Well, my parents, grandma, and I managed to get my sister all moved into her dorm at IU today. Overall it went pretty smoothly. I did get lost trying to find the nearby Walmart where we planned to buy a dorm fridge... we eventually found it, but not after I drove ten miles out of the way into farm country. :) Anyway, my sister sounds excited to be starting her college life so I'm excited for her. :)

And now I must go to bed because I'm exhausted from the events of the day. 'nite.

Today's "big news" is that I have a date for Dave's wedding. :) Erin kindly agreed to accompany me to the reception. Should be fun. I haven't seen Erin in a while, but she's always cool to hang out with.

Tomorrow's "big news" is Lori's move to IU. She's gonna be a Hoosier! (eek) (j/k) I'm looking forward to seeing the IU campus, assuming we have time to explore after we get all her stuff moved into the dorm room. We also have to find a dorm-sized fridge somewhere; there's a Walmart and a Sears near campus so hopefully one of those will have some compact fridges in stock.

OK, time to wrap up what I'm doing here at the office so I can head home and get ready for the long drive tomorrow.

I spent much of this weekend helping my sister get ready for her big move to college life, either by shopping or helping her pack. :) I can tell she is getting excited about starting school, although I'm sure she'll miss us terribly. (hehe) Anyway, our church pastor and one of the minstry directors shared their good-luck wishes with her at mass today, which was nice.

On a sad note, I found out yesterday that a family friend's grandfather passed away due to complications from a recent stroke. :( He was the lolo of Violet who just got married last week. Makes for a very bittersweet month for that family.

I swear, I spend way too much time sitting around in airports waiting for delayed planes. Yes, my flight home was delayed again today. It was just a one-hour delay, but still a frustrating way to start off the weekend. Oh well. At least I won't have to get on a plane again till after Labor Day.

Oh yeah, I changed the name of my blog. Just had a burst of creativity (if you want to call it that) and decided to go with a more personal title that's somewhat of a play on words. Or whatever. :)

Heard thru the grapevine that my office laid off a bunch of people today (between 15 and 20). Bummer. I thought we'd be past that point but I guess the recovery is still slow in coming. If the list that I saw is accurate, then it seems that most of the affected folks have been on the bench for quite some time (as in several months) so, while unfortunate, perhaps the company just couldn't justify keeping them around if their skill sets are no longer in demand. :(

On a brighter note, I'll be joining Bob and perhaps another co-worker or two for dinner tonight, to "celebrate" Bob's roll-off from the MSFC project. Hopefully he'll end up on a bigger/better gig very soon!

I was a dork and forgot to send in my RSVP card for my pal David's wedding, which is due tomorrow. Oops. Fortunately I was able to get in touch with Dave via e-mail and let him know that I plan to attend but that my RSVP card will be a bit late. :) I am debating whether or not to ask someone to accompany me. Maybe I could ask Karen since she also knew Dave, plus I've successfully dragged her to a wedding before. heh.

On the news last night it was reported that Indiana U was rated the top party school this year. Sis isn't too pleased with that, or at least with the fact that everyone's teasing her about it now...

Well, better wrap up my current task at work so I can head out and grab some dinner before vegging at the hotel. :P

I'm in the midst of another busy but fun weekend. It started off kind of icky when my flight home from HSV got cancelled. Luckily I was able to be rebooked on a flight through Atlanta that got me home just a couple hours later than originally planned. Anyway, last night I attended the wedding of two of my good friends, Violet & Kelly. The bride and groom looked wonderful and happy, and the reception was nicely done. Well, except maybe for an over-eager DJ/emcee :)

Today I got a call from an old college pal, Mark E. I hadn't heard from him in a year or so, so it was somewhat of a surprise, but a pleasant one. :) Anyway he called to let me know that he's getting married in October, and he wanted to verify my home address so he could send an invitation. Coolio!

My buddy Brian also called, from a Circuit City, asking for advice on which laptop to buy. He had narrowed the choices down to two similar alternatives and I somewhat helped him decide on one. :)

OK, gotta go get ready for dinner... I'm meeting my sister, cousin, and some of our close friends for a "send off" dinner for sis and cousin before they head off to college for the fall. It'll be fun to have everyone together since we are all so busy these days.

First day back at work in HSV. I guess it went well enough. My teammates got me caught up on goings-on here. Also had a nice lunch with Bob and one of our managers, Steve. Then for dinner I was supposed to meet Bob at a local seafood place, but then he got a flat tire and had to attend to that instead. Bummer!

Went to a picnic today hosted by one of the Filipino service orgs that my parents belong to. The food was good, but it was kind of hot out. Still, not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Alas I have to resume my travels to HSV tomorrow. It was so nice being able to work here in Chicagoland the past five weeks. Well, my assignment in Alabama is only scheduled to last for six more weeks, then hopefully I'll get put on a local project. Of course it's just as likely that I'll get shipped off to some other far-off location for my next gig...

I've been forgetting to mention that I'm rather aghast at the scandal that has erupted within the figure skating community, around the judging of the pairs and dance events at the 2002 Olympics. Whatta mess! Makes me wonder if "fixes" were involved in other close decisions in recent skating comps...

I saw this news feature on the late news last night about a new vision correction procedure for nearsighted folks called CRT. It involves some contact lens-type implants that gradually correct a person's sight. It's not a surgery and it can be "undone" if it doesn't work out. How cool would that be? I'm thinking of this now because I'm wearing my contacts today and I feel like I have grains of sand in my eyes. And this morning my glasses kept going crooked on my face. Ugh!

I'm bringing my car in to the dealership for an oil change today. I love going there to check out the shiny new cars in the showroom. :) Maybe I can talk my dealer into a test drive of one of the new CR-Vs, if he's there today...

Hm, I haven't blogged in a while. Is it because I've been too busy or is my life just too boring to write about? :)

OK, I guess I've been busy. Let's see. Saturday I stopped by Collin's place for his daughter Brigid's baptism party, which was very nice. It was nice to see Collin and his wife again (it's been almost two years since we last got together) and Brigid is just adorable. Not to mention, Collin's house is gorgeous and the food was excellent!

I cooked dinner for myself on Sunday for the first time in months! :) I found a recipe for turkey cutlets in a lime-ginger butter sauce. But I couldn't find a small package of turkey cutlets so I used chicken breast instead. Turned out pretty good, I must say. And it was relatively easy to make, once I got past the peeling ginger part (I'm not so skilled at using a vegetable peeler).

Also on Sunday, I purchased a laptop PC for my sister to take to college (such a nice brother I am, hehe). We got a pretty decent deal from Circuit City including a $200 rebate. We chose an HP ZE1210 model, which has a 1.2GHz Athlon, 256MB RAM, 20GB hard drive, and combo DVD/CD-RW drive, plus the typical standard laptop features. Not high-end, but good enough to last her a few years hopefully.

And on Monday, I went for a workout. I am starting to get sore as I type this. I guess I need to do a better job of stretching.

Oops, I keep forgetting that I need to RSVP for the wedding of one of my long-time friends... it's taking place in Orlando so I'd have to fly there. I think I want to go though. Hopefully wherever I end up working then, I will be able to fly in for the wedding from easily.

Back to work...

Ho hum. The first few days back home from a vacation always seem so blah. :P I really need to clean up around my house; for instance, I haven't vacuumed the floors since my relatives stayed at my place a couple weeks ago. And my kitchen table is buried in junk mail again. Not to mention my miscellaney travel stuff laying around. Maybe I'll take care of that tonight since I have no Friday-night plans. I should probably go work out again too. I went to the gym on Wednesday for the first time in over two weeks. Yowchie, was I sore yesterday!

My bud Collin is having his brand-new baby girl baptized tomorrow. I hope to be able to at least attend the party after the baptism.

OK, back to work I go...