Bahamas

This is gonna be a long one.

For about 2 months now I have been planning for Kathy's Birthday/Xmas/Birthday('05)/Xmas('05)/Birthday('06)/Xmas('06) present. I kept it from her and told pretty much everyone I come into daily contact with. The gift was a weekend trip to the Bahamas. The flight was direct through AirTran and the Resort was cheap cuz it was opening weekend.

The presentation:
I made Kathy this scavenger hunt. It consisted of:
 a note in a bag on her front door
1. a note in a bag on her front door, leading to...
2. an internet clue game ()leading to...
3. a letter in her coat leading to...
4. a phone call to an unknown place and a request for a "k2 fatty" leading to...
5. her boots leading to a new e-mail account with a clue to the...
6. freezer, leading her upstairs to...
7. a book with an envelope. In the envelope was a piece of paper which said "We leave tomorrow", a second page which was our reservations and plane tickets on the third page.

Basically I am an F'ing Casenova.

It took her about 25 minutes to figure out that "heel" meant for a dog to follow. This was one of the clues and took probably the most time. Reading the reservation also took longer than expected. From what she said, I think she just couldn't believe what it was. She had been wanting (and bugging me) to go on a trip since before Alyssa and I split. We were going to go after graduation but Dougie Fresh ended up getting married and his bachelor party was in good ol' Vegas. So her and I never went.

So I teased her for about 2 months telling her it was gonna be the best thing ever blah blah blah. She said she never in a million years would have guessed what I got her. So thats a good thing. One of the best parts was watching her squirm knowing that the end was paradise...literally.

Anyway, she packed that night and we ate at Red Hot and Blue and went to bed...Stoked


The Trip:
We woke up at like 8 and got our stuff all in the car then it was off to Bal-Teasy's finest airport. We got a couple pictures from before hand.

Once we got there we noticed that some of the stuff on the island was a bit bootleg from the Hurricanes that pounded the island. We didn't mind. We were in the Bahamas.

The resort itself was great except for a few things:
1. The roof of the dining area wasn't totally done so there was hammering occasionally.
2. The extemities of the restort were not finished. So the manmade lake and some of the rooms were still not populated.
3. It was colder than expected (60's).

The Staff members of the place ruled. I wanted to be them. All they need to do is play volleyball and dance and drink and play bingo and windsurf. Damn what a sweet ass job that would have been.


Side:
I wondered if it would be possible for me to pay off my loans then just do that for awhile. Why would you ever stop doing that? It was so amazing. They had ZERO stress. It would NEVER CHANGE EITHER. It looked like a lot of fun. Reminded me of Dirty Dancing starring Patrick Swayze.


Activities:
Kathy and I went windsurfing, kayaking, snorkeling by the reef on the ocean, swimming, dancing (Salsa, Merengue, and at the Disco), long walks on the beach to find Conch's and Stingrays, took a bike ride to the Sheraton and Port Lucaya. By the way Kathy is AMAZING at Merengue. I have a video of it. She was great. We had an underwater Camera for the water sports but we haven't developed them yet. Soon.


Closing:
Long story short. The trip ruled, we are sad that it is over. It was awesome to see Kathy's reaction when she found out what I got her. That really made it worth it. That and going to the Bahamas made it worth it.

I REALLY want to be a staff member at one of these places. It was really cool. I would almost say ideal.


A picture or 2 or 3



 

Gavin Degraw Concert

I saw Gavin Degraw yesterday thanks to Kathy. It was at The 9:30 Club which is a pretty good place. Of course Gavin was great. It was a bit pricey considering all of his stuff comes from 1 album. But it was a good show.

One thing that bothered me was the people smoking. There were like these 3-4 people near us who were smoking it sucked. I thought this one girl (loser) was going to burn me or Kathy. I would have knocked her out. That would have been so inconsiderate.

Anyway...Great show.

Side note. Kathy and I are wearing the same thing today.  Maroon Shirt with Dark grey nice pants from Express. That sucks.

Latest update

Kathy's Birthday (11/21):
Good times, her sister came in. We went to IKEA. Kathy will get her present on December 18th. I can't wait. Its gonna rule.

Thanksgiving:
Thanksgiving was good. (Cousin)Rob came home. That is a really good thing. He seems to be doing MUCH better. The turkey was excellent. The food was great and the company was great. Overall a good time.

Money:
Flies out faster than it comes in. I thought I made good money. What I find is that with gas and rent and savings. Money goes OUT faster than it comes in. This is a bit upsetting considering I was in a somewhat similar situation financially last year. I have been working (for real) longer than I was a co-op, I make more money, yet, my credit card bills get higher and higher. That sucks.

Movin' Out:
Not an overly impressive show. It is based on Billy Joel's Music. The idea is that they play his music and they put a story to it. Sounds cool. The music was great but the Dissonance between the music the clothing and the dancing is enough to drive you crazy. It was REALLY good ballet put to Rock and Roll.

The best part about it. The girl who played Brenda from the Brenda and Eddie pair had the most solid stomach you would ever want to see on a girl who is 6'5" tall. It should be noted that her legs were about 80% of her body also. She was hot. A daim.

It is difficult because I look at the show and I think, "Ok this is different, there is good music, they are reaching over the boundaries of art so it is good, but I am so under-entertained that it hurts." I think to myself: "If this were a $40 I would be dissapointed. Too bad it was $80.

Disco Party:
Went to the worlds largest disco party. That ruled. I will have pictures soon. Rodericj.com is down so I got nothing there. But it was loads of fun.

New TV:
I got a new TV. It is a 27 Flat Tube. Its pretty tight. I got it at Black Friday. $180 after rebates. HOT. Fits perfectly into the Armoire.

Racquetball/Overall fitness:
I am getting my ass handed to me in RBall. The guys in the C league are WAY better than I expected. Oh well. Its aight. I am getting more and more in shape. This is a good thing. My arms are getting bigger and my stomach (should be ) getting smaller. Way to eat right too. Lots of veggies,not a lot of breads and pastas. Hot.

Crash Nitro Kart:
I got a new game with the best buy tickets from McDonalds and my CreditCard company. Its a fun game. I dig it. I got it last friday after work. Took forever to get to and out of the bestbuy on the rockville pike.

Baltimore:
Went to Baltimore Dollar Days. Everything was a dollar. I got to see Henry Williams (Cadets, Coats, RX, Tarheel Sun). It was cool. Hung out with Sean Lawler (Coats). It was really cool to see them. We went on the USS Constellation in the port. That was cool. Sean and I helped shoot a Cannon.

Speeding Ticket:
I have to go to NY for a speeding ticket. That is bullshit. It is 5 hours away. Damn.

Doug's Wedding

Here is a picture marquee of what happened this weekend.

scrollamount="2" scrolldelay="90"
onmouseover='this.stop()' onmouseout='this.start()'>



Went to Doug and Steph's Wedding




There was a nice Cake





Kathy and I tried to act like the cake





I went to High School with much of the wedding party





Todd blew bubbles all night





Bob and I danced like we were 15 again.



So it was pretty good. We all had a good time and I got to see my friends and Family.

Speaking of Friends and Family. I joined a clan on Socom II online. It rules. The guys are real patient with us and they don't mind taking us around and showing us the maps. I have been up late a few times this week playing. Which probably explains why I was late Tuesday morning by 2 hours (I was supposed to escort the Foreign nationals). DOH!

Plus now I am sick!

Hydrogen Cars near me

One thing that I dig about being where I am is that EVERYTHING happens here. I enjoy the concerts that are here even though I haven't attended. I like how in 1 month, M Manson, Howie Day and Green Day all play in the same spot. Its a small club also. Maybe 1000 people I hear. And I like how everything happens here first. My new favorite example is the new Shell Hydrogen Station which is like 15 miles away. That is good. I wonder what effect this will have on the environment.

SoCom II

PS2:
I was looking into getting a PS2 cuz I really like first person shooters. Socom 2 came out and it has a headset so you can talk using VoIP to the other players.

I looked on Ebay and I found people who were selling them used for more than a new one. Totally lame. So I went out to BestBuy and got me a shiny new thin PS2. It is seriously about the size of a dvd cover. Its pretty decent. Built in network card works like a charm.

So I got it and my sniper fantasy came true via life-like yet not actually living victims.

Headset:
The headset is great cuz you can talk to both the AI and the other users. It is TOTALLY SWEET. The AI I assume recognizes inflection and syllables(sp). Its really pretty cool. Cuz they talk back and stuff too. I love it.

You can also play with the guys online too. I can talk to them. They are all nasaly and kinda nerdy. I assume they are total tools. Its funny to hear them talk.

Ranking:
So they have this system where you can not play against someone who is a different rank than you. Or at least, there is the option that you can play only people of the same rank. I figure since I have never played that I should be an Ensign(sp)(worst type of player)(bottom 15%). Makes sense. However, these nerds I was playing with made it so that we were all on the same team. So we just killed each other. This is fine but it puts this unreal skew in some kill/death ratio which makes me a lieutenant. That sucks. Now I can not play in the room with ensigns only. So I will just get creamed constantly. Hate it.

The game was fun though. It is really fun to imagine yourself as a SEAL and move in under cover to get these guys. It rules.

Plan:
I have a plan with this game. I want to go through each of the levels of the scenario and MASTER them. So I will get like 100% stealth, accuracy, health and all that. This way I will be able to compete with the lieutenant and stuff. Sounds like a stock plan. But I have never executed a plan like this. I guess that is cuz no games have drawn me in like this one. We will see how it goes.

A Daim this game is sweet.

Mild Updates

Chineese Food:
Went to this chineese restaurant. I love going to restaurants like that. I love the atmosphere. I especially like the comments on Chineese women's hair and how it falls at the back of a ponytail. Fun.

They had sushi at this place. That was cool. The place is near Lake Forest Mall. The food was good.


Picture rearranging:
I spent alot of time rearranging my pictures in my gallery. Why? because there were some pictures in there that went way beyond questionable. And my new webpage references ALL of the pictures in my gallery, regardless of the permissions given to them. Which leads me to a hole in Gallery... Interesting.

So needless to say, I was working a little on my webpage at work. That was fun, I learned quite a bit about CSS and stuff...



Work related:
My task is odd. I wonder how much of the system I am learning with this module. I suspect maybe 5%(?). Total estimate:

My other task (my first DR) (blah). It was the one I wasn't able to test. As it turns out, it doesn't work(duh). That is frustrating.

I started the investigation yesterday. Met with my guy. He is an X-Cop. Wednesday I found out that Becky and Bryan *edit*(are done waiting). Great...Now I will be ALL ALONE for months and months. That got a bit depressing. I don't like the *edit*(waiting) process. It is quite weak if you ask me.

CNN is so Redundant

Keeping in mind that bush just won the presidential election by the smallest margin ever(*), does this sound funny to anyone else?

A post-election poll indicates most of those surveyed are hopeful the country will be drawn together during President Bush's second term. Just over half -- 51 percent -- said they were pleased with the outcome of the election...



Basically what just happened here was that CNN took a poll of voters for the most public poll of all time. They determined that 51% of people voted for Bush. I hope they didn't put too much money into that poll. I am pretty sure those results are BY DEFINITION (OR TRANSITIVITY) EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE ELECTION RESULTS.





Lost rules. Who the hell hit Sayid in the head?


(*)I think...It was 51%

Way to go Ohio.

I would like to look at it this way.

2004 marks the 228th year that US has been a Democratic-Repulic nation. I think that is a pretty good run. Maybe we can hold off the Mongolian barbarians until 2006 giving us the milestone 230 years.

But seriously folks...
It is REALLY difficult to find ANYTHING that he has done in the past 4 years.
So here is a list of things that he WILL do in the next 2-4 years. So all is not lost.

Thanks Wes

Thanks Ohio. You really messed things up. Way to not want Jobs.

Weekend with Amanda Bye

Apple Pickin:
We went apple pickin. It was cool. I ate an apple like seconds after I got it from the tree. That was tight.
See pictures here: Apples


Capoeira:
Capoeira is this Brazilian fighting style. If anyone remembers the game Street Fighter by Capcom, the guy who had the REALLY long arms and could punch from far away. That is a cartoon version of this fighting style. Or should I say, he uses Capoeira (pronounced "Cap p ate ah").

From here (http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/capoeirafighter - a cool game you can DL and play which features this type of fighting): Capoeira is a unique fighting style that mixes martial arts with song and dance.

Anyway, I got into this kinda fighting. Sorta. Well I went to one class and I liked it alot. It was really cool. It was like dancing. Only your dance partner, was trying to kick your ass (sorta). It was so great. My feet hurt now. We did it barefoot so I feel like my pads are raw.

Anyway. So it is VERY similar to break dancing. The first move you do is a "top rock" in BD and in C it is called "Jenga". Its REALLY similar. That is why I could do it. Not to say that I have TONS of experience in Break Dancing, but I do have an instructional video or 2.

Anyway, then you break off into kicks and cartwheels which you need to block if you are getting them at you. This goes on for quite a bit until a new person comes in from the mouth of the dance circle. I don't have all the terms down so any Brazilians will have to forgive me.

So I would like to do this again. They are starting a Capoeira "Center" or whatever south of DC(far). I would consider obtaining a membership.

side note about the music. The Zoom Zoom song of Mazda is a very common song to play with from what I have found out.

LOST:
Kathy and I are up to episode 6 of lost. Its good.

Desperate Housewives:
Eva Langoria...

Jesse's Computer:
Jesse hinted at me buying his computer. I hinted at buying his bike AND his computer.

I hinted on JUST the bike. He didn't hint anything back.

This week:
I see a personal trainer to build my size. WAHOO..

Kathy's day

Damnit Kathy. But congrats.

Election.
So we are within like 6 days of the election. I still don't know who to vote for.

HA HA HA HA HA. yeah right. Its so obvious. It seems that there is a large portion of the country that is pretty thrilled though to vote for the "other guy". I don't understand that. Its odd. Both candidates suck. But one sucks WAY less than the other. With what I feel is proven experience doing [better] stuff.

Anyway. A ton has happened since last post. Including...

Pumps.
...a pumpkin carving contest betwix Kathy and I. You can see the process at the following link.

http://rodericj.com/gallery/pumpkins04

Or just the end results here.

http://rodericj.com/gallery/pumpkins04/IMG_4117

I think the Headless horseman rules at the right angle. There is detail in that mane and cape.

But so far Kathy is winning. Vote for your favorite with the voting tabs under the pictures.

What else.

Sports.
Saw Monday night football with Adrian Urias at Strike Bethesda. That was cool. Except I forgot to pay. And I overate. But it was good. Also, Broncos lost.

Gym.
I joined a Gym. They are all expensive. This was not AS expensive as some and it is cool cuz it isn't crowded as all get out. The people that are there though are pretty cool. I am going to join the Raquetball leage as well as the scuba diving class. I am into that. I could change my icon for that.

Investigator.
My investigator FINALLY got in touch with me. He will be contacting(and already has) some of my friends. Thats cool. At least the ball is rolling.

Damnit Kathy.

Project.
I gotta work more on this. I have been working on the math library for MONTHS. I hate it. I just wanna get done. Problem after problem keeps coming up. Including I don't work on it enough. Damnit.

Time wasting.

Here is what I have been doing *edit*.

My Updated Homepage
Monster Builder, Brain Baseball(not really), Cat Fight
Went to a CHAP (College Hire Acceleration Program) meeting in Hanover MD.

Ryan came in yesterday and told me about some stuff I can do. That is fun.

Does anyone know how to import an RSS into a webpage? Id like to import this to my website. And you may have noticed that I used the CSS from my LJ also. Sweet.

I'm 24 now

Parents:
Hung out with my parents all weekend. They stayed at one of the dozen hotels near my place. It was cool. It was hella cheap and it was a Comfort Suite or something so they had some gigantic room. If anyone wants to visit this is where you will stay(or at my place). We had breakfast there Saturday and Sunday cuz it was a free buffet. I liked it.

We ended up going to DC and we saw the WWII memorial as well as the International Spy Museum. That was fun.

Then we took the ole Metro to Rock Bottom in Bethesda. It ruled. I suggest the Titan Toothpicks.

I had my birthday yesterday:
It ruled. It started out with a bang. I was showered with gifts and stuff starting at midnight and ending at 11:30PM. It was great.

I got the new Jon Stewart/Daily Show book about America.

Updated Desktop Image from way back:
Here

Last but not least. I won my second game of Fantasy Football!!! WAHOOO..Go Stagnant Unit

Queens and ChinaTown

New Kitties:
Went to NYC this weekend. That ruled. Got to see Jesse and Bob and the new Kitties.



They were cool. I just wish that their friend took care of the cats better. She let one of them out at like 4 in the morning and we got a knock on the door at 6. He wanted to give the cat back. She sucks.

Kathy and I went to Central Park. We were late for the dinner.

ChinaTown and Crazy Ass Food:
The food was tight. I had some jelly fish, I had some sea cucumbers, Shark Fin soup, I had some Abalone. It was crazy. I liked it.

We then went to her uncle's place in Long Island. The house was tight. I dug it.

We went to China town the next day. That ruled. Her Grampa's place was pretty much in the best place ever. You could see the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and the Empire Statebuilding. On the other side you could see where the Twin Towers were too. That was cool.

We went to a restaurant in China Town were we had some more normal stuff but it was cool still.
Then we got beef jerky and it was the best I have ever had. GREAT.

Tons of Asians everywere in ChinaTown. Didn't see that.

Fun at Work:
At work we had so much fun today. I had some carrots that got dried. They got dry at the end of the day. And they looked like fingers. Becky and I tried to fool Kathy into thinking my finger fell off. We were laughing at eachother. It was so funny.

Cool Ass Plugins:
The plugins of Mozilla are so fricken awesome. I got the
gestures one. There are some rediculous combos you can do. Like I totally love how you can open up ANY number of links. I opened like 50 at a time off of cnn. It ruled. Plus it keeps a dragging trail. It ruled. And the preview pane one rules too. Its so cool cuz it finds a preview from alexia. It looks tight. I suggest seeing the screenshot on that one. Oh man. I love them all.

editcss also

Too long a post.

I want to play

Just had a meeting with Monica McManus and Peter Cuviello. She is the Deputy VP of Geospatial Systems. He is the VP and Managing Director for Focused Logistics Enterprises at LMCO. That was pretty cool. It was a bunch of new hires who were there for "career planning" and stuff. It was pretty cool.

Monica: I liked what she had to say. She discussed her route to the top and how she got there and how she felt on the way up. I thought it was pretty informative. I dug it.

Peter: He was from the Army. He was more laid back than I though the would have been. I thought he contradicted her in many ways. But he was an impressive individual.

They gave me some pointers as to what to do in order to move up. I think I can do it. Seems like common sense to me.

I am supposed to hang out with Henry, Courtney and Derek all at the same time. They do not know eachother. I think it will be a bit odd getting this to work. If Henry doesn't call, I can play Derek off as a friend I brought to Courtney's Happy hour. We will see how it goes. I think I am going to Capital Hill for that.

Home and work

This weekend:
Got to go home. It was my first time back since I moved. I guess it will always be my first time back so that adjective was pointless. So was that sentence. So was the first sentence if it read "It was my time back since I moved".

Anyway. Saw my 2 sisters which was cool. Saw my parents which ruled. Saw both sets of Grandparents and it ruled. My gramma got a Sport 2002(I think) Camry LE with a spoiler. It is red. Like her passion for speed.

Dave put in a patio for us. That rules. There is a fountain and rocks and its really really nice.





The fam was great. It was so nice to see all of them. I wish everyone wasn't so busy though.

I saw Alyssa and Cory. That ruled. We went to play laser tag then we went to a bar called the Thirsty Turtle. It was cool. Then we went to Wegmans and drove the electric cars around in the store. I was laughing so hard till the loser stock boy yelled at me and made sure I had 3 id's to buy the beer. How lame. Get a life. I wasn't hurting anyone.

Anyway, we all had fun. The trip ruled.

Haircut:
Monday Kathy gave me a haircut. I was a bit nervous about it but I was told that I wasn't going to be able to find a haircut place for less than $20. That sucks!
I think it came out good. I wouldn't normally rush into a risky thing such as a girl cutting my hair like that but I had to get my license. See below.

Got my license:
I got my Maryland license today.

Doing real work RIGHT NOW:
As I am writing this I am doing real work. Ryan and I are fixing some stuff up from the Formal Inspection we had today. I thought that was fun. And by fun I mean boring. Formal inspections are normally boring but I didn't hate it. I like learning about our processes and our system. Its fun.

So Ryan had me working on some threading stuff. There is this thing that is like a deconstructor in java but its different. No details needed here. That would be lame.

Now I am doing Javadocs.

Then it is off to IKEA to get new shelves.
Then maybe I will grab a beer with Luis Calderon from roommates.com. Good guy.

I hate long posts also!!

Varekai

Kathy and I saw Cirque du Soleil's Varekai last night. It was good. I really enjoyed it. We got the tickets earlier this week and we found out Rick and Kurt(roommates) were also going that night. That was cool. They got their tickets MONTHS in advance.

The aerobics they were doing blew me away. They had this swings like a swingset kinda and they made them go ALL the way around. I didn't think that was possible. So that was cool. They would just jump off those things and go flying into some homemade cloth net. It ruled. I dig shows like that. It makes me want to g o back to Vegas. I REALLY wanted to see O when we were there. Oh well. I guess I will have to go back. Side Note: There were a lot of flexible asians there. For those links above, I would suggest looking at the videos

It made me think of some indoor shows I would love to write. Speaking of which. I got call from a friend in Newport News, VA. He wants me to teach one of his lines down there. That would be cool. I am sure I could help out quite a bit. That would rule. He says the kids are MAD good. They just need to be cleaner. So that is cool.

So I put up some shelves and whiteboards at the house. They rule. The white board isn't really white. It is glass. It looks cool as hell. I also got these(this) shel(ves)(f). The idea is like this glass motif in my room. It will be cool.

Networking news. I used the shelf I got at Ikea(College Park, MD) to clean up the clutter in the room. I also put the WAP54G that I got last week up there. I can connect my computers to that with a switch or something. So the AP acts as a wireless repeater as well as a wired/wireless access point. So the house network is SWEET!

The computer I got from Amanda(Kathy's friend) is now a fully functional Gentoo system. That makes 3. I named it CJ. After my car. Who is also named CJ. I named it that for 2 reasons: 1) It is a short name. 2) It is going in the car.

Next step is to get hibernate to work as well as KDE. (e.g. My old desktops)

I am going home today for the weekend. I will visit my Sisters and Parents. It will be a good time. Its how I will start up the frequent flyer miles on AirTran. Its gonna rule.

Work news: Ryan gave me a task. I tried doing it but I couldn't really do much cuz I didn't have an account on the ITL systems. So Kathy and I worked on it for a bit. Then she finished it.

The day she finished I got my ITL accounts up and running.
Imma gonna play with the system some today.

I hate long posts.

Reverse Chronologically described dates starting at Kings Dominion

Kings dominion RULES! I couldn't believe how fun it was. Except for the lines
My top 3 roller coasters reside there.

Volcano: RULED. There were flames and fire and upside down and just as you thought you were at top speed you hit another acceleration part and you are flyin out of the mouth of the volcano. The flames made a circle of black smoke when they shot out. It was cool. GREAT!

Flight of Fear: RULED. totally dark and loopy inside. We had absolutely 0 idea what to expect. The best part was the picture of us during the ride. I looked totally shocked and Kathy was screamin! GREAT!

and
Hypersonic XLC: Ruled. 0-80 in 1.8 seconds. For those that don't know, that is UNREAL! Plus it is the only rollercoaster I have ever seen that goes completely vertical for an non-trivial length of time. GREAT!

So those are 1,2,3 in no particular order.

Networking:
The house is finally networked. Its a really confusing setup. We have a router attached to the cable modem with 2 PC's and a wireless AP. Then there is another wireless AP which acts as a repeater. Its kinda dumb. Attached to that network is Kurt and Mine's computers. At no point do we use the slickly wired networking capability of the house. Damnit! Thats the dumb part. Rick doesn't have a connection in his office of all places. Odd.

Justin is starting to smell.

I got the computer from Kathy's friend Amanda last weekend. I have installed Gentoo. I have called it 'CJ'. Named after the Civic. I am in the process of getting KDE installed. But now my network connection is down. I wonder if that is a Lockheed or Comcast thing. So the install is stalled.

I talked to the guy at the stereo shop on Friday about the mp3car. He LOVED it. He told like 3 or 4 people while I was there and they were all brainstorming about it. It was great. I don't think I will do business with them though. It was WAY too expensive. Talking like 4x what I would spend if I installed it myself. Kinda dumb.

Kathy is saying that we can continue on our task.
By the way, Ryan gave Kathy and I a task last week. It gets us into the system. That is cool. Its kind of a boring task though. And I don't think we have the exposure to be able to complete it.

First day

Today I started work. That was boring. It was basically just orientation so it sucked.

Kathy doesn't even care about me.

The drive sucked in the morning. It was so early.

Rick yelled at me the other day. Shannon Stegal came over and he said some things that I thought he could have said better. I was a bit bothered by that. He just kinda snaped when I had my shoes on and when I was in his office. That sucked. Shannon said some things that bothered me too. I didn't like that.

I have a question? Why would anyone vote for Bush? Isn't he just a Tyrant? Who the hell invades countries without any reason. Oh yeah, Iraq and US and Hitler.

Oops. I said it.

Anyway. Work should be fun tomorrow.
Also, my cousin Mke is visiting this week with Lexy Levy. And Wes is visiting in October(right?).

I really don't have anything to say. Kathy and I are watching "The Cutting Edge". Its a movie about ice skaters. Enough said.

1 month of updates(thats why it is long)

Its been quite awhile since I posted.

Vegas:
Rules...I had such a good time that it hurts. I wish I could post all of the stories here but I feel like that is not the best idea.
I lost prolly $250 or so in gambling. Not too bad. Ran into some great people down there. The LIMO driver was AWESOME. I fell in love with Silicon. Its been a month since I have been there(so it seems). I learned how to play "Let it ride". Worth it. I almost won $380 at Roulette(almost...ha). Drank constantly. Prolly put back like 25 LITs.

p.s. When I got back, my "lump sum" was waiting in the front door. ROCK.
Project:
Once Kaminsky and I FINALLY got together, things ruled. I got quite a bit done in my last week in Rochester. Got through Division, montgomery multiplication and most of montgomery exponentiation. ROCK. Too bad I am gone now.

Move:
Of course I moved to Maryland since my last post. We decided to go with a moving truck that Dave Remington was able to get through work. It cost like $200 less than uhaul.

The drive down was longer than usual. Took like 7 hours. Maybe its cuz I got a speeding ticket and we stopped quite a few times for the truck.

Christie and Dave's reactions to my place were priceless.

Since the move:
Rick and I have talked a few times and he is just a really cool guy. I don't see Curt all that much but he is really friendly so far. They are both really nice. I think I am doing OK with the cleaning thing. I clean up after myself thats cool. I think it is much easier when you start off clean. Thats why I am trying to keep the room nice.

Justin(dog) is pretty cool. He has a real cool personality. Or at least he did until I kicked him in the dark last night. Oops.

Kathy said I was doing something in my sleep. She said it was gross. Gross.

My dad overnighted my paperwork to me. That put him back like $20. Now I gotta send a check. Daim.

My internet doesn't really work. The house is wired but I can't figure out how to activate. That is pissing me off. Thus...no server. No rodericj.com Daim. That hurts. Also. I feel like I fucked up Ricks computer. Dame

The stores are SICK ASS CLOSE TO ME!!!! Its like a 1 minute walk to a tight ass plaza. I gotta get stamps.

I am sure there is something else of really high importance that I wanted to post. I don't remember.

Oh well it will come to me.




I hope I don't suck at work.

Class time!

I am in class right now. Its aight. This is the last half of the last day. We just got back from break and now we are gonna cover the last 2 chapters in Corba by Orbix.

Good times.

The secondary purpose of this trip to Maryland was to find a place to live. I have done some exploring:

1) Mike lives in a place in Germantown. It was a decent place. It was only $600(maybe $500) which isn't so bad. But the place was in the basement and the washing machine is right at the foot of my bed. So everyone will be doing laundry when I am there. Sucks. Ryan and I went to the 7-11 and it was not our culture.

2) After class saw Chris' place. That was decent. Small, but decent. I would only get 1 bedroom. The livingroom was a pretty good size. Kitchen was nice. Molding on the ceiling was hot. There was a speaker system that went through the house. He didn't know how to use it. Chris was a mad cool guy. He was funny and I think we had a lot in common.

The place was mad close to work to. It rivals the distance from Kathy's to work. I could get there in 2 lights. Way cool. This could be the place I am living for awhile.

3)Holy cripes. I went to see that place in Clarksville after the class monday. It was unbelievable. Huge. He had a turntable setup and the TV was huge and the pool and the sauna and the this and that were fantastic. The guy was 24 years old. What I found not cool was that he asked for my credit card numbers and expiration dates and approximate balance and drivers license and social security card and blah blah blah. Totally setup for identity theft.

SUCKS.

4) Met Louis Calderon. He was a nurse at the Navy Hospital. Really cool guy. I dug the really nice apartment too(small). We really hit it off and I know he would have some really cool places to show me. The problem. It was $900 for a pretty small room. Daim. The location was PRIME too. ADaim. Gotta call him and tell him no.

5) Then we saw this place near the first place. No Bueno. It was kinda urban. It was a lower income housing area. It was small. I didn't think the landlord was totally nice either. But I am sure he has been burned before. Gotta call him and tell him no.

6) Going to see 1 more place. It seems like it could be hella decent. I will get some pictures today cuz I am gonna see it after this class. The lady seems nice. It was like:

Me: "What is the situation?"
Her: "Well it is a 3 bdrm. Place and it is nice".
Me:"So who is living there?",
Her: "Oh it is just me and my girlfriend.".
Me: "HOT"

My head:Her: "Lets all do it together!"
My head:Me: "Sweet"




Thats about it.
I wanna live at the LARGE HOUSE!


Bah...

Apartment hunting update

So I wanted to keep it cool with the Roommates.com and not get a paid account.

I purchased a paid account though cuz it was a pain to get messages and not be able to read them. That said...We have a new frontrunner.





I don't feel that the pictures describe this place.

Here is the conversation we had:


Him: I'm a 24y.o.laid back professional male, that loves to have fun when there is time in my schedule, with a room to rent . It has a 6 person sauna,jacuzzi,and heated inground pool.(and I'm throwing a pool party this weekend if interested) It's
6,000 sq ft and has 5 bed/ baths. Three bedrooms have a private full bathroom inside the room. There is a pool table in the basement and a 65" tv in the living room. This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to live in a extravagent estate for $900 a month !!! please contact me here or at blah@msn.com.I look forward to talking to you in the future.

Me: There has to be a catch. I will get him on this one
How many other people are living in this 5 bedroom place? You are living there? What about the other 3 rooms(assuming I end up there)?

I would love to check this place out. How far are you from Gaithersburg? How long is the drive? That is where I am working.

Anyway, I will be in town Sunday-Thursday. Let me know when I could check the place out.

Him: Just me and my cousin live there....I work 16 hr days so the house was pretty much empty 80% of the day so i decided to rent a room out. The house is probably 25min from gaithersburg, and i would probably be able to show the house on Sun....



End of conversation.


Me:aDaim

It was a good day.

Notice the walkway that the guy made to connect the 2 wings of the house.
House...My house has 2 wings. Its huge. Shit.

Semi's baby

Its semifinals day baby.


WAHOOOO..

In honor of my GlassBabies.



Coaties are up there at 6 for the first time ever. They are about to be the best drumline Bluecoats have ever had.

A bit low for my expectations for Madison. Fingers crossed for my G today.
I am not interested in Cavaliers.

And Vanguard is going to win drums. YAAAAYYYYY...


DCI

Scooters and more

My aunt came over with some scooters. It was tight. Click the picture to see the album. I would love to ride one of these to work. Man...save the earth and stuff.



That was cool.

Went back to the cottage. Found this sweet alternative to rattlesnake gulch. We called it mushroom gulch cuz of the mushrooms we saw. It rained quite a bit there. That sucked, but what can ya do.





Click the picture for more.



We also saw those sculptures of the wizards that are street lamps. They rule.




Kathy was in for the weekend and it was good. Hangin.

Project on hold for the weekend. Doesn't matter. Kaminsky is on vacation.

I think next week I am traveling to Maryland again. This time for a class. Orbix. Fun.

Thats all. I am off to popularity.

This weekend

WineTour central. I drank alot, I don't remember some of those pictures. It was at that place where we sampled 11 wines. I told the guy something about "big tips" and that took care of me.

Currently we are in the process of figuring out if I payed. Oops..

Here is a shot.


We also went to the cottage. Cory and Derek and Kathy were there, had some sick sick shots taken there. I also kicked my door and now the nail is split all the way down.That hurt.



That was a cool shot. For some reason, Cory was able to make the pictures look like they had been doctored. It was really crazy. We dig it though.

My project is going better. I was able to get division working. I think I had worked on that (on and off) for about a week. Finally it worked. I have no idea what I changed in order to get that happening. Crazy.

So I am off to school again today. Kaminsky is leaving for vacation. A-Daim.




By the daim. Those are clickable pictures.

Things I have done

I went to the cottage. It was great. Skiing and stuff.
"http://rodericj.com/albums/Honeoye1/IMG_2310.sized.jpg">

Other than that I have been at school.

So for anyone who cares. My life is pretty lame.




However, I did go to Lola last night. Met up with Illir and Derrek(sp?). That was tight. We had a good time. Saw Taylor and it was cool. He asked me to play poker with he and some friends(sounds shady). Then we met up with Emily(the girl who I thought was a jerk and Cory thought was flirting), as well as her friend Jessica(I think(The girl who looks like that sound)).

Lynn showed up. It was fun.


The guy to girl ratio:
5:1


You don't get odds like that at RIT.

For wes

I went to Maryland. It was great. All the things were awesome. I had a really good time and I really liked the area.
I have new pictures.

www.rodericj.com/gallery

Including the ever famous volcano



I saw 2 potential apartments. I liked Audrik's the best. She was nice.

Its late. I am tired.

The day has arrived

Really fast post.

I have a gmail account. I am roderic at the gmail server.com
gmail is me. This is the best day ever.

Try e-mailing me. Unless you are junk mail.

Project is slow...but forward

    It has been a long time.

The update is as follows. I have been working the project for the past few weeks(sorta). I feel like I was not doing all that much though. I feel like I was kinda waiting for the proposal to pass (Kaminsky has accepted it as of last friday).

I started implementing. Then as soon as I got anywhere I went camping. So that was fun. I made some progress. Not enough to be awesome..but some.

I contacted a guy about being a part of his sourceforge project. I think itll be decent. I will be a Java Developer. I wanna do that just to keep my mind fresh and open. I think it will help me. He wants to see some "Demo work" so I gotta set up eclipse and cvs stuff. Twill be fun.

ShadeMastah just called me. Man...Kinda gives me an erie feeling. She feels really aloof and stuff. She is like "So whats new <hit mute button>....<unmute> Sounds great. Ill see you later"

Really weird I think.



Today I got my golf discs. I used them. It was cool.


Nice Face. I look like I just spazed out.

I went camping this weekend. Too much food. But it was only like $30 a person. It was tight.

I got a new desk last week. That was cool.

I presented my project for seminar this week. That was cool. So I was never on probation...If that makes sense.

I am going to DC in like 12 days. Thats cool.

For some reason this plugin for Mozilla just F'ed up. I don't know if I just lost all of this data or what.... I am going to stop typing now.     

meh.

My gramma has 2 lumps in her lungs. One in each.
Daim.


Journal.

sundaymonday
Too far back to remember. It was prolly just dick around on the computer and not get enough done on my project. FUCK.

Tuesday
Kathy came over. It was great. We had a good time. Rollerbalded for ever and got a hot tan.

Went to Buffalo Wild Weiners.
It was cool. Saw Nikki. She is a fucking joke. She had an interview at NASA and her response to "Why are you the best candidate?" was:

"I don't have a 3.5, I have never done what you are talking about"
She wonders why they didn't call her back. What a fuckup.

Saw shrek 2. It was the best movie ever. Maybe not the best. Well, it was good anyway.


That cat destroyed me. He is so cute. Looks like my kitty....

Whom I miss immensly.


Anyway. This cat was so cute. I felt like a chick watching it cuz he was so adorable and I just wanted to give em a hug. So cute. Look at those eyes.


wednesday
Kathy left.



thursday

Rollerbladed with bob.

Went sailing.  It was cool.

Had some cats over for a going away party for Cory. It was tight. Couple bottles of wine. Couple 2 tree sausages per head. Cory, JC, Alyssa and I. Watchin some Bball. Illing central.

Friday
On my way to Binghamton. Wedding tomorrow. Tons of pictures I am sure.



I think this is pretty sweet.

Project Sucks and more

So the past few days. I have been busy.
Saturday
Bladed real early with Bob. Tried to get a head start on the day. Ended up getting a real late start. Did some things. Went to Dino wiht my mom. Now I will be in the Democrat and Chronicle tomorrow. Keep your eyes peeled. I got interviewed. You know the link is going in the next submission. Picture and all.

Tomorrow I work on the paper?!?!? Maybe I will just be up real late doing it. Then maybe sleep in so I can not waste the morning like I always do. Gotta cut the lawn. F   Efff

Friday
Krispy Me nuts
and it was good.
Cory got an apartment. That was cool. Had a good time. He has dry itchy liver.

Peter was fabulous. I wish I could see him more often. He is a real straight shooter and he is real funny.

Rome sucks though.



Poker kicks my ass. I played a bit with the boys(JC, Bob, Jesse, Ben).
It ruled. I figured out a lot that night and won all the money. It was a real hot deal. Learned alot.

Thursday
Went to Lola. Saw our friend Kristina or whatever. She was the girl with the hood thing. Georgeous and real artsy. She was cool then. Not thursday. What a bitch she was to us.

Alyssa and Bronykins showed up. They were great. We practiced winking at eachother. Cory said Alyssa and I have our own language. We werent really talking. We were flailing near eachother. It was funny. La la lagin.

Drinks were expensive: Remember this one though. 2 shots of Grey Goose, splash of sprite, 3 limes. Do it.

Donielle mentioned a threesome I think. Crazy.
"One in the mouth one in the back."
             -Donielle (woah)

 
Wednesday
Don't remember.

Tuesday
Tuesday night kicked ass. Went to BWW. Awesome. Had the usual Captain morgan and sweet bbq. Great.

Best lyrics ever:
"You say tomato. I say Toe Mat oe. What the hell."
-Alyssa

Almost died laughing.

Then Cory and Her and I went to Lilac Festival park(forget the name). It was great. Chilled at the reservoir, hung out on the bench and enjoyed the view. It ruled.



One random day:
Got the dick of an e-mail from kaminsky. here is the jist of it.

You will not ever graduate cuz you are retarded.
Daim...Dame...

I quote from him (keep in mind that I start work september 13th.

"There is no way you will be able to finish this project and defend it in the
third week of August.

In the first place, a master's project (at least when I am the chair) is not
like a class assignment which you just do on your own and turn in when you
are done. I insist on keeping track of your work and on directing changes in
your work if I'm not satisfied with what you've done. This takes time on my
part to study your work on a regular basis. During the school year I would do
this in a weekly meeting with you. However, my time for this sort of thing is
limited during the summer. This either will slow down your progress or will
put you at risk of needing to do substantial rework when I am able to review
your progress.

Secondly, I am going to be out of town the first three weeks in August, and so
is H-P. Even if you were completely finished with everything in early August
-- which I think is unlikely -- there still needs to be a period of 3-4 weeks
after H-P and I return from vacation for the committee to read your report
and request revisions, for you to make the revisions, and for the defense to
be announced 10 days in advance of the defense date. Furthermore, the fall
quarter is starting up then, and we professors will be distracted with course
preparation."

And the clincher.
"Your defense is highly unlikely to happen before the end of September or early
October."

Oh yeah. Sounds hot to me.

I am aggravated.

Good news is that I got "Deepest Sender" and its decent. Only problem is I don' tsee how to change my icon.

Found it.

Fixed some new things on the computer

Yess....

NFS works...Hence the new avatar.
Went to see Dougie fresh today. We all played a few games of poker to see where we stand. We all suck at it. We lost our wheat thins to everyone. That was our currency. No one had any idea what was going on. But it was so funny.

Cory is back. Thats cool.

NFS WORKS!!!!

Lucy Liu is still my favorite.



We bought and built our new grill today. Its hot. Literally. I love the thing. We had some great chicken and veggies and beans on the side griller

Alyssa was supposed to join us. Apparently her phone service sucks. I called her like .5 dozen times and she never called me back till like 10. Sucks. She was supposed to join us on this...Memorial day.

Oh well. Todays picture is of the Sentinel...WTF mates?


Toak amungst yaselves.

Lucy Liu is so Hot.

While nobody else may think it is important. I fixed some things today. I got my Linux side of my desktop a bit more the way I like it. I came up with this toight little scheme which will "randomly" come up with a new color for my terminals. I dig it quite a bit. The colors blend real nice with the hot new Lucy Liu Background(s) I have.



Good times.

I worked for awhile on my proposal. It is the first shot I took at it. I think I made some decent headway. I wanted to work on the schedule stuff then I got distracted by aterm which is fine, cuz I like making my stuff look better.
I got a nice little tan today. I am a little pink piggy. Only in the front. My back is pretty white still. The front looks decent. It even makes me not look so fat.
You know how it is with these hips.

So the picture today comes from my desktop. I dig. It shows my autocolor terms and my baby's mama Lucy Liu

Cats...

I don't know that I have ever laughed so hard before.
I ask that you pay attention to the music. Try to sing along. Turn it up...


gatos

Acme sucks

I said I was having it Greek Style.

I did.

Alyssa and I went to Makeko's (spelling correction later), and it was awesome. The food was tight, Greek people were attractive, Alyssa and I were silly like we were back in the day. It was overall, really fun. Silly fun.

We left that place with a big tip and walked out on a high note. We decided we would watch a movie at her place and just continue the laughs(Sweet).

She says "Lets check out Acme, I would love to see what its like".
We drove by and it was as bootleg as it gets. We walk in and I was like "Woah...what the fuck is this." (Sausage and meathead central).
I fuckin hated it but we gave it a shot. I got 2 overpriced drinks and I was like "Gotta get out of here, drink fast". She was like "But I like the guy on the end who looks like he couldn't hold a job to save his life". So we stuck around for like an hour and waited for neither to say anything.

FINALLY, we leave and she is like "I'm le tired. No movie!".

I took her home and it was like 10:45 and I was left out on a friday night to do jack shit.


I came home. I felt alone.

Damn Cory and his camping trips.


Random pic:

See if you can find me in here...

I give you this hint: I am not playing.

Pimps

BAAA HAAA HAAA HAAA...Get a real car.

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/pimpflip.wmv


I think this is funny.
I am going to get it Greek style tonight.

By that I mean I am going to a greek restaurant to eat Greek food. AND NOTHING ELSE.

Random Update

Ha ha.

Last night was Lolas. Chillin with Bronie-kins, Alyssa J, Core Bizzle and Taylor and some ladies who were interested in talking about themselves.

We had a great time, and Cory really got in touch with his old self(in more ways than one).

Yesterday I dicked around on the computer for awhile. Got some things working that I hadn't had working in quite some time. This was a good thing. I enjoyed the way it looks now. Thanks to Core-bizzle.

I played a hot game of ultimate frisbee. That was pretty sweet. Some crazy cats that were friends with Ben. It was cool. Then we played capture the flag. Bob won. But I had some sick covert ops happenin. I was under the bush. Charlie was all around me. They had no idea where I was. I kicked ass. Bob got the flag.

Then Lolas(see above)


Random picture of the day:


He is a real good friend of mine from Seattle. I call him Blue-e

Gallery Werks

YESSSS...

After hours and hours of slaving over a hot stove for this damn computer. I finally got my gallery back up.

Gentoo...love it to death. I just wish I didn't have so much power. It destroyed my week. I hate how I don't know how to follow directions.

Anyway.


Gallery at last

Past couple a days:

I graduated(holla).
PreProposal got signed(yay).
I got a new camera. Yeah...Gallery is gonna be stacked.
I said goodbye to Kathy :(
I got a new RIT sweatshirt and "raincoat".




Graduation:
Finally. It took so damn long. I can't believe it is finally done. I wanted to totally stop at like 45 different points. I am glad I didn't. However, there are still some obstacles. IE GPA and project. I did get my preproposal signed. That is a good thing. Next step. Proposal. I wonder if that will suck.

Camera:
Yeah its hella tight. I really like it. I have taken some really really good pictures too. Pretty soon I will get Gallery up again. Stupid Linux users.

Kathy:
Sucks. 3 weeks with no China Doll. Dame. I wonder how this will effect productivity. intriguing

Sweatshirt:
Hoody and a rubbery. Thats about it.






God Damn Cory for him and his Texas comparisons.
For anyone who didn't know. That was supposed to be me going.

You son of a bitch!

Ebuh wonnuh what dissah all about? -big Boi

Well...After such a sad first message. I think I should give a good introduction.

So the whole point of this live journal is to just jot down some of my thoughts as to what is going on with everything. I wanted to start it off right around when graduation hits.

FYI..At the time of this writing. Graduation is 2 days 13 hours and 37 minutes away.

So the cat passed away and I needed to say how I felt. This was a good outlet. So far this thing is going really well. I want to use this as an expression of how I am feeling for what is one of the largest changes of my life. So more intros follow.

Its Thursday at 1AM. I am in the labs finishing up 2 grad papers due this week. They are the last work I will do as a student for quite awhile(barring the Grad project). I start working in September(which is crazy) and with that comes a whole new life in Maryland. Dame.

I expect much to be changing in the next few months and I really wanted to jot down some notes. When I went to Cali I kept a digital journal and it reminds me of all the things that happened out there. Maybe that is why I wanna get there so bad. Everyone knows Cali is the crazy place I gotta be at. Its the best.

I saw nikki today. It was crazy. She was a total joke. She told me she had sex so many times with her XBoy AFTER they broke up that she got an infection. Um...what the hell? Too much information for me. I didn't ask. But she thought it would be a good idea to tell me 3 times.

She said that she was so upset that she had 8 papers to write by tomorrow, yet she still went out all the time and for some reason was wearing the same clothes she had on the day before, even though she lives literally, a stones throw away (We were in crossroads and she lives at UC NEXT to Xroads.) What a fuckup.

Kathy, Cory, Alyssa and I hung out last night at wingies then Alyssa's. It was good. I got drunk and Cory punched me in the face. We had a good time, I just wish Alyssa had some alcohol that wasn't what she had. Except for the blue freezepop alcha.

"We" are working on the Virtual Theatre project. Nothing is happening. This is so lame. I am going to go home. Show is tomorrow and we don't really have alot to show I think. We will see what happens.



Anyway..long story short...I want to have this journal to document my life for a bit.

Capeish?


plus...rodericj.com is down. Damn! Maybe tonight I can get it up.
Get it up Roddy Get it up....


Prom night flashback

The end of an Era

Today, at roughly 8:30AM.

My love, my baby, my friend, my cat, was Euthanized for illnesses related to her liver(we believe).






It is difficult to let go. There were many things that made the whole situation much easier. Knowing that it was coming was both a blessing and a curse. It had been building up for about a week. 7 days ago she was her lively self, chillin' and bein' a cat. Something happened. She became sick and insisted that she lay on a cold surface. She seemed as though she could not get her head to go above resting position for more than an instant. She drank little and ate less.

I was out with some friends last night. I got home late (buzzed) and I saw on the whiteboard the following:

Vet Appt 8:30


I'd seen notes like that before. In fact, exactly the same, time and wording. But this time you could feel that it was different.

What made things worse was that I could not find her ANYWHERE. I went to bed knowing that I may never see her again. I heard my mom at about 6:20 doin stuff downstairs. I woke up and went down to see the can laying next to the fish tank. I looked at my Mom and confirmed my fear. Today was the day.

I stayed close to her for as long as possible, I wanted to pick her up but I knew that doing so was so incredibly uncomfortable to her that it would almost definitely lead to regurgitation. THAT my friends...was difficult to grasp. Knowing that you have such a short time to be with one that means so much to you, and yet, you can not enjoy her the way you want to. Thats not really an emotion I was prepared to feel.

After what may have been the saddest moments I had ever had with her, it was time to move her to the car.
This became the new saddest moment ever. Replacing the last 2 hours which were difficult for me, was the sight of my Mother, who loved this cat so much (was once quoted as saying, "I would like to be 'the cat lady' someday"[paraphrased slightly]), picking up the cat and yearning for one more look at her angel face, only to be distracted by the incredible discomfort portrayed by her irresilient, clearly strained tongue. The cat began to squirm and she vomited all over herself and my Mother. Then she lay lifeless, only the faint motion of her breathing let us know she was still with us.

We were able to move the lifeless body to the transport crate and we didn't need a top to contain her usually enthusiastic(anti-conformist) attitude towards 'the cage'.

The ride to the vet was not long enough.

We got there and the Dr. confirmed her suspicions. of health via the previous day's diagnosis.
We knew what we were about to do was the right thing. It was just hella hard to handle.
The actual procedure consisted of a shaved leg and a seemingly painless shot which took FOREVER!!
Her eyes dilated slightly as the needle was inserted. She looked at each of us (Father, Mother, myself), and we all said our goodbyes(I took care of Meredith's and Christie's who were there in spirit). She looked at us as her eyes dilated ever so slowly to blackness. The Dr. waited with her stethoscope on her chest. The nod was given and we knew the remaining seconds of her life would be peaceful and painless as the signs of life deteriorated from her brain and body.

We said our final goodbye.

And it ended...