As soon as we got the keys for the house, I decided to do a little bit of wiring. My goal for the wiring was to add an Ethernet drop in the living room (for the Xbox, Wii, and anything else we may add later), one in the office, and a cable drop in the office for the cable modem. With the help of a couple of friends (Teddy and Vito), I was able to get this done.

Both of the drop locations were a challenge in their own. The living room had already been stubbed out for surround sound speakers, so there were holes and access panels cut that we could work with, and they just happened to be in the correct location.

Teddy worked from the living room, while I twisted and contorted myself to get in the attic. I found the place where the speaker wires went down through the top plate, and there was enough of a hole drilled already that I was able to shove the fishtape through the hole. Teddy tied the Cat5 cable to it when it got to the 2"x4" box I cut in the living room wall, and I pulled it back up to the attic. The only problem was that the hook at the end of the fishtape was a little big and was shaped in a way that it was catching on the top plate when I tried to pull it back out.

We fought with it for about 30 minutes, when I finally decided to grab some Vice-Grips, clamp on the fishtape, and with a good firm pull, yank it right out of the wall. Success was mine! I was able to get the cable pulled to a storage area in the attic where there used to be an atrium, which is where I was going to drop it down to the office directly below.

Teddy had to leave for some prior obligations, but Vito arrived shortly after. We pulled up a section of the flooring in the storage room in the attic, drilled a couple of holes, and tried to shove the cables down through the wall. Unfortunately, we found that there was a 2x4 running laterally in the wall between the studs, about half way down from the attic. Luckily, the wall we were working with was shared between a linen closet and the office, so we just cut a hole in the drywall from the inside of the linen closet and were able to drill the hole with ease.

After getting the wire pulled, Vito, Emily, and I went out to the garage to disassemble a strange wooden box that had been built up against the wall next to the walk-in door. My theory all along was that it was a dog house with the entry holes cut into the siding from the outside, but the holes had been covered over when the new siding was put on the garage. Our Realtor checked with the listing agent, who said it was just a storage box and that there were paint cans inside it. Ha!

A few swings of a hammer, a couple yanks with a wrecking bar, and we had the lid off, confirming my theory. We started to rip the plywood sheeting off of it, but after finding cellulose insulation in there, we decided to just pull the box apart in self-contained sections. We were able to accomplish this, and with virtually no headache we had the sections stacked up in the garage next to the pile of garbage the sellers had left for us to clean up. Huzzah!

The next day, I was able to finish up the wiring nonsense, by replacing the floor we removed in the attic and installing the faceplates for the Ethernet and cable outlets. When I was finished, Emily was very impressed with the result, and she said it looked like a professional had done it. =]

Sometime in the next week, I took on the project of replacing the shut-off valves for the washing machine. The existing valves were old, the valve seats were leaking, and when they were open, the packing nuts on the valves would leak profusely. It took me a couple of trips to Home Depot, as my first trip resulted in me purchasing valves for 1" pipe, when the pipe in our house was actually 3/4".

I did have a little bit of trouble installing the valve on the cold line, because whoever had threaded the pipe (I should note it's all galvanized pipe) did a shoddy job at it, and my new valve wanted to cross-thread as it went on. I just took the valve back off though, cleaned up the pipe again, and gave it another shot. BAM! It went right on!

I was a bit nervous about turning the water back on when I was finished, so I connected hoses to the valves, shoved them in the drain pipe, and left the valves open. I went outside to the water meter and opened the valve there, dashed back in the house, and found that everything was just fine. I shut the valves off and checked for leaks, but found nothing. Another successful job!

I really enjoy being able to do these things myself, using the skills my Dad taught me as I was growing up. If I didn't know how to do this stuff, I could have easily been out $500 for it all, when it only cost me about $50 for the parts, and maybe $10 in the beverages I paid Teddy and Vito with.

I strongly encourage everyone who reads this to learn how to do repairs and stuff on your own. I don't recommend starting with something big like the things I did, but you can easily pick up a hammer or screwdriver and fix something in your house. Also, don't be afraid to ask for help from knowledgeable friends. The reason we have these skills is to use them, not to let them go stale.

Cheers!

As many of you may know already, Emily and I closed on our first house on March 10th. This has been a really exciting time for us, as it has opened a new chapter of our lives, and is giving us an opportunity to grow even more.

If you had asked me 5 years ago if I had any dream of getting married or buying a house, I probably would have laughed in your face. It's amazing at how much life changes when you find that "special someone" though, and it has certainly changed for the better!

This house was built in 1978. It's a single story home with 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms, a 2 car detatched garage, and a living space of about 1800 square feet. We offered the seller what they were asking for the house, but asked for them to contribute money towards closing and fix a couple of things in the house.

Only a couple of weeks had passed when I got the green light to order a home inspection. The inspection didn't turn up anything major, but there were a lot of little things throughout the house that were reported. The age of the house was definitely a contributor to all of these items, but we still asked the seller to correct several of them.

All the paperwork and related nonsense went by in a blur. I read through what I could, but the legalese was mind numbing, so I left it up to our realtor and the closing agent at the title agency to clarify the rest.

On March 10th, we spent about 3 hours signing papers and waiting for the funds to clear. After lunch was over, we had the keys to our very own home!

I immediately began working on things around the house so we could get moved in quickly. During this, I realized that I might be able to share some of the things I've been doing in a sort of handyman-like blog format. Emily thought it was a great idea, so that leads me to the new category I mentioned in the title of this post: House Repairs and Stuff.

As soon as I post this entry, I'll be adding that category. Once that's done, I'll tell you about the little things I've been working on. Stay tuned!

Have you ever bought something that was rather expensive, expecting the seller to provide you with at least some support after the sale? Wouldn't you expect that in buying a car?

Recently I blew a tire on my car, and luckily I had purchased some tire and wheel insurance for the car when I got it. However, to take advantage of this insurance, I had to find a shop that was willing to work on the car.

I attempted to take the car to the dealer I bought it from, but they were all closed up and appeared to be overtaken by a Cadillac dealer. After seeing that, I decided to head to the next Mitsubishi dealer I had already talked to. See, this dealer indicated that if I brought the car in before 5:00PM, they would get the ball rolling for me.

After driving about 50 miles to get there, I went in to the service department and waited patiently to be served. The gentleman who was working the front desk called for someone else to come assist, and the help he had called for arrived.

This service manager asked me right away how he could help me, but as soon as I told him what I was needing, he told me that he wouldn't even be able to look at the car today, and that it would have to wait until tomorrow.

Okay, wait a second. You're telling me that you can't take 15 minutes out of your oh-so-busy day (they had 2 cars waiting and none in the bay) to just look at my wheel and tell me if you could or couldn't help me?

It gets better though. Since this guy was so busy and couldn't take the time to look at my problem, how did he have the time to ramble on and on about how I should go to their other shop? Also, why couldn't he give me the location of their other shop?

Between this experience and the constant barrage of "buy a new car from us" marketing propaganda they have been sending me against my wishes (I'll normally get 2-3 pieces of mail at a time from them), especially after I've asked them to stop (at varying degrees of niceness), I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to do business with H.U.B. Mitsubishi, nor do I recommend them to anyone else.

You're better off doing some more research and going to a different shop. Don't waste your time with H.U.B. Mitsubishi.

It's been a long while since I've posted anything here, and the last few times I have it's been me complaining about something. Well, it's time for that again. This is going to be the first of two complaints posted. While they may not be a very good way to get my actual problem solved, they are a good way for me to vent and to share my experience with other wondering consumers. Enjoy.

Netflix. They've been up in the news quite a bit lately with their rate changes and such, right? While that's a rant for another day, I want to share with you my current issue. I can't access the streaming.

As part of their plan changes, I now have only streaming service. While I do have one DVD in my presence still, the only way I can really access their service is via streaming. And wouldn't you know it, the only device I have that supports it (computers included) is my Xbox 360. After a very long weekend, I decided I want to go sit lay down in front of the TV, watching one of my favorite shows to lull me to sleep. Apparently that was too high of an expectation. You see, when I started the Netflix app on my Xbox, I was presented with an error stating that it was unable to connect to the service and to see http://www.netflix.com/tvhelp for more details.

I came back to my computer and attempted to access the Netflix site, but I could not log in with my known good user ID and password. After numerous failed attempts at logging in, I decided to try the lost password tool. Unfortunately, I didn't receive the e-mail until over an hour later. In the meantime though, I was able to find a way to log in using my name and the credit card number on my account. However, once I was logged in I couldn't really do anything, including reset my password: Their form decided that "apple" and "apple" were not the same strings (note: my password is not "apple" or anything of the sort).

Great, so I guess I'll call. Once I found the number and tried calling, I got a busy signal. UGH! I guess I'll just go watch a movie I've already seen instead.

After the movie was over, I decided to try it again. While I was finally able to log in to the Netflix site with my password, the Xbox was unable to connect still. I took a look at my authorized streaming devices and saw that there was nothing shown here, so I went about the process of reinstalling the Netflix app on my Xbox. The funny part of this was that when I entered the activation code into the Netflix site, I was greeted with the message of "Activation is complete -- Your {DEVICENAME} is now ready to instantly stream movies from Netflix. Go check it out now!". Really? I have a {DEVICENAME}? Nice to know. Will it stream movies better than my Xbox 360?

Okay, so it's still not working. Let's try calling...

Thank you for calling Netflix. We are currently experiencing a higher than normal call volume. Please try your call again later.

Now how is that helpful? Couldn't they spare the few second it takes to explain what the problem is? Couldn't they post something on their Twitter account? Couldn't they throw a status page up somewhere? All I have to go by is http://downrightnow.com/netflix, and that's not really giving me any indication of whether I'll be able to encrust the pillow on my couch in drool while unconsciously watching old episodes of Scrubs.

Is customer support really such a difficult science? What is up with these companies sucking so hard at it?

When I first moved to Houston, I had quite the issue with getting internet service established at my new place. Before I left Indiana, I had Comcast and was relatively happy with them. This prompted me to call them up and see if I could move my service with me, to which the answer was "yes". The representative I was working with schedule the install at the new place, and all was well.

The day of the install, I realized I had given the wrong address to the representative. However, the time window that I was given had nearly passed, so I gave Comcast a call. The representative I dealt with then was somewhat helpful, but when she found out that I was trying to transfer from another state, the condescending attitude began quite promptly.

Because of the attitude I was receiving from this agent, I asked to speak with a manager. I was already upset, so you'd think that at this point they would do what they could to make me happy. Sadly, that is the wrong thought when it comes to Comcast.

When the manager got on the phone, she too was quite rude to me and when I asked what they could do to resolve the issue, she informed me in a very rude tone, "This is your problem and it's because you messed up. We shouldn't have to do anything because you tried to do something that we don't do."

I was fuming at this point, but as calmly as I could I said, "Well, I'm going to find another provider then. You just lost a customer."

After having service with AT&T for 3 years, I found that they do not provide service at the location to where Emily and I are moving. The AT&T representative was quite ashamed that they were unable to provide anything faster than the slowest DSL on the market, and he was understanding when I let him know that I would have to seek out another provider.

The Realtor that has been assisting us with this new residence informed me that the cable TV provider was Wavevision. However, since I don't know anything about Wavevision, nor do any of my colleagues, I decided to look to Comcast again.

I gave Comcast a call 2 weeks ago to inquire about their service availability at the new location. The representative I spoke with was very helpful and informed me that they would have to send out a technician to actually survey the property because of an existing agreement between Comcast and Wavevision. He opened a service request for me and gave me the service request number and instructed me to call back in 3 days. He said that whoever I spoke with would be able to look up the service request by that number. What struck me as odd though was that he did not ask me for any contact information. However, I was remaining optimistic that Comcast had changed and that I would actually be provided with reasonable service now.

Before I called in, I attempted to speak with a chat representative and obtain the status of the service request. I should have know what joke this would have been before I started, but the story fits the Comcast profile rather well.

When asked how I could be helped, I told the chat representative about the call I had had a few days prior, and gave him the service request number. He informed me that he had no idea what a "service request" was, nor could he look anything up by the number I gave him. When I expressed my frustration, he then offered to open a "service request" for me.

{Insert ellipsis here}

At any rate, I gave the phone staff a call and talked with them about it. They said they couldn't locate any service requests with the ID I had given them, nor could they understand why the previous phone representative failed to collect my contact information. However, I was transferred to a sales associate who said she would open another service request for me, under the same pretenses, and would call me back within 2 business days. In case she failed to reach me though, she gave me her direct number and extension.

Friday, I received a call while I was in a meeting, so I let it ring to voicemail. However, the caller failed to leave a message. I was unable to call back until today, when the drama continued.

Right off the start, the phone representative I spoke with was rude and far from helpful. I explained the situation to her, informed her who I spoke with last week and that I was instructed to call back. I told her that at no point in their voice menu system was I able to enter an extension, but she quickly let that roll off and asked me for my address.

After finding that Comcast serviced that address, but not that unit, she said they would have to open a service request to investigate the situation. I told her that I had already done that twice before, and that I just wanted to be transferred to the previous representative so that I could speak with her about it. In the same rude manner she was speaking to me at the start, she informed me that they are only phone agents and that they do not have the ability to transfer to other extensions, nor do they have direct extensions. I asked her why I would be given an extension if their phone system didn't support transferring to a specific extension, and she said she didn't know.

Okay, so now I was getting upset and I asked to speak with a manager. She informed me that I was unable to do so because they can't transfer to managers.

At this point I stated, "I am getting really tired of the run-around I have been given. This is the third call I've made with the same result. I'll find service elsewhere," and I hung up.

Comcast is supposedly proud of their customer service, but I cannot understand why. However, unless they are able to rectify this ordeal (which I'm doubtful of), they have permanently lost a customer.

As promised, here are the pictures from after my surgery. Enjoy!

LINK!

It's been 13 days since I had my shoulder surgery, and I finally have a minute where I'm able to tell you all how it went.

The only surgical procedures I've had in my life, up to this procedure, were either simple outpatient with local anesthesia or they were at a point in my life when I was far too young to remember or understand what was going on. Because of that, I was incredibly nervous about surgery of any kind, as I didn't know what to expect.

Monday night before bed, I was working on calming myself down to the point that I would be able to sleep without any sort of pharmaceutical assistance. I was really focusing on my breathing, as I knew that I wasn't allowed any food or drink after midnight, and if I was breathing heavily I would be in dire need of water. Surprisingly, I was successful in my attempt, and I slept like a baby all the way up until 6:30AM when my alarm went off.

I got out of bed, put my clothes on (an oversized button-up shirt, elastic-waisted shorts, and flip flops), took my medicine nearly sans water, and grabbed my duffel bag that I packed the night before and my pillows and Emily and I got in the car and headed out for the surgery center.

We got to the center a little early, and I had to use the restroom, no thanks to my usual stomach issues. By the time I was done with that, I got checked in and within a matter of minutes a nurse came to take me to the pre-op area, Emily accompanying me.

The nurse instructed me to disrobe down to my underpants, and put on the compression stockings and gown and climb into the bed. As I climbed into the bed, I pulled the blanket over me, which was nicely warmed. From this point forward, everything seemed to go at a rushing pace, and I'll try my best to recall the details.

The nurse came back to the area and took my vitals, asked me several times which shoulder was being operated on, and marked it with a black Sharpie marker, saying "YES". She said the surgeon would come and initial it prior to the surgery.

Another nurse came into the scene and took care of starting my IV while the first nurse took care of shaving my shoulder and a couple spots on my chest. Soon thereafter, the anesthesiologist came in and told me what to expect. He gave me two options for the local anesthesia portion, a scaline nerve block, and explained the pros and cons of each. I opted for the method he was more comfortable with, and I didn't see much of him after that.

Meanwhile, the first nurse addressed a concern I had of nausea by giving me a motion sickness patch behind my left ear. She said that it would be the remedy for any sickness after the surgery, as there was some sort of a correlation between motion sickness and anesthesia-related sickness. After she did that, the other nurse gave me a dose of Pepcid via my IV, which would be the remedy for any nausea before and during the surgery.

The first nurse left the picture for a while, as the second nurse asked me my name, my date of birth, and which shoulder was being operated on. Shortly thereafter she left and it was just Emily and me in the pre-op room.

The second nurse came back and gave me another injection via my IV, and said, "This will feel like you've had a couple of cocktails. You'll feel really good." The first nurse came in and informed us that they were going to start the nerve block procedure and asked Emily to vacate to the waiting room until they called her again. This was not the last time I would see her before the surgery though.

The anesthesiologist then came in and moved the bed at an angle in the room. While he was doing this, the first nurse attached some sort of unit that emitted a beeping sound, which I figured was a heart rate monitor of some sort. Things got really fuzzy at this point. I recall the anesthesiologist stretching my arm out to the side, and the first nurse saying something like, "Your arm is going to want to twitch; just let it, as this is normal." After that, it is nothing but static until I remember Emily saying something like, "No, I will not take your picture. The camera is in the car." Apparently I was rather adamant that she take my picture before I went into surgery.

I think I remember asking her if I had a cap on, and she mentioned that I was painted up with a yellow substance (later determined to be betadyne) and that I didn't look too great. I eventually came to my senses though and I remember the surgeon coming in and asking me how I felt. He asked me if I had any pain in my shoulder that morning or the night before, which I did. I explained the sensations to him, he initialed my shoulder as the nurse said he would, then he left.

Emily sat with me for a few minutes, counting down how many minutes remained until my surgery, according to what they had written on the whiteboard in the pre-op area. When the time went over a little bit she made a comment about how they must have been busier than they expected.

I remember a third nurse coming in at some point thereafter, saying it was time to take me to the operating room. I kissed Emily and told her I would see her on the other side (I think I said that anyhow), and they wheeled me down the hall and into the operating room.

When they rolled my bed up next to the operating table, another nurse was in there and instructed me to climb over to the operating table. She said something along the lines of, "Don't worry about your right arm, we'll take care of it." As she said that I looked down to see my right arm just laying across my front while another nurse pulled it across. I couldn't feel it though, and this was a really weird sensation.

After I got on the table, a male nurse brought a mask down to my face and told me it was oxygen and that I just needed to take a deep breath. I thought I was doing well breathing, but I remember him saying, "Don't hold your breath. Just breathe." I remember counting how many breaths I took after that, and the number was just two.

The next thing I remember was laying in the bed in the recovery room with Emily by my side. I don't know much of what was said, but I do remember she helped me get a drink of water and she did take my picture. I also remember the surgeon's primary nurse coming to check on me and to get me more water.

As I started to regain my senses, I asked Emily how the surgery went and she said that it went okay and that they fixed more than just the suspected tear. I also remember another patient being wheeled into an adjacent recovery area, and hearing the nurses telling him that he had knee surgery. I remember one of the nurses telling his mom that he had been smiling really big from the time he woke up, which I found to be a little entertaining.

After I was with it, Emily helped me to get dressed and helped me to the restroom. After I was done in the restroom, she gathered the rest of our things and a nurse wheeled me out to the car in a wheelchair.

I don't remember a whole lot of the trip from the surgery center back to Emily's mom's place, but I do remember when we got there her uncle was sitting in the recliner. He got up and moved to another chair so I could sit there. I don't remember much else after that other than shaking the uncle's hand, Emily and her mom trying to figure out how the compression icepack worked, and eventually moving to the sofa in the front room of the house.

At some point in the afternoon I do remember noticing that my hand was completely paralyzed from the nerve block still. I was trying my hardest to issue a "move" command to my fingers, but they didn't budge.

The rest is pretty much boring after that, as I began the recovery process. I am happy to report though that my stitches have been removed, my doctor is very happy with my progress, and I am able to use my arm about 60% of normal (though I don't know if I'm supposed to...).

I'll post some pictures in a little bit of me laying in the bed post-op, and some pictures from the days after the surgery. In a couple of days I'll try to post some more pictures of my current progress as well.

My shoulder surgery is officially scheduled for October 12th. I was scheduled to get my wisdom teeth removed on September 24th, but the doctor's office called me the day before and cancelled. This was actually a blessing in disguise though, because when I got home from work on the 24th, I was so sick to my stomach. I spent the evening that night hugging the toilet bowl, and the remainder of that weekend was purely miserable.

I am back on my feet from that little stomach bug, but my shoulder is pretty sore right now. I'm not entirely looking forward to surgery, but I am looking forward to getting it all out of the way and the recovery.

The orthopedic surgeon gave me a prescription for Darvocet, which has been useful to help me sleep at night. But I'm running out of it and I don't know how well I'll be sleeping the night before my surgery.

The financial end of it isn't looking too bad. I have some PTO to use at the office, and I'll probably take all but that Monday off. Everything I've read suggests that I'll be able to get back to work after 4 days or so, which I'm staying optimistic about.

Emily's mom has been gracious enough to allow us to stay at her house for the first couple of days after the surgery. Since she's a nurse, that's an added bonus, but it also allows Emily to be able to take care of me while she's working, taking care of the nephew.

I don't know if I'll have the time or presence of mind to post any more updates between now and then, so please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as the days lead up to the surgery and for the days after. I just need to be able to keep calm about it and I want nothing more than a prompt recovery.

It's been quite a while since I last posted anything here. A lot has happened since that wonderful day when I got married (and I have enjoyed every moment of it!), but there are a couple of not-so-fun things going on right now that I figure warrant some explanation.

The first thing that's going on has to do with my teeth. This really isn't all too big in contrast to the other thing I'll be telling you about in a minute, but it is big enough to mention.

When I was still in Lafayette, I decided to go see a dentist for a check-up and cleaning. Knowing my wisdom teeth would have to come out at some point, what the dentist told me wasn't too surprising: The wisdom teeth had to go. He gave me a referral for the local maxiofacial clinic, but I never followed through with it.

Let's fast-forward to the present. I now have dental professionals, orthodontists to be exact, in the family. If you've ever been around any sort of dental professional, you know that the just love to look at what work you may or may not need done. This actually kind of rubs off on their family members as well. Better yet, I have a loving wife who is concerned about my health, and it doesn't stop anywhere short of my dental health. This is heightened by the fact that her sister and sister's husband are the aforementioned orthodontists.In short though, they all agree that my wisdom teeth have got to go. My new dentist here in Houston didn't say anything to the contrary of that either, so I am now scheduled to get the rotten things out of my head. I look forward to September 24th when I actually have that done.

As much as my teeth have been bothering me, it's miniscule when compared to the trouble I've been having with my right shoulder.

Sometime back in March, I noticed that my shoulder was really sore and it almost felt like it was partially dislocated. I did some research of my own, saw a couple of general practitioners, a couple of different chiropractors, and talked to friends who have had shoulder issues before I finally decided to go see a specialist for it.

I called and got an appointment for this past Wednesday to see an amazing doctor on the north side of town who really doesn't do anything but shoulders, and he determined that I have a SLAP Tear.

I'm not going to go into the full detail of what this tear is, but here's a good analogy that he gave me that you should be able to visualize.

Think of your shoulder as a ball and socket joint. This joint is very much like a golf ball on a tee, in the sense that the socket of the scapula (the tee) is much smaller than the ball of the humeral head (the golf ball). So what is done to keep the ball in the socket is a rim is added to the socket, extending it out to add stability to the joint. In the shoulder, this rim is called the Glenoid Labrum, and it works in the same way as the golf tee.

Unfortunately, the Labrum is susceptible to injury. While it normally hits middle-aged adults, everyone has a chance of experiencing it. And let me tell you first-hand, the experience is not great.

For me, it started with the dislocated feeling, and escalated to a popping and grinding, and is now at the point where I have trouble sleeping because it hurts so bad. I have been taking some pretty strong prescribed drugs (Fiorinol, Methocarbamol, Vicodin, and now Darvocet) just so I can sleep, which makes it very apparent that this is a serious issue that I need to get fixed.

My visit with the specialist on Wednesday was pretty educational and I fully understood the condition when I left. He still wanted to get an MRI to make sure there were no other complications, such as a torn rotator cuff, and I went back to get those results today. The MRI report was pretty clean and said that everything seemed okay, but the doctor said that because of the way the "slices" of the MRI were done, they couldn't get a full picture of the Labrum. With that in mind, he decided to do a physical examination again and confirmed that I have a "classic SLAP tear", and that we needed to move towards surgery since it is causing me so much pain.

Because I'm scheduled to have my wisdom teeth out at the end of September, I told him that I should probably wait until the end of October to get the shoulder done.

The surgery is pretty straight forward. Being arthoscopic, it will only require a couple relatively small holes to be poked into my shoulder. I'll be knocked out for it with general anesthesia, the surgery will take about 30 minutes, then I'll be in a sling for 2-3 weeks and on rehab for 3-4 months after that.

I'm not really all too concerned about having the surgery, since I've been able to talk to people who have had similar procedures. However, I'm worried about being able to function during that time of recovery, and being able to handle it financially. Luckily, one of those concerns is addressed by having a wonderful wife who is a great caretaker. I found this out already when I was sick a few weeks ago and she tended to my every need. :)

So yeah, this is what's going on. I'd very much appreciate your prayers during this time. I know God can work miracles, and I have no doubt that he can work one in this situation. But even if that's not in his plan, I sure could use some calm nerves, focus, and stamina to get through the sleepless nights ahead, and for a financial breakthrough that will allow me to not have any worries about it at all.

It is currently 7:25AM. At 11:00AM, I will be standing at the altar, watching my beautiful bride approach. By 12:00PM I will be married to the most beautiful and wonderful woman whom God has provisioned for me.

I will be out of reach from the point I click the "Submit" button to post this entry until sometime after July 19th. I will do my best to post some sort of update after that (if not sneaking it in sometime before) and share with you the joy of my new married life.

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