Dance class was relatively easy tonight. We finished up the swing dance sessions and are onto the waltz. I doubt that I'll ever be very good at swing, but the waltz is relatively easy. You just need to remember to alternate the lead foot. It's similar to the foxtrot too, which helps. I think it's ease is one of the main reasons it's usually performed as the first dance at weddings.

It was a very busy - yet productive - weekend. We booked a reception place, a church, got a block of hotel rooms, and took care of the caterer. We thought we had a minister, but they're going to be on vacation, so we need another of those. I have an appointment to get tuxes this weekend too. We're on target so far, and even further along than our calendar says we need to be. We need to get a photographer, order the save the dates, finish the registry, and finish the guest list this week. All very doable.

It's a go for 07-07-07.

Lindsay and I are headed off to Maryland tonight. We'll be visiting the Stronghold Mansion at Sugarloaf Mountain. It looks like that's going to be where our reception is held. We're also going to try to finalize the church and get a pastor for the ceremony too.

Looks like I'm going to get the Change Control Analyst job. That's what I expected anyway, but I wanted to let them know that I'm interested in the IT Manager job anyway.

This new position will put me in charge of software development for the company. I'll be prioritizing work and directing the programmers. I'll also be responsible for the quality of all the code coming out of the department.

I should start in that position by the middle of March.

I had another hour long interview today. It basically sealed up the CCA position for me. They've outlined their hopes and expectations for the position, and basically given me free roam to do what it is that I wanted to do, so that's good.

The offer still hasn't officially been made though, so I'll be interested to see what kind of raise it includes. I've been told to expect from 6-8%, which, while not great, isn't too bad. I should hopefully find out fairly soon.

I had a two hour interview today for the positions I applied for (Change Control Analyst and IT Manager.)

I knew going in that I'd most likely get the CCA job, and that's what they're going to recommend. It wouldn't surprise me if they made me that offer very quickly, though I do have another interview tomorrow, so we'll see what happens.

So here's how it went down...

I took Lindsay to a bed and breakfast this weekend. We were the only people there (other than the owners of course.) We had a loft area, game room, bedroom, and bathroom complete with two person jacuzzi all to ourselves. Downstairs there was an attached 7500 SQ feet greenhouse with in ground heated swimming pool, hot tub, and bathroom with a shower.

We had dinner in the loft Friday night and then lounged around in the hot tub basically all day Saturday. Saturday night I took her to a restaurant named The Oaks. It was very nice, but I wasn't about to propose then, because I thought she expected it.

So Sunday rolls around and we get all packed and ready to go, and I sit her down in front of my laptop and tell her to go to www.lindsay-and-tim.com. There she sees a quiz on how I went about getting her parents blessing. When she found out that I had flown out to Maryland and back on the same day when I had told her that I was at work, she started crying. She then clicked on the "Our Engagement" link. That page was the story of the weekend to that point, and what was to come. It started (and it's still up there by the way) on Friday night, went through Saturday, and ended up in "real time" as she was reading it. The final line of our story read "
The only thing left for her to do was to turn around..." When she turned around I was actually on two knees because I was so shaky. I corrected that, but I was already crying like a baby, and so was she. I actually had to go into the bathroom to blow my nose twice and get myself composed, because no matter how much I had prepared for that moment, I could not get words to come out of my mouth. At all. Once I was composed again, I asked her to marry me and she said yes!

This just in: The biggest news of my life to date.

Lindsay agreed to marry me today!

More details to follow.

I just turned in my salary advancement forms for the two jobs, so it's out of my hands now.

Also, my car turns 3 tomorrow. I just went over 36,000 miles this week, so I'm doing a pretty good job of managing the mileage. Not that it matters, because I bought it and didn't lease it, but still...

Lastly, Lindsay and I are going away this weekend to an unknown location. Well, unknown to her anyway. I hope that I know where we're going. All I can tell you is that there will be jacuzzi's there.

I've been working on getting my resumé up to date today. I'm bidding on two different jobs within my company.

The first is a Change Control Analyst. That's basically someone who reviews all of the code written by the programmers and tests it to make sure no bugs are introduced into production. That will be a management position. In that position I would be in charge of all of the programmers.

The second is the IT Manager. That's the position I wanted eventually, I just didn't expect it to become available so soon. In that position I'd be responsible for the whole department. Both the networking and programming side of things.

I should finish my resumé tonight and submit it tomorrow morning. I'll be sure to post more as I hear it.

Lots of snow today. I didn't make it into work. One of the reasons why is because I got stuck in my own driveway. After I dug myself out of that, I ended up shoveling my driveway. A hour later, I tried to go to work. The roads were ridiculous. Long story short, I went back home. The end.

I could not believe what my professor said tonight.

There is a student in the class who is from Iraq. His family moved over here in 1998.

Anyway, they were talking about the bad snow storm that's supposed to hit and the student said he still isn't used to snow. The professor asked if he had just moved to Cleveland and obviously the student said no, but that he was more used to sand than snow. The professor then asked where he was from and the student said Iraq. The prof was quite surprised at this and then asked, and I quote "You're not one of those bombers are you?" I couldn't believe what I heard. The student replied no and I believe was quite insulted, as anyone would be. Another guy in class started to laugh at this -- most likely the absurdity of it. The Iraqi asked him to stop laughing (though not seriously, because I think they were friends.) The professor then said, and I quote again, "You had better stop laughing before he sets off one of those roadside bombs."

I'm seriously considering telling the dean about it. I'm not normally one to be offended by anything, but that's truly ridiculous.

Inventory is completed. It took all freaking day, but it's done for at least 4 more months. Hooray for school! Hooray for me! Nibb High football rules!

O'Doyle rules!

Etc.

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." --Winston Churchill.

Meat, Sugar Scarce in Venezuela Stores

It would appear that good old socialist Hugo Chavez is having a problem feeding the people of Venezuela. He's demanding that stores sell their inventory for less than it cost them to get it. Makes sense right? Why should store owners get rich by being able to charge more for things than it cost them? They shouldn't! We demand satisfaction! Down with the rich!

All he's doing is making the poor poorer because now they can only get their products from the black market, if at all.

Way to go Hugo. You truly are a great world dictator.

I am in need of funding. I have plenty of extra organs that I'd happily sell you in exchange for additional funding.

Perhaps I can interest you in an appendix. It can be yours for only $1,000.

I can sell you half of my liver. I don't need the whole thing. It's not even broken in. One-half liver, $182,995. That's too good to pass up! Especially if you don't have a working half of a liver.

I'm also willing to part with a kidney. This one may seem pricey, but it's in mint condition. Call for details.

Dance class part 3 is tonight. We're learning a new dance... swing. I need many more weeks with the Foxtrot, so we'll see how it goes.

In the immortal words of Clubber Lang... "Prediction? Pain!"

So the weekend was nice... even though I didn't watch more than 5 minutes of the Super Bowl. The same cannot be said of today. First, my garage door opener broke. Hooray! It's not the end of the world, and it was quite old, but still. Don't break when the high temperature for the day is 6.

Then, after that hassle, I had to go to class tonight.

No joke, this is exactly what we did in stakeholder management tonight. The professor told us how to diagram a sentence. Yes. Diagram a sentence. He wrote "Bill hit the ball." Then he showed us where the noun was, and the verb, and the direct object. Yes. It's true. Exactly like that. I wanted to bash my head into the table as hard as I could so that I could be knocked unconscious. It's complete and utter bull crap. I'm paying money for this?

Seriously. This?

A fun time was had by all this weekend. The travel wasn't too bad either. Friday night we made it to Penn State before the weather had gotten bad enough for us to stop. Saturday it was basically fine. Cold, but fine. The party went off without a hitch. Strippers, drugs, and orgies were all things that were not there. Justin and Melissa make a very nice couple and it was good to get to hang out with them again.

Yesterday Lindsay and I left their place around 10:30, got a bite to eat, and hit the road around 11:30. The roads were fine the entire time, but it was quite cold for the entire trip. The low temperature point on the way back happened about 20 minutes from the Ohio border. It hit 2 degrees. The wind chill was -25. We were in a nice toasty car however, so that didn't matter too much... expect when we got out repeatedly to take ridiculous pictures.

Anyway, we both had a nice time this weekend and it was well worth the trip.

Lindsay and I are off to New Jersey this weekend for Justin and Melissa's engagement party. I'm hoping that all attendees get a new Nintendo Wii.

How about it? We're driving a long distance, but I'll even cut you a break. You only need to get us a single Wii. You can keep the second one for yourself.

I've been looking for one of those freaking things since November and I've still never seen one in stock. I've checked online and in stores, and when I ask retailers if they have any they basically just laugh at me and ask me if I want one of the 900 PlayStation 3's they have in stock.

Boo! I want to play with a Wii. If you get one for me, I'll even let you play with my Wii.

The Cavs had the game in hand, and once again, couldn't finish the job. They were never really challenged the entire game. They just got complacent and let it slip away. Instead of driving to the basket, they settled for long range jumpers. Instead of milking the clock they shot with 10-12 seconds on the shot clock. They cannot hit free throws at all. They're shooting under 70% from the line as a team. That's ridiculous. All that does is tell your opponents to foul you down the stretch because they don't have to worry about you hitting your shots.