Title courtesy of INXS, post-sellout Rockstar. Good tune regardless.

Anyway.

VEGAS BABY! VEGAS! I'm going to Vegas! And it was so totally unexpected, its awesome!

There's an IBM technical conference there in the middle of July for a week. I was aware that such a thing existed, but I did not think that I would be going. Then, I get an e-mail yesterday saying that I'm booked to attend with a room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Spa, where the thing is being held. Sweet!

I so can't wait. Its gonna rock. I've never been there and I plan on partying hard on IBM's dime as much as humanly possible!

VEGAS!!!

Wow, what an exhausting weekend. There was a lot of running around involved, a little bit of tension, some thats been since relieved, only to bring forth new stress. Where to begin?

So Missy and I looked at two other places on Thursday and Friday night. The one Thursday was totally not for us. It wasn't handicap friendly, which we need for her grand parents, and it just wasn't nice enough for us. So we passed. The place on Friday night was really nice, and I think if we hadn't fallen in love with the place we first at, we would've been more impressed. For me, I didn't like how they'd do a inside ceremony, and their ballroom felt a little claustrophobic for me. It was a nice size, but it didn't feel open, you know? So at that point, our mind was made up, we wanted the first place we looked at. The only remaining question was when? Saturday night or Sunday afternoon?

We spent much of Saturday out and about. We started registering for wedding gifts at one of the local area department store that is quite popular to register at. All the while we were waiting on word from her parents which day we'd be booking the next day, since we made a follow-up appointment at the place for Sunday, regardless. Somehow we just knew. The price difference was about $60 a head, which is a lot. At the end of the day we decided on Sunday afternoon. So our wedding, unless something horrible happens between now and then will be on Sunday, August 3rd, 2008, at Carlyle on the Green in Bethpage State Park, home of the 2009 U.S. Open of golf. The Black Course!

So why Sunday? Besides the price? The place is just amazingly gorgeous. The grounds, the views out of the windows, all of it! Its kind of a waste to have such beautiful scenery around us, and not being able to see it throughout the day. So thats why we went with Sunday afternoon. And we couldn't be happier. Our planner at Carlyle, who we couldn't be more thrilled with gave us homework, to put her mind at ease we have to get going on booking our Rabbi and music. We're working on it. Our planner is great though, she honestly seemed excited and happy for us and seems really committed to making it a great affair. She had her wedding at the same place! She gave Missy a huge hug as we left and planted a kiss on my cheek as well. Maybe it was just the excitement of getting our parents to fork over a few thousand, but we felt it was sincere.

So next on the list, Rabbi and music. As far as the Rabbi, I have my mom trying to get in touch with the Rabbi at my parents temple. We may only have one small issue. There is a three week period over the summer, from late July to August, that culminates in a holiday on August 10th, that according to Jewish Law, you're really not supposed to get married during. Oops. Didn't know that. I asked Seth, the biggest Jew I know, if he thought it would be a problem and he didn't think so. So thats helpful. If only my mom could get in touch with the Rabbi now!

As for the music I made some calls today and we have an appointment today and on next Monday at two recommended vendors that the planner gave us. One place I called is sending me a package of a band that looked good on their site, and they're not too badly priced. So we'll see how it shakes with the appointments we have tonight and next week. So we're on the ball with all the stuff we have to worry about now. Hopefully the Rabbi won't give us an issue about the date. One can hope.

So onto another topic. Seth and Shari are getting married in November, but they're getting ready to close on a house sometime in July. We've been trying to get new roommates to take their place, but haven't had any luck at all. Rob and I were discussing getting our own place a few weeks ago, but now that plan just doesn't seem feasible. I need every dime I can spare to go towards paying off my own lone credit card bill and saving for marriage, so I'm thinking of going with a new plan. Moving back home for a year. My brother is getting ready to move out and in with fiance this weekend, so his bedroom is open. I'm thinking I'll just move home when my lease is up at the end of the summer and start saving cash and paying that bill a lot quicker. Its going to suck a bit moving home, but its only temporary until a little bit before the wedding. I feel bad having to break the news to Rob, which I'll probably do tonight. Seth and Shari will probably not be happy either as they're still responsible for rent until at least August 1, but I guess I can always talk to landlord and ask him if he'll take our security deposit as the last months rent. I guess we just all need to sit and talk about it first. Hopefully it'll be OK. I hope.

Alright, back to work. Peace out.

Title of the last track off of Nine Inch Nails debut album Pretty Hate Machine.

Here's the official picture of Missy's ring, taken by me at the jewelers whilst in the process of picking it up and paying for it. Nice, huh? Picked it out all by myself! I'm so proud.

The planning plods along. We went to look at another place last night, one that was within walking distance of my parents house. We thought we were going to be really impressed with it considering we knew the food was good there, but we didn't like how they'd setup the place for an indoor ceremony, so we kind of ruled it out because of that. Their prices weren't any better either, if anything, a little more than the first place we looked, and you got less food too! So its onto two more places, one tonight and one tomorrow night and then I think we'll make our final call. We're of course leaning to the one place we looked at and our parents are coming with us Sunday for one more appointment. Should be fun!

Red Hot Chili Peppers. Enough said. John Frusciante is a guitar god. Rolling Stone magazine said so, so it must be true.

Anyway, I'm going to try not to make this a 24/7 wedding blog now that I'm getting married, even though getting it from the grooms perspective might be interesting. I'll do my best though, thats a promise. But, on that note, Missy and I went and looked at a catering hall last night and were really impressed. Two down sides in my mind, the price and the fact that Brett is having his wedding there probably two months before mine. But, his fiance is Israeli, and they're having a Kosher menu, so can you say crappy food? I can. As far as the price goes, I really don't know how much per person is too much. Our parents our splitting the cost of everything, and according to my dad for what these things go for, where we're looking isn't out of his range. I'm not sure what Missy's parents range is though, so she really needs to find that out. Regardless, we loved this place, Carlyle On The Green, located as part of the clubhouse where Bethpage State Park is, and the famous Black Course that was host to the US Open a few years ago (Tiger won) and its again hosting it in 2009. Really beautiful place. We had them hold August 2, 2008 for us. We have a follow up meeting with the planner on Sunday morning, bright and early.

Tomorrow night we're going to check out an equally nice place, but probably somewhat less expensive that is literally within walking distance to my parents house. Its called Flowerfield. Brett was supposed to get married there the first time around! Since this one is so close to my parents house, they're going to come with us to look at it. And, since they're coming, we didn't want Missy's parents to feel left out, so they're coming too! We'll all be meeting up at my parents house and walking over to check it out. Should be fun.We went to a wedding back in March that was catered by the same people, different hall though, so we know the food is awesome.

We really don't want to look at too many places. Because we're looking at a summer time frame, places can get booked pretty fast. Honestly, I think we're just going to consider these two and see what they have to offer and then make our choice. Considerations are of course the cost and what our parents can reasonably swing, and the fact that its a Jewish wedding on a Saturday night has some limitations, mostly on when the service can start. Really religious people have to wait until sundown, but we may not have to.

OK, so onto the knock me down part. I started IM-ing my brother's fiance last night to tell her about the stuff we had done so far. Big mistake, and it won't be repeated. I realize she's currently planning her own wedding at the moment and has experience, but she started telling me what's what, and how things are going to be, down to Missy and her mom taking over and planning the whole thing. I kept insisting that its not going to be like that with us, but of course all she did was answer, "hahahahaha" which is really annoying. I was really close to saying that Missy is not her, and I'm not my brother, so when we say we're doing this together as a team, we mean it. Missy is not the type of girl that has had her wedding planned out in her head since she was 10. She has no idea what she wants and as she does get ideas, she'll run the by me and we'll make the decision together. I want to be involved. Its not her wedding, or my wedding, its our wedding. Thankfully my brother hasn't said anything to me today about it. Hopefully it'll blow over, because I don't need to go through all that having to patch things up with her stuff again. I admit last time it was my fault, but I don't think I have to apologize for anything that was said last night. I think the really sore thing was I said that Missy wasn't selfish and hasn't had this planned out for years and wants to include me every step of the way. My brother's fiance took that to mean that I was calling her selfish, which I didn't. I just said Missy wasn't. Big difference.

Anyway, enough about all that. I'm still trying to find new roommates once Seth and Shari move out and we're not having the best time in the world on that front. I think we may just serve out the end of the lease and Rob and I will get a two bedroom place on our own. We shall see.

Title is courtesy of the Canadian rock band Our Lady Peace.

The title would describe Missy, who hasn't really slept much the past three nights and is probably still running on pure adrenaline at the moment. I know I crashed and crashed hard last night over the stress, craziness and everything else that went on this weekend.

So, where did I leave off? Oh yeah, we got engaged Saturday night, went to her parents for about two hours, came back to my place and had some champagne. Then we tried to go to sleep. That was about midnight. Of course we couldn't stop talking. midnight turned to 1 AM, which became 1:30, then 2:00, 2:30 and finally 3:00 AM. Thats about when I passed out. Unfortunately it didn't last too long, because I was up 5 AM, as was Missy. She went on my laptop because she couldn't sleep. I can't blame her. I couldn't either. At about 7:30 she left for her place, because she wanted to shower and get ready for the big brunch meeting of the families later that day. I got ready at my place and headed over to hers a little after that. She went to get a manicure with her mom and her brother's girlfriend. Smart girl, she figured people would be staring at her finger all day, and she wanted nice nails.

While the nails were getting done, I was relaxing at her place, talking with my parents, trying to get a final number of who from family would show up at brunch. Randy came, Mark skipped it, Beth couldn't make it, and I had to go pick up grandma so she could go. So it was ten of us at brunch, me, Missy, her parents, my parents, my brother, my grandmother, her brother and his girlfriend. We had a really nice time. It lasted about two hours. We toasted with champagne and sat around and talked and let everyone have a chance to get to know each other. And of course we at too much. The food was awesome and it was a buffet. So I ate way too much. At the end of everything we all left, but we're all getting back together at my parents house at the end of the month.

First order of business for Missy and I is to pick a place and a date! We're actually looking at our first place tonight, right after I get off of work. Its in the area, so that shouldn't be too bad. we also had a wedding to go to last night at about 5, which, needless to say we were exhausted for, but it enabled us to take some notes, immediately. First thing, we're not getting married at a temple, thats for sure. I don't want uncomfortable pews and Kosher food! But it was nice, we just couldn't stay long. We left at about 9, went back to her place, made some more calls and whatnot, and I passed out at about 10:15 until about 4 when she woke up and had trouble falling back asleep. So at least she got some sleep, not a full nights, but I think she'd take what she got.

So we've at least decided who we want in the bridal party, and its going to be a little unconventional, but its what we want. There will be no maid of honor. She has no sisters and didn't want to have to try to pick one friend to do the duties. She's really close with her brother and she really wanted him to stand up there with her on her side, so he's going to be the Man of Honor! It took a little explaining by her mom that he wouldn't have to plan bridal showers or bachelorette parties and could still partake in all the groom related stuff. He's just got to stand on her side and make a speech at the reception. That put him more at ease. Also, we're going to have a groomsmaid! I really want to include my cousin from my mom's side of the family, so I'm going to ask my cousin to be on my side, but still able to partake in the bridal party stuff, so like the reverse of her brother, but no speech. I'll ask my older brother to be my best man as well. I'd like to have two, but I think it would just be right to have my older brother. I'm debating asking Rob to make a speech at the wedding because he had some really nice words for us both on Saturday night.

So thats where we stand. Craziness, I know. But I'm psyched!

Title courtesy of Taking Back Sunday, a Long Island native band that made it pretty big. The reason? Well, it kind of references Star Trek with the Set Phasers To Stun line. And all I remember from Star Trek is really Next Generation stuff with Captain Picard, and he always would tell someone to set a course and then say, "Engage!" to kick in the warp drive. So, add a D to that phrase and you have what I did tonight. Yup, thats right, Missy and I got engaged tonight! Its crazy, I know! But we both couldn't be happier. Its all surreal, I can't describe it. Oh yeah, and the first few lines of the song are just the lead singer saying, "Say yes, say yes, say yes, say yes!"

So, where to start? Basically lets flash back a month to Missy's surgery. It was then that everything became clear just what she meant to me and how much I truly loved and cared for her. Soon after that I was thinking about getting engaged, despite the fact that we've only been dating for six months. I didn't really care about that. I knew that I had found the right person. Time didn't matter.

So about a two weeks ago I signed up at Tiffany & Co's website to get a diamond consultation. I wasn't going to buy anything there, as they're ridiculously overpriced, but I figured if I was going to learn about diamonds and engagement rings, Tiffany's was the place to do it. So I went and alerted my mom to the fact, and told her that my cover story with Missy as to why I was going to be home late was that I was going to her office for a doctors appointment. So I got some info from Tiffany's and some ideas.

Flash forward to last Tuesday. I was in the city for a seminar at IBM that let out at about noon. I had time to kill, so I got the address of my parent's preferred jeweler in NYC and headed down there. Within an hour and a half I had the diamond and the setting figured out. He said it would be ready for my parents and I to pick up on Saturday morning. So, Saturday morning, this morning rolls around and we head in to pick it up.

We were a little under the gun because my brother Randy and his fiance Beth were heading in to the same jeweler to pick up their wedding bands and we didn't want to cross paths. I wanted to keep this a secret from my brothers at all costs. The only people clued in were my parents and whoever works at my mom's office. So we picked up the ring and headed out, never running into my brother. Then the waiting began. Missy and I had plans for dinner tonight. She finally made it to my house by about 6:30. We headed out to the same restaurant we had our first date at, and had a nice, short meal. We walked around a park with a huge lake in the middle after dinner then headed back to my place.

Missy headed to the bathroom and I proceeded to setup my guitar and amp to sing and play her a song. The song of choice? "Something" by The Beatles. So I sang and played. And when it was over I put the guitar down and kneeled before her at the foot of the bed. I said I had one more surprise for her, that came with bad news and good news. The bad news was that the ring she always wore on her left hand, some silver ring on her middle finger, had to go, because I got her something new to go on that hand. I broke out the box with the ring on it from my pocket and popped the question!

At first she was in total shock and it took me a few seconds to ask the question, "Will you marry me?" Of course she said yes, and thus commenced the whirlwind of phone calls and all that stuff. I called my parents, and let them know, as my mom was anxiously awaiting the word. We called my older brother and spoke to them. All my roommates were home so we told them as well. Then we headed out to her parents house to tell them in person. Her parents were shocked, but ecstatic. Her mom had this shocked look on her face that lasted about 30 seconds! But it was all good. We sat around their kitchen table, making phone calls and whatnot until about 10:30. We headed back to my place, had a few drinks with my roommates and here we are.

Tomorrow, for Fathers Day my parents and her parents are meeting for brunch. The first meeting of the parents, and its post-engagement too! Should be interesting. Alright, I'm a little buzzed and need to head to bed. Long day tomorrow! Meeting of the parents, Father's Day, and we have a wedding to go to! How much does that suck!

Alright, peace out people!

But not in a bad way! Song title is courtesy of Alice In Chains, in what has to be one of the most depressing songs ever. With lyrics like, "I have been guilty of kicking myself in the teeth," you can imagine why the guy OD'd and died.

Anyway, the hole I speak of is my current diet. Its going quite well and I'm down again this week. I lost another 3 pounds, for a total of 19 lost in 5 weeks. I can deal with results like that. Especially now that the weird diet is over and I'm eating like a somewhat normal person, just cutting out a whole lot of crap and bad eating habits. Amazing what not having a pint of Ben & Jerry's in a month will do for you. I'm really just eating less and trying to make some smart decisions for a change. For example, there is really no reason to eat four or more slices of pizza in a sitting. Two pieces suffice just fine.

So enough of that. Plans for this weekend. Well, here's what I can let you in on at the moment. Tonight I'm going to my parents and Missy is going to be meeting me there and we're going to see the new Fantastic Four movie. Saturday morning I need a haircut, and later that evening Missy is coming over so we can go out to dinner. Sunday is Father's Day, but unfortunately we have a wedding that evening, at about 5, so we have to get up early and head to my parents house to spend a little time with my dad, then head to her parents house to spend some time with her dad, then go to the wedding. I'm sure there's more to the weekend than that, but just that is overwhelming enough, especially Sunday. I'll live though. I hope.

Thats about it for now. Have a great weekend people!

Song title courtesy of Maroon 5, off their new album "It Won't Be Soon Before Long." Good disc. Funky song.

So I've been doing a lot of wondering lately. About the future mostly, and what it holds. I know that its stuff I shouldn't dwell on too much, lest the present pass me by and I wasn't even looking. But I can't help it really. I see the future as a very bright thing, for the first time in a number of years. I know I have two main things to credit for that outlook on life, Missy and my new job. (Of course I put the girlfriend first! I'm not that stupid!)

Things with Missy are fantastic. We celebrated our six month anniversary together last night by going to the Cheesecake Factory. We couldn't decide where else to go, so I suggested a place that literally had 5000 things on their menu (I still had trouble deciding what I wanted for dinner!) and 50 different types of cheesecake. (We were good and skipped the dessert, and the appetizers!) It was a good meal and a good time. Earlier in the weekend, Saturday night to be exact, she was cooking us dinner at her place, and I discovered one of the speakers on her computer was blown and very little sound was coming out of it. Since the anniversary was rolling around, and she already got me the awesome, framed, autographed picture of John Mayer for me (did I mention that? Well, she got me that, and gave it to me early for being so awesome when she had surgery and recovering post-op) I went to the Apple Store and got a nice set of new speakers and set them up last night. She loved them as they are very cute speakers, and they match her monitor and PC, which is all that really matters.

Anyway, we had a great time last night, and she's an amazing girl. Thats all I really wanted to say. Although she did scare me a little on Friday night. She was heading over to my house, and she was on the last bit of road before my street, which can get really congested as it filters down from two lanes to one, and some lights cause it to back up. She was at a dead stop and this 65 year old woman rear-ended her. She called me up all in a panic and I bolted out the door to the scene. I don't think I've ever run that fast. Luckily she was OK, and all she'll need out of it is a new bumper. We called the police to come and file an accident report, and thankfully a patrol car was pulling out across the street just as I made the call. The woman hit her while she was at a dead stop, and she's claiming that Missy cut her off or someone cut her off, which is impossible. Anyway, I think she admitted to the cop that it was her fault and she fully apologized before we left to go back to my house. So she called her insurance company, and the woman's insurance company. She found out yesterday that the woman is changing her story and claiming that Missy cut her off, but if any person with a brain were to take a look at the damage to Missy's car they'd see she got hit straight on, not at an angle, which would have to have happened hat she cut someone off. So as a result the other woman's insurance said they'd have to investigate the claim. She gave the insurance company the incident number for the accident report and I guess they looked it up and saw the cops report and most likely saw the part where she admitted fault. So the other insurance will cover it 100%, which is awesome, because she wasn't looking forward to paying a deductible. So that was that. Interesting experience.

Thats about all for now. Hopefully there will be more things of substance to talk about and report on. Keep it real people!

Title is courtesy of the Living End, its the song I'm listening to as I type this. Its featured in Guitar Hero 2 for PS2 and XBox360, and damn is it a tough track! Probably the hardest in the game. But, a good tune from some Australian rockers. I saw them open up for No Doubt and Blink 182 a few years ago and they were impressive. The bassist played an upright bass, and sometimes leaned it against the floor and was able to angle it in such a way so that he could stand on the other end and it would stay balanced. Pretty cool!

So I'm down another 4 pounds this week, for a total of 16 pounds down in 4 weeks time. Not a bad average. I can handle that. I'm getting there, slowly but surely. Still have a ways to go, like 30 pounds to get back to where I was last November before I went away to New Orleans, Thanksgiving and when I met Missy. I'll get there! I can do it, just like the Waterboy!

Plans for this weekend? Missy and I are going out to dinner with a good friend of hers and her new boyfriend. They started dating about two months after we did, so its our first time all out together. I hope the guy is cool, because you know in that situation the two girls are going to gab up a storm, leaving the guys to figure out something to talk about. We went out with another friend of hers from work a few months back, and that woman's husband was cool. I was wearing my Autobot t-shirt under a nice button down and that sparked a whole Transformers, 1980's cartoon and toys conversation, so we got along great. Lets hope we have something similar in common this time around.

Saturday night I'm going to Missy's and she's making us dinner. Something healthy I was promised, which is good. I still find that getting through the weekend unscathed is a tough thing. So far so good, but I feel like I spend half of a week trying to work off the damage of the weekend, so it would be nice not to have to do that and just make progress during the week. But, I'm going to stop complaining about it and just soldier on.

Sunday nothing much is going on, just have plans to relax and eventually watch the Sopranos finale. Can't wait for that.

So have a great weekend everyone and keep on truckin'!

Title is courtesy of Mat Kearney. He's a pretty good singer-songwriter. His songs, this one included have been included in Grey's Anatomy earlier this season and in promos for HBO and stuff. I saw him open on three separate occasions for John Mayer, and each time he was damn good.

Anyway, I wanted to use some kind of word with -iable at the end, mostly because I'm certifiable. Or at least, I hope so. I'm taking a Microsoft Certification test today at work, and I'm hoping to pass it, even by the slimmest of margins, and finally gain my MCSE, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. I've been meaning to get it for awhile, but was just too lazy to. Now, I'm not being lazy. Once I get it, I'll be an MCSE on Windows 2000, yes, a 7 year old technology. But after that its only two more exams to upgrade that to 2003, a slightly less old product. Its all good either way. I wonder if I can ask for a raise once I pass? I doubt it. But it would be nice.

Other than that things are going great. The diet and exercise regime remains on track for the fourth week in a row. I'm hoping the scale is kind to me tomorrow when I officially weigh in. I know it will be. Unless I pig out today, but thats not in the plans. Things are really great with Missy. She's feeling better everyday with her nose and goes back to the doctor on Tuesday for another follow up, during which he'll scope it out and clean out any residual gunk thats in there. She can't wait until she gets the all clear to resume normal activity like exercising. And, we have a meeting of the parents on the horizon! Her parents are coming over to my parents house at the end of the month for dinner. I know I should be nervous, but I'm not. I've been through this twice before and if my parents can handle some real Southerners and real Italians, I know they can handle this. I hope!

So thats about it for now. Back to work and studying for test. Wish me luck!

So, its been three weeks and I've managed to stick to my diet and exercise regime. Go me! Although that middle week involved no exercising, just dieting, but its all good. So in that three weeks I'm down 12 pounds and still going strong. Lets keep up the good work shall we? I still have a long ways to go to get back to where I was last November-ish. I'll get there, it'll just take some time and a lot of perseverance.

Nothing much else to report really. Missy is doing great. Its been almost two weeks since she had her surgery and she's almost 100% again. I'm sure she can't wait to feel totally good again. We had a great weekend too. We saw Knocked Up on Friday night and holy crap was it funny. It was hilarious, like jaw hurting from laughing too much. But, it was also very sweet and romantic comedy-ish.

Saturday we went out for a nice meal at a little mom and pop restaurant in my town that I've passed by 100 times but never eaten at. The food was really good, but the service kind of sucked. They were just slow. Brett came by later that night with his fiance and we had some drinks with Seth, Shari and Rob. Fun night.

Sunday we met my parents, my mom's aunt and her grandson who was visiting form Israel with his family at my great uncle's grave and went out for breakfast afterwards. It was nice to see my cousin, since we don't really see each other all that often. The highlight though, had to be, that my dad let me drive home from the diner, about a 20-30 minute drive, in his Corvette! That was sweet. She sure does purr at 80 mph, and it sure as hell doesn't feel like its that fast.

Thats about all thats on my brain for right about now. Adios!