Birthday Girl

Yesterday was Ethel's birthday party. and of course Ashley and I attended. As far as I know, this was Ethel's 91st birthday. Wow. It was the first party at Ashley's aunt and uncle's new house in Longmont, and the house is beautiful. Actually, it reminds me a bit of the house I lived in as a kid. Ethel was very energetic, and she was excited to have her family and a few presents. Another aunt brought a tres leches cake, which I had never eaten before, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was really great to see Ashley's family again.

For the past couple of days, I've been rushing to finish a project for my Operating Systems class, and even though it was due last night, I didn't have much luck. I would be surprised if many people had much better luck, because it was a difficult assignment. I suspect that future projects will be less ambitious.

Open Source

Nothing really remarkable this week, except last night. My aunt's computer has been having problems, so I brought it home. I need to play with it a bit more, but from what I can tell now, it's toast.

Tonight was the first general interest meeting for the newly forming CU Open Source Group. The group will be, oddly enough, developing code in the open source community. Many programmers at CU have already been involved with open source projects, but the group's founders think that CU should assert itself as a reputible open source leader. There's a small website already up, but it looks like it's still under construction right now, not much to look at. http://cuopensource.org/

I'm thinking about getting involved, because I'm really interested in learning the methods and etiquitte of being involved with the open source community, and because it's a chance to do some production-level code and not just trivial class assignments. On the other hand, I don't really have much time to spare these days. Maybe when I get back...

Another One Bites the Dust

The subject of this post refers to wedding details, not enemies or anything like that. Today Ashley and I went to Manitou Springs, just outside of Colorado Springs. Our mission: purchase "the" cake topper from The Glass Blowers of Manitou. We were familiar with their work because Ashley aunt and uncle purchased their cake topper from that shop, probably somewhere around 20 years ago. After the drive down, we made a beeline past other fun shops, strait to the glass blowers. After many minutes of careful consideration, we chose "the one." It's a beautiful piece of art, with two swans in front, their necks forming a heart, and a larger heart in back. The artist was able to attach some silk flowers in our wedding colors. It's absolutely beautiful.

After our "small" purchase, Ashley and I decided to hike around Garden of the Gods with the remaining daylight. We both had our new cameras, and we both snapped some decent shots. I was proud of the shots from my new Canon compact, but Ashley's mini-SLR is still much better for landscapes. I've posted some of both of our photos here.

VD

Yesterday was was February 14th, and everyone knows what that means. I was in the doghouse before the day even started.

That's not true, actually. I received a few hints that this might be an important year to remember St. Valentine's Day properly, especially since I won't be home to celebrate it next year. I knew there was no way I could hide the pink roses I bought Wednesday, so she was endowed with those strait from the store. Also, the Ghirardelli chocolate was best enjoyed that evening. But I did save a few things for the big day.

After school, I was going to exchange our propane tank so that we could grill steaks. Ashley decided to come with me, and during the actual exchange process, she almost ruined her surprise gift. The damage was done, so when we arrived back home, I presented her with her brand new electric mattress pad. She's been asking for a heating blanket for months now, and I think she was excited.

Grilling the steaks that evening was interesting. I think I've learned why people don't grill in winter; it just doesn't work well. That, and I think perhaps our grill is broken. Whatever the case, there's not enough propane coming through the system to really get the grill hot enough, even with all valves full open. After 40 minutes, they were still a bit too rare for my taste, so I fried them for about 5 minutes. They tasted excellent. Mike even got a slab of my romantic masterpiece. I'm just that nice.

Mike

Mike, who's a good friend from high school and is also in the Army (silly National Guard), moved in yesterday. I'm mostly positive about it, because it means we have more income in the house (theoretically). Ashley's on the fence at this point. While the income might be nice, it means she won't have as much room to use. Also, the prospect of being married, husband deployed, and having a male roommate is somewhat unsettling. I trust that the situation will be fine. On the other hand, from an outside perspective it does look.. strange. Oh well. We'll see how it goes.

Last Time Around

I just completed my last drill with my home unit. I got loads of advice from the people there, both on deployment and PT. One of the most common deployment bits was: "Don't give her general power-of-attorney!" Too many people have gone over, earned loads of money, just to have most of it spent by the time they got home. The usual culprit was the significant other or parent in charge of the accounts and bills. And as much as I love and trust Ashley, I think it's still relevant.

The advice on PT came from our E-6 medic. He suggested that my biggest problem is cardiovascular health, which I believe. He said the solution for me is running at an aerobic pace, and not pushing as hard as possible. Once a pace becomes comfortable enough, I can gradually speed up. He's an exercise physiologist on the civilian side, and he's just a very knowledgeable guy, so I trust his advice.

I'm really going to miss the people here while I'm deployed. It's an excellent unit and I can work with everybody. Everybody is friendly and laid back, but still professional and productive. I definitely plan on coming back as soon as I'm home!

Great Success!

Mom was in town this weekend, and it was great to see her. I had to work quite a bit, but we did get to spend some quality time together. Saturday, between bus shifts, we met up with Ashley and her mother and went tuxedo shopping. While it was informative, it was also fruitless.

Mom considered driving home Sunday, but the weather forecasts forced us to rethink. While we were talking Sunday night, we cooked up a brilliant scheme. Monday morning I took the day off of my internship, and Mom, Ashley and I drove to a department store and found... "the one." The department store had full, decent-quality suits at a good price and on sale. Ashley managed an amazing piece of sale shopping that made the total cost of buying suits, shirts and ties comparable to renting tuxedos. And considering the fact that most of my groomsmen and I are all at an age where we could use business suits, we all thought this was a perfect solution. After considering our options, we decided to buy everybody's suits all at once. Now when our groomsmen are ready, they can buy the suit from us, take it back to the store and exchange pieces for the correct sizes. On the other hand, I had a heart attack from the sticker shock. Even though we saved over 50% from all of the sale pricing and discounts, we still paid $1200! My mother said to consider it my wedding gift. I'll say, that's a heck of a gift. Thanks mom!

Now that it's done, it's really a relief. We have the suits picked, and they're all purchased. All we have to do is distribute them and make sure they get fitted. What do Ashley's bridesmaids have to show?