It’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted anything. So much has happened in the last year and 7 months, it’s hard to sum it up in a coherent way, but I’ll try.

The last entry was a bit of a cliffhanger. I was just a day away from asking Nichole to marry me. *****SPOILER ALERT***** She said yes. *****END SPOILERS***** It was a great experience and very nerve wracking to say the least. I’m glad it’s over but I’m happy that I went through it. It gives me something to tell our children someday.

I’m back in school which consumes so much time, it’s not even funny.

I have pretty much decided that blogging full time is a lot to ask, especially with the amount of time I have sectioned off for school, work and Nichole. As a result, I’ve turned to Twitter. It allows me to update my friends on what’s going on and I don’t have to spend time thinking about what to write about. My life really isn’t that interesting, at least, not yet…

If you’re so inclined, you can track my progress on Twitter.

Until then, take care and god speed.

I’ve ignored the blog for a week now. I guess I should update. Let’s summarize.

Saw Chris Carey and his new A3. Nichole got back home from JavaOne. I hid the ring. I reserved a table at the Ritz in Half Moon Bay. Nichole’s birthday gift was spoiled because of bad accounting. Went up to my parents for the weekend. Mom tried to throw Nichole off by saying I wasn’t saving for a ring, thanks mom. Nichole has been non-stop talk about marriage and rings. End Summary.

So I started back to school again so all hell is breaking loose in terms of stress and time commitments. Both Nichole and I have been really tired when getting home and that always leads to arguments over stupid stuff. We had our first real argument since she got back and I think a lot of it is stemming from the stress of work and me always working, going to school or not spending time with her. Things got pretty heated but ended better. She did mention that her waiting for me to propose is added stress for her. I almost lost it since the ring is in the house. Hell, it was less than 5 feet away from her at the time of this argument. I just kept thinking in my head, if only you knew. Things are fine, stupid argument.

School was boring. I cracked through the lab so I could get out of there. I got home and she was up, which was odd. I think she wanted to talk. We watched the season finale of the office, way to go Jim!, and then talked a little about our fight. She went to bed feeling good, and I feel better about the situation. This weekend is going to be tough. I’m going to want to do it but I’m not. This whole time, it has been tough to not say anything. Every time the topic is brought up, I just try not to smile or give anything away. I hope I’m doing a good job of it because I can never tell.

I’m also getting really nervous these days. I’m afraid to leave her at home for long periods of time. I’m afraid she’s going to stumble upon it. I’m afraid the condo is going to burn down with the ring in it. I’m just scared. Everyone I tell is really happy for me and for us. I keep getting advice which is a blessing and a curse. I want to do things our way, not the way other people did it. They mean well.

When we got back from my parents on Sunday, I took Nichole out shopping. She needs to look great for the day she gets engaged, she deserves it. She tried on a few dresses and found the perfect one. She looks great in it. I don’t think she even thought twice about me buying her a dress. I guess I seemed genuine enough for her to buy that it was just for her birthday. I’ll have to have someone take a picture of us after everything happens.

Pretty much everything is squared away. I need to call and confirm the reservation at the Ritz and make sure they gave us a ’special’ table. I’m going to have flowers delivered to her work on Monday to throw her off some more. The one thing I haven’t done yet, is call her father. I’m not sure why I’ve waited so long. I know he’s going to be cool about it. I guess I worry that he’ll tell Perry. I don’t want a lot of people knowing. I want the surprise element to be there. So I’m going to call him tomorrow while he’s at work. Hopefully I won’t make him cry, don’t want his workers to think he’s a softie. I also get the added benefit of him having his reaction away from Peri. I just hope he can keep a secret for a few days. We’ll see.

On a side note, I really feel like things are going really well for Nichole and I. We both have good jobs. We love our new condo. We’re getting engaged. Everything seems to be on the up and up. However, one thing has been really bothering me lately. My best friend has been MIA for awhile now. It really sucks not being able to talk to anyone about this entire thing. I did recently start talking to Matt again. Him and I talked on the phone for about an hour the day after I got the ring. It made me feel better to connect with someone about it. He’s already been through all this nonsense.

Anyways, it’s getting late, and I’m tired. The next 5 days are going to be pretty intense. I just wish Tuesday would hurry up already. I’m ready for my destiny, I just wish it would hurry the hell up already. Night.

Today was rather busy at work, which ended up being a good thing. It ended up keeping my mind off things. I told a few people at work who were very surprised and happy for me. It was a great feeling to get approval from them.

I told my boss and I think she was a bit surprised but wanted to see it, I’ll have to bring it in tomorrow.

I told my old mentor and he was really excited for me. He started telling me about what he went through and I guess I don’t have it that bad. His wife wanted a Tiffany settings (!!!) and at least a 2 carat diamond (double !!!). I guess we all can’t have low maintenance chicks. ;)

Nichole’s “real” birthday gift came today. A white Blackberry Pearl. She’s been dying to get one of these so I figured what a perfect gift to throw her off. It’s a rather nice phone. I kinda wish I had one. Ah well. Someday. I charged the battery for her so when she opens it, it’s ready to rock.

After work, I headed to the hotel to do some more setup on the DHS network. Got a few things fixed which is great. Most days I feel like I spend a ton of time on things that don’t get fixed no matter how hard I try to fix them. Today wasn’t that way which was a nice change of pace.

I went to dinner with Jon and Cliff. They had never been to Caprino’s so we went there. It was fabulous as always. After dinner, we went for a scenic route since they barely get outside the hotel or San Mateo. When we got back, Nichole called me for just a few minutes. She sent a text today saying that she loved me and I really wanted to tell her, but I didn’t. God this is going to be so hard.

Eh, three days down, several more to go…

Ugh.

Nichole is gone in the city and no one is answering their phone. It really sucks to not have anyone to really share my excitement with. I ended up calling an old colleague because I needed someone to talk to. She was just what I needed and said all the right things. She just got married two years ago so she should know this process very well.

Played Gears of War for what seemed like days.

Nichole called and we talked for a little bit. It was so tough not to say anything. I really have no idea how I can keep this a secret for so long. Let’s hope I don’t let it slip or just can’t wait anymore.

At least I have work tomorrow. That should keep my mind busy. I sent a request for lunch reservations at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay. I think it will be a great place to have lunch and prepare myself for popping the question.

Did I really just say that? All of this is so surreal. Good lord… Anyways, bed calls.

I never thought for a million years that I would be here. I’ve always thought about it but it never seemed a reality. Yesterday, however, changed all of that. It seemed like a normal day. Nichole had to go work in the city for the JavaOne conference and I was going to have a lonely weekend. I dropped her off at the Moscone center around 8am and headed back to our place. I had a quick breakfast with my parents and headed home for a shower.

This day was a rather normal day, except for one important detail, I was going to buy an engagement ring.

To be completely honest, I have never been so nervous in my entire life. I was short of breath. I had goosebumps. My stomach was upset. I had a headache. Any ailment you can imagine, I was experiencing. It was all so surreal. Was I really doing this? Was I just dreaming?

I took my shower, and got dressed. My dad finished up at the hotel and met my mother and I at the condo. After we left the condo, my dad noticed a spot of red on his shirt. It was blood. He messed with the cat and she got him. So we stopped off at the hotel to fix his shirt and get the directions to the Jewelry Exchange. The trip up was uneventful really, no traffic, so we got there rather quickly.

The Jewelry Exchange is an interesting place. It’s not like a flea market or anything like the name might suggest. It’s a private, invite-only Jewelry megastore. A lot of private Jewelers buy into this complex and setup shop. When you walk in the door, you have to sign in and get a name tag. It’s like walking into Fort Knox minus the armed guards and/or escort. Once you’re in the door, you can check out any of their stores. We were there for a specific vendor named Steve Padis. They have a pretty decently sized store with a huge selection of all kinds of jewelry. Rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, etc.

Once we got in there, we were being helped within the first five minutes. Come to find out the guy helping us was the manager of the store. Pretty neat stuff. Anyways, we told him what we were there for and what we wanted. Once I described what Nichole wanted, he picked out a setting that came really close to what she liked but it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, so I told him to think “classic.” He said he’d be back in a minute and he was, with the ring. It was a beautiful platinum ring with four diamonds on each side. It’s apparently a designer ring if that means anything. It’s a Jeff Cooper ring. I think it’s this one.

The hard part came next. Pick a diamond to go in the setting. Now, it may seem that this is the easy part but it’s not. You have so many options. How big is the diamond (carat)? What is the clarity (F-J)? What type of flaws does the diamond have (VVS1, VS2, SI1)? We probably spent an hour or two looking at several diamonds. We looked at one to two carat diamonds for what seemed an eternity. Then, we asked for something around the 1.2 range. He found one that was near colorless (H/I, I believe), with very few inclusions. It was a beautiful diamond. It was brilliant under the light. The really interesting thing was that on the gemological report it showed the inclusions, and one of them was in the shape of a diamond. It had to be a sign. After careful consideration, and looking at another setting. I just knew that our first choice was the right one and that diamond, was special. I pulled the trigger and we started the purchase process.

We waited as they put together all the paper work. Since it was Cinco de Mayo, they had a Mariachi band singing. It helped pass the time. They also had someone making quesadillas which were delicious. Anyways, after paying and filling out the appraisal forms, they told us to come back at 3:30PM to pick it up.

We decided Scoma’s would be an excellent lunch destination. We got a table fairly quickly and within a few minutes, another party, which was at Steve Padis’ shop sat right next to us. A little ironic but hey, they were nice and wished me congratulations. The mother was a bit snooty but whatever. I guess you get to be that way with a 5 carat rock on your finger, I kid you not, it was huge.

It felt like time was passing so slowly. I kept looking at the time on my phone for what felt like every five minutes. I was just so excited to go check out the ring, I couldn’t wait to see it. I didn’t really even have an appetite but I ate anyways, who wouldn’t? It’s Scoma’s. Our waitress asked about dessert and we declined, save for the coffee. She brought us some cake anyways since we told her why we were celebrating. Rather nice of them to give us cake, and we ate it too.

On our way back to Steve’s, I got really nervous again. My stomach was turning over on itself. I guess I just wanted everything to be perfect. It also could have been the fact that my father was driving like a maniac, he cut off a bus, at a red light. Awesome driving dad! :) We finally got there in one piece and headed back in. They had the ring ready and brought it out. When we first looked at it, we all remarked on how beautiful it looked. Hell, beautiful doesn’t even beginto describe it. It was gorgeous. Everyone that saw it agreed. God I hope she likes it. I know she will but I’m still nervous.

On the way home, I couldn’t stop looking at it. In the light, it just showed some of the most brilliant colors I’ve ever seen a diamond shine. Well, I guess the countdown to the big day begins. I’ll be posting these after the proposal and acceptance. It’ll be fun to relive everything and have a journal for Nichole to read about my trials and tribulations with this whole process.

Anyways, time for bed.

The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy for me. The new job has been working out great and I’ve started helping my Dad with his business. We’re going to try to standardize how his staff works on a regular basis. As a result, we have to go with Microsoft (ugh) and setup a Windows 2003 server. I have to admit, I’m really excited. I spent the better half of my day yesterday researching some spam/anti-virus solutions for our mail. There is this dude that runs his company out of Belmont. Ironic that I used to walk up the hill his ‘corporate headquarters’ is located after school. Dare I say that a residential area can hardly be called corporate? Whatever. I just have some loose ends to finally tie up before we really make the plunge and lease a Dell. I figure it’ll take a week to get everything setup properly.

Anyways, for the last month or so, I’ve been completely obsessed with trying to unlock achievements on Xbox Live. When I say obsessed, I mean obsessed. Whenever I unlock an achievement, I stand up and scream ‘woohoo.’ It’s sad really. But yes, now I’m a console freak, I can’t believe this is happening to me. I think it’s all Valve’s fault for not releasing Episode 2 yet. Hell, I’ll probably end up buying it for the Xbox instead of the computer. Something I said I would never ever do. I guess times are a changing…

Oh yeah, I also started walking/jogging/running with Nichole. We went to Road Runner Sports in San Carlos. If you have one close to you and you’re in the market for new athletic shoes, I highly recommend them. They have you walk on this pressure pad that shows how you walk with your feet. It shows the type of arch, where you apply pressure and if you walk on your toes. Next, they have you get on this treadmill with a camera pointed at your feet. They watch how you walk and see if they need to make any corrections (i.e. if you swing your feet out). After this they are able to put your feet into a category and based off that they have a wall of shoes that would fit your type of foot. After you pick out the shoes you like, they have you get back on the treadmill and watch to see if they have corrected any problems and see if the shoe doesn’t work out. Their customer service was excellent. We had the same guy for 45 minutes. I just hope they get enough customers that they don’t close. I bought one of those new Nike+ shoes that have the iPod integration. When Nichole and I walk, I track how far we’re going and how many calories we’re burning. The Nike website keeps track of everything too. I think it’s really a home run in terms of complete integration.

Ok, I’ve wasted enough time at work, time to hit the reports hard. Enjoy this silly comic…

God, I’m glad to be an American. This morning, I woke up at 4:10 AM to get onto a 6:05 AM flight to Dallas. My bags were packed in advance and Nichole and I were out the door at 4:45 AM. We reached the airport, I kissed Nichole goodbye and headed to the automated check in. My itinerary didn’t spell out what my ‘record locator’ exactly was so I had to mess around with the machine for about 10 minutes. I finally found the correct one within 5 minutes.

I headed to security. I showed my driver’s license, I took off my shoes and my belt. I put my quart sized bag full of soap and other crap in a plastic bin. I put my laptop on the conveyor belt and walked through the metal detectors.

I got to the gate and sat down. Within about 10 minutes I heard an announcement that my flight was canceled due to mechanical failure. They passed out a 1-800 number and basically told everyone good luck. I immediately called American Express (thank god for them, seriously) and told them the situation. The lady on the line was very helpful and started going through all the outbound flights to see if she could get me to my final destination, Austin. After about 1/2 hour on hold with the airlines, and 10 minutes standing at the ticket counter, she finally got me a ticket on United (I was originally booked on American).

I walked over to United and waited for about 10 minutes in line. When I was finally ‘helped,’ I got the new guy who had no idea how to operate a computer. He tells me that even though I have a ticket and a record #, he can’t issue me a boarding pass. I have to go back to American Airlines and get it. Son of a bitch. So I walk BACK to American Airlines. Thank god the line is down to one person. It was about 20+ deep when I was waiting. Oh and while I was waiting, I got to listen to this awesome conversation this whore had with her friend about how her boyfriend is an ‘asshole’ and a ‘pussy.’ She’s like screaming into her cell phone and getting all kinds of looks, I hope she gets crabs from the plane seat.

I’m finally helped by a person who knows what they’re doing. She prints me a ticket and tells me to go back to United and they should issue me a boarding pass. So I walk back to United. I get someone that knows how to operate a keyboard this time and I get my boarding pass. I head back to security for round #2. The line at the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland look tame. Surprisingly, it moves quickly and I’m re-routed to the “let’s check his body cavity for drugs” line.

I’m escorted by this cheerful lady to the front of the x-ray machine line, she helps me put all my crap (scroll up) into bins and glides me through the metal detector. From that point, I’m told to wait. Some dude walks up and asks me to point out my stuff, he takes it to an examination table and tells me to walk into this awful looking machine. Have you heard of the EntryScan by GE? I hadn’t but this is what it looks like. Apparently the device is ultra top secret since you can’t view it unless you use my google cache. Anyways, I walk into this thing and it shoots air at me and finally lets me go. I guess they decided to pass on the body cavity search, whew.

They search my bag and wipe my laptop down with this swab, thanks it needed that. Finally, they let me go to my new terminal. I get some coffee and plop myself down in a seat. I call work and let them know that my flight was canceled, all is well in that department I guess. It just sucks that I’ve been in the airport this long already (4 hours).

I called J and he lent me his T-Mobile hotspot pass, thanks J. As I was sitting here, I hear this commotion start to brew. This dude with pretentious glasses and quasi-cowboy boots starts to yell at the ticket person. She informs him that he’s been bumped (common) and that he needs to get on another flight. He tells her that this has never happened, blah blah. This guy is using his miles to book the flight. Airlines are notorious for bumping people that use their miles because other people ACTUALLY PAID THEM. What a fucking concept, they want money, shocking. He keeps screaming about it to make a scene, but she won’t budge. The kicker is that someone gets off the plane, yet they won’t let this guy on, I guess they bumped another person too. The funniest part about this change is that this guy is talking to himself, rather loudly, as if he’s doing a monologue for the Tonight Show. Thankfully he finally shut up and realized he’s not going to win this round.

I have to give a big thank you to American Airlines for fucking me over. Don’t you bastards have more than one goddamn plane? Seriously, don’t you have a hanger? Is it so hard to prep a new plane than to cancel a FULL flight and royally screw everyone over? Ah well, life goes on. I’m just glad American Express handled everything. Without them I would have been lost. Anyways, I’m going to go play tetris or something. Here I come Austin! ;)

Well, here I am. It’s been a long and difficult journey, but it’s finally over. I realize that my post frequency has dropped dramatically. I really want to post, I just can’t find the time for it lately. I’m trying, really, I promise.

To bring you up to date, I have moved. I moved from this awful one bedroom shack to a two bedroom condo. It’s absolutely beautiful and I’m loving every minute. Though, I do have to say one thing, moving is a bitch. When we started to pack, I thought it would a fairly painful and routine process. In actuality, it was completely the opposite. Hell, our last walk through the apartment yielded two full drawers full of soup cans and food containers. Though, in all honesty, we did a pretty damn good job packing. The minute we put in our notice, Nichole went into pack mode. I’ve never seen someone so dedicated to one specific task in my life. It seemed to be effortless for her to pack two organizers, and two closets. I have to tip my hat to her, she really made the move less stressful, I love you babe.

Now, when you know you have to pack, you start to devise this grand scheme of how you’re going to do it all right. You’re going to pack everything well so nothing breaks, it’s going to be organized, the boxes will be feather light and it will only take a day. Let me tell you right now, I really did think this. I’m not sure how this general misconception got into my head but it did. Goddamn, did it ever. This methodology flew out the window after the second box. You begin to realize that it would be better to just throw everything into a box quickly and get it over and done with. I still can’t find my hair gel though.

Something I did realize was that people really do need to have serious purges every year. If you haven’t looked at something for over a year, chances are YOU DON’T NEED IT. When I started going through my organizer, I threw away so much crap that just sat there for two years and collected dust. I felt really proud of myself when I started throwing way crap. It’s just silly to keep stuff that you obviously don’t need or necessarily want. I kept so many boxes of computer stuff it’s ridiculous. I also, for some stupid reason decided to keep all of our iPod boxes, including accessories! When you start throwing away this shit, you begin to say to yourself, hey, I just prevented myself from packing up an entire box of useless junk. And that my friend makes you feel awesome after you’ve packed 10 boxes of equally useless junk that ‘you need.’

As I write this post, I only have 3 more boxes to sort through. I have to say that I’m really impressed that we unpacked everything in less than a week. Especially between the hours that Nichole and I work, it’s tough to get stuff done. I’m just glad that all the appliances and carpet went in first. I can’t imagine juggling all of it at once. I really can’t. We still have an appointment with Comcast to get a phone hookup. We’ll see how that pans out. I’ll post some pictures of the Condo once I get them but that could take awhile.

Oh, I guess I should mention briefly that I was just offered a full time position at IBM as a Business Analyst. All the hard work and long hours have finally paid off. :) I’ll be flying out to Texas in a few weeks to get my official new hire training. Fun stuff, I know. Anyways, I’m tired and the cat won’t leave me alone. Night.

Ok… before I tell you what I found, there is a back story. A couple weeks ago, I was thinking back on my High School days and all the really great books I read. I was going over the titles in my head and realizing how important it was to read these books at that specific time in my life. The more I think about it, all those books are important to anyone in their mid-teens.

As I was remembering these titles, I came across a book in my mind that I couldn’t remember the name or the author of the book. I only remembered tidbits of the book. Most of the memories of the book are entirely based off a short essay I wrote on it, so basically a summary of the events that transpire.

So right away, I was curious on who the author was and what was the title of the book. I opened up Firefox and performed a search in google. I had a million results off my keywords of “science fiction + asteroid + intelligent life.” Yes, I know, rather vague. Most of the sites were pretty weird so I’ll avoid mentioning them.

Instead of shifting through all that garbage on google, I went to the next best thing (in my opinion, it’s becoming my first stop for information), Wikipedia. However, while perusing this particular article, I realized how futile it was to find a particular book in an article written about a particular subject matter.

I started digging deeper into the Science Fiction realm but became increasingly frustrated as the minutes transpired and eventually gave up all hope in finding this particular book.

Today, I was ‘in the zone’ thinking about random shit and it hit me, what the hell is that damn book I was looking for? Again, I start to look for this lost book. I fire up google and start my regular search again and realize that it was the exact search I had started with, Firefox confirmed it with an auto-complete suggestion :/ .

Then I remembered that the book had been nominated for or even won an award. Ah ha!, I said. Wikipedia is a glorious archive with such things. Remind me to donate soon. If I had this type of website to use when I was in High School, a trip to the library would have been unnecessary. I digress. Anyways, I started looking through all the titles of the books that were nominated and won. Nothing caught my eye at all.

The thing that kept me trying to remember this book was the fact that it was part of a summer reading list. The title of the book is what piqued my interest in the first place. I remember buying most of the books save this one because it was out of print when I tried to pick it up. We had to choose two books to read and then write a report on each one. I started reading a few of the books and only liked one. So I went to the library to get a copy of the book, and it was out for at least two weeks, but I thought it was worth the wait since the other books were boring the hell out of me.

Now, something you have to think about is that human memory is a funny thing. I’ll remember something two weeks after I was thinking about it and exclaim rather loudly (I’m usually in the car) “THAT’S WHAT THAT FUCKING THING WAS!,” or something to that effect. I kept thinking that the word “dragon” and “egg” was in the title of the book. However, it didn’t make sense to me that a book about an asteroid would have a title involving dragons or eggs. I tried a google search and found all kinds of weird dragon porn. Yeah, I don’t want to share with you what I found because I’m embarrassed for whoever enjoys that kind of stuff.

Finally, when I sat down at my computer tonight, I decided, once and for all, I was going to find it. The funniest thing about all of this was that I was completely over thinking the entire search process. Had I just followed what my brain told me, I would have been ok. Now, if you search only “dragon egg + science fiction,” you find the first result to be correct. However, if you search with “egg + asteroid + science fiction + intelligent life,” you find zilch.

I’m sure you’re already laughing at me by now, but the book’s name is “Dragon’s Egg.” It was written in 1980 by Robert Forward and a synopsis can be found here. I treated myself to a copy fresh from Amazon. Ordered in less than 10 seconds. Happy Early Birthday to me.

I’m not sure if any of you have heard of a show called Robot Chicken or not. I recently heard about it through a few people at work and instantly, I was hooked. It’s a show that airs on the Cartoon Network around 12am, it’s part of the Adult Swim programming. Anyways, it’s stop motion with action figures. The funniest part of the show is that it really has no boundaries. They frequently ‘cross the line’ and do so by a few hundred miles. I know you might think I’m being sarcastic, but obviously you haven’t seen this. Enjoy and weep, I did from laughing so hard. I know it’s wrong but that’s why it’s so goddamn hilarious.

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