Not daily anymore but things are good!

Well my blog has gone from semi-daily to bi-monthly quite quickly. Work has kept me pretty busy these days, I am really getting into the thick of it here at the undisclosed plane factory. I've got plenty more responsibility, they are trusting me with all sorts of stuff and so far I have responded well. My speed at designing, modeling, and drafting is what makes me feel like a lock here as long as I want. I learn quickly and am flying by all my superiors in that regard, but the paperwork can be tedious and I am constantly working on the social interactions (why can't I just email everything?!). So work life is fine, and my time management is improving to the point where I can rebound or play tennis or play WoW after work and still have a good dinner and kick it with Sarah.

A new category I will throw into the mix is LOST. Skip this paragraph if you don't want secrets and spoilers revealed. NOW! Ok, so basically the show is really sweet and they did a good job of getting me to have conflicted feelings about characters and history. Last week Sarah and I finished season 3 so now the brutal wait till season 4 begins. My theories include that the island is at a different time (perhaps time loop) because of the fancy-ass phone that Naomi has and the story she said about how Driveshaft released a greatest hits album. That means that in 92 days the outside world: found the plane crash, determined Charlie was dead, the record producers compiled the album, released it, and the general public who is not a Driveshaft fan has knowledge of the album. Either there is a time discrepancy or she is just plain lying, which could very well be the case. They aren't leaving the island in season 4 and things will only get more complicated. I can't wait.

In WoW news i have hit 57 and am now grinding in the Outlands. Once I hit 58 the game changes from old to new and I will abandon all my current quests in order to accept all the new spiffy Burning Crusade quests. The grinding XP in the Outlands can't be beat but its boring and slow-going. I'm probably 90 kills away from 58 so I will hopefully get in down in 1-2 hours whenever I can get that much gaming on. My gear that I worked so hard and spent so much gold to ramp up will soon be obsolete, so I'll try to focus on good quest rewards to make me powerful all over again. My gold situation is still sweet, I'm around 900g and hope to hit 1k before 60 (when I get my next mount). Apparently there's lots of $ in OL just from kills and quest rewards so here's hoping!

On the Sonics front the changes keep coming. Goodbye Ray and Ra, hello Durant, Green, Kurt Thomas, WallyZ, DWest and a bunch of future picks. Presti has taken control of this team's wheeling and dealing and honestly he's impressing the crap outta me. The verdict is still out on this team as a whole, but I'm hoping we can at least make some waves this season. The arena issue is still grim, but as of this week Brian Robinson over at Sonicscentral.com started the "A Deal is a Deal" PAC. Which means that as long as Mayor Nickles does the right thing, the Sonics will be bound to their KeyArena lease till 2010, and in that time we may find the private investors we're hoping for. Even anti-arena-ist Chris Van Dyke is on board with this because if the lease is bought out it will screw over the city and more importantly the Seattle Center. It may seem like a mess now but if everything pans out just right the sonics could stick around after all.

Last weekend I got my suit for the wedding and its pretty spiffy. Looks really good and I'm pumped that some of my clothing is finally nailed down. Still gotta get some little things along the way like shoes and stuff but its nice knowing the suit is set. The registry is gradually growing, but Sarah and I keep putting on $5-$20 items on the list and the Macy's and Target people point it out to us all the time. Oh well I'm sure there will be enough super expensive gifts to meet some people's appetite. Playing tennis with Sarah recently has been great, we're actually getting some great rallies in and while neither of us is ready for the Open yet, we give each other a pretty solid workout and have fun. We've also gotten into a DVD some friends let us of Freaks and Geeks. Its a pretty funny show and its nice having something (like LOST) where we can enjoy at the end of the day and kick back together.

Well that's most of whats been going on, everything is pretty smooth, my weekends are packed but fun (like helping Bec et al move into their new place) and work is do-able and I'm feelin pretty up-beat about everything. Plus its a nice day out.

Return from Hiatus

Well its been a while since my last update so here is a everything you need to get you all up to date:

Life and vacations: The Banff/Jasper trip with my dad went great, got video footage and when I start having weekends to relax I plan to make a nice, short video of the trip, nature and fun etc. I missed Sarah but returning home was great, its so nice to reconnect with someone that knows you so well. Then we had a relaxed weekend followed by ANOTHER camping excursion with Bec and the gang in fill-in-the-blank-sylvania, near Olympia. Upon Bec's request I am separating out sections of my blog, so there! We returned home last night and have been taking it easy (except for worky) ever since.

Work: Work is keeping me really really busy these days, I have authority (to some extent) and slowly I'm learning to use it. Its crazy seeing the fruits of my labor, and I was recently invited to the 787 unveiling which should be a really fun time. The 4th is on Wednesday so that'll give me just the break I need in my work week. :)

WoW: I know no one reads this section but the update is: lvl 54, 730g (after getting Sarah a present and twinking Poder's gear a bit) and alchemy and herbalism are nearing the topped out stage but they progress very slowly. I have tried to do a 5-man instance called blackrock depths (BRD for short) about 7 times and it has never progressed significantly in each trial. But I'll keep at it and maybe land that perfect group. Grinding really is the way to level a character, I made 100X the leveling speed just killing undead and skeletons in the plaguelands compared to trying to get a group together for BRD. Making progress.

Sonics: Well now we got something! About 30 minutes after drafting Kevin-the-savior-Durant I found myself contemplating jumping off the balcony of the 4th story apartment. Turns out we traded Ray-jesus-shuttlesworth-Allen for the #5 pick (some green guy I didn't know), Wally Szcerbiak (I think I'm gonna toss my cookies), and Delonte West (huh?!). Well since that impulsive moment I have stepped away from the ledge and gotten to know (read) more about the theory behind these picks. Its true Allen is playing on bum ankles but he probably had 3 good years left in him, but the bond between Durant and Green (who played in Wash DC together when they were kids) sounds very Pippen-Jordanesque. Delonte West is the starter everyone is crying for at the PG or SG position and we may or may not be done with our dealings. For a bit we were a team with 6 small forwards but since then it looks like Durant or Green can cover the 2 and 4 while we keep Shard at the 3. So maybe this is the beginning of a new sonics era, and the sun is shinning just a little bit here in Sonicland, lets get out there and see what these kids can do! I'm crossing my fingers that a Watson/Wilcox trade for Rip Hamilton goes thru, I will personally guarantee the playoffs if this team starts the season with Durant, Green, Lewis, and Hamilton. Here's hoping!

Misc: This 4th of July I'm debating not doing the chaos fireworks at gasworks, its fun for a bit but ultimately a long stretch of time for all the hassle we have to go thru. Now that we live in Ravenna the commute is even rougher, so there's a possiblity we will pass this year. A friend of ours is going to watch the Transformers movie so maybe we'll do that instead. Interesting news article today: there are 12 7-elevens that over the weekend turned themselves into kwik-e-marts! One is in Seattle so I'll be on the hunt for that place which will sell buzz cola and other fake-turned-real simpson products. Should be fun! The wedding preparations are well underway and I've scoped out the hotels in NY for our honeymoon, this trip will be amazing and I'm pumped to have that sort of a relaxing time just me and Sarah. We have been brainstorming "recuerdos" (things to give each wedding guest at the wedding to remember it by) and we are slowly closing in on the top secret selection. Sarah and I are lost in LOST, the show is amazing but I won't ruin it for anyone (I am halfway thru season 3) so I will not discuss anything lost related on this blog. Just know that the show is GREAT! I posted on Sonicscentral a couple times last week and had some heated debates over there about our team, there's a good set of guys over there, I wish that Supersonicsoul would get as much discussion as the "central" does but I assume that both sites are viewed by all true fans. Good luck ray I will wear your jersey with pride. Next time I promise to update more often so that posts like this one don't have to happen. peace