End of June Already?

2 coats of primer 

3 friends 

4 gallons of paint

14 days

A newly painted living room: Priceless

The original living room color was here when I bought the house.  It was a dark gold brown that was really glossy.  With my dark furniture, it was just overwhelmingly dark.  The picture on the left doesn't really show how dark it was.  I was scared to paint the living room because it is big, and it would mean unplugging the computer.  But I finally had gotten tired enough of the paint to take on the challenge.  Shout outs to my friend, roommate, and home teacher for their help, without them, the room would still be a work in progress.  As it was, it took two weeks of coming home after work to get in 3 hours of work on the walls, and a solid weekend.  I had to paint everything 4 times, which just made it feel like de ja vu.  Cutting in was the most annoying part, because I couldn't skimp on that and have the lighter color come out even.  But now, I have a lovely, neutral beige on the walls.  It makes the room look bigger and brighter.  I didn't take the same picture, because looking into the kitchen from the new living room wall color makes the kitchen look a lot more olive.... That will probably be the next paint job..... after I have had a good long rest, and my friends have recovered enough to volunteer again.  

A word about the computer.... I took it apart, and then put it back together, and I have a stack of cords that I have no idea what they go to..... This would be the one benefit of redoing your computer set up every couple of years.  Clean out the wires and get rid of the ones you don't need!

I also volunteered at the Komen Race for the Cure in Raleigh.  I enjoyed Avon's more.  

My college roommate and friend and I got together for a weekend of fun.  Since my friends have children, I am not sure if the weekend was relaxing for them, but it was nice to see them, and visit.  Because it was so hot, we went to the Children's Museum.  I had a tough time being fast enough to get good pictures of the kids.  I admire other blogs that have cute kid pictures.

In other news, training for the triathlon is going.  I am no good at swimming freestyle anymore, but I did combine swimming and running back to back once last week, so that is pretty good progress.  

And for all of these reasons, June has flown by. 

Manic Monday

1. I am going to do a triathlon with my mom and sister, and I am publicly announcing this so that I stick to a training program. Today was the first ride the bike day.
2. We played laser tag for FHE... if you haven't ever done that, go do it. It is a b-awesome (Bolt) way to spend 15 minutes of your life.
3. $3 movies at Target.... need I say more

Yea, short blog. I gotta go to bed so that I can continue training tomorrow.

Yes Man

My roommate and I rented Yes Man from the redbox the other night. It was pretty funny, and the best part was this week I got to eat Mexican food at a gas station because I said yes. Who knows, maybe yes will change your life.


If you give a mouse a cookie, adult style.....
My home teacher cooked dinner last month, which was an awesome home teaching thing to do. The conversation turned to movies, and my roommate and I said we should rent a movie and have everyone over to watch it. And then I remembered, I have a 24 inch monitor, and several of the people in the room have bigger TVs. So I was thinking I should upgrade my TV so we can do a proper movie night, instead of always going to someone else's house. But if I get a TV, then I need a stand to put it on. And if I get a stand, then that means rearranging the furniture. And if I am going to rearrange the furniture, I should sell the dining room table because I don't have a dining room. This would free up more space for a new TV. And as long as I am making space for the new TV, I should take this time to take down the angled shelf that is attached to the wall and paint the walls because I don't like the color. With newly painted walls, a new furniture arrangement, and a new TV, I should really get cable. Because what good is a TV without something to watch on it? And now that I have something to watch, I should get Tivo, because I don't want to watch it on the network's schedule, only when I have free time.

And thus we see how a casual conversation among friends can spin wildly out of control :)

Anchors Away

For Memorial Day I went to the beach.  It was alot of fun.  I enjoy sitting on the beach and reading.  The first night we were there, we went for a walk along the beach.  Out in the water was a black thing that wasn't moving.  So we were guessing what it was.  A long ways away it looked like a stick, but since it wasn't moving, we were thinking maybe part of a pier.  As we got closer, there was no other evidence of a pier, and it looked rounder, so we thought an outboard motor.  As we got closer, we thought.... what is this?  So some friends decided to swim out to check it out.  I thought the water was too cold for that, so I just watched.  They came back with the news that it was a ship's anchor!  So we spent the rest of the weekend plotting how to sell it on e-bay.

She wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini

If I haven't mentioned it before, I have been working on converting movies my mom recorded with her camcorder from VHS to DVD format. In one such movie, we are visiting my aunt on a hot summer day, and the sprinkler is on in the front yard. All of us kids are in our swim suits, running and playing. Except for me. By this time, I was to cool to run around in a sprinkler, so I am laying on town "sun bathing". Thus begins my quest to be tan.
When I was in high school, we had a pool in our backyard. The summer before I turned 16, I didn't have a job, so I spent the summer laying out by the pool and rotating myself at precise times so I would tan evenly. It was a fantastic summer. And I did get tan, probably one of the only times in my life I was tan.
I have always enjoyed going to the beach. Most of my life I have had a black bathing suit. I was of the philosophy that a black bathing suit was like a little black dress, it made you look nice and thin, and because it was black, you looked tanner in it. For a couple of years I wore a speedo, but then I realized that was not a "lounge around looking great" suit, it was a "ride the waves, do laps" suit.
Several summers ago my family was going to the beach, and I needed a new swimming suit. Swim suit shopping is the most traumatic type of shopping imaginable. I tried to avoid it by ordering Lands End modest tankini's online, only to find out they didn't fit. So I decided to go to the mall and try to find a bathing suit. You all know the drill..... flourescent lighting, your pasty white winter skin, and the spandex-y material that is hard to pull on. In the store all I could find was a lime green suit. The sales lady convinced me it made me look fantastic. So I bought it. Later that week, I convinced my sister to go swim suit shopping at the same store. Of course she finds a fantastic maroon swim suit that was not lime green. Yes, I was totally jealous.
This summer I am going to Duck beach with friends for Memorial Day weekend. I have been reluctant to try on the suit I bought after the lime green one because it has been a couple of years, and bathing suits don't tend to hold up well over the years. I finally tried it on, and it was not pretty. So I called my sister because a year or two ago the maroon one didn't fit her, so I had given her the lime green one. She mailed me the maroon one, which fit great. So we are getting good use out of the expensive swim suits :)
My goal this weekend is to not get sunburnt.... wish me luck!

I brought you flowers

I can't find the clip on youtube, but in You've Got Mail, she gets sick with a cold, and he brings her flowers and says, "I brought you flowers", and she is so stuffy, she says, "Oughhhh... thank you" and she says, aren't daisies the friendliest flowers?

I feel like that right now. A friend sent me flowers with daisies and tulips in white and yellow to celebrate the Chief Programmer promotion. Very beautiful. And then, I got a cold/sinus infection, and my voice has gone all funky (it sounds like death warmed over... just ask the people I was on conference calls with). And so all I want to do is walk around my house collecting the tissues that are strewn about in an overcoat and say, "daisies are the friendliest flowers".

Thank you all for the congrats.

You can call me Al

Not really.

What you can call me is Chief, or CP for short because I am now the Chief Programmer for my product. For those of you who are not familiar with the Company and it's titles, Chief Programmer means I manage the entire technical aspect of the release of the product, which involves setting direction, managing schedules and people, etc etc. Basically, on technical things, the buck stops here.

(But I still can't fix your computer at home)

If you can't tell, I am super duper excited about this. Chief Programmer is like..... the last title you will have that means you still do technical stuff. After that, it is all architecture and pie in the sky. It is the pinnacle of achievement. Ok, people may argue with that, and say STSM (Senior Technical Staff Member) or DE (Distinguished Engineer) is the pinnacle of achievement, but hey.... this is as awesome as the time I became a CSM at Wal-Mart at age 18, which is like, the youngest age you can have that title. I am probably not the youngest CP in the Company's history.... but it sure is nice to have a bit of achievement before I descend over the hill into my 30s!

Ah..... and now that the glow is over, I better get back to work! Because of course this means I will spend the summer essentially doing two jobs, the one I have now while it transitions to someone else, and the Chief Programmer one. And I have to learn more about the product, because I have been focused on install, and don't really know how it works once it is installed.