Travelling Man

EDIT: Clara's 2yr portraits are online and too cute for words. DeAnn spent time last night putting them up on the Photobucket. Have a look!

Just a quick update on some highlights from last week and the weekend. I haven't fallen off the face of the earth - I've been driving all over it!

-I was on customer sites most of the week last week. The first two days I was out at Boerne working on configuring some new workstations and setting up printers. The third day I was out at my old friends in New Braunfels cleaning up some viruses on remote computers. I got a call on my way home from there to go out to Boerne and fix a high-priority email issue, so I didn't get home until nearly 8 that night. I was out at Boerne again first thing this week to fix up some remaining printer issues.

-My request for PTO on the Monday after Christmas was actually approved. Praise Jesus! We're in a position where we can afford to fly north for Christmas. I'm really excited about getting to see real snow around Christmas for a change. :P Some of my family I haven't seen in going on 5 years now... x.X; This probably means we can't afford an HDTV for Christmas, but it's WELL worth it. We got plane tickets last night for much less than expected, and picked up a rental car for the drive home. ^^/ Combined with the NIN concert next week, going to El Paso for Thanksgiving and my company's Christmas party, D and I have 1-2 things going on each month through the end of the year. :P

-We rescheduled Colin's birthday party that was scheduled for this Saturday to next Saturday. We got no RSVPs from his classmates saying they'd attend, so we're going a different route and only inviting close family friends and neighbors that he actually plays with. I've never understood the whole "Invite everyone in your class" idea anyway: spend a ton of money on kids you KNOW he doesn't play with or may not even like vs. spend a lot of money and have people we like and have fun with regularly to party.

-Clara had her 2yr portraits done this weekend. We get online proofs sometime this week. She had pictures done in her Pirate Baby costume (complete with buckle boots!) and a cute dress sent from the grandparents. She really hammed it up, and they gave us a discount when we agreed to let them use her for their display models. If any of you want access to the online proofs, call/email/comment and I'll get you the info you need to login and look for yourself. ^_^

-While D took Clara to get pics taken, Colin and I went out Halloween shopping. It was nice to get some quality time with just him and I. He wanted to go as a Star Wars character to start with, but once he saw a really cool pirate saber, it was right back to pirate again. :D All we need now is for D to have a pirate costume and we'll all be swashbucklers this year. :P Also got a pound of fake webbing, a gallon of fogger fluid, 3 big bags of candy (one of which we already got into >.>) and a blacklight for the front door. Combined with the stuff we have from last year, our house ought to look pretty decked out this year. One of these years, I want to turn the garage into a haunted house, but that involves cleaning it first... Halloween is my favorite holiday, and I love being able to go all out with it. :D

-Gaming was pretty sparse this past week. The new schedule makes it tough to do much of anything late in the evening, because by the time we get around to sitting down, it's already past time to go to bed... Keri and I have the BST bug again, so we got online to crank out a few ring charges on BST over the course of the week. Later, I subbed BST on my RDM to level it, and was pleasantly surprised at how much anything/BST owns. XD I freaking mowed things over and got about 2 levels in one hour. We did our Nyzul static, only climbing up 5 floors due to bad luck and being a bit off our game. Dynamis - Jeuno yielded BLM AF2 for Keri, and sky gods the following night gave her the abjuration she needs for the Zenith Crown. I just wish I could get in on some Genbu's for Zenith Mitts, but the way things look with Soulfire, that's not gonna happen for quite some time.

-D had a meet, greet and eat at a fancy, upscale restaurant last night. I told her I'd take care of the kids and that she should go and have a blast. Colin went out to play after he got the dishes done, Clara went down relatively early and D got home just after Colin went to bed. She said she had a lot of fun: got to meet with her boss and other people she'll be working with, they had live music at the place where they ate, and she ate really well. She had Fillet Mignon, color me jealous. :P

That's about it for now. As you can see, I've far from disappeared. If anything, I'm starting to master being in two places at once. LOL