A simple email...

Sending one email to teammates and old friends... About $.02
A request to support a great cause... About 5 seconds.
Receiving a donation to the above cause that may save a life. $20.00
Saving the life of an affected two year old nephew... Millions.

Being told by someone you look up to that email should not be used for personal reasons... Priceless.

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's corporate politics.

Excited...

Totem and I are getting prepped and excited for this weekend. No, we're not going out trick or treating, but we're going on a big camping trip with smilemore, kirk, and a lot of other friends. Plus, we're bringing Molly. :)

It kind of weird, in a really really feel good kind of way, how we are forming a family. Molly pushes her way in between us every night, she even pulls blankets off of us to cover herself up. She know that she she nuzzles our legs and starts to bark, she'll get to go outside. (Who's training who???) And, thanks to Jay, she knows how to paw now and will do it instinctively (sp) if she wants something or even thinks she is in trouble (IE: We were playing earlier, I was chasing her around the house, when I cornered her, she realized it, whimperred, and put her paw up. Cute is not even the right word for it. =) )

Anyway, this weekend should be a good time to get away from it all for us. Spending time with friends. Watching movies. Nature... All the good stuff for the soul.

Wedding and Honeymoon - The Report - Part #3

Finally, on to the honeymoon. Totem and I got home as fast as we could, got changed and went to the hotel we had reserved for the night. It was'nt that bad of a deal especially considering that it allowed us to park there for a week. In fact the only bad thing about the night was the lack of sleep. We both fell asleep at 2AM to have our wakeup call at 4AM to be at the airport at 7AM. Got our tickets, boarded and we were on our way to Las Vegas. We were presented with a bottle of chapagne from the travel agency as a congradulations on the marriage. It was a pleasant surprise. I just wish I was a little more conscious when the flight attendant gave us the bottle. ;)

Five or six or four (I don't remember anymore) hours later we were in Las Vegas and on our way to the Luxor hotel with oddest of Taxi drivers... I think Totem was just plain freaked out so I tried to keep the conversation going as long as I could on the way to the hotel. And of course, when we got there, check in was not going to be until 1:30PM and it was 8AM in the morning there. So we're pooped and now we can't even take a nap. ;) Fortunately, baggage was able to hold our stuff for the time and the Luxor had a lot of things we could do in the mean time. We went on the Reboot Imax ride film. Went on a tour of artifacts found in King Tuts tomb. Totem is proud that my first 4D exerience was with her. ;) We saw Pirates 4D and needless to saw it was a blast. 3D was cool but feeling wind, getting wet, and seeing bees come out and try and attack you was awesome. Plus, we saw Nascar 3d in the Luxor Imax theater. After that we were able to get some show tickets and finally got to take a nap in our room.

Don't even start on the order...

15 hours later on Tuesday morning at 6AM, we woke up. Nice nap huh?!?! :) Had a great breakfast at the Luxor buffet but a little too pricey for us to do every day. It was about $12 a person but was really really worth it. We went on more walks that day and like usual, got suckered into a lot of things b/c we looking like newly weds, even though we were. :) After trying to hit up free shows and tours and food, the sales rep got down to the nitty gritty because, as usual, nothing is free. We either weren't old enough, didn't make enough, or weren't staying long enough in Las Vegas. Meh... Walking around a little more we found the Tropicana and their free spin slot machines. Only thing really worth getting out of the were the free playing cards. We came home with 6 decks. :) We also found the $20 for $50 slots area where basically you pay $20, but get $50 worth of slots. The only problem is that you can't cash out and you must use all your credits, even if you don't win. The plus is that if you don't win, you can get a prize. :) That was the life saver for us this week. Totem picked a shoulder bag, something we didn't think to carry around while we were walking. It was a life saver! We had so much stuff *cough* crap *cough* to look through every day that it made life much easier since we were no where near our room. Клиника сосудистые звездочки Войковская.

We hopped on the bus and went over to Circus Circus. Totem got me to go on the roller coaster and we bought the pics. She went on a bunch of other rides that I wouldn't touch. Look at the pics and you'll see why. 8) After eating lunch, we walked over to the Reveria and did their free spin. Got a deck of cards and a mug. We got back on the bus and went back to our hotel for a nap before the Blue Man Group Concert.

You know the drill...

Another concert by Blueman that was WELL worth the cost. We had a great time. They did a good job with mixing the senses again. Throwing stuff at us, getting the audience involved, actually bringing members of the audience up to the stage with them. Not to mention a slew of stuff that made you think, "How'd they do that!?!?!" This was the best thing we did all week and we wouldn't even mind going back to Las Vegas just to see them. 8)

Tuesday, the only highlight was the Zumanity concert in the evening. Interesting cannot even come close to describing the show. Sexual, topless, funny, amazing, acrobatic, twisting, dark, and waterful just start to decsribe it. I never realized how you could make a show out of things that seemed to have no real relation to each other. It was almost like those images that from a distance look like a face or something, but up close you can see the thousand or so individual images that it is actually made of... Still not as good as Blue Man though. ;)

Wednesday was more of a just walk around and be a tourist day. We visited NYNY, MGM, Excalibur, and the Tropicana again. NYNY has the Coyote Ugly club that has great prices on drink so we stopped and got refills for our mug we bought there. Plus they have a rollar coaster of their own that Totem got me on. Gambled a little bit, I lost all, Totem won it all back. ;) Around dinner time we got to go see the Tournament of Kings, which was a midevil dinner show. Interesting, to say the least. Dinner with no utencils and "Dragon Juice" for a beverage. I guess they do know what to call "pop" or "soda" that goes in their authentic midevil plastic mugs... ;) We stayed up late on Wednesday to check out the Bellagio water show and Treasure Island's pirate show. The water show was awe inspiring, but being the dork geek moron I am, I thought was was really simple. A little computer script pumping water at different pressures through pipes. Easy. 8) The Treasure Island show was cancelled last minute because of a gust of wind no more powerful than the fan that was on my desk. That was depressing see we were beat an now had to walk all the way back to the Luxor at midnight...

You're still reading this???

We packed up most of Thursday morning b/c we were switching rooms that evening. When we first got to the Luxor, we asked if they could do anything for us since it was our honeymoon. They offerred us a jacuzzi suite for $50 a night. We really didn't want to cut into our spending money so we just reserved it for the last night. It was 12 floors lower but over looking the front corner of the Luxor instead of the back this time. See pics. We managed to take a three hour nap... In the tub. 8) We also made the decision that if we are going to build a house, we're getting one of these babies. We just need to remember to use less soap next time as we had a little bubble problem once the tub filled up. 8) Later in the evening we went and saw Midnight Fantasy, another topless dance revue. Meh was my reaction. What?!?!? Meh and topless???? Yeah, that'll give you an idea of how bad it was... The funniest part was the comic who came out and did a 10 minute or so comic intermission. Seemed like it was just thrown in with no real purpose, but then again, I would have rather watched her doing standup for an hour or two than watch the dancing... Go figure...

Meh or not to meh? That's the question...

Since the hotel was booked to 100% capacity, we couldn't arrange a late checkout so we were out of our room around noon. Great, the flight didn't leave until 10PM at night and we didn't have a room to relax in... Not to mention we were out of money. :\ We basically walked around until about 6PM checking out some of the hotels and casinoes that we didn't go to before, but not much more than that. We got our bags and took the shuttle back to the airport. Using the wonderful amount of decks of cards that we had, we played a bunch of card games for a couple of hours, boarded and were on the way home to Buffalo. Only downside of this flight is that for close to an hour, it felt like we were falling. I don't know, it was almost like my stomach never settled. I guess I was lucky I could fall asleep, at least it was dark. Totem woke up around 3AM Las Vegas time to the woman behind us throwing up. Yea... Landed around 6AM, bright and early and very tired. We got the shuttle back to our car, went home, slept and let life slowly come back to us.

We have over six rolls of film to develop and once we do, I'll get those up here, but for the time being you'll have to deal with my digital pics. We had the time of our lives. Something that if we do again, we'll be going a cheaper route, but we have no regrets. We had fun and that is what matters. We are finally happily married and can begin spending the rest of our lives together. 8)

PS - Kirk, the glass elevators that move sideways up and down the Luxor, are not on the outside so there's nothing to see. Check out the pics. ;)

Wedding and Honeymoon - The Report - Part #2

After the pictures we went back to the reception hall. We pulled up at right around the same time our parents had just finished setting up. (There was bingo in the hall a couple of hours before so everyone was rushed to get things setup.) Walked in, saw everyone had basically just hung around for a little bit. When more people started showing up, we formed a welcome line or whatever they are called and greeted everyone who came in. Smilemore made this awesome photo album of the wedding while we were out getting our pictures done and that was a BIG crowd pleaser. Many were not able to attend the wedding so that anwered a lot of questions about what happened for us. :) Once everyone was in (I think only two people didn't show), we were ushered in by the DJ with Eye of the Tiger playing in the background. Interested and fun to say the least. I couldn't really see afterwards b/c of the flashes. ;) Totem and I went right over to cut the wedding cake b/c that was the dessert for the evening. We were both nice to each other and only slightly smashed the cake into each others face. See the pics. ;) After we cleaned up, my mom said the blessing that she found out that she had to say a couple of hours earlier. Opps... Damn memory. 8) Jay did a good job at ad-libbing (sp) his toast. I guess he did some research as to what the heck he was supposed to say. One of the big no-nos was to talk about x-girlfriends. He wanted to but in my case he couldn't. I don't have any! Then he tried hitting on how Totem and I met. Normally it goes, "How did you meet?". Then I say, "I met my girlfriend at a Boy Scout camp." ... Yeah, you figure it out. But trust me, Totem is DEFINATELY female. ;) Now I actually did meet her at a boy scout camp, but I think everyone in the room missed the point. My friends and everyone at the wedding party table were the only ones laughing. Oh well... Then dinner was served. Damned good meal...

During dinner, we got another pleasant surprise. Our friend Angela who had sung at our wedding sang a song for us at dinner. Words cannot describe her singing. It was just beautiful. Think of Enya and the Lord of the Rings. Thats how good it was. We were done eating at the wedding party table while the last table in the hall was getting their meal condiments. So Totem and I got up and started mingling. We got halfway through the hall when we were called over to the dance floor to have our first dance together as husband and wife. The song was "our" song, Aerosmith's I don't wanna miss a thing. What made this dance even more special was the bubbles. Let me explain. ;) We had bought bubbles for everyone to blow when we left the church. Rice and confetti were not allowed... Since it was raining after the wedding, we had to hold on to all the bubble bottles. Well, everyone unloaded close to all 200 bottles during our dance (and made sure to empty them by the end of the night). Check out the picture, it was a blast!!! 8) Then we went on to the Father-Daughter dance and the Mother-Son dance. General dancing and then wedding party dancing. The night was turning out great but it was far from over.

Totem threw her bouquet (yeah I know its probably spelled wrong) and my cousin caught it. When I got Totem's garder off *cough* with my teeth *cough* my cousin also caught it. Hmm. Brother and sister cousins catching the stuff. ::shudder:: Luckily the DJ was a quick thinker and got the group wriled up and quicker than we could think, my aunt and uncle (the parents of my two unfortunate cousins) were together in the spotlight and everyone was celebrating their 17 years of marriage. Followed that was more eating, drinking, and dancing. Not like it was bad, I just seriously think most of us there danced for more than an hour after that. My dad's got a little bored and decided to change (check the pic). Towards the end of the evening we lined up for some pictures with the new families. We said some good byes on our video and basically thats how the night ended... Six hours later we would be waiting to board an airplane to Las Vegas.

This time, I'm just out of time to write up the honeymoon part... :p I know when I get around to it in a day or two I'm going to do much more writing then posting pictures. We got 6 rolls of film still to develop but only about 30 digital pictures. Totem was a little more active with her camera than I was with mine. ;) If you want a quick preview, head over to my photoblog for some of the pics. Otherwise, I'll be back in a bit to wrap things up...

Wedding and Honeymoon, The Report

OK. Here we go... EVERYTHING WAS GREAT!

...thats it. Why are you still reading??? ;)

No really, everything went better than anyone could have expected. There were some hitches that no one really noticed. We didn't either so it doesn't matter. ;) But I'm gonna start from the rehersal...

The night seemed to be rushed and a little confusing. The married couple that was going to rehearse with us did not seem to... well not know what they were doing is not right, but they didn't seem to know how the priest was going to do the marriage so they had a lot of things backwards and mixed up. It probably didn't help that they had a different version of the rehersal book than we had... :\ Anyway, the practice went fine, and so did the dinner afterwards. A lot of food. Tons of talking and chatting. Looks like everyone liked the gifts from Totem and I as well. She got all her brides maids jewelry boxes with a necklace that had the first letter of each of their names on it. I got the grooms men all tall mugs that held about a liter of whatever they wanted. I stayed a little later than everyone. But ended up at my parents house around 11PM for the sleep. Totem stayed at her parents house with all the girls. The guys were invited over to my parents house but b/c of distance, only half stayed there.

The day of... July 31, 2004. I wake up around 9AM. Get dressed and ready to go. We were all ready and the only one who seemed to be nervous was my mom. :) So we pull out of the driveway and we see a limo coming. No... We all started saying it couldn't be. It was supposed to be picking us up at the reception hall. It passes and it is from the limo company. It gets to the end of the street and turns around. Crap. I hop out and drive with him back to the reception hall while my dad and bro go get everyone else. When we got to the hall, everyone was there in about 10 mins and we headed over to the church.

Then the wait. And wait. And wait... Traditional, I was told. To my surprise, I wasn't really nervous. Sweating, because of heat, yes. Some pictures were taken and I got to say a message to Totem for our wedding video. 15 minutes after the wedding was supposed to start, the limo with the girls shows up. Nerves kick in. :p And the girls start walking up the aisle before the priest was ready. He peeks out and sees 2 of them almost all the way to the frint and we rush out with the altar servers. The rest is just typical. Read from bible. Do you. Do you. Kiss. Married. YIPPEE!!!

Pictures. Our photographer shot everything digitally so my Dad was able to get them online a day or two after he go them back. Since there are over 620 of them, I'm not going to repost all of them, but just list a link. Some of my favorites are displayed right below the link here. Click it if you want to see all 620 of them... Included the "circus" that happened the morning of at Totem's parents house. ;)

Wedding Pictures.

You're still reading??? You deserve a cookie!!! On to the 6 hour limo ride with LOTS of pictures. FIrst stop on the trip was the Buffalo Botanical Gardens. The weather was not cooperating so we were seeking an indoor retreat. Unfortunately, we were, or at least I was, kind of taken back by the little old lady sitting at the door. "$50 donation to get your pictures taken here." We said OK and proceeded to walk in out of the rain. She was like a hawk. The daggers in my back made me pay the $50 (with the help of everyone, and especially kirk11235) even though some in the party objected. I just wanted a picture. If the little old lady wanted money, I gave it to her, but I made sure it went into a donation box for the gardens instead of her pocket. At least that way I know were the money was going... I hope. Anyway, it was warm. There were a lot of plants and I think Jay and another one of my grooms men had a little too much fun playing with the bushes shaped like animals. I'd post pictures but they are on his camera... :p

Afterwards we went to a local waterfall called Glens Falls. Just a beautiful place. It wasn't sunny but there was no rain so Totem and I got our wish for some nice outdoor pictures. Posing was fun. Got some very interesting shots (me holding my sister-in-law's leg, my brother-in-law face planting in his girlfriend's chest, couple shots, etc...). We were there for a little while, but managed some how to show up before the other 3 or 4 wedding parties showed up. It was nice to see all the different colors that everyone chose, especially because of how good the purple looked when compared to the teal-ish and blue dresses we saw...

After that we went back to my college and got pictures at the usual picture spot for most people who go there. The University at Buffalo's Baird Point. The only thing the really happened here, which was out of the ordinary, was that we (maybe just me and not we) made all the bride walk through mud and goose "stuff" to get to the point. Only after we got there did we find a path. Opps... ;) Plus, since the point was high up almost all the girls had to be lifted up. I think totem's sister was the only one who got up on her own, even if she did have a little slip. ;)

And another first... I have to make a part #2 b/c I ran out of space in this entry... I didn't know there was a limit. ;) If you're still reading this, you REALLY deserve a cookie! :p

If anyone wants to see the pictures that Totem's sister, Raindancer, took, click here... They're really good!!! Check 'em out!

Part #2 will probably be up tomorrow...

Pleasantly Surprised...

I was dreading today for about a week now... I just got out of Totem's (and my) wedding shower. I figured myself, my future father-in-law, and 60 of my future and current aunts, grandparents, and female friends would be torture.

Outside of the crazy sun burn I got, nothing was torture at all. :) We got a LOT of great stuff to help us make our apartment (and future house) feel more like a home. I got a grill. ;)

Six more weeks. Totem and I are getting really really excited...

Consciousness strikes again...

More observations that I sit through on a weekly, almost daily basis...

1.) Alcohol seems to only negatively affect those that are not drinking.
2.) Choosing between family and friends sucks the big one...
3.) Doing the right thing, is not always the right thing...

Sigh...

Just think about this...

Borrowed from Raindancer...

1. At least 2 people in this world love you so much they would die for you
2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.
3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to bejust like you.
4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.
5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.
6. You mean the world to someone.
7. If not for you, someone may not be living.
8. You are special and unique.
9. Someone that you don't even know exists, loves you.
10. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.
11. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look: you most likely turned your back on the world.
12. When you think you have no chance of getting what you want, you probably won't get it, but if you believe in yourself, probably, sooner or later, you will get it.
13. Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.
14. Always tell someone how you feel about them; you will feel much better when they know.
15. If you have a great friend, take the time to let them know that they are great.

Whats going on here!?!?!

I don't think I've ever gone an entire week without posting before so this is out of the ordinary... Lets just say I'm on vacation and can't write much right now... :(

There is an odd trend developing though... On days that I don't post, I get close to 100 less visitors and 300 less page views when compared to days that I do post... Hmm... When I post, MT pings a bunch of sites to let the world know that I have written something new. Those listing usually last a little more than an hour before they are erased by other people updating their blogs... Do a lot of you come from weblogs.com or any of the other blog syndicating sites???

Camping = Relaxing

Totem, myself, Smilemoreb, and Load all went camping this past weekend to Stony Brook State Park here in New York. Probably the best thing about the entire weekend was the camp site. We were at the top of a cliff/slope which had a creek with waterfalls at the bottom. Who needs a nature sound machine when you can have nature itself!!! Sleeping was definately a good thing on this trip...

Thursday was probably one of the better days. Being an off-of-the-weekend day, almost no one was there. It made for an easy setup. The night was even better. No noise except waterfalls in the distance. Awesome.

Friday most of us had fun scaling the cliff by our site. We made Smilemoreb come along even though she didn't want to. We all got a little dirty (and bruised) but to be able to sit in a waterfall was really kewl. And even though Smilemoreb didn't go in, she did get some nature shots on her camera that I'm still waiting to see...

Saturday was more of a relaxing day. With all the climbing and hiking we did the day before, we didn't feel like doing much. Totem and I checked out the falls again while Smilemoreb read and Load slept.

Sunday was OK. Packed up right before it rained on us (even though it rained at night). We managed to arrive just as the rain stopped on Thursday and left just as it started again Sunday morning (minus the rain that night). Not bad IMHO.

We definately all want to go again. It was a great relaxer, plus we came to the consensus that we all ate better on the trip than we would have at home. We had steak, foil pouch stew, hamburgers, hot dogs, salads, hash browns, eggs, and tons of other good stuff (all home made too). Sad (and wierd) part is we spent less on these "gourmet" (sp) meals we had than we normally would for 3-4 lunches during the week. :\ It turned out to be around $20-$30 per person for food. Compared to the average $7 a lunch, I'd say thats pretty good.

So now the focus for me is on my trip to Texas to see my brother in a couple of weeks when he graduates from boot camp. Then school immediately after that. Yippee...

Tired...

Just got back from camping. Had a great time but I'm too busy to write anything about it... I'll get something up later tomorrow. For now, we just got the van unloaded and are heading over to Totem's brother's house to see her new nephew. :)

Pictures are here (care of Raindancer - Totem's sister):
Wayne Michael L.

Figures...

I managed to pi$$ Smilemoreb off today... We've been trying to work out schedules so we could goto lunch sometime. She suggested today but I had to back out because of a meeting I thought I had with a counselor. When I found out that I had the dates messed up, I emailed her asking if she was still interested. Less than a few minutes after I sent that email, Totem calls me and says she is in the area and wants to goto lunch. (Here's the deal. Smilemoreb works at the same place as I do, just on another campus. Totem works about 25 minutes away so it is a VERY rare thing that we see each other during the day.)

As I am writing the email to take back the invitation, I get Smilemoreb's email saying she's ready to go... :( I had to break the bad news to her that I couldn't go and that I had to back out of something I said I would do... That's not a good thing when that happens...

So I'm telling this to Totem as we are eating and she says why didn't I just invite Smilemoreb?

DUH!!!! ---Insert geek-is-blonde joke here---

So because of all of this, today's word for the day is Figures...

Friendly goodness...

One of Totem's friends came over tonite... We had fun. Playstation is kewl...

I feel bad for her...

My first friend (and one of my best ones) is going home...

Why is that bad? Long story, lemme fill you in.

We met two years ago. Sorta like first friends for each other as frosh college students. Well she transferred to Texas A&M this semester because she got a full ride there...

That's not why I am sad. I'm sad because she is from Bangladesh and her parents are making her come home from because of the war. Her first semester at a new college, one month before it is over, has been put on hold. She had to withdraw from all her classes and drop all of her outside commitments...

I just hope everything is OK with her family and that she makes it home alright (it's a 24 hour flight)...

Databases...

I just found out that Robowoman is gonna be in my database concepts course in the fall. I get to take the course with someone I know... YAHOO!!!

A first...

I got geek-napped by smilemore today... =) Thats never happened before...

Sirens over Baghdad...

God save us all...

Sometimes...

I just don't understand women... ::sigh::

DnD Fun...

Yesterday, I took part in my first "real" role-playing game. Dungeons and Dragons. It was a blast. Four hours passed like that and we all had the time of our lives. I can wait until next week.

I got to talk with NPC's. I got to kill things. I could cast spells. I could do all kinds of wierd fun stuff. *giddy*

I think I found another thing that does not have to do with a computer that is loads of fun... (BTW, thats a good thing in my book.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE!!!

It's Sue's 21st birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE!!! =)