Apartments and Planes

Well, I went and got the keys for the new apartment this morning. Its very cool. The parking is a little sparse but I can deal. There’s also unfortunately a car-port right in front of the side of the complex I’m on so I won’t be parking directly in front of my apartment. I can however, park beside it and see my car from the bedroom window. I had a little trouble sorting things out with the rental office this morning. The keys they gave me didn’t work and neither did the gate openers. They reprogrammed the openers for me while a maintenance guy changed the door locks, so everything is working now. The gate is pretty weird though, it only opens on one side but its a double sided (two lane, in and out)gate. Although that could simply be my opener not working 100%. We’ll see.

As for the apartment itself, I don’t have any pictures to show yet but I can give you a mental walk through… As you come in, the kitchen is immediately to your right, separated by a bar. The living room is immediately to your left. Also on the left, through the living room is the “study” or second bedroom. Strait ahead as you come in the door is the dinning room (connecting to the kitchen on the right). Further in, there’s a large closet (for the washer and dryer) on the left and the master bathroom is on the right. At the end of the hall is the master bedroom and a huge (room sized) walk in closet. I’ll get some pictures soon.

Also, Jason just let me know that he’s flying into Intercontinental Airport on Friday morning. I’ll figure out some way to get him but for those of you who haven’t booked your plane tickets yet, please, for the love of god, fly into Houston-Hobby. Not Houston-InterCont. Hobby is much closer (only 10 minutes away) and I know it and the area pretty well. I don’t even know where INTC is.

Later.

So much to mention, so little time

This entry could go on and on but I’ll try to keep it brief and stick to the bullet-points.

Hopefully no one has booked plane tickets for Friday yet (Jason and Nagle) because there’s been a slight twist. The rehearsal needs to be pushed up closer to 1-2pm because of scheduling conflicts with the minister. This simply moves the time table forward so dinner would be before 5.

Also, it just occured to me that you guys might not have a ride to the airport once Lauren and I leave. I’ll try to find you rides (my folks are staying in town for a day or two) but someone might consider renting a cheap car. Something to think about.

I move into the apartment this week. It will have no utilities because I can’t contact the electric company because their phone system is messed up. Yippee.

Still no word on where my stuff is. Matt’s getting angry.

Work is good, I have weddings every weekend until, well, my wedding. We just got a new monitor for me, a new graphics card for Paul and a new external DVD writer for both of us. It’s one of the nice Sony duel formats. Very slick.

I need Chip’s Dad’s mailing address. I have an invitation to mail him. Speaking of invitations, they went out earlier this week. You should have them shortly if not already.

I want a Tivo.

Half Life 2 is delayed. Not surprising. That sucks.

I also had some political things to ramble about, but The Screen Savers is on, so it’ll have to wait.

That is all.

Observations

I would like to make the following observations:

1) Fajita Hot Pockets suck… a lot.
2) Never ever call Lexar tech support. They are mindless cattle.
3) When the electric company voicemail system disconnects you because the wait is too long, there’s something wrong with that phone system.
4) Two button mice should have been outlawed years ago. You poor Mac bastards.
5) Playing Jedi Academy in 1600×1200 is a very good thing. If only the game didn’t blow.
6) Having lunch at 2:35 doesn’t really count as “lunch”, its more of a “linner” sort of thing.
6b) Working strait through lunch until 2:35 also sucks.

Those would be my observations from this morning. You can see what kind of a day I’m having. Well, except for Jedi, that was played yesterday.

In a random note, Paul was throwing out a perfectly good (define good) Compact Presario when I stopped him and said that I would take it. I’ll throw a few NIC cards in there and turn it into a SmoothWall, which I’ve been wanting to try for a while. Should be a fun project for my new apartment.

Oh, and a big thanks to Chris, Jason and Nagle for getting their tux messurements down to me. Thanks guys. I’ll call those into the tux place today or tomorrow.

Later.

Mass confusion and a general sense of panic

At least that’s what everyone would have you believe. If you’re a Perry that is. Apparently, the disorganization of my family (extended, not immediate) is finally getting to them in the form of travel arrangements for my wedding. There are some very simple facts that nearly all of them have over looked and/or forgotten to even ask me about. First, there are 2, count’em, 2 hotels in League City TX. One is a “suites” style hotel that is expensive. The other is a Super 8. No one wants to pay for the suites and alternatively, no one wants to stay at a Super 8. This has cause quite a panic. They wanted to get some group rate at a Hilton or Marriott when there simply isn’t one. This is a very small city, Milford sized. They should be happy there’s a Super 8. So, I’ve looked up several alternatives for them in hopes that one of them might be acceptable. The problem with those is that they’re too far away and they’ll require a map just to figure out where they are and where they’re going. One aunt wants to get a group rate somewhere. One uncle wants to stay IN Houston, which I’ve advised against already. The rest of’em are just plain disorganized and have no idea whats going on.

At least my parents are back on the path to organization. They’ve found a piece of land they like and are trying to figure out the logistics of putting a house on it. My mom also promises to be shipping all my belongings this week. That in itself is a huge joy and relief because on the 30th, I’m moving into my new apartment. I’ll actually have “stuff” to move. That also means I’ll have all the modern conveniences I’ve long needed. An alarm clock for instance. Chairs will be nice. As will my computer and the toaster. This also means I’ll be able to update regularly and start back in on personal projects I had going. A new website redesign for this journal, logos for Chip for the “Save the Hindenburg” café press store, etc. It also means I’ll have me blessed music collection back. Something I’ve missed dearly for far too long.

This should be a very stressful week though. Moving in, plus invitation shenanigans, wedding plans, hotel reservations, money (and lack there of), work. It’s going to be rough. This week we have to:
-finish addressing invitations and mail them
-have 3rd meeting with Steve, the preacher
-transfer electric for new apartment
-set up cable, water, etc
-get personal belongings moved from shipping receiving center to somewhere
-move in to the apartment
-finalize plans with DJ
-make hotel reservations for wedding night
-work all day, every day
and a whole host of things I’m sure I’m forgetting.

So. That’s my life. How’s yours?

ENTRY #1000!!!!!

Wow. How messed up is that? It’s taken me a year or two but I’ve reached the 1000 entry mark. Damn. That’s a lot of mindless rambling on my part. I had planned on a “greatest hits” entry but I really don’t have the time to search through the entire journal for entries I remember enjoying writing. Well, there was that Harry Potter one

What I will do however, since Chris specifically asked me to, is to repost the list of places where Lauren and I have registered. We did that way back in March/April and people have probably forgotten… or maybe it’s just Chris, who knows. 🙂

Alrighty. First, let me just say that we registered at multiple places because the stores here in TX are different than the stores in NH and Canada. For example, we don’t have many Dillards Dept Stores up north. Here, they’ve all but taken over for JCPenny. That’s just an example. So, with that in mind we registered at places we thought would be in both regions and if worst came to worst, online as well. All these places can probably be found nearby and if not you can always order things online, which I figured all my techy friends would want to do anyway.

In no particular order:

Bed Bath and Beyond – Wedding Registry Page
Instructions: put my full name into the search box. we should be near the bottom, registry # 1033055.

Target – Registries Page
Instructions: same thing. Click “groom”, put in my name. Look for Lauren and I.

Dillards – “Find a Couple” Registry
Instructions: same as above

JCPennys – JCPenny Gift Registry
Instructions: Click “wedding on the left. Select “View/Purchase from existing registry and click next. At the top, in “Search by Registry number” put in “00140297” and click GO. Double check to make sure its ours.

That’s all I can remember off the top of my head. I’ll ask Lauren when she gets back on Sunday if we’ve registered any place else. She’s out of town at the wedding of our friends Liisa and Josh. Which, I should congradulate since they probably going to be married in about an hour or so. I’m sure they will be infinately happy together. They were made for each other.

Let’s see. Other than that everything is pretty much normal. Workin’, day in and day out. The new computer is working out well. Very slick system. I’ve had some random video issues but I’m pretty sure its just ATI sucking. They were fixed with a patch. I also picked up Star Wars: Jedi Academy the other day. Fun game. Same complete lack of compelling story just like the frist game but multiplayer is fun. I think it was a little short changed on features though. They added a few multiplayer game types but they’re nothing special. They also boast about how you can make “your own custom character and light saber”. Well, there’s about 5 different combonations you can make and most of them look pretty similar anyways. About the only cool thing in the addition of duel light sabers and double-bladed light sabers. I just wish they would have taken a little more time on the small things, like death animations. They’re pretty much limited to a) guy falls over backwards b) guy falls over forwards c) guy loses arm and falls either forward of backwards. Thats it. Now, lemme get this strait. I’m weilding a friggin light saber. A device that can cut through solid rock like butter. You’re telling me you couldn’t have come up with an animation for slicing through storm troopers more elaborate than “oops, his arm fell off”? Come on guys.

Oh well. Still fun multiplayer.

That’s pretty much it. Later.