So what is it, Wednesday already? I need this week to be over already, and like now would be nice. Its been one interesting week so far. Monday night I went to Elena's for dinner and we hung out and she caught up on some TV while I was taking a quick look at her mom's computer to make sure it was running OK. In doing so I royally screwed the thing up (worse than it already was). It was so screwed up that the second you went to login to XP it logged you right back out. Bad news. So I reinstalled XP over itself to repair it, and was able to login, but it lost all the shortcuts to the tons of programs that were installed. I figured I'd leave well enough alone and not touch it anymore.

Then, on Tuesday morning Elena calls me as I'm on my way to work saying that nothing on the computer is working, that her mom's friend was over trying to fix it and that her mom was really pissed. Having Elena's mom pissed at me is the last thing I need, so I got ehr some flowers and went over there after work to apologize. She was cool about it, and said I didn't need to make the trip, considering it was like a monsoon outside from whatever hurricane was hitting Florida this week. So hopefully its all good now, because if Elena and I are going to have any future together, having her mom pissed at me or holding a grudge is not good.

To top off the fun of the week its been a crazy week at work, we're shortstaffed since our help desk girl got pregnant, gave birth and since decided to be a stay at home mom. Her replacement, our intern from last summer, doesn't start until December, when he graduates, so we have to deal with one less person until then, and its no fun. To top it off another co-worker of mine is out sick today, so its even worse. Its sure as hell been a fun filled day so far. I can't wait to get out of here.

I need to get home and take Keyser to the vet for his yearly checkup. I have a feeling they'll tell me he's a little overweight, which isn't good for a dachshund. I don't feed him that much and he doesn't get nearly as many treats as he used to, so I don't know what to do other than more exercise. Oh well.

Alright, back to fun-filled work. Adios people.

I must say, its amazing. Your girlfriend moves back home after being in another coutry for more than a year, and all of a sudden the weekends are no longer boring and bad. What a coincidence! Had a great weekend hanging out with Elena and lets just say any weirdness I had felt about her being home is totally gone, I'm just so happy to have her back and things between us are great.

I picked her up after work on Friday and we headed over to my house where she saw my parents for the first time in months, as well as my house which is still undergoing transformation (The front and back doors, along with the siding had been replaced since Elena was last home, and now its the deck around the pool in the backyard thats getting completely rebuilt). We went out for a quick bite to eat at my favorite little burrito place by my house, had some Italian ices for dessert, and then passed out while catching up on past episodes of Nip/Tuck on my computer.

Saturday I dropped her off at home and then headed into work for an exhausting eight hours. I guess I shouldn't complain as my paycheck this pay period is going to be quite large, and thats always a good thing. After work I headed back to her house, we grabbed some great pizza and headed over to my house, to watch more TV that she needed to catch up, and then passed out for the night.

Sunday we finally got around to seeing Garden State, because she was too tired for it on Friday and I was exhausted after work on Saturday. Good movie, I must admit. Kind of slow, but good nonetheless. Check it out. After the movie I ran a quick errand or two at Best Buy and then at Borders Books and then we headed home where she took a nap and I played some X-Box, before I passed out as well. Woke up and had a damn good homemade dinner. And then we finished the night by, you guessed it, watching more TV on my computer. She's almost all caught up. Just a few episodes of Dead Like Me and we're all set.

After work today I'm heading over to her house for dinner and to hang out, and then she's working Tuesday and Wednesday night so I can actually get caught up on some stuff I need to do, like get a laptop working for her. Just haven't had the time to do anything else. But things are good between us, which makes me really happy. She's really happy to be home, which is great.

Alright, back to work, hope everyone is avoiding a Case of the Mondays!

Damn its been one long and crazy week, and its not over yet, because I have to go into work for a few hours tomorrow! Yay! I guess I shouldn't complain too much, the overtime I earn will be very nice to have in my pocket real soon. I would like to eliminate my credit card debt and start saving money again, and bigger paychecks stuffed with OT usually help with that.

On the plate for this weekend, besides work tomorrow is the following. Elena is meeting me at my house when I get home from work and we'll be grabbing some dinner, possibly shopping for a cell phone for her so she won't have to call me from a pay phone when she gets lost on the way to her cousins house and needs directions, and then we'll be going to see Garden State, which I've been dying to see and am so very thankful its still in the theater by me. I'm a huge fan of Scrubs, so I'm psyched to see it.

Tomorrow I'll be working, but thankfully not in my main office. The office I'll be at is like 10 minutes from Elena's house, so I'm sure we'll just hang out once I'm done working and then I know my mom wants to make her a little welcome home dinner, so that'll probably be on Sunday. Other than that its just business as usual. Hope everyone has a great weekend, I know I'm going to try to!

Elena is back on US soil for good! And there was much rejoicing! She got in sometime last night from her first class flight home. Must've been nice. Her mom cashed in a whole lotta miles or points to get her bumped up to first class on Virgin Atlantic and from what she told me, it sounded very, very nice. I didn't actually go to the airport to pick her up, since her flight didn't get until around 9 anyway. I was in bed, watching TV at that point anyway. I wouldn't have gotten home until much later and have been even more tired than I am already today. I did stay up late enough to get a call from her telling me she made it home OK, so that was good.

I'm happy that she's home, but its going to take a little getting used to. I'm just so used to her not being around, its going to be a little weird having her around a whole lot more. I'm not trying to put it in a bad light, because its not, its just going to take some adjusting to. Also, I guess now that our relationship is no longer in stasis due to the long distance we can now move forward with it. What that entails I'm not exactly sure, but whatever it is I'm sure it'll be good, and I'm looking forward to a long future together with her.

I plan on going by her house after work to hang out. She's not feeling too hot at the moment and she thinks she might be getting sick. So far her day has consisted of laying out in the sun and taking advantage of the beautiful 80 degree sunshine. Poor baby. I've been stuck inside at work all day dealing with the usual level of intelligence I'm forced to deal with around here sometimes. Oh well, at least it pays the bills. It could be worse, a lot worse. I'm lucky I guess. I really like my job and the people I work with, so thats a good thing.

Alright, back to it. Have a great day everyone!

Woo hoo! Its the last Elena-less weekend I have to endure for a long while! Damn thats a nice thought. During the week not having her around isn't so bad, because I work and I keep busy, but its the weekends that suck, because thats usually when you hang out with your significant other. Thankfully this is the last one without her as her flight comes in on Tuesday night.

At the moment I am work performing some wonderful server software upgrades. Tons of fun, let me tell you. So far so good and nothing has blown up. The weather here sucks big time as we're getting hit with rain from some recent hurricane that has hit Florida. Who knows anymore, there are too many to count. I figure if the weather sucks, might as well be making some overtime cash.

After work I have to head over to a tuxedo shop in town and get fitted for my tux for Brett's wedding. I think he's going a little crazy making sure all the groomsmen get fitted, as its like the one thing he has to do for the wedding by himself, without his fiance. I think he just wants to prove that he's capable of doing it by himself and getting it done. I told him last week that I would go and get fitted as soon as I got back from London, but that didn't stop him from leaving me a voice mail the day I left saying that I needed to go. Crazy, I tell you.

Well, thats about it. Have a great weekend everyone!

I finally got home from London last night a little after 11:00 PM, while my body was still on London time, thinking it was more like 4 AM the next morning. Have I mentioned how much jet lag sucks? It wasn't helped by the fact that I bought a copy of The Da Vinci Code at a bookstore in Heathrow and proceeded to devour through 525 of the 600 some odd pages in flight. And of course by the time I got home I just had to find out how it ended, so I didn't get to bed until 12:30 or so, and was awoken by Keyser at a little before 5. So, to I'm exhausted is putting it mildly. I need to rest, but thats not going to be helped by the fact that tonight is Rosh Hashannah, so I have tons of family and whatnot coming over tonight for a feast, so I can't just go to sleep, that would be rude. Who knows, maybe when I pass out face first into a bowl of chicken soup with Matzoh balls, they'll let me get some rest. Honestly, its going to take a few days for me to get reaclimated to Eastern Standard Time.

The good news? After lugging home Elena's stuff, which, let me tell you, weighs a ton, she'll be home in a week! And there was much rejoicing! I had a good time in London with her, although we didn't really do that much. I got there on Friday and we headed back to her flat, where I proceeded to pass out and she worked on her paper. I got up and we went to see her friend Jen in a touring production of Jekyll and Hyde. Saturday she had a yard sale for 4 hours to get rid of some of the junk she doesn't need, mostly things that have UK plugs. Thankfully she sold a lot, because after dragging all that crap down the stairs of her building, I wasn't in the mood to drag all of it back up. She sold a good amount of it, so that was good.

We went and saw Romeo and Juliet that night at the Globe Theatre, which was really very good. The guy who played Mercutio stole the show, his multiple delivery of, "A plague on both your houses!" had the audiences clapping and cheering. It was just a very cool place to see a Shakespeare play. It had a real authentic feel. Sunday we did absolutely nothing except work on her paper here and there. Monday we packed and checked out the Staterooms at Buckingham Palace, which were really beautiful, but ridiculous that someone who is born into that life, and who has no real power, lives in a place like that, and yet there are people starving in the world. Crazy. We went to dinner at the same Tex-Mex place we went for my birthday in November, then headed back to her flat. Tuesday we packed some more and then I headed home, which she'll be doing in a week!

Alright, must try to stay awake at work, plus its almost lunch time, so I can escape for awhile. Adios for now people.

Damn it has been one crazy week, between work and my car, I'm amazed I've kept my sanity. Well, at least my car started without incident this morning, which is a good thing. So I'm leaving work in about 40 minutes to head to the airport and I can't wait. I'm actually looking forward to the flight portion of this trip, amazing what business class can do for your outlook on travel. Then, Elena said she'd pick me up at the airport, which is always nice. She said she's going to have to work on her paper on Sunday and Monday, but I brought enough DVD's to watch and I have Halo and Tron 2.0 to play on my Mac if I get really bored of movies. All in all I'm really looking forward to this, I haven't seen Elena in two months, which is the longest we've gone without seeing each other since she's been in London, which sucks. But, she'll be home a week after I get back, so life is good. Alright, need to finish up at work, change and get ready to bolt out of here. Peace everyone!

Thankfully I leave tomorrow night and it can't come soon enough. I went to start my car this morning and go to work and the damn thing wouldn't start. My dad fiddled with it a little by turning on the headlights and eventually got it started. That's not exactly what I'd call a reliable mode of transportation, so I dropped it off at the mechanic again to get it fixed. Thankfully my parents both took the day off to go into the city so I could take my mom's car without inconveniencing anyone. Turns out the car just had a loose connection somewhere, so hopefully its all good now. We'll see tomorrow when I go to start it. Last thing I need is to leave for the airport and have it not start, or worse when I go to leave the airport next Tuesday and the parking place can't get it going. Damn piece of crap. I swear, just one more thing goes wrong and its gone. Somehow, someway, I'll figure out.

In better news, I'm at least looking forward to my flight over to London, because I'm going business class. That's right. I went to check my flight number to give to Elena so she can pick me up at the airport and I noticed that I had a lot less miles than I should have, and when I checked the flight I saw that I was finally upgraded on my flight over to London. I would've had to use Elena's miles to upgrade on the way home and she wants to save hers, so I cancelled that request. She plans to hopefully go to Dublin to visit her roommate for New Years, so hopefully we'll have enough then.

So I'm all packed up and ready to go. Hopefully tomorrow will go smoothly so I can get to the airport and get on my way to Elena. Alright, time to relax. Adios for now.

So today hasn't exactly gone my way. I woke up this morning, got ready for work and was about to head there when my car wouldn't agree with me. The damn thing wouldn't start. My mom came home and we tried to jump start it, but no go there. Already had the call in to AAA, and the guy finally showed up an hour later and attached a battery pack jump thing to the battery and the car started under severe protest. I drove it to a garage around the block and dropped it off with the laundry list of what's wrong with it. I just got off the phone with the mechanic and a new belt, new battery, new regulator for the alternator, an oil change and an alignment will cost me $605. The amount of cash I've sunk into this thing is sickening. I could have a down payment for a new one by now. I swear, one more thing goes on this thing and someone's going to pay.

I was supposed to swing by Elena's house to pick up something for her, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow as I may have to pick my mom up from work since I took her car into work today. Thats the one good thing about my car dying, I love driving her truck. Nice Acura MDX. Thing handles like a dream. I need to go home tonight and pack up most of my stuff. I need to pack really light so I can drag home as much of Elena's stuff as humanly possible. I figure two or three pairs of pants and enough shirts, underwear and socks for five days should do it, with an extra or two just in case.

I spoke to her today and she's really stressed about her paper. She's trying really hard to get it done so she doesn't have to write while I'm there. At the same time the person she leases her flat from has had people coming in all day to look at the place and she hasn't been able to concentrate. She said she tore the leasing agent a new one today because of all the disturbances. She said she had to go down the road to the school in order to get the peace and quiet needed to work. Hopefully she'll have it done, mostly, by Friday. If not, oh well. I just bought a ton of DVD's from Best Buy, so I'll have something to watch while she works. Plus I'll throw my Halo CD in my bag and a mouse so I can play if need be. Halo rocks.

Alright, the day (of work) is almost over, thankfully. It started out so great, I can't wait to see how it'll end!!!

I know, the title sounds like one of the all time cheesiest songs of the 80's, "It's the final countdown!" To what you hair metal jackasses? Oh, I don't know, and don't care. All I know is that by the end of this week I'll be in London for one more go around. And damn, it can't get here fast enough. I've been so bored out of my mind all weekend long, I don't know how I'm going to stand another day. I'm sure somehow I'll make it through, but it won't be easy.

I still need to run to Target or someplace like that for all the last minute necessities. Never went yesterday because I didn't hear back from Elena until really late last night. I didn't realize that she was working a shift at the restaurant. It was her final shift actually, as she quit last night so she can have more time to work on her paper. She said she felt bad about doing it because they gave her good hours this week so she could work on her paper, but obviously getting this thing done is more important. She said she'll probably not be done with it by the time I get there, but that's OK. She'll be home for good a week after I leave. I don't need her undivided attention for the weekend. She suggested I go sightseeing to the places I wanted to see by myself, but I passed. I did that once already on my birthday, and wandering around London all by your lonesome is not my idea of fun. I told her if need be I'll watch a DVD, read a book or sleep while she types, or I'll help her as I'm not the worst writer in the world.

In other news, in an attempt to entertain myself last night, and to appease Mark who requested that I mail the DVD to him at school, I watched The Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kutcher last night and damn was it stupid. I knew the boy couldn't act, and there was the proof yesterday. The premise was interesting in that he tried to go back into his memories and change things around, and keeps messing it up, but the execution sucked. Plus I watched the Director's Cut, which had a completely different ending, and it was a whole lot worse and more far fetched than the theatrical one. Of course I had to check that out, but I sure as hell wasn't going to watch the movie twice! That's torture. Don't get me wrong, Ashton is funny is most things, like That 70's Show and Dude, Where's My Car, but a serious actor, come on. I read that Cameron Crowe, director of Singles, Jerry Maguire and Vanilla Sky kicked him off his latest movie and told him to get acting lessons. Ouch.

I have a couple of movies in mind today to keep myself occupied. I need to load this simple software on the computers in my mom's office too, but thats about it. Maybe some Halo on the XBox in preparation for Halo 2 on November 9, which looks like its going to be insane, and I usually don't get excited for video games anymore. But I am this time around.

Alright, so thats enough of my just woke up babble. Have a good labor day people!

You know, as much as I complain about having to go to work everyday, and seriously, who doesn't complain about having to work, at least it gives me something to do everyday. This three day weekend is dragging in the worst way. I'm sure its only made worse by the fact that I'm waiting for Thursday night to get here so I can go to London already and see Elena who I miss more than anything in the world. I haven't seen her in almost two months, which has been the longest we've gone without seeing each other since she's been gone. Damn does it suck. What sucks even more is that there is NOTHING TO DO!!! I feel like I'm going nuts from the cabin fever. I swear I'm signing on and off to AIM like five thousand times praying that someone will pop on that I want to talk to, so far nothing.

I'm sure there's a movie or three amongst the 400+ DVD's my family owns thats worth the time to watch, but so far I can't bring myself to watch it. On my main list is The Butterfly Effect which looks stupid, but I've heard is good. My little brother wants me to send it to him up at school, but I want to watch it first. And since the mail won't come again until Tuesday, I have time. I'm debating dragging Randy to the movies, but there isn't anything interesting in the theaters, just the end of the summer crap.

I'm sure I'll figure something out to pass the time. Sleeping is looking like a more viable option by the second.

Yeah, I'm at work at the moment, in one of our remote offices doing some work. Its not so bad actually, except that the server I'm working on is old as dirt and doesn't run so snappy anymore, and I'm sitting here trying to load the latest and greatest in e-mail systems on it. Its going, just slow. Its actually not so bad coming here, its closer to my house than my usual commute to work at the main office. Hopefully I won't be here too long, and if so, who cares, the overtime is nice, considering how badly I want to pay off my credit cards now that Elena will be coming home soon.

I spoke to Elena this morning and she's cranking away on her paper, although she just started writing it. She's doing it on the progression of musicals into movie-musicals, mainly focusing on the show South Pacific, because its been around forever and there is so much on it. I gave her, back in May, a copy of a huge paper I wrote for an independent study I did in college on film adaptations from literature and she finally got around to reading it and was just curious if she could use it to help her. I said no problem, and then she went on to slightly criticize my ending! How dare she?! I'll admit, I'm not the best at ending papers, and really, she just said I should've added one more sentence, so I guess its not so bad. Hopefully she'll get the bulk of the research paper done by Friday and then she'll just have to do all the side work on it when I'm there. She wanted to have it all done by the time I got there, but she procrastinates, so what can you do? If I have to pop on a DVD on my laptop and give her time to write, so be it. She'll be home a week after I leave anyway. Its not like when I leave I won't see her for a month or more. I can deal.

No real big plans for this weekend. I have some errands to run, picking up some odds and ends for my trip, mostly deodorant. Odd how thats usually the one thing I need to buy every time I go away. Oh well, who cares. Other than that I just plan on relaxing this weekend, getting ready for London! I can't wait, it should be fun. I'm psyched to see Romeo and Juliet, and her friend Jen in her production of Jekyll and Hyde. I'm even more psyched that her friend Jen found other accommodations for the weekend that I'm there than Elena's flat. Elena's roommate is usually cool abotu giving us some alone time, but one more to the mix would've been a little more difficult. So we'll have some privacy, when she's not working on her paper.

Alright, back to work, must monitor my slow ass server as it loads software. Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone!

The last time I tried to give blood it went horribly wrong... well, not horribly, lets just say it didn't work right. They tried to do a double red donation, which means they take the blood out of me, spin it around to separate what they need out of it, then throw the rest back in me. It was going fine, until they went to put it back in my vein, at which point it went everywhere around the vein, except in it, as evidenced by the huge swelling lump of liquid under the skin. So that was the end of that. I must've been out of it afterwards, because as I was eating my juice and cookies as my reward for attempting to do a good thing, the blood service people suckered me into signing up for a platelet donation. Yeah, that was today.

Luckily, this one went off without a hitch, everything got put back in me like it was supposed to and NY blood services now has 7 X 10 to the 11th power ml of my platelets. I'm sure I could do the math and figure out just how much that really is, but I'm too tired to. And I feel really out of it. According to my boss and some coworkers I look really pale out the moment, but another one said I look like I always do, except with stubble because I didn't shave today (I only do every other day that I have to work because my face would get cut to shit if I did it every day, its too sensitive). So anyway, I did my good deed, killed between the hours of 11:15 AM and 1:30 PM and helped someone with cancer that needs my platelets. Of course they reminded me that I can do this every 3 days, and up to 24 times a year! I think I'll pass for awhile.

Time to get through the rest of the day without passing out. Should be fun! Adios for now people!

And you know what that means? It means this crappy summer is almost over and on September 21, which I think is either the first day of fall, or the day before, Elena comes home for good. So, September is a good month, and I've been looking forward to it for some time. I leave for London in like 8 days and it can't get here soon enough. I just hope Elena is done with her paper by then. I know she's trying to, but it would suck, for both of us if she had to work on it while I'm there. If so, no big deal, since she'll be home for good a week after I leave London anyway. I know for a fact that she's supposed to be home all day working on it, so maybe I'll check in a little later to see how she's doing, although she did tell me to stop asking about her paper because it stresses her out more, so I'll just have to carefully choose my words.

Other than that there isn't much going on. I'm looking forward to this weekend, mostly because its a three day weekend, not because I have any huge plans. Then, instead of a 4 day work week, its only three for me because I'm taking next Friday off because I'll be away. Then, when I get back, on a Tuesday, its another three day work week, which should be nice as well considering I'll be jetlagged to all hell.

Been busy at work with a new project. I'm upgrading the companies e-mail system to the most recent version that good old Microsoft offers. But in order to do that first I need to move everyone onto a new system for internal instant messaging, which has been interesting. I've got it down so that its pretty automated so the users won't see anything happening and hopefully won't annoy us IT people with questions. Once everyone is on the new IM system, I can rip out the old one and upgrade the e-mail system. Fun stuff! I know, I'm a geek, but technology is the type of thing that gets me going. I can't help it.

Alright, back to work. Hope everyone has a good Wednesday! Just remember, it'll be Friday before you know it!