I did an update! An entire update!
Well, now that things have finally slowed down at work, however temporary it may be, I'm here to update on some big and small things that've happened recently.
May as well start with the big: though most of you know by now, I got engaged on Saturday, February 16th while on my short vacation. The proposal went over great... I prefaced early in the trip that I wanted us to take scenery pictures this trip (we generally do, so it wasn't suspicious) and that Saturday gave us the weather we needed. We went to a park that had a beach overlooking lakeside mountains, and after taking a couple scenery pictures and a few with us in front... I requested we take one more "silly" picture, but instead set the timer and proposed to her while it took the picture. For those who haven't seen the picture and want to, let me know and I can e-mail or AIM/MSN it to you.
But yeah, it went about as well as it could've.. the day was pretty, the moment really caught her off guard, and it was sweet to see her kneel down and hug me while crying after saying yes. I was able to refurbish my mom's old engagement ring, which was already Ren's size, and the results were just right for her. Very simple, very pretty, and she's happy with it without having had to break the bank. The date is set for July 26th at a gorgeous nursery/gardens area in Kelowna specifically set up for weddings... and her dad is also flexing his checkbook in us having the reception at a fancy lakefront hotel. Can't complain there! And if your response is "wow, that's soon!", well, it's going to be a small wedding, she's already taken care of many aspects of the ceremony, and the venue itself supplies some of the necessities.
In other big news, this past month I had the joy of my first major appliance breakdown at home. My heat pump was making really loud noises, so I called my warranty company.. they proceeded to ignore me because it wasn't broken. A few days later.. it's broken! Great thinking there. They then sent someone on emergency service to me, and I was thrilled at first because the guys were nice and came out that very night to look at it. It would turn to disgust later though, as it wasn't for numerous days later before they gave the prognosis.. the warranty company would do $247 worth of repairs... except!
The heating company refused to do the work. Yep. The only way they'd do the work, is if I paid them -$1,300- to clean up my system, completely out of pocket. Yep!! $1,300 out of pocket to clean a 17+ year old heat pump so they can do $247 worth of repairs. Luckily they sent me the estimate for replacing the system? Just a mere $8,888! =D Needless to say, not only did they not get my business, but they're absolutely the catalyst for me never renewing my home warranty again.. it was just utter BS dealing with them.
After shopping around and getting some referrals, $4,000 and two weeks in a cold house running emergency heat later, I got a brand new heating system. Three weeks later I'd be freezing cold again.. but only feeling that way, because I got the flu! =D Our bosses thought it was a great idea to fly people in from Michigan to help.. one of which has been terribly sick for weeks! Now nearly everyone here has been hit with it, and it only took a weekend of me being bed-ridden and almost unable to eat, two days out of work, on top of a doctor's visit and losing 5-10 pounds for me to have recovered now. It's really hard for me to gain weight, so this is a fun process of me trying to gradually get back up to where I was again.
Since then, they've brought this woman back again.. further infecting everyone here, and everyone at the airport and on the plane she came in on! In fact, yesterday after flying here, she was so sick that she just stayed in the hotel room all day. That absurd lack of respect for people's well being has pissed several people off, myself included. It's just like those small outbreaks of childhood diseases that are happening in areas where parents are refusing to vaccinate their kids. Sure, make everyone else pay for your lack of human decency~
Now for the other things: vacation details and some vidya game stuff
The vacation was short and sweet. It was made difficult even prior to the get-go because thankfully Ren had been checking the flights, and noticed that my flight out of Baltimore was cancelled. Continental was very helpful though, and though I had to arrive 20 minutes earlier, I got to do so at a closer airport. Downside is I got stuck going to Houston to get to Seattle in a middle seat facing a wall... but hey, I got there on time, though minus my checked bag. It came later. On the way back, they accidentally fixed my booking a day later than my itinerary. Ahh, Continental.. the nicest little airline that can't get it right the first time!
After that, the trip went smoothly and was just simple and pleasant. We watched the Simpsons Movie, Super Troopers, Night at the Roxbury, and watched several episodes of Cowboy Bebop, which I'm really enjoying thus far. Time was short, so we didn't do anything adventurous, aside from a more-fancy-than-intended dinner out for Valentine's day. She booked a reservation at a nice restaurant, and though her dad very kindly gave her $100 for the dinner, we didn't expect to spend all of it. Little did we know they'd only have a fancy 3-course menu for $50 each, and failed to tell her when she booked it. If not for her Dad's dinner donation, we wouldn't have stayed, but since it was mostly paid for, we did, and it was delicious.. easily the fanciest meal I've had before.
I dropped off Tactics Ogre: Knight of the Lodis and Metroid Fusion for her to play.. I'm happy to see that she immediately took to TO, as her love of strategy RPGs made it a perfect fit. Both of us were disillusioned with FFTA at some point, and TO doesn't have a lot of the pitfalls of SE's strategy offerings, so woot. She loves Metroid too, so when TO eventually runs its course, she's got a cool backup game still. Also, it's a really good lead-in to Ogre Battle 64.. a truly addictive and awesome game I've got sitting in my closet, waiting for someone else to appreciate!
As for things I've recently played and/or finished:
Yoshi's Island DS was really fun. The nostalgia was all over the place since I adored the original SMW2: Yoshi's Island. I thought the addition of different babies with abilities was a really smart way to bring more to the table. While I'll agree it was missing some classic parts of the original, and having 2 fewer worlds seemed strange for a game cartridge that has more memory.. but what was there was great, and the bonus levels had some of the most challenging platforming levels I've ever played.
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker was an addicting blast for me to play. While sure, the game isn't as
May as well start with the big: though most of you know by now, I got engaged on Saturday, February 16th while on my short vacation. The proposal went over great... I prefaced early in the trip that I wanted us to take scenery pictures this trip (we generally do, so it wasn't suspicious) and that Saturday gave us the weather we needed. We went to a park that had a beach overlooking lakeside mountains, and after taking a couple scenery pictures and a few with us in front... I requested we take one more "silly" picture, but instead set the timer and proposed to her while it took the picture. For those who haven't seen the picture and want to, let me know and I can e-mail or AIM/MSN it to you.
But yeah, it went about as well as it could've.. the day was pretty, the moment really caught her off guard, and it was sweet to see her kneel down and hug me while crying after saying yes. I was able to refurbish my mom's old engagement ring, which was already Ren's size, and the results were just right for her. Very simple, very pretty, and she's happy with it without having had to break the bank. The date is set for July 26th at a gorgeous nursery/gardens area in Kelowna specifically set up for weddings... and her dad is also flexing his checkbook in us having the reception at a fancy lakefront hotel. Can't complain there! And if your response is "wow, that's soon!", well, it's going to be a small wedding, she's already taken care of many aspects of the ceremony, and the venue itself supplies some of the necessities.
In other big news, this past month I had the joy of my first major appliance breakdown at home. My heat pump was making really loud noises, so I called my warranty company.. they proceeded to ignore me because it wasn't broken. A few days later.. it's broken! Great thinking there. They then sent someone on emergency service to me, and I was thrilled at first because the guys were nice and came out that very night to look at it. It would turn to disgust later though, as it wasn't for numerous days later before they gave the prognosis.. the warranty company would do $247 worth of repairs... except!
The heating company refused to do the work. Yep. The only way they'd do the work, is if I paid them -$1,300- to clean up my system, completely out of pocket. Yep!! $1,300 out of pocket to clean a 17+ year old heat pump so they can do $247 worth of repairs. Luckily they sent me the estimate for replacing the system? Just a mere $8,888! =D Needless to say, not only did they not get my business, but they're absolutely the catalyst for me never renewing my home warranty again.. it was just utter BS dealing with them.
After shopping around and getting some referrals, $4,000 and two weeks in a cold house running emergency heat later, I got a brand new heating system. Three weeks later I'd be freezing cold again.. but only feeling that way, because I got the flu! =D Our bosses thought it was a great idea to fly people in from Michigan to help.. one of which has been terribly sick for weeks! Now nearly everyone here has been hit with it, and it only took a weekend of me being bed-ridden and almost unable to eat, two days out of work, on top of a doctor's visit and losing 5-10 pounds for me to have recovered now. It's really hard for me to gain weight, so this is a fun process of me trying to gradually get back up to where I was again.
Since then, they've brought this woman back again.. further infecting everyone here, and everyone at the airport and on the plane she came in on! In fact, yesterday after flying here, she was so sick that she just stayed in the hotel room all day. That absurd lack of respect for people's well being has pissed several people off, myself included. It's just like those small outbreaks of childhood diseases that are happening in areas where parents are refusing to vaccinate their kids. Sure, make everyone else pay for your lack of human decency~
Now for the other things: vacation details and some vidya game stuff
The vacation was short and sweet. It was made difficult even prior to the get-go because thankfully Ren had been checking the flights, and noticed that my flight out of Baltimore was cancelled. Continental was very helpful though, and though I had to arrive 20 minutes earlier, I got to do so at a closer airport. Downside is I got stuck going to Houston to get to Seattle in a middle seat facing a wall... but hey, I got there on time, though minus my checked bag. It came later. On the way back, they accidentally fixed my booking a day later than my itinerary. Ahh, Continental.. the nicest little airline that can't get it right the first time!
After that, the trip went smoothly and was just simple and pleasant. We watched the Simpsons Movie, Super Troopers, Night at the Roxbury, and watched several episodes of Cowboy Bebop, which I'm really enjoying thus far. Time was short, so we didn't do anything adventurous, aside from a more-fancy-than-intended dinner out for Valentine's day. She booked a reservation at a nice restaurant, and though her dad very kindly gave her $100 for the dinner, we didn't expect to spend all of it. Little did we know they'd only have a fancy 3-course menu for $50 each, and failed to tell her when she booked it. If not for her Dad's dinner donation, we wouldn't have stayed, but since it was mostly paid for, we did, and it was delicious.. easily the fanciest meal I've had before.
I dropped off Tactics Ogre: Knight of the Lodis and Metroid Fusion for her to play.. I'm happy to see that she immediately took to TO, as her love of strategy RPGs made it a perfect fit. Both of us were disillusioned with FFTA at some point, and TO doesn't have a lot of the pitfalls of SE's strategy offerings, so woot. She loves Metroid too, so when TO eventually runs its course, she's got a cool backup game still. Also, it's a really good lead-in to Ogre Battle 64.. a truly addictive and awesome game I've got sitting in my closet, waiting for someone else to appreciate!
As for things I've recently played and/or finished:
Yoshi's Island DS was really fun. The nostalgia was all over the place since I adored the original SMW2: Yoshi's Island. I thought the addition of different babies with abilities was a really smart way to bring more to the table. While I'll agree it was missing some classic parts of the original, and having 2 fewer worlds seemed strange for a game cartridge that has more memory.. but what was there was great, and the bonus levels had some of the most challenging platforming levels I've ever played.
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker was an addicting blast for me to play. While sure, the game isn't as