Yes, for all the peeps that have demanded it here is your update!
Liz and I visited Europe recently and here are the pictures to prove it.
www.techsyspc.com/europe
We were there for 2 weeks between May 20th - June 1st. We stopped in Madrid and Barcelona for 3 days of sightseeing before boarding our Royal Caribbean cruise for a 7 day cruise visiting:
Villefrance, France
Livorno, Italy
Civitevechia, Italy
Naples, Italy
Palermo, Sicily
Between those ports were able to visit Nice, Eze, Pisa, Florence, Rome, and Capri.
My favorite place was Capri. Go here for some historical info of this paradise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capri
At the moment I'm sitting at in my in-laws dining room getting ready for some company to arrive. In other words, I'm short on time but wanted to calm the angry mobs with an update.
Much 8>
Josh
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Thursday, November 1, 2007
California... knows how to party! Well... if you can get thru traffic first...
So we flew out of to Phoenix on the 14th at around 4:55 in the afternoon. The entire luggage check and security check points are still a huge drag. You’re still required to pass everything including your shoes through a couple of XRAY machines before you’re even allowed to reach your terminal. Aside from the XRAY madness we arrived at the airport and caught our flight without any problems. Once in Phoenix we stopped at this nice bar and grill since Liz and I had not had dinner yet and we felt like splurging a little bit. We’re on vacation after all and money is no longer an issue right? Well, the food ended up being crappy and the service even crappier. About the only good thing I found inside the bar was an electrical outlet and a strong wireless signal for my laptop. I also convinced Liz to start a blog of her own on Google and she’s already started with a fabulous recap of our Phoenix experience. You can check it out here:
http://www.luckielizzie.blogspot.com
In a nutshell, we decided that people outside of Texas are of an entirely different breed. I kind of already knew this being a military traveled brat so it doesn’t phase me the same way it does Liz. I usually try to see the positive side of unpleasant situations and make the best of it. We managed to hop on our 2nd and final plane to Ontario, California and made it in without any issues. When we arrived we also picked up our rental which was originally supposed to be an economical car. Well, once again we splurged and got upgraded to a 2007 Nissan Murano AWD with a Garmin GPS. I’m really glad we got the GPS device because it came in really handy during our LA ventures in Hollywood and some other suburbs I can’t recall their names. The highway system in California is huge and in some ways seems much older than Texas’. The off/on ramps usually have stop & go lights that you have to wait on before entering the highway. I’m not convinced this makes traffic flow any smoother as it forces you to slingshot your vehicle unto the highway to keep up with traffic during heavy rush hours. The entire California traffic scene was a huge mess frankly. It literally took us an hour or two to arrive at any of our planned destinations due to traffic. This really frustrated the heck out of me because I hate waiting in traffic in 100 degree heat, but what can you do?
So we stayed with my father at his bachelor pad in Mira Loma. My father is now 60 years young and has a g/f who is a 40. He was married to my mom for over 30 years and they separated back when I was 19-20 years young. He’s now happily living a single life in his very humble 2 bedroom apartment in a small suburb called Mira Loma. The entire community is made up of senior citizens and my father pays very little for a pretty cozy abode that has everything he needs. We were very comfortable living with my dad for the 7 days we stayed there. My dad and I have always gotten along great so having the opportunity to recapture a lot of our humorous memories from growing up is always a blast. I feel very lucky to have a close relationship with both of my parents and I hope to someday be able to pass on some of their wisdom to my kids. But who knows, Liz and I may decide that having a dog or two is all we need J
Wednesday came and this was our day to visit San Diego. After about a 2 hour drive down South through some more crazy traffic we arrived at our destination the San Diego Zoo. Lots to see and do here and we got to see maybe half of everything. First off, the zoo is located inside what I could consider a huge hill. It’s not really a mountain because you can still see the real “Mountains” in the distance and this hill is basically a baby mountain that traverses through the outskirts of San Diego downtown. At the top of the hill is where you will find parking and the top most level of the zoo. Plants and wildlife are found at every corner and if you look to one side for more than a minute you’ll pass up something else very easily. There are roads and sidewalks that literally go down about 10 – 15 stories into the giant hill and there are all kinds of interesting things to see the entire way there. I know this zoo has been around for a very long time now and the quality and variety of expos impressed me. About the only thing that was disappointing was the fact that half the animals were either 1) sleeping or 2) hiding inside a cave
It was about 100 degrees outside so I couldn’t blame them for wanting to be in the cool or sleeping through the mad crowds of nosy people wanting to take pictures. We enjoyed our somewhat rushed visit to the zoo.
The next planned excursion was the San Diego Wild Life Park. The zoo and the park are about 20 miles apart so once more we had to travel through some crazy traffic and this time we back tracked north and veered off unto the San Diego valley. We arrived at the park at around 5 in the afternoon and had little time to spare for anything. Regrettably the only real attraction we got to enjoy was the main one which was the Safari tram ride. The entire park is laid out as a make shift African savannah and you get to see all the typical African wildlife. Lions, cheetahs, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, gazelles, zebras, wilder beast, and much more. I thought the tour guy was kind of corny but seeing all the different animals in somewhat of a natural habitat was interesting. We all enjoyed it and glad we went. Sad to say this was the only real attraction that we got to experience at the park because the sun was gone and we only had the dim park lights to see with. The park stays open till around 9 in the evening, but we were just way too tired after the zoo and safari trip to try and enjoy the rest of it. Instead we hit up a few of the gift shops and bought some post cards and other memorabilia. I’d like to go back in the future and visit this park for an entire day. There seems to be a lot more to see and do. We finally made it back home around 9:30 and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and planning our next outing which would be Hollywood and the famous walk of fame.
Hollywood! *queue the famous Hollywood music*
Not at all what we were expecting to see. Well, first let me start off by saying that Liz woke this day with a very sore throat and bad nasal drainage. Later on we came to find out that she was running a fever and this really brought a damper to our plans. Anyway, we left at around 11am Thursday morning and thank the heavens for our decision to get the GPS device. Were it not for the GPS we probably would have been driving around aimlessly in Los Angeles. When we finally arrived to Hollywood blvd. we promptly found some cheap parking inside the mall garage and made it back up to subterranean levels after what seemed a mile excursion into the sub garage levels of hades. Ok, so we didn’t go that far down but to me it seemed pretty deep. We had to take about 5 or 6 flights of escalators back up before we arrived at ground level where the walk of fame and the famous Chinese movie theatre is at. Along the road you get to see all kinds of interesting characters. From the scrawny and 1st generation 50 year old batman to the young African American wearing a leotard speedo selling maps.
Fast forward 2 months and here I am trying to finish this blog.
After a couple of months of inactivity I’m starting to get some flack about not keeping up to date which is good. It means someone out there is actually reading this stuff besides me, Liz, and her brother BT.
So here I am at work waiting to get an important phone call at 4:40 PM in the afternoon and just wanting to get back home. My usual commute from San Marcos to San Antonio is usually about 45 minutes of interstate highway joy. Fortunately, I do take some days and work from home instead and save some money on gas. So let me try and fill in the large blank from the last half of our Cali trip.
So Liz was running at 100+ fever a the time and neither one of us knew it. She just knew she didn’t feel good, but darn it we were in the middle of Hollywood surrounded by al the stars and a bunch of tourists and dressed up maniacs. I have to say this Blvd. is made look much bigger on TV than it actually is. Basically, it’s just a normal looking street with a bunch of fancy shops and a few large stages on it. Neither one of us was very impressed but we can at least say we’ve been here. After about an hour of sigh seeing Liz couldn’t take the 100 degree heat and her fever so we decided to head back home and get her some meds. We were supposed to go out with my father and his girlfriend later that night so we figured it was the smart thing to do.
We went back home, relaxed, and I caught up with my dad while Liz took a long nap. Later in the evening we all went out together and had a nice dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory near some port in Los Angeles. It was too dark to see anything recognizable in LA so I had no idea where I was. My father’s g/f Mary Ann is a very sweet lady and I can see why they get along so great.
The rest of our vacation was spent pretty much hanging out with family. We got the opportunity to go to a really expensive casino and do some gambling. One of my aunts ended up hitting a big jackpot and went home with like $5000.00 and spent about $20.00 to get it. Liz and I weren’t so lucky. Being the high rollers that we are we spent about $50.00 and made back about $10.00. The buffet there was very extravagant and we were treated out to this buffet by my family.
I could add more details here and there but I’ve promised to try and condense these blogs to a more manageable size and hopefully have more updates.
To wrap up the trip – We found out that Liz had strep and got some meds while we were there. She survived. Seeing family you see every several years can be a lot of fun. And 1 week is just too short of time to really vacation in California. You need to have an additional 2 days just to get through traffic there.
Here’s to updating this blog!
-Me
Note:
This blog has not been proofread in over 2 months. Tough!
http://www.luckielizzie.blogspot.com
In a nutshell, we decided that people outside of Texas are of an entirely different breed. I kind of already knew this being a military traveled brat so it doesn’t phase me the same way it does Liz. I usually try to see the positive side of unpleasant situations and make the best of it. We managed to hop on our 2nd and final plane to Ontario, California and made it in without any issues. When we arrived we also picked up our rental which was originally supposed to be an economical car. Well, once again we splurged and got upgraded to a 2007 Nissan Murano AWD with a Garmin GPS. I’m really glad we got the GPS device because it came in really handy during our LA ventures in Hollywood and some other suburbs I can’t recall their names. The highway system in California is huge and in some ways seems much older than Texas’. The off/on ramps usually have stop & go lights that you have to wait on before entering the highway. I’m not convinced this makes traffic flow any smoother as it forces you to slingshot your vehicle unto the highway to keep up with traffic during heavy rush hours. The entire California traffic scene was a huge mess frankly. It literally took us an hour or two to arrive at any of our planned destinations due to traffic. This really frustrated the heck out of me because I hate waiting in traffic in 100 degree heat, but what can you do?
So we stayed with my father at his bachelor pad in Mira Loma. My father is now 60 years young and has a g/f who is a 40. He was married to my mom for over 30 years and they separated back when I was 19-20 years young. He’s now happily living a single life in his very humble 2 bedroom apartment in a small suburb called Mira Loma. The entire community is made up of senior citizens and my father pays very little for a pretty cozy abode that has everything he needs. We were very comfortable living with my dad for the 7 days we stayed there. My dad and I have always gotten along great so having the opportunity to recapture a lot of our humorous memories from growing up is always a blast. I feel very lucky to have a close relationship with both of my parents and I hope to someday be able to pass on some of their wisdom to my kids. But who knows, Liz and I may decide that having a dog or two is all we need J
Wednesday came and this was our day to visit San Diego. After about a 2 hour drive down South through some more crazy traffic we arrived at our destination the San Diego Zoo. Lots to see and do here and we got to see maybe half of everything. First off, the zoo is located inside what I could consider a huge hill. It’s not really a mountain because you can still see the real “Mountains” in the distance and this hill is basically a baby mountain that traverses through the outskirts of San Diego downtown. At the top of the hill is where you will find parking and the top most level of the zoo. Plants and wildlife are found at every corner and if you look to one side for more than a minute you’ll pass up something else very easily. There are roads and sidewalks that literally go down about 10 – 15 stories into the giant hill and there are all kinds of interesting things to see the entire way there. I know this zoo has been around for a very long time now and the quality and variety of expos impressed me. About the only thing that was disappointing was the fact that half the animals were either 1) sleeping or 2) hiding inside a cave
It was about 100 degrees outside so I couldn’t blame them for wanting to be in the cool or sleeping through the mad crowds of nosy people wanting to take pictures. We enjoyed our somewhat rushed visit to the zoo.
The next planned excursion was the San Diego Wild Life Park. The zoo and the park are about 20 miles apart so once more we had to travel through some crazy traffic and this time we back tracked north and veered off unto the San Diego valley. We arrived at the park at around 5 in the afternoon and had little time to spare for anything. Regrettably the only real attraction we got to enjoy was the main one which was the Safari tram ride. The entire park is laid out as a make shift African savannah and you get to see all the typical African wildlife. Lions, cheetahs, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, gazelles, zebras, wilder beast, and much more. I thought the tour guy was kind of corny but seeing all the different animals in somewhat of a natural habitat was interesting. We all enjoyed it and glad we went. Sad to say this was the only real attraction that we got to experience at the park because the sun was gone and we only had the dim park lights to see with. The park stays open till around 9 in the evening, but we were just way too tired after the zoo and safari trip to try and enjoy the rest of it. Instead we hit up a few of the gift shops and bought some post cards and other memorabilia. I’d like to go back in the future and visit this park for an entire day. There seems to be a lot more to see and do. We finally made it back home around 9:30 and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and planning our next outing which would be Hollywood and the famous walk of fame.
Hollywood! *queue the famous Hollywood music*
Not at all what we were expecting to see. Well, first let me start off by saying that Liz woke this day with a very sore throat and bad nasal drainage. Later on we came to find out that she was running a fever and this really brought a damper to our plans. Anyway, we left at around 11am Thursday morning and thank the heavens for our decision to get the GPS device. Were it not for the GPS we probably would have been driving around aimlessly in Los Angeles. When we finally arrived to Hollywood blvd. we promptly found some cheap parking inside the mall garage and made it back up to subterranean levels after what seemed a mile excursion into the sub garage levels of hades. Ok, so we didn’t go that far down but to me it seemed pretty deep. We had to take about 5 or 6 flights of escalators back up before we arrived at ground level where the walk of fame and the famous Chinese movie theatre is at. Along the road you get to see all kinds of interesting characters. From the scrawny and 1st generation 50 year old batman to the young African American wearing a leotard speedo selling maps.
Fast forward 2 months and here I am trying to finish this blog.
After a couple of months of inactivity I’m starting to get some flack about not keeping up to date which is good. It means someone out there is actually reading this stuff besides me, Liz, and her brother BT.
So here I am at work waiting to get an important phone call at 4:40 PM in the afternoon and just wanting to get back home. My usual commute from San Marcos to San Antonio is usually about 45 minutes of interstate highway joy. Fortunately, I do take some days and work from home instead and save some money on gas. So let me try and fill in the large blank from the last half of our Cali trip.
So Liz was running at 100+ fever a the time and neither one of us knew it. She just knew she didn’t feel good, but darn it we were in the middle of Hollywood surrounded by al the stars and a bunch of tourists and dressed up maniacs. I have to say this Blvd. is made look much bigger on TV than it actually is. Basically, it’s just a normal looking street with a bunch of fancy shops and a few large stages on it. Neither one of us was very impressed but we can at least say we’ve been here. After about an hour of sigh seeing Liz couldn’t take the 100 degree heat and her fever so we decided to head back home and get her some meds. We were supposed to go out with my father and his girlfriend later that night so we figured it was the smart thing to do.
We went back home, relaxed, and I caught up with my dad while Liz took a long nap. Later in the evening we all went out together and had a nice dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory near some port in Los Angeles. It was too dark to see anything recognizable in LA so I had no idea where I was. My father’s g/f Mary Ann is a very sweet lady and I can see why they get along so great.
The rest of our vacation was spent pretty much hanging out with family. We got the opportunity to go to a really expensive casino and do some gambling. One of my aunts ended up hitting a big jackpot and went home with like $5000.00 and spent about $20.00 to get it. Liz and I weren’t so lucky. Being the high rollers that we are we spent about $50.00 and made back about $10.00. The buffet there was very extravagant and we were treated out to this buffet by my family.
I could add more details here and there but I’ve promised to try and condense these blogs to a more manageable size and hopefully have more updates.
To wrap up the trip – We found out that Liz had strep and got some meds while we were there. She survived. Seeing family you see every several years can be a lot of fun. And 1 week is just too short of time to really vacation in California. You need to have an additional 2 days just to get through traffic there.
Here’s to updating this blog!
-Me
Note:
This blog has not been proofread in over 2 months. Tough!
Monday, August 13, 2007
Cali, here we come!
First I want to congratulate our dear friends Anna and Tyler Young. Anna is preggo with her first and Tyler is already making Anna cry! Good work my pirate friend. Please see Anna's blog for more details on this. Her blog link can be found in my first entry towards the bottom of the page.
So as my title states, we are going to California! We will be there from August 14th - August 20th. We'll also be staying with my dad who has a cozy apartment in Mira Loma which is not far from Ontario where we will be arriving. On the to do list:
San Diego Zoo and Wildlife Park
SAN DIEGO night life
Univeral Studios Anehiem
Disney Land
Hollywood Shopping and Sight Seeing
Casinos & Much Gambling (sorrow)
Visit Family
I have no doubt in my mind that this vacation is going to blow right by us, but we plan on taking advantage of every hour there.
Most of my father's side of the family lives in California, but I doubt I will see much of them. There's a lot of feuding going on between my dad's brothers and sister and unfortunately this makes visiting them challenging. I hope to at least have the opportunity to visit my last surviving grandparent which is my my father's mom who is living with my aunt in Cali.
I will be ready to give a full detailed report on my adventures when I return. Hopefully I won't be inundated with work stuff when I get back. For now, I'm not going to worry about it.
To my WoW buddies,
It's nice to know that some of you are interested in what I'm doing outside of WoW. I sometimes wish that we could all get together some day and have a beer and talk about stuff outside of WoW. Then I think, wait a minute some of us aren't even old enough to drink beer!?
To Couer, I'm keeping an eye on your blog and your mother is in my prayers. Best wish to you and your family and I hope that everything works out. And to Enno, I hear you're still rocking that Guitar Hero II! Awesome! I hope you're still pursuing the CIA opportunity and running those marathons. Get Ken some sun while you're at it!
Much love to all my friends and family,
Josh
So as my title states, we are going to California! We will be there from August 14th - August 20th. We'll also be staying with my dad who has a cozy apartment in Mira Loma which is not far from Ontario where we will be arriving. On the to do list:
San Diego Zoo and Wildlife Park
SAN DIEGO night life
Univeral Studios Anehiem
Disney Land
Hollywood Shopping and Sight Seeing
Casinos & Much Gambling (sorrow)
Visit Family
I have no doubt in my mind that this vacation is going to blow right by us, but we plan on taking advantage of every hour there.
Most of my father's side of the family lives in California, but I doubt I will see much of them. There's a lot of feuding going on between my dad's brothers and sister and unfortunately this makes visiting them challenging. I hope to at least have the opportunity to visit my last surviving grandparent which is my my father's mom who is living with my aunt in Cali.
I will be ready to give a full detailed report on my adventures when I return. Hopefully I won't be inundated with work stuff when I get back. For now, I'm not going to worry about it.
To my WoW buddies,
It's nice to know that some of you are interested in what I'm doing outside of WoW. I sometimes wish that we could all get together some day and have a beer and talk about stuff outside of WoW. Then I think, wait a minute some of us aren't even old enough to drink beer!?
To Couer, I'm keeping an eye on your blog and your mother is in my prayers. Best wish to you and your family and I hope that everything works out. And to Enno, I hear you're still rocking that Guitar Hero II! Awesome! I hope you're still pursuing the CIA opportunity and running those marathons. Get Ken some sun while you're at it!
Much love to all my friends and family,
Josh
Thursday, July 19, 2007
My Aching Muscles!
So it's been over a month since I updated this last and I think it's time to get busy again. All mine and Elizabeth's family came and went last month and now we have an empty house all to ourselves again. My brother in law stayed with us for the last 2 weeks and it was nice having someone to game and hang out with. Arturo is a good guy, and I see a bright future ahead of him.
I know what you're thinking right now. You're thinking "Why the aching muscles?". Well, as I mentioned in my last blog I stated that Elizabeth's new job helped us pay for gym passes. We've been going lately and it's been over 4 years since the last time I hit the free weights. The first time we visited the gym we did about 20 minutes of cardio and then spent the next 45 minutes on free weights. By the time we went home I was feeling tired and I knew I probably would be a little sore the next day. Not the case! I spent the next 5 days constantly stretching and moving my chest and arms hoping the pain would subside. It was a grrrrrrrrrreat! :(
Last night Liz and I went again and performed a similar routine and today my arms are tired just from typing. I'm not new to the stress training routine so I know it will be a few months before I'm fully accustomed to the free weight routine and the soreness will ease some. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the pain!
Work has been pretty crazy as of late. I'm solely responsible for the general operation and maintenance of a Financial Application and its hardware for the company I work for. I've been doing this job for a little over a year now and have enjoyed it. It's a major step up as far as responsibility and money goes from what I was doing before which was Tech Support. Lately though, the hardware (servers) have been acting up and I've spent many hours on the phone with Oracle trying to resolve some issues. I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn more about technology that is the future of how business is done. I'm also hopeful that the experience I earn here will eventually lead to something much better in a different city. Only time will tell...
On Tyler and Anna Young.
Tyler is and has been one of my closest friends for many years now. He and his wife Anna came to visit us a couple of weeks ago and stayed for the weekend. Because they were only here for such a short period of time we tried to make the best of the days by staying up past 3am and playing games. We spent quite a bit of time on the Wii and playing LAN games on the computers. One of the more fun things to do is network our machines and play Warcraft III with all the AI opponents fighting against our team and the other AI's. I think we managed to pull 1/10 victories but it was all very fun. We also pulled out another real time strategy classic called StarCraft. It's always fun to go back and play some of the classic games that used to entertain us for months on end when we were teenagers and college students. It's not only good for the joy of playing a fun game, but also for the memories it brings back of a time of few responsibilities for us.
Back in the late 90's when I was working part time and going to college, computer gaming was relatively new. I have always been a video game freak owning an Artari, Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Playstation, and several other little game consoles.
Getting to know other gaming freaks like me and being introduced to the new drug which is "PC Gaming" was probably the best thing that ever happen to me take away the whole marriage thing. Yeah that was cool too :) My click of about 10 different guys, would meet up either at a hotel or someone's house on a Friday night and spend over 12 hours LAN gaming Command & Conquer, WarCraft II, Quake, Big Red Racing, or whatever the latest fun game was at the time. These sessions weren't just for the gaming, but for the atmosphere and circle of friends and the laughter that would ensue from so many different personalities. Our little click of 10 guys would later become a social party of guys and gals that would hang out every weekend and drive the neighbors mad! Peeling out on a friend's lawn and honking the car horn down the street for a minute straight at 4 AM were but only a few of the crazy things we got away with.
Tyler is one the few friends I've managed to keep in touch with that grew up with me during that time. We share a lot of funny memories and I admire him and his family. His military family background is very similar to my own and I think that's part of the reason why we can relate so well. One of the dreams we shared was the desire to become jet fighter pilots one day. I'm very happy to say that one of us followed that dream through and Tyler is now but a few months away from living that dream as an F-16 fighter pilot in our USAF. Through his stories and the videos he shared about his training I get to experience what was once a desire I had. I'm proud of him for seeing this through and am even more happy that he found the right girl to share his life with.
Anna, Tyler's wife is a complete riot! I can see why Tyler and her make such a perfect match. Anna is outgoing and charismatic. She's not afraid of laughing at herself and definitely not afraid of making fun of Tyler which is great. I've enjoyed getting to know her a little more since this last time they visited our home. Here's a few new things I've learned about Anna.
1) She enjoys SNL skits
2) She loves Doctor Mario
3) She likes using the word "Crass"
4) She thinks "I'm Boring"
Ok so that last one is an inside joke, but who knows maybe whoever is reading this right now probably thinks I'm boring. Well, if that's the case maybe you can suggest what else you might enjoy reading about here. Drop me a comment or two and I'll be glad to open up.
One last thing I'm going to add for my WoW friends who may be reading this. I'm really happy with the way our once small guild Netherguard has once again prospered. It's not the progress of our raid groups or the amount of end game equipment that we own, but the quality of people behind each character that make up such an enjoyable social atmosphere. I've met several new folk in game that I did not know back before I quit playing WoW for a year. It's been exciting seeing how much the game has changed and yet at the same time how much it hasn't changed. There's all kinds of new content which is nice, but then there's always the drama that ensues. It holds true with all MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) games and its just a matter of getting yourself involved. Lucky for my friends in our guild, drama has been rare and we will continue to acquire mature and friendly people into our circle of friends. It's this circle of friends that resembles that old group of friends that I used to hang out with back in the day.
Till next time,
-Me
I know what you're thinking right now. You're thinking "Why the aching muscles?". Well, as I mentioned in my last blog I stated that Elizabeth's new job helped us pay for gym passes. We've been going lately and it's been over 4 years since the last time I hit the free weights. The first time we visited the gym we did about 20 minutes of cardio and then spent the next 45 minutes on free weights. By the time we went home I was feeling tired and I knew I probably would be a little sore the next day. Not the case! I spent the next 5 days constantly stretching and moving my chest and arms hoping the pain would subside. It was a grrrrrrrrrreat! :(
Last night Liz and I went again and performed a similar routine and today my arms are tired just from typing. I'm not new to the stress training routine so I know it will be a few months before I'm fully accustomed to the free weight routine and the soreness will ease some. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the pain!
Work has been pretty crazy as of late. I'm solely responsible for the general operation and maintenance of a Financial Application and its hardware for the company I work for. I've been doing this job for a little over a year now and have enjoyed it. It's a major step up as far as responsibility and money goes from what I was doing before which was Tech Support. Lately though, the hardware (servers) have been acting up and I've spent many hours on the phone with Oracle trying to resolve some issues. I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn more about technology that is the future of how business is done. I'm also hopeful that the experience I earn here will eventually lead to something much better in a different city. Only time will tell...
On Tyler and Anna Young.
Tyler is and has been one of my closest friends for many years now. He and his wife Anna came to visit us a couple of weeks ago and stayed for the weekend. Because they were only here for such a short period of time we tried to make the best of the days by staying up past 3am and playing games. We spent quite a bit of time on the Wii and playing LAN games on the computers. One of the more fun things to do is network our machines and play Warcraft III with all the AI opponents fighting against our team and the other AI's. I think we managed to pull 1/10 victories but it was all very fun. We also pulled out another real time strategy classic called StarCraft. It's always fun to go back and play some of the classic games that used to entertain us for months on end when we were teenagers and college students. It's not only good for the joy of playing a fun game, but also for the memories it brings back of a time of few responsibilities for us.
Back in the late 90's when I was working part time and going to college, computer gaming was relatively new. I have always been a video game freak owning an Artari, Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Playstation, and several other little game consoles.
Getting to know other gaming freaks like me and being introduced to the new drug which is "PC Gaming" was probably the best thing that ever happen to me take away the whole marriage thing. Yeah that was cool too :) My click of about 10 different guys, would meet up either at a hotel or someone's house on a Friday night and spend over 12 hours LAN gaming Command & Conquer, WarCraft II, Quake, Big Red Racing, or whatever the latest fun game was at the time. These sessions weren't just for the gaming, but for the atmosphere and circle of friends and the laughter that would ensue from so many different personalities. Our little click of 10 guys would later become a social party of guys and gals that would hang out every weekend and drive the neighbors mad! Peeling out on a friend's lawn and honking the car horn down the street for a minute straight at 4 AM were but only a few of the crazy things we got away with.
Tyler is one the few friends I've managed to keep in touch with that grew up with me during that time. We share a lot of funny memories and I admire him and his family. His military family background is very similar to my own and I think that's part of the reason why we can relate so well. One of the dreams we shared was the desire to become jet fighter pilots one day. I'm very happy to say that one of us followed that dream through and Tyler is now but a few months away from living that dream as an F-16 fighter pilot in our USAF. Through his stories and the videos he shared about his training I get to experience what was once a desire I had. I'm proud of him for seeing this through and am even more happy that he found the right girl to share his life with.
Anna, Tyler's wife is a complete riot! I can see why Tyler and her make such a perfect match. Anna is outgoing and charismatic. She's not afraid of laughing at herself and definitely not afraid of making fun of Tyler which is great. I've enjoyed getting to know her a little more since this last time they visited our home. Here's a few new things I've learned about Anna.
1) She enjoys SNL skits
2) She loves Doctor Mario
3) She likes using the word "Crass"
4) She thinks "I'm Boring"
Ok so that last one is an inside joke, but who knows maybe whoever is reading this right now probably thinks I'm boring. Well, if that's the case maybe you can suggest what else you might enjoy reading about here. Drop me a comment or two and I'll be glad to open up.
One last thing I'm going to add for my WoW friends who may be reading this. I'm really happy with the way our once small guild Netherguard has once again prospered. It's not the progress of our raid groups or the amount of end game equipment that we own, but the quality of people behind each character that make up such an enjoyable social atmosphere. I've met several new folk in game that I did not know back before I quit playing WoW for a year. It's been exciting seeing how much the game has changed and yet at the same time how much it hasn't changed. There's all kinds of new content which is nice, but then there's always the drama that ensues. It holds true with all MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) games and its just a matter of getting yourself involved. Lucky for my friends in our guild, drama has been rare and we will continue to acquire mature and friendly people into our circle of friends. It's this circle of friends that resembles that old group of friends that I used to hang out with back in the day.
Till next time,
-Me
Thursday, June 7, 2007
A new day
Today promises to be an exciting day. As I mentioned in my last blog, hotel Perez has been busy with people coming and going. Well today my brother, his wife and their 2 kids arrive AND my father from California as well. They will be staying with us for the weekend and it's going to be a blast! Tonight is the first game of the 2007 NBA Final and my team the San Antonio Spurs will be playing against the Cleveland Cavaliers. I hope that it will be an exciting game, but either way I will be enjoying it with family who support the same team.
Elizabeth started her new job this past Monday and is loving it! Elizabeth, my wife of 5 years now was layed off about 2 months ago now and since has been struggling to find a job that was the right fit. Thanks to some family support and a close friend she finally landed a great job with a great company and this makes me happy. The majority of her past work has revolved around administrative work but this job is focused on Financials and Information Systems Planning and Projecting. Its a whole new world for her and I'm happy that she's enjoying it. The company also provides a gym pass for both her and her spouse (hey that's me!) so hopefully soon we will be joining a gym near the house together. I told her I wanted to take her on in a game of raquetball and she agreed to it. It promises to be a bloody game but a fun one!
So I recently noticed that more people are visiting this online journal of mine. It's probably best that I post some actual "Real" photos of me and my family instead of the silly picture I posted before. That's not really me, but an inside joke running for years now. To make a long story short, several years ago at a friends get together we were playing a game called "Loaded Questions". The purpose of the game is for one person to read a question and everyone is supposed to give an honest answer and have the reader try and guess who gave each answer. I fainly remember the question that was posed, but it was something along the lines of "What famous Hollywood celebrity do you resemble?". I've been told by many a family that my face looked very much like Sylvester Stallone. So me the funny guy that I am put down this as my answer:
"Rambo..... Facially"
Needless to say a huge riot of laughs came to pass and the long running joke of me being "Rambo Facially" was born. So I hope this explains the black and white photo of Rambo with my face superimposed in it.
I hope you enjoyed the story. Here are some real life recent pictures.
Elizabeth started her new job this past Monday and is loving it! Elizabeth, my wife of 5 years now was layed off about 2 months ago now and since has been struggling to find a job that was the right fit. Thanks to some family support and a close friend she finally landed a great job with a great company and this makes me happy. The majority of her past work has revolved around administrative work but this job is focused on Financials and Information Systems Planning and Projecting. Its a whole new world for her and I'm happy that she's enjoying it. The company also provides a gym pass for both her and her spouse (hey that's me!) so hopefully soon we will be joining a gym near the house together. I told her I wanted to take her on in a game of raquetball and she agreed to it. It promises to be a bloody game but a fun one!
So I recently noticed that more people are visiting this online journal of mine. It's probably best that I post some actual "Real" photos of me and my family instead of the silly picture I posted before. That's not really me, but an inside joke running for years now. To make a long story short, several years ago at a friends get together we were playing a game called "Loaded Questions". The purpose of the game is for one person to read a question and everyone is supposed to give an honest answer and have the reader try and guess who gave each answer. I fainly remember the question that was posed, but it was something along the lines of "What famous Hollywood celebrity do you resemble?". I've been told by many a family that my face looked very much like Sylvester Stallone. So me the funny guy that I am put down this as my answer:
"Rambo..... Facially"
Needless to say a huge riot of laughs came to pass and the long running joke of me being "Rambo Facially" was born. So I hope this explains the black and white photo of Rambo with my face superimposed in it.
I hope you enjoyed the story. Here are some real life recent pictures.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
May Madness
So May 26th is my birthday and Elizabeth's family from Lubbock decided to come down this past birthday weekend. Aside from it being my 29th birthday celebration I'm also forced to share the Memorial Day holiday each year with my special day. I've never been known to be a selfish person, but come on! Well, looking at the bright side of things I suppose having that holiday from work attached to my birthday isn't too bad. It did allow for our family to stay another day with us.
We had a total of 10 people including me and Liz staying at our house since Thursday night through Monday afternoon. Elizabeth and I gave up our comfy room to her parents since they are usually the first ones to get up and use the shower. I didn't mind sacrificing my cozy room for them, that is until I had to share my old queen size bed with Liz and Starbucks, needless to say my rest was limited. That didn't matter to me though because I had a blast with everyone being there and sharing many laughs and last memories.
On Friday I took the day off and we took the family to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. It was the perfect day to be there imho. It was cloudy and breezy with signs of imminent rain the entire day and very few people were at the park. It never did rain and we were allowed to ride all of the roller coasters without having to wait in line. We were even allowed to try out the new Tony Hawk Big Thrill Ride!!! Alas, it was somewhat disappointing as the ride was short and it deserved a mediocre title of "Short Thrill" instead. Nonetheless we were one of the first peeps to ride it and we still had fun. By the end of the afternoon we were all pretty tired from the walking and laughing we did this day and decided to have dinner and go home and relax.
Saturday we spent celebrating my 29th with more family and a giant barbque. If you aren't a native Texan, then it may not make a whole lot sense to celebrate a birthday with a barbque. But here in the Lone Star State, its customary to celebrate every family event with ribs, sausage, burgers, and hot dogs! Partly because its cheap to do so and because who doesn't like a grilled burger with yummy ranch style beans and potatoe salad? The food and company was great, but what really made this day special was having my brother and his family come down from Fort Worth and make a surprise visit. Its not often that I get to see my nephews and having my sister in law and my brother in the same room is always a riot. I ended up getting several nice gifts from my family and a beautiful 15" LCD TV from my wife and mother. I've been shopping around for LCD TV's for my upstairs office for several months and just never committed to buying them because of their prices. My ladies took care of me though and hooked me up with an impressive HDTV 15" Insigna LCD that looks amazing in my office. Thanks honey, you just managed to add another reason for me to never leave that room.
Saturday ended with a bunch of barbque stuffed peeps and I stayed up late with cousin Kevin playing Zelda on our Wii until 1 am the next morning. Back in my younger days I would have been able to stay up much later. How depressing...
Sunday, we all got up early to attend Church. Elizabeth's parent and her Aunt & Uncle attended the Spanish class while I and the rest of the younger gang attended a college class. The kids of course went off to play with kiddos in their own room. Afterwards we attended the main service and took up a whole pew by our selves. Sitting next to cousin Kevin and making WoW references to the Leviticus sermon is always fun!
After Church we decided to have Chinese and then head home to relax.
Monday, we spent the morning packing and organizing everything for the return trip. After running a few errands and having breakfast together Elizabeth's family left town around 1:30 in the afternoon. Later that evening Elizabeth's friend Ernest from Dallas arrived and he will be staying with us for the next few days. We also are expecting Mario (Elizabeth's cousin) to arrive this Tuesday evening so to further extend our Motel Perez occupation.
Its funny how being married changes everything. Aside from the expected changes in day to day stuff and our relationship; you never really expect to marry the entire family but its definitely part of the package. I imagine in some cases its not the greatest thing in the world, but for me it's a blessing. Prior to being married my family consisted of a circle of close gaming friends and my mother. My father lived in another state (or country) and my brother was married and living in a different state as well. I enjoyed my life then and I enjoy my life now. Its just interesting to me looking back how much life changes after you marry a new family. It feels like the bonds between my immediate family and extended family have grown closer and doubled in size. The drawback to this is that I don't have as much time to hang out with all my old buddies from 6 or 7 years ago. Thankfully the Internet has helped bridge that communicate gap between us, but even then its hard to keep in contact with them all. Recently I spoke to a close buddy of mine "Tyler" and we're hoping to get together soon. Due to our conflicting schedules its been a challenge arranging anything, but I'm sure we'll put something together soon. Tyler, if you read this I hope all went well with your Water Survival stuff. I also hope you took my advice and laughed at the interrogators and told them you'll PK them if they don't release you.
Well, once again I need to refocus my attention to other matters and close this blog. In this case, I need to focus on getting some work done in the office. I've been neglecting to update this blogspot so I hope I've made all my fans happy this day. I hope you guys liked my recent picture I posted in my last blog.
We had a total of 10 people including me and Liz staying at our house since Thursday night through Monday afternoon. Elizabeth and I gave up our comfy room to her parents since they are usually the first ones to get up and use the shower. I didn't mind sacrificing my cozy room for them, that is until I had to share my old queen size bed with Liz and Starbucks, needless to say my rest was limited. That didn't matter to me though because I had a blast with everyone being there and sharing many laughs and last memories.
On Friday I took the day off and we took the family to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. It was the perfect day to be there imho. It was cloudy and breezy with signs of imminent rain the entire day and very few people were at the park. It never did rain and we were allowed to ride all of the roller coasters without having to wait in line. We were even allowed to try out the new Tony Hawk Big Thrill Ride!!! Alas, it was somewhat disappointing as the ride was short and it deserved a mediocre title of "Short Thrill" instead. Nonetheless we were one of the first peeps to ride it and we still had fun. By the end of the afternoon we were all pretty tired from the walking and laughing we did this day and decided to have dinner and go home and relax.
Saturday we spent celebrating my 29th with more family and a giant barbque. If you aren't a native Texan, then it may not make a whole lot sense to celebrate a birthday with a barbque. But here in the Lone Star State, its customary to celebrate every family event with ribs, sausage, burgers, and hot dogs! Partly because its cheap to do so and because who doesn't like a grilled burger with yummy ranch style beans and potatoe salad? The food and company was great, but what really made this day special was having my brother and his family come down from Fort Worth and make a surprise visit. Its not often that I get to see my nephews and having my sister in law and my brother in the same room is always a riot. I ended up getting several nice gifts from my family and a beautiful 15" LCD TV from my wife and mother. I've been shopping around for LCD TV's for my upstairs office for several months and just never committed to buying them because of their prices. My ladies took care of me though and hooked me up with an impressive HDTV 15" Insigna LCD that looks amazing in my office. Thanks honey, you just managed to add another reason for me to never leave that room.
Saturday ended with a bunch of barbque stuffed peeps and I stayed up late with cousin Kevin playing Zelda on our Wii until 1 am the next morning. Back in my younger days I would have been able to stay up much later. How depressing...
Sunday, we all got up early to attend Church. Elizabeth's parent and her Aunt & Uncle attended the Spanish class while I and the rest of the younger gang attended a college class. The kids of course went off to play with kiddos in their own room. Afterwards we attended the main service and took up a whole pew by our selves. Sitting next to cousin Kevin and making WoW references to the Leviticus sermon is always fun!
After Church we decided to have Chinese and then head home to relax.
Monday, we spent the morning packing and organizing everything for the return trip. After running a few errands and having breakfast together Elizabeth's family left town around 1:30 in the afternoon. Later that evening Elizabeth's friend Ernest from Dallas arrived and he will be staying with us for the next few days. We also are expecting Mario (Elizabeth's cousin) to arrive this Tuesday evening so to further extend our Motel Perez occupation.
Its funny how being married changes everything. Aside from the expected changes in day to day stuff and our relationship; you never really expect to marry the entire family but its definitely part of the package. I imagine in some cases its not the greatest thing in the world, but for me it's a blessing. Prior to being married my family consisted of a circle of close gaming friends and my mother. My father lived in another state (or country) and my brother was married and living in a different state as well. I enjoyed my life then and I enjoy my life now. Its just interesting to me looking back how much life changes after you marry a new family. It feels like the bonds between my immediate family and extended family have grown closer and doubled in size. The drawback to this is that I don't have as much time to hang out with all my old buddies from 6 or 7 years ago. Thankfully the Internet has helped bridge that communicate gap between us, but even then its hard to keep in contact with them all. Recently I spoke to a close buddy of mine "Tyler" and we're hoping to get together soon. Due to our conflicting schedules its been a challenge arranging anything, but I'm sure we'll put something together soon. Tyler, if you read this I hope all went well with your Water Survival stuff. I also hope you took my advice and laughed at the interrogators and told them you'll PK them if they don't release you.
Well, once again I need to refocus my attention to other matters and close this blog. In this case, I need to focus on getting some work done in the office. I've been neglecting to update this blogspot so I hope I've made all my fans happy this day. I hope you guys liked my recent picture I posted in my last blog.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
My first Blog
For a long time now I've had this desire to keep a journal of meaningless daily events. While I can appreciate looking back at past events and laughing about them, I thought the idea of keeping a journal was too gay so I decided to create a blog instead. I'm not exactly sure if this is any better, but it's the latest fad and everyone and their dog has one so..... why not?!
My latest inspiration for starting this came after reading The Young's blog http://www.zimmermanzinger.com/blog.html which has been updated by my best friend's wife Anna Young. Tyler, if you're reading this just know that I hate you for never Emailing, Calling, /whispering in WoW, or anything. I have a sincere appreciation to Anna for at least trying to update us peeps. While I know she probably had no intention of updating me.... STILL! The blog found its way to me and I'm happy to see recent pictures of you guys and its great to get recent news regarding your whereabouts.
Currently I'm in the office and I must make a quick get away as I'm leaving early today to take care of some side work that helps pay for my wive's fethish of Coach purses. What's the deal with those things? Its just a sack of overpriced leather with a tag on it? Anyhow, I must be on my way.
Josh
My latest inspiration for starting this came after reading The Young's blog http://www.zimmermanzinger.com/blog.html which has been updated by my best friend's wife Anna Young. Tyler, if you're reading this just know that I hate you for never Emailing, Calling, /whispering in WoW, or anything. I have a sincere appreciation to Anna for at least trying to update us peeps. While I know she probably had no intention of updating me.... STILL! The blog found its way to me and I'm happy to see recent pictures of you guys and its great to get recent news regarding your whereabouts.
Currently I'm in the office and I must make a quick get away as I'm leaving early today to take care of some side work that helps pay for my wive's fethish of Coach purses. What's the deal with those things? Its just a sack of overpriced leather with a tag on it? Anyhow, I must be on my way.
Josh
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