2008 Summed Up In A Couple Of Paragraphs

I’ve decided this year needs it’s own wrap up. We’ve gone through a lot of changes in 2008 and I wanted to get them down for later review.

The year started off with Lisa in Zanesville and me in Virginia. Lisa did make it to Stafford for New Years but as I recall it wasn’t that great. We went to an Italian restaurant called Amici’s I think. The food was okay and the guy playing the piano was loud.

Lisa made it out to Virginia on several more occasions. We did the trips to D.C. and Gettysburg and that kind of stuff. Basically your typical fun-filled Brian and Lisa activities. During the year we pursued our favorite pastime and went to a movie just about every week this past summer. We saw Ironman, Baby Momma, and The Dark Knight, Quantum of Solace, Rock'n'Rolla, Marley & Me and more than I can remember. All the time I had been applying for a new job. I enjoyed the job at Quantico and felt like I was just starting to get the hang of being a site manger and there I was looking for a career change. And as some of you know I got the new job.

So in June Lisa, Moon and I moved to St Charles, Missouri. We've really liked it here but it never felt like home. We were renting because I wasn't sure if I would like the new job or not. It was a nice house but not ours. We had a whole parade of visitors to St Charles. My niece Ashley, Lisa's sister, her brother and mother, her niece and nephew and my Mom and Dad all came out on different occasions. The normal site to take our visiting tourists was the Jefferson Expansion National Memorial (ie the Arch). One of our favorite pastimes was barbecuing in the back yard and beer on the front porch, watching traffic go by and gas prices go up and down. Sometime in October I applied for a transfer to Colorado Springs. I was passed over at first. The guy Colorado Springs hired turned them down and I got a second chance. It was a no brainer to accept but it was still a tough thing to do. Lisa started preparing for the move.

Finally the week of Christmas we moved our household goods to Littleton and Colorado Springs. I've returned to St Louis to work until January 16th. I'm staying at Intown Suites which is a pretty anticlimactic way to depart from a good home although Lisa came in for the New Year and we're staying at a nice Marriott in Creve Coeur. Like I mentioned, we've loved it here in St Charles, it was really our first home together as a family and we'll miss it I'm sure. The 29th of December was an especially rough day. Lisa and I went to the house one last time to drop off keys and we got pretty sad saying good bye to the neighborhood. And then we went to see the worst movie ever and that didn't help.

Last Entry For 2008

As the year draws to a close, I just wanted to say bye. I hope everybody had a decent year even though it's been a little rougher then usual. I usually don't use the term blessed but I really have been. With a great family and friends. I hope 2008 was a good year for you and 2009 is better for us all.

New Years Weekend (Counting Down)

Lisa and I have been staying at a Marriott in Creve Couer, Missouri for the the last two days. It's been pretty fun. We went to see Marley & Me yesterday. We also went to the Borders book store right next to the hotel. I got Born Standing Up by Steve Martin and replaced Solomon Kane that a friend from work kept (bastard!). I'm flying through Steve Martin's book. Like most things from Steve it's awsome. We had dinner last night at Macaroni Grill which sucked. They "misplaced" our ticket and the food took about an hour to getto us. Rob, our waiter, brought Lisa her wine in a juice type tumbler.

Today we went to downtown St Charles for some last time shopping on Main Street. We've never really had the luxury of spending money while we've been here so it's been fun and we probably over did it a little more than we should. There is a purse store on Main Street and Lisa had her eye on a few bags, so she finally got them. We got some interesting spices and hot sauce for a gourmet shop too.

We ate at Allin's Diner for breakfast this morning. It a great diner that was right around the block from our house on Houston Street. It's always busy and looked really cute. It was great food, and we both agreed that we should have tried it sooner. Best of all it's smoke free which is rare around here.

We went to the Galleria Mall off of I-17o and Brentwood Ave and walked around a little. It's a nice place but just another mall. Right now Lisa is swimming in the pool at the hotel. I've never met anyone who loved to swim as much as that girl. She's been in the pool at least three times since we checked in.

Tomorrow we'll take it easy, see another movie (probably Seven Pounds) and then have New Years eve dinner at PF Changs by the Chesterfield Mall.

Worst Movie Ever!!!

Lisa and I just watched Marley & Me and about ten minutes from the end I decided I hated this movie. It's the biggest tear jerker I've ever seen. Lisa never cries at movies, I cried watching Schindler's List (don't know if it's sociably acceptable to admit that as a man) and that's pretty much it. Up to now anyway. I was still crying when I left the theater. I got back to the hotel, started thinking about our dog, Moon and started crying again. I will never see this movie again. I would recommend that you never see this movie.

Waiting For Lisa

After a whole three days of rest Lisa is driving to St Louis to spend New Years Eve with me. I have to work New Years Day so she'll probably not hang around although I hope stays. I imagine our night will be a case of me going to bed at 9:30 and Lisa getting mad at me because she wants to enjoy life, where as I don't.

It's 7:30, I'm watching King of the Hill, and waiting for Lisa to call so we can meet at Panera's (known as St Louis Bread Company here) for dinner. This kind of reminds me of my first post all those years ago.

A Long Week (Almost As Long As This Post)

The timeline of our move goes like this:

Sunday, December 21st - I left work at 3:30 and we picked the U-Haul 24 ft truck up at around 4:30. Once we got back home we spent a couple hours loading to get a little head start. And the temperature was 6 degrees.

Monday, December 22nd - We got up at six and started loading by 7:00, it was 4 degrees when we started and got up to a sunny 16. We loaded the truck until around 1:30 p.m. 0r 2:00 at which time we switched to cleaning and errands mode. After running to the cable place to drop off the modem and trying to track down the recycling center for our last load of cans and bottles (which we never got rid of), we ran home and scrubbed and scrubbed. We got to bed at around 9:30 exhausted.

Tuesday, December 23rd - We got up at 3:00 a.m. and did some last minute packing and were on the road by 5:00. We stopped for one last fountain drink refill ($.89) at the QT and departed 239 Houston Street for the last time (almost). Forecasts across Missouri and Kansas were calling for temperatures around freezing with rain. Not the best news. By the time we got to Kansas City (the one in Missouri) it started raining and it was freezing on the windsheild. The road didn't look that bad but a Jeep Cherokee started doing a 360º spin on the opposite side of I-70 and got clipped by a semi. It was white knuckles for awhile. It eventually dried out on the western side of Kansas City (the one in Kansas).

We stopped for gas and Taco Bell in Lawrence, Kansas. Gas and Taco Bell being somewhat redundant. By 4:30 Mountain time the radios were calling for 1 to 3 inches of snow through eastern Colorado. Since it was getting dark and the trailer's taillights were out we decided to stop for the night. We picked a Holiday Inn Express in Goodland, Kansas to spend the night. We're both "push on" kind of people, especially when we're that close to our goal. I don't know why but we had a fit of good sense that paid off. By the time we got Moon unloaded and were ready to go to dinner there was a blizzard outside. At the recommendation of the hotel clerk, we went to a place called Crazy R's. It was a great smokey dive and there were several local families there having dinner and playing pool. I had a great KC Strip and Bud Select. Unfortunately, as you might guess, they didn't have much vegetarian fare and the cigarette smoke was closing Lisa's throat so it was less fun for her. She got Subway afterwards and got to swim in the pool so she was happy.

Wednesday, December 24th - We hit the road at 7:00 for the remainder of the trip to Littleton (where Lisa's Mom lives). We rolled in around 12:00 and had lunch from Noodles Inc. and unpacked the stuff Lisa would need while staying in Littleton. Than we left for Colorado Springs with Lisa's sister Jennifer who graciously volunteered to help us unload.

When it was all said and done we had the truck unloaded and we were back in Littleton ready for bed by 8:30.

Thursday, December 25th - Christmas we went to Idaho Springs for dinner at Chris's house and then Lisa dropped me off at the airport for the flight back to St Louis. Which is where I'll stay until January 16th at which time I'll be heading for Colorado Springs.

That was about it. There were some misadventures last night after I got back to St Louis involving my search for food and the tricky entrance to the Best Western but other than that the trip kind of wore down. I had to go to work this morning and I'm still tired so I've got to end this thing quick. Night.

Last Post?

Don't worry, I was just doing the old marketing trick, I would never deprive you of my wonderful misives and keen insight. This is merely the last post for a few days. The computer goes into the box today and the internet will be turned off shortly. I'll miss you while I'm away. Think of me often.

Facebook?

My friend Dan is on Facebook, as are all my friends it seems. Everyone is on Facebook now and I still don't know what it is. Facebook apparently had a big controversial make over a few months back and to be honest, I didn't even notice. The thing is so full of weird gee gaws that seem to be designed for nothing, except to spread Facebook like a virus. I used to get friend suggestions for the kids my nieces go to school with because I'm friends with my nieces and I used to go to the same high school all their friends go to. I don't want friends and I sure as hell don't want to be friends with people who write things I can't understand like IMAO or LOL. Well except for you, Ashley, I feel it's my Unclely duty so I'll tolerate it from you. I'm actually trying to keep my list of contacts to as few people as possible, I would like to be the guy with the fewest friends. And after what I've written on some peoples' "Superwall" I'm a little surprised I have as many friends as I do.

I guess you can share photos and that could be why I'm not that impressed. I've been using Flickr for my photo sharing for years so I don't need another site for that. Maybe the key lies in the fact that I'm anti-social and it's a social networking site.

The only thing I really enjoy is the "What are you doing box?" I also like it for the Sumatran Rat Monkeys. Those are good too.