Something in the way.

Yesterday we were hit by a blizzard in Massachusetts (and the whole east coast).  My flight was canceled and now I can't get in contact with Delta to reschedule a flight home.  I am loving it here with all this snow!  Unfortunately I am working from "home" here in MA, so I can't really enjoy the snow until much later today and maybe tomorrow morning.  I'll try to post some pictures up later here or maybe facebook.

Last night Gerry and Sarah stopped by which was awesome.  I don;t have a car to drive around and visit people, so that was very nice of them.  Anyone is welcome to stop by while I am here to visit.

The title: Nirvana - Something in the Way

There's no place like home for the holidays

When I arrived at my parent's house there was an amazing spread of appetizers to snack on all night.  My brother and girlfriend were there, and so was my nephew.  We opened presents and listened to Christmas music.

Saturday morning we awoke to a Christmas that was not white.  What did we do about that?  We grabbed a snow gun that I made when I was a kid and headed to  my brother's house.  My brother has some huge air compressors that he uses for sandblasting and they worked perfect.  We only ran it for about 15 minutes, but that was enough to cover a bit of his front lawn with a dusting of snow.

I spent the day with my parent's at the home of my nephew's mom.  She made a crazy amount of fantastic food.  I ate way too much.  I played a lot of Mario Kart with the kids there.

Tomorrow I will be heading to church here and I am dreading having to explain that I am no longer married.  At least Esther answered my text today wishing her Merry Christmas.

I am supposed to be flying home tomorrow night, but that might now happen.  Today it snowed in Georgia (where my layover is) and it hasn't snowed in Atlanta in over 100 years.  It should start snowing here around 6am and be blizzard conditions from noon until noon the next day!

The title: Perry Como - Home for the Holidays

I'm on a plain

Greetings!  I am coming to you live from a plane (not a plain, but over a plain)!  The wireless is free (thanks google) but it is crazy slow and keeps cutting out.  It is something though.  My friend Jenn brought me to the airport in my car and as she was leaving the airport hit a pothole and is stranded there waiting for AAA.  I have been texting her through my gmail account (thanks again google) and discussing what to do since R32s don;t have spare tires.  Jenn dropped me off at 5:30am and it is now almost 9:30.  I owe her really really big.  So Jenn, if you are reading this, I am soooo sorry for getting you stranded on Christmas Eve and I can't express to you how grateful I am for you giving me a ride.

The title: Nirvana - On a plain

57 Channels and nothing on

Mondays are a bummer with Hulu because there's no new shows and on top of that many shows are on break for the holidays, so there nothing to catch up on.  Tonight I watched "A Nanny for Christmas" and then the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with Natalie Cole.  Good stuff.  Now I'm listening to the Glee Christmas album.

For some reason Davin and I can't get into the jump box through the work VPN right now, so he is going in early in the morning.

I found super sweet site for sending Christmas e-cards it is portablenorthpole.tv and you can make custom videos from Santa to your friends that says their name and shows pictures of them.

My friend Renae asked for a nintendo game for Christmas.  I was shocked to find that there are any NES systems left that run.  I don't miss blowing in cartridges to make them work hehe.

The title: Bruce Springsteen - 57 Channels (and nothing on)

I like watchin' the puddles gather rain

Is there anywhere that I can live that just has warm weather and snow?  I would like to skip the rain.  Well, one day of rain is fine I guess, but 4 in a row is a bummer no matter which state you live in.

Today was the Christmas program at church, and it was really excellent.

Last night I was at a friend's house making graham cracker houses.  Although much cheaper and faster than gingerbread, it is much harder to shape graham crackers because they are so brittle.  I made the Provo Temple.

The title: Blind Melon - No Rain

Can I handle the seasons of my life?

I was so happy for an extremely busy day today at work.  It was good to get my mind off of real life and just work.  I gave everyone at work nerf guns today.  Hopefully some good fun comes out of that.

I like a soap opera.  I know, shameful, but I really enjoy it.  The show is Being Erica.  I thought it got canceled at the end of the 2nd season because no new episodes came on Hulu, but it turns out there is 3rd season!  The same thing happened with the show Merlin which I also love.

I am supposed to be hitting the gym every day, but instead I have been baking every day.  Exercise is one that that I have a lot of trouble doing alone.  I miss having Lily to work out with.  She isn't planning to visit California until this summer.  I certainly can't wait that long to do some exercise haha.

I ordered a computer today.  I got a pretty loaded Dell XPS 8100 with a 24" monitor for $1000.  Oddly, it absolutely killed me to spend that much money.  There's one thing I use more than anything though, and that's a computer.

I cannot motivate myself to tackle the mountain of boxes of my stuff in the middle of my living room.  I need to get the stuff put away, but I would rather not look at it and just stuff it in a closet.  I have the extra closet space since this place has 2 bedrooms and it looks like the other one is never going to be filled with a person.

The tabernacle in Provo burned down today.  Lots of people are sad, but I've never been there, so I don't really know how great it was.

For dinner tonight I made tomato jalapeno soup.  I went a bit overboard on the jalapenos, but it was very tasty even if it was a tad spicy.

The title: Smashing Pumpkins - Landslide

Who can it be now?

This evening just after I got home someone knocked on my door.  When I opened there was a huge crowd of people Caroling!  I stood on the balcony in my shorts and listen to them.  My neighbors did the same.  It was pretty awesome!

Our department at work today went to Dave and Busters .  They bought us all dinner and gave us cards to play games for hours.  It was a wicked good time.  In case I haven't mentioned it before, I love the place I work so much!

Volkswagen is releasing a new car to replace the R32.  It may be time for me to get a new car.

I bought myself some Christmas presents.  I got a 6 quart Kitchenaid mixer and a nerf gun.  Making pizza dough by hand is impossible.  you have to kneed it for like 30 minutes and it is really hard to do unlike normal bread dough.  Why a nerf gun?  Today Mandy from another department came to my desk and distracted me with fudge that she made and then unloaded on me with her nerf gun!  Over the past week I have made more than 30 dozen cookies.  Amazingly I have only eaten 10 cookies out of all those.

The title: Men at Work - Who Can it Be Now?

For the holidays you can't beat home sweet home.

Well, if home is where the heart is then I have no idea where "home" is.  I love it here in California, but man do I miss Massachusetts in the winter.  I know that so many of you are wondering how I can choose snow over bright sunshine and warm days.  There's 10 days 'til Christmas, and Christmas to me is not a day at the beach.  I guess living in MA Christmas was rarely white, but there's something about the crisp air, smells of wood stoves, trees without leaves, and people bundled up from head to toe that make it just so awesome!  Part of my heart is also divided off to my now ex-wife Esther, but I pretty much just try and block that out because it kinda hurts to think about.  I am flying to Massachusetts on the 24th and flying back on the 26th!  Not very long to be there, but I will be with my family for Christmas :)

I have had no luck convincing people to visit me here!  So many people say how nice it must be, but nobody wants to visit.  The only excuse I ever hear is that it is too expensive.  I am considering putting together a contest to fly a friend here for a week with me.  Would anyone be interested in that?

My job is really fantastic.  I can't say that enough.  I really love the people that I work with *and* the job!  Today I had a meeting with someone on the network security team to discuss reworking the network for our filers.  They encourage us to make suggestions to make things better here and they actually get implemented when they are good ideas!  Why has it been impossible in many places I have worked to suggest improvements?

I have a TON of pictures to post to update my online photo gallery, but I haven't worked on any of them in probably a year.  I'm going to have to work on that real soon.

I have so much more to say, but I have to get to bed.  All that I have to say probably won't get posted, but feel free to call or email if you like!

The title: Various Artists - Home for the Holidays

The house is a rockin'

I just felt my first earthquake in California!  It is estimated at a 4.8 and will be updated in 15 minutes with the actual reading.  Pretty cool. 

Esther is about to board a plane to fly here.  Hopefully California is still attached to the US when she gets here hehe.

The title: Stevie Ray Vaughan - The House Is Rockin'

Traffic jam, got more cars than a beach got sand

The traffic in California is legendary and today I got a heavy dose of it.  I live about 10 miles from work, but it took me almost an hour to get home.  My work has a "Social" every Friday at 4pm.  Free food that is themed, and free drinks.  By free drinks I mean a cooler full of soda and water and a bunch of different beer on tap.  Unlimited.  Fo realz.  The problem is that I get off at 4:30, and if I do not leave immediately a wave of people going home bombards the route I take and we all sit in gridlock together.  I went to the social to get some eats instead of going home right away.  The food was great, but the traffic was not.

I am visiting "home" this coming week.  I don't know what is classified as home anymore.  CA, UT, or MA?  I went to church this past Sunday here in California and I really like my new ward.  Matt Beynon served 7 month of his mission in this ward and told me it is fantastic.

If you find yourself in the San Diego area please call me :)

The title: Dave Matthews - Too Much

Going To California with an aching in my heart

On May 9th I got in my car and drove to San Diego.  I have been here almost a week and I believe that this is pretty close to heaven on earth.  Here I have water and trees like Massachusetts and mountains like Utah.  To make it even sweeter the temperature is perfect and there are palm trees everywhere.  So, if you're wondering what state to find me in, it is California for now.  I have a 1 year contract at Intuit as a Storage Admin and so far I am loving it.  My first week of work was challenging and pleasant.

The title:  Led Zeppelin - Going to California