Hmmm. Liz posed an interesting question to me the other day. Er, rather, it was our friend Brian who asked us this question. I don't quite have an answer, but it did make me realize that I need to maybe spend some more 'quality' time with Liz.

Well, our friend Brian asked us, as Liz was walking on the treadmill and I was bursting my vains trying to lift some weights... "What do you guys do together?"

I hate these damn simple, yet complicated questions. I couldn't quite tell Brian what we do together other than that we 'hang out'. The thing is, that Liz and I spend precious little time together as is. We try to spend our weekend together, whether it is going to hang out with friends or dinners..etc. But when it comes down to it, we don't really spend quality time just hanging out and talking with each other. On weekends, either she would come down or I would go up and we'd always go visit friends, goto friend's parties, go out with friends...etc. Its fun and all, but I feel like I am beginning to miss her. Take last weekend, for example. Saturday morning Liz drove down to my house, we went to D&B's for our friend's brithday party, then we drove back up to the city to have dinner at a Moroccan resturant for another friend's birthday. Then we dropped her off at home and I went home. Sunday we went to church, bible study, and then she went home and I had to go help out at the other church. Sunday night we had dinner with my parents, and then both her and I went home.

What a hectic schedule! Through this whole time we were hanging out with all our friends, and yet no time were we alone together. I think she misses that, and I do too. Granted, we don't want to be hanging out all the time and get sick of one another, but I don't think we're hanging out with each other enough. I guess its a balancing act, and I'm just not quite sure where the balance point is yet.

Anyways, so, today's goal, hopefully, is to get out of work early and go up and surprise her. Then I'm going to simply sit down with her and maybe have dinner and just chat with her. That's my projected evening. That is, provided, that I can get out of work early. *sigh*.

:-)
john

Here's something I read thats interesting. Its so true that ever since I realized God's grace and how my life has just been filled with joy since I've believed in Him, this is just a really neat-o summary.....


God's Boxes
I have in my hands two boxes Which God gave me to hold.
He said, "Put all your sorrows in the black box,
And all your joys in the gold."
I heeded His words, and in the two boxes
Both my joys and sorrows I stored,
But though the gold became heavier each day
The black was as light as before.
With curiosity, I opened the black,
I wanted to find out why,
And I saw, in the base of the box, a hole
Which my sorrows had fallen out by.
I showed the hole to God, and mused,
"I wonder where my sorrows could be."
He smiled a gentle smile and said,
"My child, they're all here with me."
I asked God, why He gave me the boxes,
Why the gold, and the black with the hole?
"My child, the gold is for you to count your blessings,
The black is for you to let go."

Well, l did a bad thing last weekend.
As my friend and I are getting off the lift at Donner Ski Ranch, we both fell and I hit her over the head with my snowboard and make her goto the hospital and get 8 or so staples in her scalp. Yikes.
Lesson learned? well, either 1) I'm going to try to find a titanium helmet for her so she will NEVER hurt her head again or 2) just never get on a ski lift with me.

Yikes, I feel really bad. She says its ok but I still feel pretty bad. yikes
j

Also, today I exchanged knuckle sandwichs with Sprint PCS.

So last night, I called in to activate the 2nd phone line for my parents. Both phone lines will be billed to me, but I wanted 2 seperate phone numbers. So, anyhow, I called in, got the 2nd line, and this morning found out that my origional line was dead. YIKES!

So I called in this morning at 9AM, and after waiting for 30 minutes on hold, the Sprint service rep told me that there is an outage in Northern California in general. So I said OK and went back to work. But it was bugging me. So I called back at lunch time, and finally, after argueing with them for about half an hour, someone told me my account was suspended! Finally, at around 4PM my phone service was restored. yikes!

Anyways. well, maybe I shouldn't change my plan as much. Then they'd have no reason to much with my account.
:-)
john

Hey! Look! 2 days in a row of blogging!

I took some performance measurements of my experiment today, and the data seems to be coming out correctly. So, I'm getting a little breather, and just reflecting upon all the work that I have done and day-dream a bit....

1st thing that came to mind was my junior year in college, when I learned the quote "Love God and do as you please". I thought that was such a neat-o quote. It's a simple quote by St. Augustine (sp?) and it encompasses sooo much! I've always felt you'd have to be sooo in tuned with God to be able to live up to the "do as you please" part of the quote. Its so important for us to "Love God" first. That's the most important part. And, as you "Love" God, God will instill in you the things that you "want" to do and take away the desire to do the evil things. Therefore, you'd be "do as you please" in God's kingdom. How awesome would that be?

Anyhow. Back to work.
:-)
john

Again, haven't posted in a while. Its quite a bummer. I like to ramble on, but sometimes I just have no time....

You know, I love my work. The stuff that I am doing, though its a pain in the rear, its really nice. Lately, I've been playing with task scheduling in an RTOS (Real-Time Operating System) and trying to figure out how the computer schedules "tasks" (aka, things to do) and how to make it more efficient. Its a lot of trial and error for me, but its fun! The more I dig into it the more I like it. The worst part of all this is that I am working 12 hours a day and Saturdays too, and have no time for myself or Liz....

New Years Resolutions: (yeah, I make them every year, I've done pretty well the past 2 years in keeping them, so here goes nothing...)
1. Set my priorities straight in regards to spending more time with Liz
2. Ask for a raise, or get a new job if I don't get a raise.
3. Goto the gym at least 2x a week
4. Study the bible at least 2x a week
5. Take the GMAT at least once this year...(that includes studying for it).

These are some tall goals. They may not seem that much to you, but to me its a lot. Its a year of doing not so much "BIG" things/events happening in my life, but these are goals of consistancy - something that I think I lack in. I feel that I need these to start to not just work really hard at my job but also work hard in other areas of my life....

There must be something magical about a new year. If you really think about it, its just another day of the year. Technically, its no more special than say, July 13th..(wait, that IS a special day...its Liz's B-day). But I dunno why at the end of December I just feel so tired and wanting to get the year over with. But January seems to be filled with hope and promise. Maybe God gave us new years to refresh and renew ourselves and set new goals and have more things to look forward to. I know I definitely have lots of things to look forward to (see new years resolutions!)

You know, every year, I evaluate my motto. I've decided to keep it the same this year.. "Work hard, play hard, and never forget to smile!". I'm keeping it not out of laziness, but I've always thought that the most important part of the motto was the "smile" part. Now I'm realizing the importance of "work" hard, too. Not that I didn't work hard before, just that every year I need to strive to work harder... *sigh* I wish I was smarter. My two brain cells (that are left after all the beer in college) are working overtime as is....

anyways. time for bed. Maybe another resolution this year is to update my blog more often!

john

Sorries, Sorries....
I know I haven't been blogging lately... The Holidays are nice and relaxing, but, at the same time, its spending time away from my computer and with people that I haven't talked to. I know a lot of you are complaining that I haven't updated anything lately, so here's how my holidays were...

Christmas was fun! I like getting presents. I got a GUND bear and a wok from Liz for Christmas. It was kewl! I like the wok. I've been cooking with it. It still needs to be broken in (because its NOT a non-stick, everything sorta sticks to it right now.. just needs to be greased up a bit). That, and the bear is really really soft. Now that I think about it, thank goodness I went to pick up that heart shaped pendant for her from Tiffany's... otherwise, I'd feel kinda bad!

We spend Christmas eve at my parents house, where a had a HUGE headache... I ended up sleeping through most of the party, but work up in time for my brother's birthday cake and the gift opening. I bought my parents a football shaped red bowl, for them to put fruits and stuff in... Other than that, I got a blockbuster certificate, some money, and a disney framed picture for Christmas. The framed picture is quite nice, as it goes along with all the other Warner Bro/Disney stuff that I have on my wall that leads to upstairs. Liz had fun, I think. She met all my relatives for the first time. They all liked her...

Then we went to Liz's parents house for dinner on Christmas Day evening, where we had Honey Baked ham and yams and string beans and salad. Her mom had these flavored croutons that were soooo yummy.... hmmm. I gotta go find some of those..

:-)
john