Saturday, December 30, 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
My Last Post as a Single Man
Hmmm, I'm thinking my last post before getting married probably ought to be something a bit more serious than a bit of office humor. (see below)
I've got two guys here at work that are constantly, jokingly telling me that I still have time to run and that it's not too late to save my freedom and happiness. One is just finalizing his divorce and the other got left at the altar (actually the day before). Both were married/engaged to contentious women and I can definitely commiserate with them how at first they think that it's part of the spice and excitement of the relationship - to be constantly having problems and making up afterwards. But after a while it wears so thin. When it finally crashes and she tells you to get lost - it's over - adios, there's a current of relief mixed in with all the other feelings.
I don't know yet how C&I will handle our first fight, but we're aiming to pattern after some friends of ours who have been married for 10 (?) years and haven't had a fight yet. My poor coworkers don't have any idea of what it's like to be head-over-heels with someone and not have to dread the next time you say or do something wrong. There's no dread or worry to taint the other wonderful feelings, hopes and dreams!
And that's where I'm at!! People ask me if I'm getting nervous or starting to have second thoughts and I just shake my head, smile and say 'No way!' But that doesn't quite get across the absolute absence of all second thoughts! They're nowhere to be found! I'm nervous, absolutely! But not the way they're asking! I'm not sure there's a way I can get this across in words, but it's the closest personal example of an unconditional feeling that I can imagine - there's not a hint or shadow of anything marring it! It's sort of how I imagine heaven's light - not a shadow anywhere!
Now, do I personally question Charlessa's sanity and clearheadedness in accepting me? Heck yes! Of all people, I know how little I've got - I'm coming in with a son already, though the spirit is willing my flesh is weak in my spiritual walk, I'm a procrastinator and a bit on the lazy side, and I'll probably leave dirty socks, shirts and underwear all over the place. But she doesn't know that yet, so shhhh, don't tell her! ;^D
On the flip side, I'm the luckiest guy in the world. In spite of the fact that I pretend to be clueless when Pastor Ray very pointedly asks me if I'll share a praise for something *ahem* coming up *ahem*, I really am more thankful than I can sometimes express that God's brought Charlessa to me! She's eminently desirable in all ways! As beautiful as she is physically, her spirit is far more lovely. When the Proverbs speak of seeking after the woman of Peace and Wisdom they could be speaking of Charlessa. Many times I am calmed down by her words of peace when I am newly outraged at some slight or harm. Many times I've been encouraged to extend peace when I want to exchange like for like. Many times I've been enlightened to what seems obvious after she's told me, but was dark and obscure.
And to avoid going too far in an adoration of her purely spiritual beauty to the slighting of the rest of her, SHE'S REALLY HOT TOO! Yeah, as the oldies song goes, "Something tells me I'm into something good!"
One of the things my mom said on Christmas was that in the larger scheme of things, really the only thing we've got going for us is that we both love the Lord. And I think she's got a point. Easy going personalities can turn to sloth and neglect. Intelligence can turn to pride and stubbornness. Love can fade. Without God to keep working on us to perfect us into an image of Himself, there's nothing special that will overcome all else. It is perfect love which drives out all fear and can overcome all, and neither of us have that. It is God's love which will guide use through the valleys when all else fails.
Let's see, 2 days and 2 hours from now I'll see her walking down the aisle, adorned in white, and prepared to become my bride. Starting off a couple hundred years of bliss here on earth and followed up with an eternity together bound by truly perfect love.
Am I nervous or having second thoughts?
No way!
I've got two guys here at work that are constantly, jokingly telling me that I still have time to run and that it's not too late to save my freedom and happiness. One is just finalizing his divorce and the other got left at the altar (actually the day before). Both were married/engaged to contentious women and I can definitely commiserate with them how at first they think that it's part of the spice and excitement of the relationship - to be constantly having problems and making up afterwards. But after a while it wears so thin. When it finally crashes and she tells you to get lost - it's over - adios, there's a current of relief mixed in with all the other feelings.
I don't know yet how C&I will handle our first fight, but we're aiming to pattern after some friends of ours who have been married for 10 (?) years and haven't had a fight yet. My poor coworkers don't have any idea of what it's like to be head-over-heels with someone and not have to dread the next time you say or do something wrong. There's no dread or worry to taint the other wonderful feelings, hopes and dreams!
And that's where I'm at!! People ask me if I'm getting nervous or starting to have second thoughts and I just shake my head, smile and say 'No way!' But that doesn't quite get across the absolute absence of all second thoughts! They're nowhere to be found! I'm nervous, absolutely! But not the way they're asking! I'm not sure there's a way I can get this across in words, but it's the closest personal example of an unconditional feeling that I can imagine - there's not a hint or shadow of anything marring it! It's sort of how I imagine heaven's light - not a shadow anywhere!
Now, do I personally question Charlessa's sanity and clearheadedness in accepting me? Heck yes! Of all people, I know how little I've got - I'm coming in with a son already, though the spirit is willing my flesh is weak in my spiritual walk, I'm a procrastinator and a bit on the lazy side, and I'll probably leave dirty socks, shirts and underwear all over the place. But she doesn't know that yet, so shhhh, don't tell her! ;^D
On the flip side, I'm the luckiest guy in the world. In spite of the fact that I pretend to be clueless when Pastor Ray very pointedly asks me if I'll share a praise for something *ahem* coming up *ahem*, I really am more thankful than I can sometimes express that God's brought Charlessa to me! She's eminently desirable in all ways! As beautiful as she is physically, her spirit is far more lovely. When the Proverbs speak of seeking after the woman of Peace and Wisdom they could be speaking of Charlessa. Many times I am calmed down by her words of peace when I am newly outraged at some slight or harm. Many times I've been encouraged to extend peace when I want to exchange like for like. Many times I've been enlightened to what seems obvious after she's told me, but was dark and obscure.
And to avoid going too far in an adoration of her purely spiritual beauty to the slighting of the rest of her, SHE'S REALLY HOT TOO! Yeah, as the oldies song goes, "Something tells me I'm into something good!"
One of the things my mom said on Christmas was that in the larger scheme of things, really the only thing we've got going for us is that we both love the Lord. And I think she's got a point. Easy going personalities can turn to sloth and neglect. Intelligence can turn to pride and stubbornness. Love can fade. Without God to keep working on us to perfect us into an image of Himself, there's nothing special that will overcome all else. It is perfect love which drives out all fear and can overcome all, and neither of us have that. It is God's love which will guide use through the valleys when all else fails.
Let's see, 2 days and 2 hours from now I'll see her walking down the aisle, adorned in white, and prepared to become my bride. Starting off a couple hundred years of bliss here on earth and followed up with an eternity together bound by truly perfect love.
Am I nervous or having second thoughts?
No way!
The most dangerous place to be
... during a nuclear war, according to the Geographic Information Systems specialists in the office, is going to be at 0° lat, 0° long. Why?
Because so many geographic mapping and directional software systems default to 0,0 if there's an error. They figure with hundreds of nuclear missiles flying around, quite a few are going to have software errors and default back to 0,0! So when the missiles start to fly, stay away from the Atlantic Ocean around the Gulf of Guinea!
I can SO picture it! Electronic warfare prior to a launching manages to screw up the software of a couple dozen nukes on each side. Fifteen minutes later, the captain of a transport freighter maybe from Ghana or Nigeria notices that there are a bunch of black specks that seem to be converging on his location! Ten seconds later the payloads from 40 nuclear missiles unleash 4 Gigatons of explosive force upon a single ship while Washington DC goes untouched!
ROTFLOL!!! We are so weird here!
Because so many geographic mapping and directional software systems default to 0,0 if there's an error. They figure with hundreds of nuclear missiles flying around, quite a few are going to have software errors and default back to 0,0! So when the missiles start to fly, stay away from the Atlantic Ocean around the Gulf of Guinea!
I can SO picture it! Electronic warfare prior to a launching manages to screw up the software of a couple dozen nukes on each side. Fifteen minutes later, the captain of a transport freighter maybe from Ghana or Nigeria notices that there are a bunch of black specks that seem to be converging on his location! Ten seconds later the payloads from 40 nuclear missiles unleash 4 Gigatons of explosive force upon a single ship while Washington DC goes untouched!
ROTFLOL!!! We are so weird here!
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Christmas celebration
I think this might be my first "traditional" Christmas - you know presents, a "tree", everyone opening presents, etc. Most of the Gates made it out on Friday afternoon, with D making it out the next evening. C&I had all the furniture up, but still lots of boxes left to be stashed away - mostly kitchen stuff, books and records. So the house was in livable condition, but with a couple places where you had to dodge boxes.
Fortunately everyone works together pretty well, so even when there are all eight of us in the house at once, it's still pretty nice. Not much of anything gets done with that many people all together (except for meals!) but we've gotten the curtains put up properly, most of the boxes of kitchen stuff put away, and all C's clothing/bedroom stuff from her cottage moved over. I have to admit that I almost fainted when I walked into our bedroom after all the stuff PLUS her parent's clothing and luggage was in there. No room to walk!!! I think I'll be pushing for a bit of trimming down unless it all packs away pretty nicely.
Christmas Eve was a lot of fun when we all went caroling! I think we only hit a half-dozen houses since a lot of friends were at Christmas Eve evening services, but we still had a blast! Christmas morning was nice - we had breakfast and then opened presents. Then I put up the curtains, did some reading, and wrote out a few more thank you cards for gifts we'd gotten from friends. Mom and David came down in the evening and we were able to talk for quite a while which was really, really good.
The only "bummer" was that it was raining - no snow, just rain. But hey, while we were inside we all curled up with cups of coffee and hot chocolate (or with C), and playing board games, it didn't matter if it was the picture perfect white Christmas or not, it was still good times.
Now it's back to a more normal pattern of life - head out to work and stuff like that. It's absolutely dead here today. As far as I can tell there are only six people in the building, including one intern and one manager.
I'm talking with C on the phone as she's driving over for us to head down to visit with my mom, David, my Grandma, Aunt M and Uncle J from WA, and my Uncle D and Aunt A. This is going to be a fun time! And later my Aunt P is coming out, my dad, sister K with her husband R and my little niece CM!
Now what was I going to say? Oh, yeah I almost forgot. Purple Poinsettias! The church is having purple poinsettias for us! We have been planning on working with whatever color the church has decorated for Christmas - assumed red and green. Well, they found some purple poinsettias that they are setting up for us as well as their normal decorations! This is gonna be so wonderful!
People ask if I'm getting antsy or anything, and yup, but in the best way possible. I can't wait!
Fortunately everyone works together pretty well, so even when there are all eight of us in the house at once, it's still pretty nice. Not much of anything gets done with that many people all together (except for meals!) but we've gotten the curtains put up properly, most of the boxes of kitchen stuff put away, and all C's clothing/bedroom stuff from her cottage moved over. I have to admit that I almost fainted when I walked into our bedroom after all the stuff PLUS her parent's clothing and luggage was in there. No room to walk!!! I think I'll be pushing for a bit of trimming down unless it all packs away pretty nicely.
Christmas Eve was a lot of fun when we all went caroling! I think we only hit a half-dozen houses since a lot of friends were at Christmas Eve evening services, but we still had a blast! Christmas morning was nice - we had breakfast and then opened presents. Then I put up the curtains, did some reading, and wrote out a few more thank you cards for gifts we'd gotten from friends. Mom and David came down in the evening and we were able to talk for quite a while which was really, really good.
The only "bummer" was that it was raining - no snow, just rain. But hey, while we were inside we all curled up with cups of coffee and hot chocolate (or with C), and playing board games, it didn't matter if it was the picture perfect white Christmas or not, it was still good times.
Now it's back to a more normal pattern of life - head out to work and stuff like that. It's absolutely dead here today. As far as I can tell there are only six people in the building, including one intern and one manager.
I'm talking with C on the phone as she's driving over for us to head down to visit with my mom, David, my Grandma, Aunt M and Uncle J from WA, and my Uncle D and Aunt A. This is going to be a fun time! And later my Aunt P is coming out, my dad, sister K with her husband R and my little niece CM!
Now what was I going to say? Oh, yeah I almost forgot. Purple Poinsettias! The church is having purple poinsettias for us! We have been planning on working with whatever color the church has decorated for Christmas - assumed red and green. Well, they found some purple poinsettias that they are setting up for us as well as their normal decorations! This is gonna be so wonderful!
People ask if I'm getting antsy or anything, and yup, but in the best way possible. I can't wait!
Monday, December 18, 2006
Office Gift Exchange
Today was the third free lunch we've had in the last three working days! Today was our Operating Unit's or Department's or something Christmas party - free lunch and a gift exchange!
Keeping it under $15 we could bring in a gift and get a ticket, then as the ticket numbers are called out we can go up and pick up a gift or take someone else's gift. After a gift has had three owners, it's retired and can't be taken any more.
BA seemed to have a nose for alcohol as he picked out the four bottles of wine that had been brought in. He picked chocolate the first time, someone stole his, and the next time he picked a bottle of wine. It was later stolen and he picked again - wine again. Repeat. Repeat. Later someone picked up an obvious gift card and a couple people yelled out "Let BA open it, it'll be a bottle of wine!" All four bottles of wine got stolen enough to be retired except for BA's fourth bottle - everyone decided that it should be declared retired on the spot!
I ended up with an excellent present for me - a Bionicle© man. I thought about re-gifting it as another present for Jeremiah, but it looked a bit complicated for him. So I decided to keep it. He's my new cube guardian - Kanshisha Wairudo.
What was my gift? A couple CDs of Nat King Cole Christmas recordings, most of them original 1960s recordings. It got stolen once, so I was satisfied.
Happy Birthday Bro
Yes, my little bro (who happens to be bigger and stronger than I am) has had another birthday! He's now 20-something or other! Yay! Congrats on reaching whatever-age-you-are!
Everyone reading this can tell that obviously we are close and caring siblings, always up-to-date on the smallest details of each others lives. :^D
Everyone reading this can tell that obviously we are close and caring siblings, always up-to-date on the smallest details of each others lives. :^D
Monday, December 11, 2006
Ancient Computers
2100 year old analog computer
Very cool article about a hand-cranked geared "computer" that let people determine the positions of the sun, moon and stars - past or future. It's thought to be from 100-140 B.C., and with 30+ gears it was a far more intricate computational device than anything else that would appear until the 1800s - AD!
Let's hear it for the ancient Greeks!
Very cool article about a hand-cranked geared "computer" that let people determine the positions of the sun, moon and stars - past or future. It's thought to be from 100-140 B.C., and with 30+ gears it was a far more intricate computational device than anything else that would appear until the 1800s - AD!
Let's hear it for the ancient Greeks!
Got the certificate!
Big news? We went in and got our marriage certificate!!! Did it this morning and now it's just got to be signed by the Pastor and we're good to go! A very awesome feeling! Let's see, it's only 19 days, 2 hours and 30 minutes from now!
We're almost moved out, though being unpacked is still far off. I've got most of my stuff out of my apartment and it's gotten to the point that C's house is starting to look a bit stark. We've got two big-ish items to move over to our new home - a vanity and a computer desk. We're also waiting for the owner to come and put in the new cabinets, so that's holding up our process a bit since we don't want to unpack all our kitchen stuff into cabinets that are going to be ripped out and replace soon. Other than that, things are going pretty smoothly though a bit slowly. We got blinds and curtains for the windows, though we haven't put them up yet.
We're almost moved out, though being unpacked is still far off. I've got most of my stuff out of my apartment and it's gotten to the point that C's house is starting to look a bit stark. We've got two big-ish items to move over to our new home - a vanity and a computer desk. We're also waiting for the owner to come and put in the new cabinets, so that's holding up our process a bit since we don't want to unpack all our kitchen stuff into cabinets that are going to be ripped out and replace soon. Other than that, things are going pretty smoothly though a bit slowly. We got blinds and curtains for the windows, though we haven't put them up yet.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Otiosness - go look it up
Yes I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. I'm going to blame it on all sorts of stuff - wedding preparations, housing, moving, family holidays, and work. But the truth is that mainly it's laziness. With the big things happening, I don't feel like doing anything else, even trying to come up with blog postings. But eventually the mental pressure of all my thousands of readers clamoring for a new post finally overcomes even my typing otioseness and I break down to start typing again.
We'll go waaayyyy back to Thanksgiving - AWESOME! I managed to give myself two blisters splitting wood at my folks' house up in PA, so I was happy! But the really cool part was that we had our Thanksgiving dinner over at K's house. I had never heard of an injector before, but I am now a devotee - the turkey was hands down the best I've ever had!! R took me out and we blasted a few dozen rounds of ammunition each at a range. With his 30-06 he was punching bullets through each other's holes at 100 yards, and while I wasn't able to match that with his scope set for him, I put 6 bullets in a 3" area - not too bad for not having shot for several years! J of course loved the whole trip - R taking him on firetruck rides, running all over the fire station, playing at my folk's house, and watching Cars!
For C&I it was a bit less active with lots of driving, but it was still a great time. She got some thank you cards finished up, and I got to split wood. But mostly we had lots of relaxing time. VERY good!
And then we came back down to VA.
Work, housing and dental appointments were the first things followed quickly by a wedding shower, moving and marriage counseling.
I've never done so much hurry-up-and-wait as last week at work.
A bunch of very hurried exchanges of signed contracts, check and keys, gave us our place, finally!
C had her lower wisdom teeth extracted. She's still recovering, but recovering well.
Our church had a wedding shower for us both. I discovered that a camisole isn't a frilly umbrella.
AND this weekend, my folks came down to help us move and helped out IMMENSELY by bringing down a new queen-sized bed. Neither C or I were looking forward to fitting in a time to track down a mattress, and this worked out perfectly! So my apartment is almost totally empty (two truck loads) with some at the townhouse and some stuff I had gotten from my parents now back up in PA. Two loads from C's house, and a scary amount is still there, but it's all small stuff. Four pick-up loads with my folk's truck did what would have taken 20 trips with the smaller trucks that tend to inhabit this area. Jeremiah thoroughly enjoyed my folks and vice versa.
So now? My conscience is clear - I don't need to post anything for a while!
We'll go waaayyyy back to Thanksgiving - AWESOME! I managed to give myself two blisters splitting wood at my folks' house up in PA, so I was happy! But the really cool part was that we had our Thanksgiving dinner over at K's house. I had never heard of an injector before, but I am now a devotee - the turkey was hands down the best I've ever had!! R took me out and we blasted a few dozen rounds of ammunition each at a range. With his 30-06 he was punching bullets through each other's holes at 100 yards, and while I wasn't able to match that with his scope set for him, I put 6 bullets in a 3" area - not too bad for not having shot for several years! J of course loved the whole trip - R taking him on firetruck rides, running all over the fire station, playing at my folk's house, and watching Cars!
For C&I it was a bit less active with lots of driving, but it was still a great time. She got some thank you cards finished up, and I got to split wood. But mostly we had lots of relaxing time. VERY good!
And then we came back down to VA.
Work, housing and dental appointments were the first things followed quickly by a wedding shower, moving and marriage counseling.
I've never done so much hurry-up-and-wait as last week at work.
A bunch of very hurried exchanges of signed contracts, check and keys, gave us our place, finally!
C had her lower wisdom teeth extracted. She's still recovering, but recovering well.
Our church had a wedding shower for us both. I discovered that a camisole isn't a frilly umbrella.
AND this weekend, my folks came down to help us move and helped out IMMENSELY by bringing down a new queen-sized bed. Neither C or I were looking forward to fitting in a time to track down a mattress, and this worked out perfectly! So my apartment is almost totally empty (two truck loads) with some at the townhouse and some stuff I had gotten from my parents now back up in PA. Two loads from C's house, and a scary amount is still there, but it's all small stuff. Four pick-up loads with my folk's truck did what would have taken 20 trips with the smaller trucks that tend to inhabit this area. Jeremiah thoroughly enjoyed my folks and vice versa.
So now? My conscience is clear - I don't need to post anything for a while!
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