So, in the way of extremely weird and random news, I was found recently by a very old online friend from about 10 years ago.  I used to be very into a game called Jedi Knight II.  You could play it online, and it was a blast, especially because you could duel people with lightsabers.

I had many a fun time killing a few hours in the evenings during college by signing on and kicking butt, and I made a few friends, one of the most memorable of whom was Vetter.  

Somehow, after all this time, he managed to find me on Facebook.  Technically he did it a few months ago, but I check Facebook so little I never saw his message.  Hopefully he'll get the chance to reply back, but I just had to post something somewhere about how amazingly random the world can be, and how awesome it is that he was able to find me based on a character name and an IM conversation from 10 years ago.

As a related aside, he had this very interesting process on his profile...

This coming week looks like it's going to be crazy.  Somehow, that always happens as we get into the late fall and winter months.  Everyone wants work.  It's a good thing, given how slow we've been, but still it can get a bit rough sometimes.

My week looks like this:

Monday - Single day trip to a client in upper NJ.  3 hour drive each way, and a full day onsite. Tuesday - Single day trip to a potential business partner in Columbus, OH.  Head out for flight at 5:00 AM, get back from flight around 8:00 PM, spend a full day onsite with them.  (Yay for direct flights!) Wednesday - Single day trip to a client in lower NJ.  1.5 hour drive each way, and a full day onsite. Thursday - HOME!  Just conference calls today, no travel. Friday - Single day trip to a client in lower NJ.  1.5 hour drive each way, and a full day onsite.

Needless to say, I think I'm going to be a bit tired come Wednesday night.  Still, it's good to be going in so many directions, and feeling like we're accomplishing things....

Read More »

Sarah and I have been watching the news coverage for the election for the past few hours.  As I'm sure almost everyone knows, at this point all the major networks have called it for Obama.  This doesn't surprise me much, based on the news coverage over the past few weeks I would have been shocked to see Obama lose, it seemed like he was in for a sweeping victory (which it looks like he has, based on the latest reports).

What I'm more interested in, however, is the Senate race.  If the Democrats are going to have the ability to implement sweeping reforms legally, they'll need to pick up 60 seats to completely prevent the Republicans from filibustering.  If they have less than that, while they still have majority, there is much more that Republicans (when united) can do to prevent certain changes from going in.  At this point, it's not looking like they'll pull it off, as the contested seats aren't all leaning to the Democratic side.  I find that disappointing, even through it was a long shot in the first...

Read More »

Well, it's been a long few months, and there's a lot to post about.  I suppose the biggest change deals with our house.  Sarah and I decided that with the market coming down, and the equity we gained in our townhome, it would be worth looking at a new place.  We searched for a little while, and found a small community that was being wrapped up by a fairly well known builder.  It was very close to our townhome, so it was perfect as far as location, neighborhood, and even schools!

We went into a contract with them, to get the home built, and that's when the problems started.  See, apparentely their approval process works differently when you're self-employed.  Therefore while it wouldn't have been a problem to get approved if I had a normal, salaried job; they wouldn't approve me with the same income when I was self-employed.  Thus began a lengthy process of fighting to get approval within a market that was becoming less and less willing to lend.

We're still in the process of sorting it all out, but...

Read More »

Yesterday was Sarah's Birthday!  Huzzah!  I had a good time, getting to see her for a little while during the middle of the day, which ended up being timed perfectly because the gifts I had ordered came at exactly that time, so I could watch her open them.  It was also a nice little break in the middle of the day, so I enjoyed that as well.

She did yell at me a bit though, because I bought her things when she said not to buy her things.  I'm convinced this is a trick though.  I learned my lesson long ago, there is no such thing as "Don't get me anything".  Plus, to be honest, I like getting presents, although I'm not very good at it.

We do have the party tomorrow.  I'm a bit nervous.  I don't want Sarah to have to do everything, but she's already done almost all of it while I'm at work, so I feel like I haven't contributed anything, but I don't know how else to help.  I guess I'll just have to get up and get my errands out of the way early, and keep an ear open for what I can do.  Hopefully that will be enough. 

...

Read More »