and such... so basically... we had everything we were going to need for him, it was a hell of a deal!

well its been a little over a month now and giz has definitely become part of the family. at first he seemed really confused and a little apprehensive about being relocated yet again, but he quickly got over that. hes extremely friendly and to be honest, a bit nuts at times, lol. hes pretty well house-broken, although it seems he still has a number of accidents - but we're working on it. hes pretty stinkin cute and i have an album on the photo site that has a ton of pictures of him, and we're constantly adding to them. overall he seems to be pretty well quite at home and we really enjoy having him. [although karen more so than me, heh]

so things are pretty normal with him around now and we've gotten him into a routine so to speak and things have been going pretty well so far. in the most recent news, this weekend we decided to do a little much needed yard work after church and as a result decided to try and seed the yard again [i think i mentioned this yesterday...] well, along with seeding the yard we've noticed that a lot of people around here put hay over their seed which does something or other to help the grass grow. honestly, id never heard of this before and i have no clue how it works, but we decided that all our other attempts to seed have failed miserably and its worth a shot. so we went to the depot and got the smallest bail of hay they sell and when i was done spreading it over our fresh seed we still had basically the entire bail left and nothing to do with it. so as brilliant as i am i suggested we just leave it in the yard and maybe get some pumpkins and call it fall decoration. well karen seemed to be fine with the idea and we got a few pumpkins...

now then, how this relates to the giz... [did i mention we have like a million nicknames for the little bugger? everyday it seems we come up with a new one, but just a few are as follows: the giz, gizzard, gizmodo, gizmotron, gizmotronic, gizmatic... and so on... ] well i had never carved a pumpkin before and it was a pretty beautiful day out so i decided to try my hand at it. and as i pondered what kind of jack-o-lantern i was going to create the giz was looking at me as quizzically as usual, completely befuddled as to what i was doing with this huge round orange thing in my lap, and it suddenly seemed obvious that i was going to have to make a giz-o-lantern.

well after a quick sketch on the pumpkin with my unable-to-sit-still model, and a couple of hours of trial and error pumpkin carving i eventually conquered the task and resulted with a pretty decent giz-o-lantern. obviously hes way too cute and cuddly to be a scary halloween decoration, so i had to embellish his ferociousness a little, but alas, here is the result...

i think he turned out pretty scary anyway ;]

in other recent news... as we were carving the pumpkin and sitting out on the porch i happened to notice that giz appeared to be crying and mentioned it to karen. after looking at him a little closer we decided he must have just gotten some dust blown in his eye or something and didnt really think much more of it. he wasnt crying or whining or anything so we quickly forgot about it and moved on with our day. well... the next morning i got up and took him out and when we got back and i took him in the kitchen i noticed that his eye was still watering, that it was a little gunky, and that it appeared to be swollen about halfway shut... well, being the good father that i am, i quickly located the nearest animal clinic and gave them a ring and explained what was happening. they said it was probably a good idea to bring him in, that a lot of pets develop allergies this time of year and its better to be on the safe side... so... i got karen out of bed and we quickly dressed and loaded him up and headed over to the clinic.

well long story short, over an hour later we left having spent 50 bucks for the supposed 22 dollar visit in which they stained his eyes[16 dollar test procedure] and discovered that he had a small corneal scratch, and were prescribed some ointment to put in his eyes[10 dollar prescription] 3 times a day, daily. however, we also needed an e-collar [the big cone things] so that he didnt scratch it more and they were out so we had to go to petsmart... again... 50 dollars later... we had an e-collar and a new travel bag for him so that he can ride in the car and not completely spaz out the entire time or if we take him on a trip or something... well when we got home i decided to put this stupid thing on him and since then, well... hes pretty much made it clear that he hates my guts... and looks at me with complete loathing for making him wear the dumb thing...

[thats what i call disdain...]

however, he seems to be healing pretty well, his eye seems to be opening the normal amount again today, so i guess its worth it. not to mention, well, hes just a puppy and we took it off him last night to let him eat and drink in the kitchen, and 10 minutes later he had his head in my lap looking for rubs and scratches and all was forgiven, haha. gotta love short term memory. ;]

well... i guess thats about it for now. youre all pretty well caught up on the goings on of our lives in recent history, and you even got a few pictures out of it. hope you enjoyed the updates and that all is well with you, wherever you happen to be. know that we miss you [especially texas for me!] and love you and hope to see you soon.

epic.blogging [one]

so its been a long time. a really long time. and i know this, ive known it for some time now. and i am sorry. to be honest, ive been quite selfish and have been wanting to just keep things to myself for a while now and i certainly didnt want to burden any of you with my issues. whats the old saying? "if you dont have something nice to say..." well, i decided not to say much of anything. but its been well over a month now, and i suppose its time to come out into the light. im warning you now, i dont know how long this is going to get, but theres a good chance its going to be quite a doozy. however, i should be able to include a number of pictures for your viewing enjoyment, so hopefully thatll make it a little easier.

so first things first i suppose... the big nasty ugly truth must come out. on august 21st [yes, the day AFTER i last blogged about nothing new happening in my life... irony? cruel mistress indeed....] i was laid off. it was friday at about 11:30 and i was discussing with a co-worker some things i was going to work on for the rest of the day to help her out with some things when i noticed the boss heading our way. he asked if he could see me in his office and of course i jumped to attention, sure thing and all. so he leads my into his office and closes the door and for the next 15 minutes discusses with me how hes letting me go and blah blah blah... the whole thing is still kind of a blur for me. i wont go into specifics, but the thing was not handled well in my opinion, at all. call me crazy, but i thought it was pretty customary for there to be at least one other person in the room, like an hr rep or something, for the sake of witnessing the whole thing and making sure everything went down legit.... maybe not. now im not saying things didnt go down legit, but my ex-boss definitely decided to take the opportunity to say some things that really got into my head. you can call that whatever you like, but this guy was in a position of power over me and i really just think the whole thing could have been handled better... but alas, time has passed, im no longer feeling any bitterness about the matter, it is what it is. he has to deal with his actions just as we all do, and if hes sleeping well at night, then good for him.

so after receiving this um... news... and having had some time to reflect on it since, ive come to some conclusions for myself that i feel are on the positive side. first of all, while it totally sucks not having work or any income, i've gotta say, i think this whole thing was a "blessing in disguise" kind of thing. the last few months at that office, work had been slowing down a lot - one of our big jobs got put on hold [the job id been working on the most] because of the economy or whatever - and id been struggling to keep myself busy a lot of the time [which resulted in way too many instances of the "walk of shame" - going around the office to every single project managers desk and practically begging for work... its so humiliating, i HATE the way things worked in that office. i should never have had to beg for work, there should have been some level of oversight among the project managers... some level of coordination amongst the entire office, but alas...] and i was really starting to feel quite miserable in my circumstances. things hadnt ever really been perfect there, but i had a long stent of complacency and i was just fine with that, work was work and i was DAMN lucky to have a job, right? i suppose... but like i said, those last few months... imagine walking into work every day wondering if that day was finally going to be the one. im sure ive mentioned this before, but i had been predicting that i was going to get laid off for some time, and every day i went to work my stomach was in knots with anxiety over whether or not it was going to happen that day. so in essence, at least now it was over, and i no longer had to feel that dread of not knowing when some impending thing is going to happen. so yeah, i was glad to be put out of my misery at last, so to speak. blessing in disguise.

secondly, ive been given the opportunity to really take a step back and re-evaluate where my life is going. at first i was obviously freaked out and i got the whole unemployment thing going because my parents convinced me it was what i needed to do. and that in and of itself was a whole other catastrophe, but finally as of a week ago, i received my first benefits and that was a very very good thing. but i digress... re-evaluation. so having to start the job search again, i finally had the opportunity [well i was forced to really, haha] to sit down and re-do my portfolio again, which was a really great thing. ive been wanting to start over since we moved to cincinnati and i started looking for jobs here, but i just never found the time. so now, with all of this starting over and getting back into the job search i was able to update my portfolio and have gotten it to a place where im pretty happy with it and its in a format [finally!] that should be pretty easy to just keep adding to as time goes on and i need to put new projects in to keep it current. so that was the first part of taking a step back before ultimately moving forward.

the second part of that was to re-evaluate what exactly i was doing and if it was in fact what i wanted to do. as i said, id been quite miserable going to work for a few months and part of it was definitely the feeling as if any day id lose my job thing, but there was another level as well. for some time i had really been feeling disheartened and unsatisfied with what i was doing at work and it was starting to eat at me. im at this point in my "career" as an architectural intern where im essentially in limbo. ive got my master's degree [which to be honest, more and more, feels like it means about, um... dick. in this industry. excuse my vulgarity, but it's to the point. in other industries, i feel like a master's degree just holds so much more value that in architecture. but in my field, its like, "eh, okay, whatever." like its the bare minimum or something. to any and all architecture firms out there, i stand up now and scream this to you on behalf of myself and everyone else in my situation. i went to school for 6 effing years! i have a mountain of debt so high from paying for 6 years of school that i will never dig out of it! treat me with some freaking respect! please! do you realize that my student loan payments are HALF what you pay me in a month?! ...sigh...]

so picking up where i left off some time ago... career, limbo, master's degree... right. so ive got my masters degree, which to me feels like it should be worth... something? ive got 2 years worth of relevant professional experience in an architecture office, but at the end of the day im still the lowest of the low. for some reason, theres this magical "3 years experience" threshold in architecture which moves you from the scum of the architecture industry category up a rung to the, well... he might not completely screw it up category. im not sure what im expected to learn in the next year that so far surpasses what i have in the last 2, but i am on pins and needles to find out.... so this whole limbo thing leaves me feeling extremely under-valued, under-paid, and under-respected in a workplace setting, and has caused me to do some serious reflection on what it is i really want to do with the rest of my life.

well the conclusion ive come to in that aspect of things is that i really truly think ive just not had the optimum work experiences in my field, certainly for what talents i DO have. i talk to friends and peers that are at different levels of their own architectural aspirations and i always get the feeling that somehow they have had extraordinarily different and better work experiences than i have at this point in my journey. take for example my friend manda. we worked together at my first job in cincy, a little over a year ago now. looking back on this experience, i honestly still have to say, it was one of the best office experiences i have ever had [certainly trumping the most recent.] i felt like the place was organized, there was a certain level of respect i felt from my project managers, and while no, not everything was perfect - when is it ever? - they really seemed to be trying to provide a work environment that was going to help me grow. they treated me like a real person, not just some other kid that can easily be replaced. however, enter manda. she worked at the same office, the same time period, and while she worked in a different area of the office [interiors] she had a drastically different feeling of the experience she got. in the grand scheme of her work experience, she felt that the experiences we shared, were not great, were not organized, were not respectful or challenging or rewarding, but were actually on the lower end of her experiences over all and seem to be more of the expected minimum for her... so how is it that we have such different views of the same place? i can only conclude that overall my other experiences must have been much worse by comparison for my best to be one of her worst... if that makes sense at all... i may be chasing rabbits here, so to get back on the trail.... ive decided that this most recent experience was just another in a line of not the best experiences [although i have had some good ones at some offices i really liked, and ive typically always liked the people i worked with, just not always the office environment, if you will...] and theres got to be something so much better still waiting out there. however, the wife also challenged me to consider the following... what is it that i would actually enjoy doing everyday that i had to go to work? she felt that obviously these architecture office jobs werent satisfying my day to day, and i always seemed to complain about work, so what was it that i wouldnt complain about?

well, after a lot of consideration i came to the conclusion that what ive always enjoyed doing was helping other people, and specifically helping them to learn. so it seems that the most rewarding path for me to take might be to teach. now this isnt totally out of left field or anything, ive always wanted to eventually end up as a professor, i just always assumed it would be sometime much further down the road, kind of an instead of retiring situation. you know that prof we've all had that was in his 60's or 70's and had had a long successful career before deciding to go into teaching to give back to the institutions that got him started? i wanted to be that guy. but the more i thought about it... life doesnt always take the path we want it to... and with this stupid economic downturn and architecture being viewed as more of a luxury than a necessity... well... maybe i should re-evaluate my time line. maybe i should think about getting into teaching now, and possibly pursue this architecture nonsense later on down the road... so with that, ive decided to start pursuing teaching more directly instead of on some indirect futuristic path.

over the last month ive applied for literally dozens and dozens of jobs in cincinnati. ive contact a ton of architecture firms, ive literally contacted every single homebuilder [even though i have such extreme qualms with the idea of spec homes and that entire industry...] in the greater cincinnati area, ive answered countless want-ads on craigslist or the half dozen career finder websites im enrolled in, and for a while there i even though maybe i could just jump over to the construction side of the industry and contacted a bunch of the big major construction companies in the areas as well. well... in that same last month my results are as follows... one. yes, one. one single, lone response to all of my attempts. and in this lone response i went in person to their office, filled out an application, was then interviewed with the most bizarre series of quizes and tests and questioning over a 3 hour period, only to in the end be satisfied that i was well qualified and as a result to offer me the most demeaningly low compensation i really could have imagined. i wasnt making a TON of money at my last job, or the one before that obviously - although i had been steadily getting a bump up in pay each time, but these people were offering me compensation for my level of skill and knowledge now that was on par with what i was earning a year and a half ago when i was still in my undergraduate work and only had a couple of summers work experience. to say the least i was taken aback a bit and asked for some time to consider the offer. then after having my wife act like i was crazy for not accepting ANY job on the spot, i eventually succeeded, called them back and said i was willing to accept... only to have them tell me that they hadnt completely decided on their needs yet and that theyd get back to me.... two weeks later they call me back and tell me that theyre really in need of a registered architect, and that theyre sorry.... a registered architect? seriosuly?? on the salary that they offered me - that she assured me was the most they could afford?? these people are obviously a bit out of their minds... good luck with that one...

so basically, i havent had any luck over the last month of unemployment and now im getting serious about this teaching thing. so far ive been doing a lot of research into the available positions, what kind of licensing [if any] will be required for certain levels of teaching, what requirements ill be expected to meet, what prospective teaching employers are looking for me to have when applying for these positions... and the list goes on. so far ive re-written and re-worked my resume specifically for teaching positions, and im beginning to work on cover letters and supporting materials [much like a portfolio] specific to each of the positions ive found that i think i may qualify for, and overall im making progress. but it is definitely a LOT of work and im still going to need some time before i really get deep into it...

so at this point in the blog, if you havent quit yet... well, im certainly impressed. and well, we've really only touched on one of 3 items i was intending to blog about in this post, so you might want to take a restroom break or grab a quick snack or a nap or something before getting settled in for whats still to come. [oh, and for your convenience, i've even decided to break this whole thing up into 3 parts as well, so hopefully it'll be a little easier to read. if youre planning to do it all at once, bear with me, im going to publish this first section now and then try to press on and continue with the other two and publish those as i complete them as well.] consider this....

...intermission one...

much.the.same

so karen arrived back in town safe and sound last wednesday. her flights were uneventful although being the smarty she was she decided it would be a good idea to go to the airport 10 hours early to try and catch an earlier flight... and didnt. so she spent a LOT of time waiting around in airports for her return to cincy, and after a short time of nearly unbearable hunger, the trip was over and she was back in my arms. since getting her home shes taken in all of the projects and changes and such and she seems quite pleased with the results. the day she got back i took off and our first "to do" on the list was the store and that night my wife decided to cook - and boy did she ever. it seems she was suffering a little in san fran with a kitchen about the size of a postage stamp and about as much space in the shared refrigerator. so when we got home she decided to make 2 different kinds of lentil salad, a carrot salad, pineapple bread, and we also made some home-made slasa that was just awesome. i took some pictures to share with the fam, but they arent very impressive and certainly not worthy of posting.

last weekend karen and i went to cleveland to attend a couple of friends of ours wedding. it was a really nice wedding, although pretty warm, but great times all around. it was a lot of fun getting to enjoy their day with them and see a bunch of our friends along the way. oh and did i mention the food? man i wish i had taken some pictures.... after the ceremony and before the reception there was a pre-reception party back at the brides parents and oh. my. god. they had some AMAZING food... apparently her step-dad owns one of the best restaurants in cleveland and boy did it show. everything was just mouth watering... overall it was a pretty exhausting weekend with the trip up and back and all the festivities and karen was totally jet-lagged most of the time, but we had a lot of fun and my wife looked incredible in her new dress ;]

since returning from cleveland things have gotten pretty well back to normal. ive been going to work and karen has been taking care of school stuff and doing different odds and ends around the house. shes started messing with wall paper and painted some primer here and there, but nothing super exciting as of yet. oh, one fairly significant change, we decided to finally move from the penthouse [aka sauna...] down to the second floor bedroom and things have been oh so much cooler. its about half the size of the upstairs room and theres the ability to close the door and contain the space, so the window air conditioner, while not the most attractive on the front of the house, does a much better job of cooling the space. we had about 3 nights of just absolutely sweaty sleep and had had enough. since then we've been much happier, haha!

umm... hmmm... what else...

well i cant really think of anything else to update you on. its only been a few days and sadly, as the title boasts, things are much the same as always. its definitely spectacular having the wife back [in oh so many ways!] and we're having a blast hanging out again, but life has a way of plateauing... much like working out does. although, my work outs are still gong well. ive skipped a few days with the wife around [and our shear exhaustion from the traveling and such] but ive also really pushed myself hard when i have gone and im feeling great about things.

well anyway, ill let you know when [if] something exciting happens, haha!

love+miss!

post.script: whos seen g.i.joe? how was it? want to soooo bad!

another.recap

so i know i havent been quite as faithful as id hoped and promised id be in the last post, but, eh, you know how it goes...

when i last updated we discussed a number of different things and i suppose the best route here would be to update you on the ones that need updating and then subsequently discuss any additional topics.

well first let me say happy brithday to both jeremy and josh [my brother-in-law and brother-in...blood] who've both turned another year older in the last few days. i dont know how old jeremy is to be honest, but josh is now 24 and well, taking stock of his accomplishments so far in life, id say hes doing very well for himself. hes finished school, gotten a good job that pays well and doesnt seem to be too affected by the economics of the present, just bought his first house with his new wife and theyre getting settled in... over-all pretty amazing for 24 id say. congratulations josh! jeremy is back over seas for the time being. hes working contract work out in iraq or kuwait or something or other and only gets to come home to kimber [sister] every so often. she misses him, but seems to be staying busy and doing alright. i hear rumors she might even be going back to school in the near future. so... i think that about wraps up family.

um... ah, yes. workout routine. well... for any of you that cared last time around and still care for an update, theres only good news to report. ive been disciplined and have managed to keep it up even despite having the "mothers collective" staying with me and distracting me, and other weekend adventures and such. ive been going about 4 days a week consistently, although i try to go more like 5 or 6 when i can, but sometimes i just need a day off to let my muscles repair themselves and well, just for sanity's sake i suppose, haha. for the first couple of months i didnt actually see any change in weight although my appearance was changing noticeably. i was getting much leaner, but it seemed the numbers werent really changing, i was just exchanging the bad weight for good weight. which is fine, whatever, the number is meaningless to me. however i got on the scale again last week because, i just hadnt in a few months and it turns out that somewhere along the way i actually dropped 10lbs, so i guess thats good. if you lose weight and youre working out as much as i am, then you know its only the bad weight youre losing, not the good stuff. =] anyway, the workout routine is going well overall. i have more energy and im making plenty of improvement from week to week in my actual workouts, and then theres always the much better mood after working out. so all in all, its all good.

hm, i guess we cant forget the "mothers collective." well when anne was here by herself she got TONS accomplished, the transformation was really just, unreal. but then my mom got here and as a team they accomplished even more. the yard looks pretty spectacular, honestly. i think i can pretty assuredly say that we now have the nicest yard on the block, well, in my humble opinion anyhow. additionally they got some painting stuff, some wallpaper removal, and a little organizational stuff done inside the house as well. overall id say they seemed to enjoy the trip and the result was definitely an awesome and appreciated one. thanks! =] oh and for anyone that wants to see pictures of all the transformation, theyre up on my photo site here and here.

lets see... what else can i update you on... oh, the competition. well we were able to get everything turned in just fine for the competition and then a few days later there was judging and they had a little banquet for the results. well, i ended up having to work late that night, and then just didnt feel like going, but mike (the partner) popped his head in at the end to see what was going on. apparently they had clearly marked a winner, and it wasnt us. however mike said that in talking to some people our project was definitely one of the judges top picks. according to the competition outline there were supposed to be 3 places in the competition, each with a cash prize but so far we havent heard anything about that. he said the winner was the only one marked and that in his opinion their project wasnt better than ours, they just had a "prettier" presentation. which is fine, i dont know that i expected to outright win this thing, especially considering that i wasnt sure how we were progressing a lot of the time. i emailed the guy running the thing after the banquet and he said that they would soon be posting all the entries online and the placements and whetever else but so far i havent seen or heard anything more about that either. honestly, from the way mike described everything its very likely that we placed in the top 3, possibly even 2nd place, and id really like to see the other entries and find out for sure! so yeah... still trying to be patient, but its been 3 weeks, so... im probably going to email him again today, haha.

hmm... what else.... oh, we celebrated mikes birthday on august first and that was certainly something for the history books, lol! he had was basically amounted to a themed party/bar hopping and most everyone dressed appropriately. and what was that dress you ask? well... hahahaha... well mustaches were part of the theme so most of the guys that could grow one had some kind of terribly tacky mustache, haha. i shaved mine into some pretty awful handlebars and it was all pretty hilarious. imagine a really bad 70's cop movie and youve pretty much got the gist of things. honestly, it was pretty scary for me, i hadnt seen my bare chin in about 6 or 7 years i think, and i wasnt sure what it might look like, lol! thankfully, its all pretty much back to normal now a week and a half later, lol! but we had a lot of fun and partied our butts off to bring in mikes #29.

hmm... what else... well this last weekend i took a trip down to tennessee to see my friend/ex-advisor from a&m, james. it was kind of a spur of the moment thing, and i drove down on friday and we basically just hung out all weekend. watched a bunch of horror movies [james is getting a phd in horror cinema or something of the sorts] talked a lot, just had some good fun. also...although im not sure i really want to even add this part...james is now a fairly serious photographer and well, hes been bugging me to let him shoot me for months now [i really cant imagine why, im NOT very photogenic in my opinion...] and so i finally caved and let him. i dont really know how the pictures turned out, ive only seen a couple and im sure nothing will come of it, but yeah, that was part of the weekend too. mostly, it was just nice to get out of the house and our of cincy for a little while, even if it was driving through kentucky and tennessee... [both of which have some of the WORST drivers ive EVER come across... geez...].

so, i guess thats about it. the only other news thats of any significance is that my estranged wife is FINALLY coming home this week. =] shes had a lot of fun out in san francisco, but i think shes starting to get home sick, and hopefully a little husband sick as well ;] at any rate, she flies back on wednesday night/thursday morning and i really cant wait to see her. not to mention, i know shes excited to see all the changes at the house in person! [theres probably one or two that we havent shown her pictures of yet, hehehe]

well, i know its not my usual epic blog post, and i know youre all terribly disappointed about that, but as you can see, the last couple of weeks just havent really had a whole lot to talk about. work is work, its very much the exact same as it has been for months now, nothing to report there. other than that, without karen around its just been working out and hanging out watching movies or tv or something to keep me occupied in my "spare" time... oh, i guess thats one other thing... i did go see the new harry potter movie a couple of weeks ago. honestly, it was a fairly decent movie, but i was pretty disappointed with the ending. and the more i think about it, ive been disappointed with the last 3 endings of those movies i think. they keep building up for the entire movie to this big thing, and then the climax is about 2 minutes long and then it just drops off leaving you feeling very unfulfilled... or me at least. i do want to go see the new g.i. joe movie, but im trying not to get my excitement up too high for that. it looks really cool from the previews, but these things tend to be a bit over-hyped.

alright, well i hope you all have a great rest of the week, i doubt ill be updating again before the weekend. just a thought, but if anyone ever had a suggestion or a request for a blog topic that theyd actually like to hear my opinion or perspective or experience or whatever on, feel free to leave me a comment, id love to entertain the idea.

until next time...