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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That's right, engaged.

Emily and I have been dating since June 4, 2009, and with each day that goes by I know with greater clarity that we were meant for each other.

Sometime a couple of months ago, we got to talking about wedding stuff, and she asked me if she and her mom could start planning for a wedding. Even thought I hadn't yet bought a ring and there wasn't an official announcement, I told her they could. I did this knowing that I would soon make it official and ask her to marry me.

Even before that, I began shopping around for rings. She didn't know it, but I was using my limited free time to get around to various shops and inquire about rings, educating myself of the different cuts and grades of diamonds, and finding that one ring that was just right. She had given me some direction before, pointing out ring styles she liked, and I took these into consideration.

Finally, I was able to find the ring that I wanted for her. It wasn't extravagant by any means, but it was definitely something I knew she'd like. This just happened to transpire just before her birthday, so I used the opportunity to make it a very special birthday that she will (hopefully) never forget.

I organized a birthday party for her last night with a group of people from the church. Before we went to dinner though, I had to find a parking space. We got to one space, but I wasn't sure about the cost, so Emily jumped out to check the meter for me. While she did that, I pulled out this little box wrapped in silver paper with a large bow on it, and I gave it to her when she came back to the car.

I wanted her to open it and I would have said a few words then asked her to marry me. But with the frustration of trying to unwrap the box, I lost track of what I was going to say. So when she opened it up and marveled at it, I just asked her a question consisting of the 5 most important words of what I was going to say, "Emily, will you marry me?" Her response was confident; "Of course," she said. This set the mood for the evening and the rest of the weekend though, and she has been on cloud nine ever since.

Thus, I am proud to announce that I will be marrying my lovely girlfriend fiancée, Emily, this summer.

Yep, you read the subject correctly: I got a new car. And by "new", I mean a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer. It only had 20-some miles on it when I drove it off the lot.

Everyone keeps asking me what prompted this purchase. Here are a few reasons:

• The Saturn had over 100,000 miles on it
• The transmission in the Saturn was starting to slip really bad
• Not long after having dropped $800 into the Saturn for a new water pump, hoses, and thermostat, and after having changed the EGR valve, the "Service Engine Soon" light came on
• The Lancer was cheap :)

Now though, I really have no excuse for not driving somewhere... although I do have a lot of studying to do before April 2nd...

As many of you may have known, my parents arranged a going away party of sorts for me, before I head off to Houston. This party was today, and it went really well.

I really wish a lot more people could have shown up, but I can appreciate the prior obligations. For those who were able to make it though, it was a great time.

Speaking of time, does anyone know where I can get some? I really wish I had some of it so I could spend a lot more time with all these friends and family members before I leave. I guess that just means I'll have to come back and visit, just the same as everyone else will have to come visit me! :P

At any rate, I think I have my route planned out for the trip. This route will take us to the Memphis area on the first day, then on to Houston on the second. The one thing I am a little concerned about though is that we will be leaving here on the 30th, and should arrive in Houston on the 31st. The problem lies in my apartment not being ready until the 1st, so we may end up needing to crash somewhere in Houston. I really don't want to spend money on a hotel for a second night, but if I do, I do.

Oh, speaking of hotels, does anyone have any recommendations for the "Presley Junction" area of Arkansas?

I'm still mad at UPS, but I do have my new computer. Check this out:

root@ubuntu:~# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2026 545 1480 0 80 318
-/+ buffers/cache: 146 1879
Swap: 0 0 0
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 107
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 2211.388
cache size : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8legacy 3dnowprefetch ts fid vid ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps
bogomips : 4425.18
clflush size : 64

processor : 1
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 107
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 2211.388
cache size : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8legacy 3dnowprefetch ts fid vid ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps
bogomips : 4422.67
clflush size : 64


I'm only running Ubuntu right now because I didn't have time to install Windows just yet. I'll be powering down as soon as I post this so I can run back to work for the meetings, then I'll be coming home and playing. :D

I am now officially on vacation. :)

After I leave work tomorrow, I'll be on the road, headed towards a week of relaxing by my own schedule.

w00t.

Okay, so this guy that quit back in May, or whenever it was, filed for unemployment.

Here's the circumstances, though:

He was written up once for an issue. He was verbally warned another time for the same thing, and when there was another issue after that, he was given a verbal warning about it and a memo was written to be put in his employee file. The memo was in no way a warning, but it was a means of making sure the employee was aware of the situation and that we had documentation of it.

When this guy was presented with the memo and the verbal warning, he quit on the spot. I received a rather unsettling voicemail message right after he quit, sort of threatening me.

Since then, he's tried to be my friend, and doesn't understand that because of how he treated me at work, when I was just doing my job as a manager, that I don't really care to socialize with him.

Now, he's filed for unemployment, nearly 3 months later, against the company he quit from, even when he failed to follow procedure, was given numerous verbal warnings, and was written up for insubordination.

I really hope he takes the protest that the boss files to court, and I want to go to the trial, just to sit there and laugh in his face.

I had a nice surprise at work today. Another friend that I've not seen in a fairly good span of time (but I've kept in touch with online) stopped by the shop.

The little things like that make me happy. :)

I took today as a sort of personal day. No, I wasn't supposed to work or anything; The shop is closed on Sunday. I just decided that my time was just as important as anyone else's. Therefore, I took the day to sleep in and go spend some time with a couple friends.

I went to Lafayette to eat lunch with my best friend and his fiance. We had fun and got to catch up a little bit on things. After I got done there, I went to the mall to see about getting some new work shoes for one of the guys at the shop. When I found out that "The Finish Line" sucks and that nobody else had what I was looking for, I decided to go do a little shopping for myself.

I ended up at "Barnes & Noble" to look at books about management and motivating staff. The book is titled "151 Quick Ideas to Inspire Your Staff", ISBN #1-56414-829-7. It looks to be something that I should get some good use out of, but I'm really hoping that their ideas work. The bullets under the title say, "Attract the Best and Keep Them", "Build an Eager, Willing, and Driven Team", and "Get Them to Do What You Want because They Want to Do It."

So after I left the bookstore, I headed next door to Best Buy and spent a little time just looking around. I ended up back at the mobile electronics section, where I picked up a Garmin eTrex Legend. I've always wanted a GPS device, and I decided that since I had a little extra money stashed away that I'd go ahead and get one. This is a fairly basic unit that doesn't do a whole lot of fancy stuff, but it does some, and it gives me the information I would need. After I got the thing back to my car, I fought with it to acquire a signal. When I finaly realized that the big parking lot light that towered over my car was blocking any decent signals, I moved to another parking lot and set the unit on my dashboard while I flipped through the manual. Finally, the thing acquired a signal and I was on my way.

From there, I ended up on the Jasper/White county line, on a gravel road, where I stopped at a house that was perfectly round. I spent a little time there, meeting up with another good friend, obtaining a tour of the house that was in progress, and just socializing with her for a little bit. From there, I made my way back to Rensselaer, stopped at the car wash, and got my car cleaned up.

After I got my car washed, I headed back home, did my laundry, then headed back to town for a little bit with Dad. We got back home, which is where I was at the start of this entry. It's actually been about half an hour or so since I started writing this thing, thanks to "Boss Lady" calling, as well as "Friend Dude" calling.

All in all, today was a good day and it gave me that personal time I've been needing for a while. Here in a couple weeks I'll be taking a week of my vacation time to "house-sit" for my sister (MSL) and her husband while they're on their anniversary vacation. Just before that, I'll be getting dressed up to go to my best friend's wedding.

The first chapter in this book can relate to personal time though: If you wait to have time, you'll never get around to it. I'm not waiting.